rvcityblog posted on September 15, 2011 07:00
Happy New Year! It is time to start the new year off right and I can tell you we did that quite well. We finished 2009 with a bang by having one of the best Christmas Light Parades ever and a great New Year's eve hot dog burn party with all our friends and neighbors at Senator Wash Reservoir LTVA.That was lots of fun as always.
We decided to do something different for the start of 2010. My neighbors have a condo in Mazatlan, Mexico and have been bugging us for the last few years to come down and visit them. We decided that this was the year. We arranged for insurance in Mexico and at the border we got our tourist visa card and vehicle sticker. There is quite a procedure to get all this. First you go to a special bank that is run by the federal government, they fill out all the forms and you pay for them. Then you go to immigration and he stamps them and then you proceed. In Mexico they have a 25 kilometer free zone where you can cross into Mexico without any hassle. At the 25 kilometer it is like an inner border check and you go through a thorough investigation where they check the contents of your vehicle and what you are bringing in to Mexico. After that you have the odd police and state check stop and the military also have a check stop at state borders to look for drugs (that would be my first guess.) On our 2-day trip to Mazatlan we tried to stick to the toll highway. It was much safer and faster then the free highway. There was 15 toll booths between the border and Mazatlan. The fare was usually $52 pesos ($5.00 CDN) or $61 pesos. One stop was $28 pesos and the other just before Mazatlan was a $103 pesos!
The vehicles we met on the toll highways were all modern and fairly new, most of them newer than what I was driving myself. When we were on the free highway for a short jaunt, we noticed in the small towns the vehicles were junky and looked like they were on their last leg. They didn't always have lights on them and lot of them did not have license plates. The police don't seem to concern themselves with this. We also noticed that some traffic laws were not followed to the fullest extent. At the stop signs for example (ALTO), we noticed that if traffic was light, they would just slow down to a rolling stop. If there was no traffic they did not stop at all and if I did, they would just fly by me and look at me like I was some kind of fool. If there were no painted white lines they would make a lane wherever they felt like. Even if there was painted lines and the traffic was heavy, they would make up multiple lanes depending on whether or not they could squeeze past. For the most part they were courteous drivers I never got the finger once! Mazatlan is a beautiful city with lots of tourist zones and lots of history.
We especially enjoyed the older parts of downtown Mazatlan in the central square and the open markets and small cobblestone streets. We had some fantastic meals and we got to see the everyday working class of people and how they live. The other thing that surprised me was that the buildings look old and tired but at night, when you walked by, the inside was clean and modern looking just like back home. I'm told the sun is hard on paint down there and you need to repaint every 2 years to keep up the appearance of your building. All buildings are built of bricks or concrete because of the termites. Almost all of the newer buildings seemed not to be finished on the roof. You could tell because there was rebar sticking out of the sides and the roof of the buildings. We learned that in Mexico, if your home or building is not fully finished you do not have to pay property taxes.
Another neat thing that we learned was that there are 3 types of motels in Mexico. You have your upper class, your middle class and your NO TELL Motels, where it is very private and secure. You can rent these by the hour or the day. For some reason I could not talk my wife into staying in one of those types of motels! We truly enjoyed Mazatlan and look forward to going back there again next year and maybe stay a little bit longer.
After I got back from Mexico, I partook in some neat 4x4 trips. We did one ride called hidden canyon where on the side of a cliff we came across a Killer Bee's nest. This ride had a very tight squeeze through some spots. We also went out to the Pichacho State park area where we came across some old mines and some of the equipment that was left behind. It was quite fascinating. There were a few spots where my wife Wendy would not drive with me and got out and walked instead because she thought they were too scary. Of course I thought differently!
Last week I thought I would try something different again. I drove up to Quartzsite, Arizona for their annual RV Show. In some ways it was different, but for the most part just the same as the one in Edmonton. They had a huge tent set up with 6 rows of venders on the inside and 2 rows surrounding the outside. I was disappointed that there was not as much RV stuff as I thought there should of been. There was a lot of jewellery, socks, kitchen products and As Seen On TV merchandise. As for the RV's themselves, this I was truly disappointed in. The EDMONTON RV show is much bigger and better. If you were looking for a Class A motor home, they had a great selection but most of them were fairly new used units. As for 5th wheels and travel trailers, there seemed to be only a few lines represented and the rest were all used again. We visited all the dealers that had displays in Quartzsite and came away feeling that Edmonton had a much better RV Show.
Speaking of RV Shows, it is time once again to get ready for the 30th Annual Edmonton RV Show that will be taking place Thursday February 11th to Sunday February 14th.
The times are as follows:
Thursday Feb. 11 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Friday Feb. 12 10:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Saturday Feb. 13 10:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Sunday Feb. 14 10:00 pm - 5:00 pm
I look forward to seeing all my past clients (and some new ones) at the 2010 RV Show and the start of another great RV camping lifestyle.
Best Regards and until the next time,
Glen and Wendy Leeder
