“Parablas sucio...”

We’re sitting here in a hotel in Ciudad Obregon. I’m not sure how big the city is, but I can tell you that we’ve driven through a lot of it before finding a hotel. Our journey today started at 6am in a tent in the desert. It was our second night camping at Patagonia Lake State Park, about 15km from the Mexican border. The first night was very cold, and I can tell you that an equatorial sleeping bag rated for 20 Celsius doesn’t quite cut it for -1. Last night was a lot better, only dropping to 8, in addition to the 1mm neoprene shirt that I was wearing. Quick thinking resulted in zipping Denielle’s +10 rated sleeping bag to mine, using mine as the bottom, and a little bit of body heat kept us sleeping through most of the night.

The desert was a lot of fun. We had a productive day in Tucson, which might as well be in Mexico because everyone is from there. I picked up a new pair of shoes, ate out at the Olive Garden, and got our windows tinted on the car. Yesterday we walked through the desert around Patagonia Lake, which wasn’t much of a trail, but quite an adventure. 4 hours later we made it back to the camp with no rattlesnake bites. We did see some wildlife as well, not counting the cows. Apparently there are a lot of birds here, which draws some birders from far around. I was more excited about the cotamundi though. We also saw some white tail deer, some kind of really small desert deer, and quite a few rabbits. The desert is a very pokey place though, and I’ll be thankful to have the beach to walk on without constant worry of cacti in the legs.

This morning we got up before the sun as mentioned previously and took the short trip to the border. Apparently it’s quite easy to get into Mexico as it happened without us even knowing it. 21km later however, we came across the tourist building where we imported our car for 6 months. This was a lot easier than I had ever expected. We just filled out the standard tourist cards, took our car registration and passports, paid a fee, and were back on our way. We encountered a hiccup in Hermosillo however, as the main road was under construction, so with no detour signs and a lack of detailed information on the GPS (i.e. a floating car with no roads on the map), we took a scenic tour of downtown for about an hour before finding our way back to the highway. Driving in busy Mexican cities must be an acquired taste that I haven’t come around to yet. A few choice words were spoken, and frustrations ran high. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll shoot for Mazatlan, unless the waves are good along the way. Peter gave us the names of a couple of spots just north of there that we may check out. We did drive past the ocean today, but once we step foot inside of it, the nerves will be calmed. It’s finally warm and humid, so no more surviving through the desert nights...

Tyler.