Another boring toll road 200 miles South and we arrived in Las Glorias. We are following the ‘bible’ instructions to reach the RV park but we cant seem to find the turn off. We drove up and down the road a few times but all we could see was a single gravel track along a drain. We typed the park details into the GPS and sure enough…that was the way! We reluctantly turned onto the Very rough, very bumpy, very narrow, very dusty track and watched the 13 miles ever slowly count down! There was a track the same on the opposite side of the drain and we hoped that any oncoming traffic would be on that side! It was slow going and we came up to a bridge that crossed the drain. It looked rickety but we had watched a tractor cross it earlier and the cowboy with his herd of huge cows and horned bulls coming straight for us didn’t give us much option.

We crossed the bridge tentatively and slowly dragged Peggy kicking and screaming the rest of the way without too much incident. When we did arrive at the campsite there were 2 American couples there who greeted us on arrival and invited us to a fire on the beach at dark. We again wandered along the beach which was a little less flat and a little less brown than the last one and collected a few more shells. Alex made friends with the camp dog and we made popcorn for the fire. We chatted the night away with the other couples and all was going well until the subject of religion came up and suddenly everyone scarpered. We stayed to keep the fire warm and finished our margaritas and watched the stars.

We again set off the next day as early as we could as we had a long drive to get to our next stop – Mazatlan.
Another 250 miles South and then we got lost. The campsite we were looking for as per the Bible no longer existed (to be fair the bible is 9 years old!) so we found another site and settled in just in time to watch the sun set. Mazatlan is like a Spanish resort and a favourite of the American and Canadian retirement clan who spend their winters there in their lovely big rigs.
Again the camp was 5 steps from a long stretch of beach with tiny shell sand and some lovely looking bars on the beach front.

 We spent the next day exploring Mazatlan and strolling on the beach and treated oursellves to some fold up chairs. We have been meaning to get them for ages but in Canada and America most camps have a picnic table whereas they don’t in Mexico so we have spent all of our time in the van. We took our chairs onto the beach and watched the sunset and decided to stay another night. We met the rest of the campsite and one particular gentleman told us of his adventures travelling Mexico for the last 50 years. He had the most amazing memory for places and things to do I took a note pad and planned the rest of our route from his recommendations! He told us that while in Mazatlan we should visit a place called Quelite (pronounced Callita). We agreed to and set off there the next day. We drove on the free road to get there and found ourselves in the middle of the most beatiful rural area, we had not expected it at all! The bougonvillia splashed colour all over the farmed land and we drove past fields of golden corn, rows of green veg and even a field of Marigolds which are grown for chicken feed.

We arrived at the bright blue and orange arch which marks the entrance to the little village. The cobbled streets were immaculate. Not a piece of litter in sight and all the porches to every house swept. The houses were every bright colour you could think of from orange to lime greens to sky blue. People sat in rocking chairs in the shade, men wrinkled like sun dried tomatoes gossiped in the street and a group of teenagers raced by riding donkeys chasing a stray donkey on an escape mission! The place had a great feel to it and I could have taken a million pictures but daren’t intrude as we stood out like a sore thumb bouncing along in Peggy before I started sticking a camera out of the window!

We had been told to go to the rooster farm to see the Mexicans most prized roosters which are sadly raised for fighting. Neither of us would ever support cock fighting but we were intruiged to see the rooster farm itself. We asked a local (who had one sole tooth) in poor spanish to direct us to the Gallo’s (which we THINK is rooster!) and he gesticulated wildly and spoke at speed and helped us do a 15 point turn in the tiny cobbled street so we were facing the right direction. We had no clue what he had said and gave up on the idea and swore to ourselves we would learn SOME Spanish!
We enjoyed the drive back to Mazatlan and decided this was what we wanted from Mexico, the villages and towns and to try to meet some locals and decided to set out again the next day. The man who had sent us to Quelite had told us that the further South you get the more Mexican and Indian it gets so…next stop Sayulita…another 200 miles South!
We followed the toll road 100 miles and then decied we had had enough and joined the free road for the last 100 miles of our journey that day. The road wasn’t so bad and we drove through actual jungle on a windy road with views of endless trees with vines trailing to the ground. The banana trees were abundant and I had my eyes peeled for monkeys! We passed through so many small villages in the middle of nowhere on the way. The first main town we came to was San Blas which is known for having a terrible bug problem as it is on the river which takes you into the jungle. They also have a bug known in Mexico as the no-see-um…as in you don’t see em! You don’t feel them biting but wake up the next day covered in a terrible red sea of bites! This helped us decide not to stay here but we did fancy a look around. You can take a boat tour on the river to see the crocs and row through the mangroves (and get eaten alive by bugs all at once) but I decided if I was going to go on a boat ride into the jungle and get eaten by bugs or crocs I would save it for Guatemala! We did however get out of the van at the river side just as 2 crocs appeared out of the surrounding bushes and set out for a swim!

There were fish and frogs and all kinds of creatures jumping clear of the water to get out of their way and they reminded me of the crocodiles out of  the Disney animation, American Tails.
We watched them for a while and then continued on our free road adventure. We saw so much more in the way of local life, rural and coastal Mexico than we had on the toll but we also saw a hell of a lot more topes too! When we arrived in Sayulita we had no idea what to expect, we couldn’t even find the village at first, there seemed to be nothing at all…but we had taken a wrong turn. When we did find it we were so pleasantly surprised! A thronging market place with more brightly coloured houses all crammed onto cobbled streets filled to the brim with Mexicans and tourists alike…there was one great difference though…the tourists were all our age! We had up until now only met people over 50 which to us isn’t a problem but it was nice to be among people our own age too! We drove round the village and enjoyed the sounds and smells of people enjoying themsleves. We found the campsite…which was again ON the beach and we settled in instantly! We went straight to the beach and walked along, watching the sunset and the surfers grabbing the last of the days waves. When we got back to camp we found that the bar next door (how convenient) had lit a fire in the sand and set chairs around it. We plonked ourselves down, ordered a margarita and watched the last of the colour drain from the sky. The stars came out and within half an hour we had met 4 lovely people OUR OWN AGE and spent the night chatting and drinking with them! One couple, Kyle and Emily were from Alaska and accepted our request to go on a salmon fishing run with them! And Alisson and Tanya were on holiday from Jasper who pitied our legs after the Sulphur Skyline walk! We had a great night and they came back to camp with us to help us with a box of beer and a bottle of tequila and then we headed into the earlier bustling village to find everything shut! We settled for some street food which was great ( but so is a kebab after a skin full of alcohol) and then we were all ready to crash! We had finally, 1000 miles into our Mexican adventure, found what we were looking for! A place on a great beach, with a great Mexican feel, with people who can speak better Spanish than us AND are as chilled out as we are about being in Mexico!
We had found a home sweet home…for a few days at least!

Oh and we forgot to put the video in the last blog of Alex trying the local dried prawn delicacy!

Find out what happens next on our traveling wedding adventure!