First Blog from Mexico

This is our first go at this so bear with us/ switch off if it all gets too excruciating. After months of struggling to get our internet provider in the UK to accept photo images on our emails home we have given up and this is an attempt at an alternative route. Lets see if it works!!

We're in a beautiful area just to the north of Puerto Vallarta (P.V to locals), with a swell forecast to hit some time in the next 24 hours. In fact as I write this I can hear waves beginning to pound the beach, bodes well for the morning.

Speaking of which it IS actually now the morning, 4.36 in the morning to be precise. The combination of rumbling surf noises, cockerels hard at it nearby and a post Margarita wave of nausea (too much detail?) have forced me out of bed. Still it's not a bad time of day to try and sort this blog out... at last.

We'll try and put a few links to useful/interesting sites on the sidebar. So far the ones I have tried have been blocked. This may be something to do with my technophobiclumsia, or it COULD be because they are US government sites (mainly surf and weather forecasting sites) and therefore blocked. I am suspicious partly because I know that blogs from US servicemen and women in Iraq have been causing some consternation within the US establishment, perhaps their relationship with blogger has become strained. We'll see.

For camping over the next few days we have a number of options to choose from, as we are staying in this area until after christmas. They range from busy and rather touristy satelite villages to the North of P.V., with smart and expensive R.V. parks (full of, well, smart and expensive R.Vs); to spots we have discovered down gravel roads a little further to the North with nothing but turtles and coconuts for company. In between are campsites with limited facilities, fantastic beaches, and a few gunk-holing travellers.

Each have their merits!! The former options score points for the ready availabilty of tacos and cerveza, while internet access and swimming pools are plus points for the kids. The latter for the freedom and uncrowded paradise on offer if you are willing to explore & rough it a bit.



Highlights on the Mainland so far include the wonderful city of Mazatlan, where the ferry from Baja arrived soon after sunrise. We rose from our bunks at dawn to see the mountains of Sinaloa from the top deck of the ferry. It was a stirring experience. Steam and mist hung over the GREEN hillsides beyond the city. A complete contrast to the desert landscape we had left behind in Baja.

Mazatlan itself a chaotic and bustling city with a fantastic market. Piles of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, woven, carved and sculpted artwork. The kids bicycled around for a bit, particularly up and down the Malecon. Many of the coastal cities we have visited so far have these excellent waterfront pavements, used by families to stroll, chat, bike, skate, long into the balmy evenings and on lazy afternoons.

When the bikes became too terrifying in the chaos of traffic we caught buses, marvelling at the colourful cityscape, the huge variety and ingenuity of stalls and workshops in the commercial streets. How sad it seems that development, and economic prosperity somehow supresses that side of our culture: the side which pushes us to improvise, invent, repair. Our cities and shops at home in the Uk; and certainly those we visited in the States appear very monocultural and rather bland in comparison.