4 DAYS DEEP

Our travelers have crossed the boarder USA/MEX successfully. They were prepared with visas, passports and all permits needed.

The mexican government requires that foreigners visiting the country register their day of entrance. You need that, mainly when driving, because the check point officers, federales and policia will ask for them.

Pat and Debora first stop was at the town of San Carlos, nearly 300 miles south of the border. 

"San Carlos still doesn't seem very Mexican. It has Mexican architecture and Spanish speaking workers, but you see a lot of tourists from the USA and Canada. It is a place for rich people", state the travelers. "Basically the only type of housing is mansions and luxurious condos with private beaches", they add.

Both felt very safe and satisfied with the beauty of San Carlos and say that the only down side is that driving to a lot of the beaches is not possible because of the many gated communities around.

They spent the night in the car at a hotel's parking lot because it seemed safe and so it was. They had a great night of sleep and no one tried to break in.

In the morning the trip continued with a long 9h drive to Mazatlan where they had dinner and found an inexpensive, covered garage motel to spend the night at. Motels in this area are places rented every 8 to 12h, differently than the ones in the USA. They have covered garages and come in handy if you are staying overnight to rest and leave early.
12h and 220 mexican pesos later, it was time to check out the beaches in Mazatlan before heading to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.
At  La Cruz they stayed with Pat's friends who moved to Mexico to work for a nonprofit organization called Peace. They work with education of local people who needed to relocate so multimillionaire mansions could be built where their villages used to be.
They visited beaches in the area, ate tacos, drank margaritas, and also decided where they are going next.
Initially the plan was to drive on the scenic coast until Acapulco, but after staying on the beach towns for days and seeking local's opinions, they decided to drive through central Mexico.  "At the beach towns there are a lot of american tourists and we would rather see more mexican than foreign influence while here", they tell us. 

The couple has been driving during the days only for a matter of safety. They will leave tomorrow morning - 15/Oct/2010 - and Guadalajara, Mexico City and Cholula are probably on the route they will take.


TRICKS
- rosaries hanging on the rear view mirror and stick
- mexican plate frame
- car CD player off when nobody is in the car
- car doors locked all the time

TROUBLES
- policia already attempted to get a bribe but failed
- air conditioning sprung a leak in the few first hours into the hot desert and is still not operating properly
- Pat's swimming trunks got ripped on the rocks
- argument with a local because he hit "our" dog

 PAT, ZORITA AND LOBA (THE DOGGIE WHO WAS BEAT BY THE MEAN LOCAL)

PAT RECORDING SUNRISE FOR THE DOCUMENTARY