On the way

We are in San Fransisco now – It is cool and breezy. Such a relief after all that hot hotness we just drove through. The car thermometer told us it was 114 degrees driving through Arizona. Driving through LA it dropped by 10 degrees every half hour or so. By the time we got to Carpenteria it was in the mid/low 70s. HEAVEN. It had been about that since then.

I’ll continue the tale of traveling from Guanajuato Wednesday morning:

Butch did not do so well in the car. She threw up and drooled like crazy that first day.

We drove to and through Guadalajara much faster than I had expected and stopped at this sweet roadside place just past the city. They had amazing quesadillas, and a huge coke bottle decor.

We continued west to San Blas, on the coast, through very pretty countryside.

One thing I love about Mexico is the ingenious ways of reusing stuff. This roof of a restaurant is being protected by old movie advertisement banners

San Blas is a sleepy little town. It was hot and humid, we swam in the pool at the hotel and the ocean and they both seemed to be just a bit cooler than the air.

There were tons of lizards around, I saw a huge iguana and two parrots. Mikko caught a couple of toads. It was wildlife heaven – and lots of mosquitoes at sunset.

The next day we drove up the coast to Mazatlan. Since the people in San Blas were so cool with Butch staying there, we figured all Mexican hotels would be OK with dogs, so we found a place in our travel book that looked good and were all paid for and ready to get into our room, until the guy at the front desk saw the dog – and everything went bad. He was great though and called around to try to find a place that would take dogs. To no avail. Finally he said that his bosses were around, but once they left at 7 pm or so, he would let us sneak Butch in, as long as we were out by 7 the next morning.

It worked out well – the hotel was right across from the beach, where there is a public salt water pool, that is just basically a cement wall built in the ocean

Butch and I hung out poolside and then on the beach while the boys frolicked.

The next morning she and I snuck out for an early morning walk along the malecon, which is a broad walkway that runs the length of the beach. There were lots of joggers, dog walkers and rollerbladers. It was already hot and sultry by 7 in the morning.

We had both of our Mazatlan meals at El Shrimp Bucket, which is attached to the hotel. Here Mikko is having his latest culinary invention: bacon and watermelon.

We took of the next day for Guaymas, which is another coastal town, though we missed the coast.

There were a few emergency father son bonding pitstops.

We stayed in a motel on the outskirts of town, where it was easier to sneak Butch in – because our car was parked right outside the door of room. It was a little fancier than the hotel in San Blas and the water was a little cooler.

More soon…