La Paz – Mazatlán Crossing

A lovely crossing... at a negotiated price!

From La Paz, there are 2 ways to get to Mazatlán.
Option one: a cruise ferry, model year 2000.
Option two: a cargo ship that hauls trucks, model year 1970.

The price of the operation: twice as much to avoid hanging out with the truckers.
Us? We love truckers. Let's go to the cargo!

Truth is, both companies charge outrageous rates for RVs. The reason, after a chat with TMC's sales director: Mexicans don't have RVs...
So the rates are... American!
We're European? Then we'll get a European rate. Half the official price, no under-the-table money involved.
Kids normally cost 850 pesos. For them, the trip will be free. Sweet!

We get to the port at noon, and all the paperwork is done in half an hour.
We wait until 3:30 p.m. to board onto the upper deck of the cargo ship, since we're allowed to sleep in KIFONS during the crossing. An amphibious RV, sort of...
The ship leaves the port of La Paz at 5 p.m. We take the opportunity to set up happy hour on a wooden table straight out of the '70s. The kids sing! They dance on the deck. The truckers crack up.

We have a fantastic time and... a fantastic night! It feels so strange. We're in our camper, rocked by the motion of the water.
It really feels like being on a sailboat. We all love it!
The next morning, it's school time for the kids. Today, school is in the camper, which is itself on the boat... Whoa, this is getting a little complicated!

10 a.m. on the dot, we sail into the port of Mazatlán.

Hello, MainLand! Hello, real Mexico!

San Blas

Once in Mazatlán, we head straight out of the port and the city.
For safety reasons (maybe needlessly...), we listen to the Mexicans who advise us not to hang around the state of Sinaloa.

Since our next "big" stop is the city of Guanajuato, we decide to find a place halfway to spend the night.
We choose to stop for a night in San Blas, at a campground right on the Pacific Ocean.
We arrive in the afternoon and discover a whole new setting. The climate here is... tropical!
The vegetation is dense. Humidity is around 75%. You sweat without even moving.
The campground is lively. Since yesterday, it's been hosting a wedding. We're the only ones not part of it...
But we enjoy it all night long.
Sunday night into Monday. Asleep at 5 a.m.... Music blasting, the Mexican lovebirds (and their friends... and us) party their hearts out.

The next day, we're so wiped out that we decide to stay put and enjoy the ocean, the pools and the gardens.
With great difficulty, we set up school under the coconut palms, but the lousy teachers give up on class pretty quickly today... Much to the delight of the kids... and the parents!

2 nights? Why not 3??

The next time we get to enjoy the joys of salt water will be on the other side of Mexico, in... a few weeks.
So we stay here a third night, just to fully enjoy a day of total peace and quiet. We're all alone. The 5 to 7 acres of gardens are all ours. The pools too.