2012 Mexican Roadtrip: Los Mochis, Sinoloa to San Carlos, Guaymas, Sonora

We left  Los Mochis at 9:15 and arrived 4 hours later at the beach in San Carlos, Guaymas in Sonora State. The time in Sonora is one hour earlier so we actually arrived at 12:30 p.m., early enough for lunch at our hotel.

We passed nice looking green mountains and farms. We started seeing organ pipe cactus along the road. At 10 am it was 91°. We paid M$225 on the toll road Hwy. #15D between Los Mochis and San Carlos and again we felt it was worth it.

Dimitri had pre-booked at  Marinaterra (Estrada s/n, Sector Herradura, San Carlos, Sonora, tel.622- 225-2020, www.marinaterr.com). Our room (#118) cost M$1800/US $148 including breakfast. The hotel/condo complex is old and kind of dilapidated. Our junior suite was actually a one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen (with a coffee maker but no microwave), dining area and living room. The refrigerator was from The Year One but finally cooled and actually froze the food in it (there was a broken temperature control in it). In order to use the burner to heat up Dimitri’s pastry, we had to call the technico. The controls were broken. The hotel should be ashamed of itself. The Internet worked in the living room, surprisingly. The sofa in the living room was actually a bed and was not comfortable for sitting. The view was of the pool and part of the marina beyond. There was also an very interesting view of a unique looking mountain beyond. The ocean is south-ish of our marina view. We had lunch at the hotel’s restaurant, El Embarcadaro. We had a crab totada which Audre thought tasted like the crab was off but Dimitri liked. We also had a fish soup that was full of octopus and shrimp. It was too hot to walk on the beach in the afternoon even through there was a stiff breeze. We worked at our computers, catching up. At sunset the pool filled up but with the air conditioner running in the living room we didn’t hear the noise. We decided to walk to the Palapa Griega for dinner and the temperature was pleasant. The walk was along the road (there being no malecón). We thought that San Carlos missed its opportunity to be a well-planned, pretty place.

La Palapa Griega (on the beach in San Carlos, Sonora, http://vivasancarlos.mx/directorio/la_palapa_griega.html) really was right on the sand and it really did offer Greek items on the menu that Dimitri (the Greek) said had credibly Greek tastes. We had Taramosalada (M$50) with pita, Gigandes with pita (M$55) to start. Both were very good. For our mains we had Mussels in a white wine sauce (M$130) that were good. Dimitri had the Rabbit stifado and one beer. Our waiter had attitude. There was a 10% tip added to the bill so the meal cost M$569. We were happy enough. We got a ride back to our hotel with some other (gringo) customers.

We watched one of the shows we had recorded on our computer on our flat screen TV and planned for a 9:30 a.m. start the next day on our next leg to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.