Sunday, January 28, 2007

January 28, 2007. Happy, happy day! R booked in here at Las Jaibas for one more night, just as insurance, then went for a cycle ride while I settled in. Along the way he met a man who took him to see a couple of nearby parks. The first park didn’t appeal to him, but the second one did, so he came back here, and we rode out together. We went to a little place called Mar-a-Villas RV Park. It is located quite near here, but a little farther from downtown, from the hotels, from the noise.

It was love at first sight. We reserved a spot for a week, starting tomorrow, in spite of the fact that wi-fi there is very problematic (more problematic than here, I gather). We’ll be in spot #16, which R chose because it’s shaded by bamboo. There is one coconut palm that overhangs our site, but Alfredo, the owner, removed all the coconuts at the beginning of the season, so we can safely sit out on the patio and watch the iguanas in the trees. They apparently come out around 10 o’clock in the morning, when the sun gets high enough for really good basking. After we had reserved our spot, we introduced ourselves to our next-door neighbours, Ellie and Gus, who are from the Netherlands but spend part of the year here, part in the U.S., part in Europe on their sailboat. Then we tried to leave, but we got to talking with some more people, and that was when R spotted the two iguanas in the palm tree right over their RV. Everyone enjoyed watching our excitement. I guess the sight of two iguanas doesn’t set any hearts racing there. Often there are 16 or 18 of them in sight at once.

We did our homework. Yes, you can sometimes get internet if you carry your laptop out to the front of the park. (Our spot is “downstairs” in the back of the park, near Alfredo’s house, far from the street.) Yes, somebody comes through every day with bottled water. Yes, a vegetable truck comes in two or three times a week. We spotted for ourselves the fact that if we walk through Alfredo’s courtyard, we come directly out on the long, sandy beach. My official photographer will be making a record of all this for sharing – if I can ever figure out how to upload the clips.

Speaking of the beach, we rode our bikes down the road a couple of blocks, then turned right and rode down to the beach. We locked the bikes, took off our shoes, and tested the water. It’s swimmable!

Suddenly Mazatlan is a different place entirely.

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