On December 9 we left Totanaka RV park. We had paid for a few more days stay at Totonaka, but were ready to head further south. Daytime temps in San Carlos were beautiful with very low humidity, and although we like to sleep in cool conditions, it was starting to get quite chilly overnight. Our first overnight stop was in Los Mochis where we stayed in a gated and secured truck parking lot behind a Smart Gas gas station. We found the spot through the iOverlander app. *Note: Any text that has a light blue font is a link. It was a huge lot, quiet at night with nice views of farmers fields. It was also free, although we tipped the security guard 20 pesos. There is a restaurant there as well, but we didn’t eat there. The night we were there, two other RV’s joined us as well as a few truckers. The only negative was the horrid smell in the morning. Smelled like someone was burning a mountain of tires somewhere nearby. We quickly had to close all the windows and vents to prevent the smell from permeating the rig.
We also used a great road log created by Bill and Dorothy Bell of On the Road in Mexico that gives excellent directions from Nogales all the way to Puerto Vallarta. You can find it at the following LINK. I found the kilometer markers particularly helpful to gauge where we were at. If I have one word of advice, it’s to follow this map and NOT your GPS whenever in doubt. Even though it was created a number of years ago, it is still very accurate. More about that in a future blog when I’ll share where our infamous GPS we’ve named “Stella” sent us on an insane route as we left Mazatlan headed to Lo de Marcos. We should have just followed the book!
Overall the drive from San Carlos to Los Mochis was fairly uneventful except for some poor road conditions - uneven roads with many potholes or poorly filled pot holes and even a short stretch of gravel - on a toll road! The road conditions made for a drive that was hard on the body. We hoped for better roads for the next stretch, sadly the roads only got worse as we left Los Mochis headed for Mazatlan. There were also three unauthorized “tolls” created by locals along this stretch. An unauthorized toll is when locals put a rope across the road or block it with a truck and demand usually a minimum of $50 pesos to pass. We stopped and paid at the first one, then drove through the next one which was literally only about a block in distance from the 1st. When we hit the third, and after the state of the roads we’d been on, we just kept driving. They were all only ropes across the road, so not much of an issue with our Freightliner rig. The locals quickly dropped the rope when they realized we weren’t going to stop and let us pass.
I should also mention that because we tow our truck, the tolls are more. We get charged as an “autobus” and are also charged for the truck as an “auto”.
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| Sample of a toll booth. |
Departure San Carlos: 10:00 a.m.
Arrival Los Mochis: 4:30 p.m.
Number of tolls: Five
Total cost of tolls: 1100 Pesos ($63 Cdn)
Total miles driven: 242 miles
Accomodation: $20 peso tip to security guard
Fuel cost: RV Diesel fill: $265 Cdn (approx 1/2 tank or 50 gallons)
Early Dec 10 at 7:45 a.m. we left Los Mochis headed for our next destination where we planed to spend five nights at Mar-a-villas Trailer Park. We have been following another blogger More Golden Years who always posts such great blogs documenting the road conditions from Nogales to Mazatlan each year. She had made mention of how poor the road conditions were from Los Mochis to Mazatlan. Not surprisingly things hadn’t improved any from when she and her husband made the trip earlier this fall. We dubbed this part of the journey ‘Shake, Rattle and HOLE!” The rig managed it well, but Dan’s arms and neck were so tense from gripping the steering wheel to navigate the best parts of the road. We’re not sure what the tolls pay for, but it sure doesn’t appear to be fixing up the road. I can’t even imagine what the condition of the “free” roads were! It was definitely evident the difference in the road conditions between the states of Sonora and Sinaloa.
Just before getting into Mazatlan there were beautiful clusters of the Jacaranda trees in full bloom with their pink/purple flowers. The pictures don’t do it justice. Such gorgeous colour, something you don’t see in Canada.
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| Jacaranda trees |
We arrived at Mar-a-Villas in the mid-afternoon and settled into a nice spot steps from the beach. From talking to some locals we learned that things had changed a lot in the small RV park from years prior to Covid. It used to be a spot that was always full with regulars, when we arrived there were a number of sites to choose from and only a handful of people staying there for the winter. The owner, like many others, had to rethink his business model due to Covid and had started to rent out the communal space the RV’ers used to have access to for weddings and parties. This of course brought more people in and out of the park which changed the feel for the “regular” RV’ers. It was a nice park, nestled in amongst high rise condos and resorts. Seemed strange to have this small strip of land with RVs in it amongst all the big buildings. We stayed for five nights, allowing us time to explore Mazatlan a little bit and stock up on things like dog and cat food as well as litter from the Petco in town. Mazatlan is a very big and busy city, with many traffic circles that can be overwhelming when you’re trying to navigate through a new city. Thankfully, Dan is a great driver!
Departure Los Mochis: 7:45 a.m.
Arrival Mar-a-Villas Trailer Park Mazatlan: 2:00 p.m.
Number of tolls: Six
Cost of tolls: 1383 Pesos ($84 Cdn)
Road conditions: HELLISH the entire way!
Total miles driven: 257 (413 km)
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| Our site for five nights Mar-a-Villas, Mazatlan |
