February 14, 2018 - Navajoa to Tepic, Mexico

Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope you are having a sweet day!

We were up early and on the road by 7am today. It was cloudy and a bit hazy as we left town, passing through an industrial area. The sculptures and sign for Navajoa were visible on our way out of town, but still fun to see. The sun was just coming up over the mountains, giving the sky a pinkish glow.It was another day of road construction and toll booths. In many areas the traffic was quite congested and moved very slowly. One interesting thing here in Mexico, however, is that the solid yellow lines on the highway do not necessarily mean “no passing.” If there is room, slower vehicles drive closer to the edge of the road and you can pass. The slower lead vehicle will usually put their left turn signal on indicating to the passing car that it is clear in front of them and they can pass. Many times you see (or are) one of three vehicles side-by-side on a 2 lane road!Here are a couple of the interesting signs we saw today. The first one painted on the rocks on the side of the hill letting you know that Jesus Christ is the path to peace. A little further down the road was 3-D looking sign for a farm equipment sales place. Several hawks and parrots were perched on the power lines as we passed through many different agricultural areas. So much of the farm work is manual labor and these people are hard workers!I’m not sure what the crop below is, but there were silver streamers throughout the field, I assume to keep the birds away. It’s hard to tell, but the entire field glistened in the sun!As we got closer to Mazatlán we caught our first glimpse of the ocean. Because it was only 1:30 when we arrived there, we decided to fill the gas tank and keep going to Tepic. As we moved inland, we also gained elevation and passed through some hills.The tolls were expensive today – $1804 pesos – $97.25 USD over the 521 mile drive. We paid $370 pesos at one stop because we are considered a “camion” (truck with 2 axles). I guess that is the price you pay for the convenience of faster roads.Tonight we are in Tepic, Mexico, arriving about 5:30 pm. We had dinner at a small restaurant, Julio Cesar Meza Tapia near the Plaza Forum Tepic Mall. Tobey had the garlic shrimp and I had empapelado which was fish, shrimp, and mushrooms baked in foil with onions, garlic and cheese. It was fantastic! Dinner, drinks, and tip was $310 pesos – about $16.75 USD. After dinner we walked around the mall and looked in some of the stores before heading back to our RV for the night.

We mixed up our horchata for dessert – it was delicious and just enough sweet to top off the evening. Tomorrow will be another long day, so goodnight!