11 a.m. I am sitting on the patio at Mar-a-Villas, shaded by our awning and by the bamboo, but today there is no need for a shade. The sky is overcast, and I’ve been expecting it to rain since we got up this morning. So far, though, there hasn’t been a drop. When we pulled in here, R went to hook up and discovered that there was no water coming out of the spigot by our rig. I went next door and asked, rather apprehensively, whether they usually have water here. I was told that the pump had gone on the fritz the night before, but that yes, they usually have water. Much relieved, I turned to go home, and just then the man I had asked turned the water on at his place, and it ran perfectly. I came back to the rig and reported that all was well. We now have water, the hydro is hooked up, our table and chairs are set up outside, the Canadian flag is fluttering in the breeze, and we are thoroughly at home.

Within half an hour of our arrival, both the water truck and the veggie truck had come through the park. I asked the veggie man for chile verde, and he pointed at some bell peppers. Excuse me? He assured me he would have some proper chiles tomorrow.

There are no iguanas today, probably because of the lack of sunshine, but there are doves, and there is a lovely bougainvillea right across from us. Our next-door neighbour on the right is a man from B.C. who has a very friendly golden Lab named Rocky.

We took a long walk on the beach - right up to the top, where there is a rock face. Somebody has painted the words Playa Bruja on the rock, along with a picture of a surfer. If I remember correctly, bruja means witch, so R promptly renamed it Witchipoo Beach. If we walk in the other direction, it appears that we can walk all the way downtown without leaving the beach.

The Englishman at the other park turned out to be Ian, a very kind man who gave us afternoon tea and played me a Charlotte Church album. He has promised to come over here for a visit.

Meanwhile, I’ve discovered the secret to the internet. There’s a fellow in the park who has a wireless network. He charges 100 pesos a week ($10ish) for access. I carried laptop and chair up to his trailer, only to find that he isn’t at home. When he comes back, I’ll give him his $100 and send this away. Watch. That’s when it will start to rain. His trailer isn’t actually very far from our place, so maybe, with luck, the signal is strong enough to use here. The laptop is detecting four different networks, all requiring keys, but I’m not sure which one is his. If I could sit here on the patio and play online, I would be a very happy camper indeed. All digits crossed, here.

The internet man came home. I paid for a week's service, which I can only use (ordinarily) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., which means I can't be on for Skype this week - but I'll keep posting, and if anybody is Skyping while I'm here, they should please yell.

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.