After leaving El Fuerte's heat and bugs we were happy to be on a beach for the next 5 days. We had a relatively short driving day with a grocery stop at Walmart before stopping for our stay at Mr. Moro Hotel and RV Park in Las Glorias Sinaloa. The next day was a relaxing day with a Margarita Party at the hotel's restaurant that evening. Mid afternoon several of our group gathered at the restaurant to play Pegs & Jokers. The rest of the group joined at the table to order dinner, and they brought out the margaritas to go with dinner. We were looking forward to having a Margarita Party but unfortunately, they were the worse margaritas any of us have ever had! There was something that was just "off" about them. They used soda to mix with the tequila, and they served the drinks frozen. None of us could put our finger on what it was, whether it was the soda, the tequila, or the ice. They tasted like they had "antifreeze" in them. Thankfully no one got sick from them.

The next day we were scheduled for a boat tour to a pelican nesting island. Larry stayed home as did two others. The boat tours typically require you to get in and out of the boat by crawling in and out of the boat from the water. Larry learned that it's a lot of stress on his back to this. We had a great time on the trip. The nesting island had Cormorants, Magnificent Frigates, Great Blue Herons, Crested Caracaras, Black Faced Buzzards, Turkey Vultures, Pelicans, and Flamingos! Nests were everywhere and you could walk right up to them. With the wailing baby pelicans everywhere, it felt like we were walking through a Jurassic Park. We were so surprised to see a couple of Flamingos flying around. They were very hard to get a picture of. After the nesting island we drove over to another island where our boat crew set up a picnic lunch for us. We had a delicious seafood salad while watching dolphins playing in the waterway. The next 2 days were relaxing days. One of the mornings we decided to have a brunch potluck. One couple had a sourdough starter with them and made us all sourdough waffles along with a fresh blueberry sauce they bought at our last Walmart stop. We also had scrambled eggs, sausage patties, yogurt parfaits, and strawberry muffins along with mimosas. I think we pulled that potluck off very well! Later we would drag our chairs down to the beach to lay out as it was too buggy by the motorhomes. The breeze on the beach was enough to keep the bugs away. Our last night we had a provided dinner at the restaurant with more margaritas (umm... yea? lol)  

Relaxing on the beach at Las Glorias Sinaloa.
The Magnificent Frigate reminds me of a pterodactyl when flying, but looks like a long skinny seagull when staying still. I was so excited when I saw I captured a picture of a Flamingo flying by. See the pink under and to the left of the sitting Frigate?
Two juvenile pelicans
It seemed all the pelicans laid 3 eggs.
A Black Faced Buzzard
The Crested Caracara looks like a hawk with its sharp beak and talons, behaves like a vulture, and is technically a large tropical black-and-white falcon. The Crested Caracara is a significant symbol of Mexico.
All the birds seemed to get along. I did see an altercation between a Great Blue Heron and a Cormorant though, lol.
The pelican's nests were pretty large. See how close we could get?
Lots of nests!
These eggs were laid by a Killdeer bird. They tend to just lay their eggs on the ground instead of in a nest.
These nesting Osprey had a huge nest. It takes up the whole inside of this cactus.
Our panga boat.
This is a Blue Cannonball Jellyfish. It does not sting, but I had no desire to touch it.
Just hatched pelican chicks
On the panga
Pulmonia Taxis

We had a long driving day south to Mazatlán where we stayed 7 nights at Baraka RV Park. This was a nice location. We were close to the beach but off of it where we didn't have people wandering through the park, and a nice restaurant at the park's entrance. We were right next door to the RUI hotel resort, which was huge. The next day we had a city tour. We were picked up by 3 Pulmonia Taxis.

We were taken to the Malecon and some other touristy stops. My request was that we stop at the huge Mazatlán market. I was on a mission to find some corn on the cob. Manny had promised he would make some Mexican corn. It was early in the season for corn and that's why we hadn't found it at our Walmart stops. The market wasn't a planned stop on the tour, but the tour guide made it happen, and I was successful in finding 9 whole ears of corn. We all agreed that the tour should be included in their regular stops. After the market we made our way back across town for our lunch reservation. This restaurant sells different tequilas so after we ate, they brought out all the different flavors and tasting cups. Larry walked away with an Almond Tequila he really liked. The next two days were relaxing days, so we planned a potluck so we could have our Mexican corn. Manny drove to Walmart and picked up the fixings for the corn and I had him buy some chicken that I would grill for the dinner. There's a popular chain restaurant in Mazatlán called Panama. Mark and Peg bought a delicious flan cake from them for our dessert. We had another successful potluck dinner! Manny's Mexican Corn was delicious! On our free days we usually gathered to play Pegs and Jokers in the afternoon and then we would have dinner together. One night we ordered pizza, another we walked over to the restaurant, and our last night we went out to the Panama restaurant.  

