Road to the Coast

Thursday August 14
We were driving back to the west coast through the Sierra Madres Mountains.

Sierra Madres crossing

above the clouds

Winding road

The highway, MX 40, got very mountainous and curvy, quickly. The scenery was spectacular. We were up so high that we could see mountains and valleys below us.  The clouds floated over top of them, so we were above the clouds. It was like being in an airplane. There were rock formations like in the Cooper Canyon.

We ate lunch by the side of the road overlooking a deep valley.

From Road to the Coast

From Road to the Coast

From Road to the Coast

Having a nice lunch

Ken thinks it was called Diablo something or other (which means devil in Spanish).

From Road to the Coast

From Road to the Coast

Kenny saw a big, fuzzy legged spider with a yellow back crossing the highway. We both saw another fuzzy legged spider. Ken says it had tan legs, I say red legs. I wanted to stop and take a picture.

The police had their mini 14 rifles on the table of the clean, little restaurant that Ken stopped at for coffee. It was in a small village. We again saw donkeys along the road.

Two mules for sleepy sitting *

Truck wash *

Slow going roads *

As we got closer to Mazatlan the scenery got more jungle like.  There were vines hanging off the mountains, trees or plants you only see in pictures of a jungle or sold as indoor tropicals at home. There were lots of flowering trees. Plus, it was like a buttterfly convention. Many butterflies fluttering about.

A lot of butterflies *

We had intentions of camping in Mazatlan because there are lots of RV places. We stopped to go to Home Depot or Soriani. The heat got us and Ken saw a sign advertising a reasonably priced, new hotel. That was it, we were staying at City Express Hotel in air conditioned comfort.

We decided to go out for supper and we walked downtown.

Five volkswagons *

Walking, we got a bit lost on the way into downtown Mazatlan but Ken got out the ipod Touch. He had already down loaded a map. We used the map to find our way to Poncho's. The meal was fabulous. Two thumbs way up for Poncho's. We were given Kahluas and cream for dessert. We than walked on the beach in the surf, on the way home. We showered our feet at some ritzy hotel and walked the rest of the way back to the hotel.  It was all in all a very fun evening, even though it was still very hot.

From Mazatlan

Wednesday August 13
Today was our last day at the Hotel Del Boque and at Zacatecas – sad but true. A few weeks ago I would have been super thrilled to move on. We packed up all our belongings (or should I say that Ken mostly did). I worked at getting the camel image perfected and transfered to cloth. We said good bye to Norma. She said she hated it in Zacatecas and would like to move to Canada. Her husband was deported from the States.

Ken phoned both boutique hotels we wanted to stay in at Talaquapacque. There was a big trade show there and everything was booked up. We both decided that we should make a change in plans. The consensus was to drive west to Durango, then on to the coast, on to Mazatlan. We were disappointed about not going to Talaquepaque and Tonala but excited about our new plan.

The area we drove in was lush, growing lots of corn. It was quite flat.

We arrived at Durango about 7:30 pm and did not find our no-tell motel until we had left town. By the way Durango was on a flat plain and is an industrial, cattle city.   It had covered parking spaces in the Walmart parking lot.

Pepe gets a room *

Nice room *

Nice room *

Comfortable place *