RIU Hotel and Resort was right next door to our RV Park
Little islands off the coast of Mazatlan's malecon.
El mirador lighthouse. We were told that this is the highest lighthouse in all of Latin America.
Views from the Malecon
Catedral Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción
The Pulmonia taxi we rode in.
Meat market inside the Pino Suarez Mazatlan Market

Our last provided tour, we were picked up in a tour bus and we were taken to a couple of small towns outside of Mazatlán, La Noria and El Quelite. Our first stop in La Noria was to a little ranch for dancing horse demonstrations. It was fun to watch them. We were also supposed to stop at a leather shop, but it was closed, we did get to see a shop where they hand make riding saddles. While going to our next stop to El Quelite, we made a couple of side stops along the route. One was a quick stop to see a ranch that raises cock fighting chickens. While it's not legal to have cockfights anymore, yeah right, it's not illegal to raise them. There had to be a thousand chickens being raised here. When we got going again, we started seeing miles of blue agave fields. The guide said they belong to a distillery that we would be passing by. We all agreed we needed to stop and check it out, lol. After the tour and tasting, Connie walked away with a Vanilla Tequila she liked. We finally made it to El Quelite where we had a delicious lunch at Restaurante El Mesón de Los Laureanos. We were treated seeing a wedding party arrive for their reception at the restaurant. 

Flan cake from Panamá Restaurant and Bakery
Getting ready for the horse to dance for us
Another dancing horse
Horse stalls. I Iiked the chicken shadows.
Fighting cock houses. Each chicken was tied to the ground.
Beautiful Bougainvillea
Fighting cock ranch
Los Osuno tequila distillery
Huge pressure cooker they cook the agave pineapples in.
Part of the distilling process
Hand labeling the tequila bottles
Larry and I split 6 tastings
Miles and miles of blue agave fields
Happy couple arriving at the restaurant for their reception
Cute pottery dishes at the restaurant.
Courtyard inside the restaurant
Comfy rocking chairs outside the restaurant
El Quelite plaza
Colorful table

 Our next destination was a short 2-hour drive to Celestino Sinaloa, where we stayed at La Celestina RV Park for 3 nights. We are now making our way back north towards the border in 7 days. We had no provided tours or dinners here and it was time to start using up the foods we wouldn't be allowed to bring back into the US. We had a nice little area we gathered at for our daily Pegs & Jokers. One day the RV park owner came by to welcome us and thank us for staying with him. Tourism has been really low, and he appreciated our business. He was telling us that there was a Chinese Restaurant in the neighboring town of La Cruz. All our mouths started to water. He arranged to have taxis pick us up and he would go with us. The food was delicious and such a treat! While staying here, another caravan group came in. This was a sign that caravans were heading north as well.

Manny made a decision that we should drive further than planned, for our next stop. It was going to be an overnight boondocking spot but he was afraid that it was going to be full of other caravan groups. So, from Celestino Sinaloa we drove over 8 hours to a secured truck stop in Navojoa Sonora. Oh my gosh, I was exhausted from driving that long of a day. I certainly slept well that night, even the trucks didn't bother me. The next morning, we headed to San Carlos about 3 hours away. We arrived by 11am and had the rest of the day to recuperate before our farewell dinner that night. We also had the next day to rest before we headed to the Nogales border 5 hours away. In Nogales Mexico we had to stop to return our tourist visa and the motorhome permit. The border crossing was pretty easy. We had a US Agriculture agent board our rigs to check for fruits and veggies. I still had one potato left and didn't think anything about it since I was allowed to bring in a 5lb sack of potatoes from Canada last year. She said nope, not allowed. No big deal, it was just one potato, lol. However, we were allowed to bring in more than our allowance of alcohol. She said since we don't cross the Mexican border that often, it would be okay this time, lol. 

Beach in Celestino Sinaloa
We were entertained by many iguanas at the Celestino RV park
Waiting in line at the Nogales border
A meal I made from a lot of veggies leftover. Stuffed poblano and anaheim peppers with shrimp, onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers.
Our truck stop boondocking in Navojoa Sonora
One member in our group, Marvin, always took the most dramatic sunset pictures.
Farewell dinner at Charlie's Rock in San Carlos
Playing Pegs and Jokers in a nice covered area
Our last night together we had farewell S'mores.

It was after 1pm by the time we crossed, so we spent the night in the Desert Diamond Casino in Sahuarita, south of Tucson. We ate dinner in the casino that night and went to bed early. The next morning, we were up really early to have breakfast in the casino again. They have really good food! We drove to Cindy & Matt's, in Mesa, for a quick visit, went grocery shopping and then headed home. We arrived home around 2pm and our neighbors Randy and Patty quickly invited us to join them and our other neighbors, Steve and Debbie, for dinner.

We had a great time during these past 3 months traveling in Mexico in our 25' Unity Motorhome. The motorhome worked great again, with only a couple minor issues. We only spent around $1500 in diesel fuel for the entire two trips. $400 was spent on dining out in Mexico. Our biggest expense was for groceries and alcohol, coming in around $1800 for the 3-month trip. The paid RV caravan trip included several meals, several tours, and the RV parks. It was around $12,000 for the two caravan tours. It was a little frustrating with the Mexican RV parks, as several had terrible electric and there was no potable water (unless you bought large bottles of water). Dining was good and affordable. We never felt afraid, or in danger. This was a plus in having a tour guide with us. We're glad we did these caravan trips. However, this isn't our style of RV travel. We prefer the freedom to go where we want and stay or leave on our schedule.