BFFs

Our dear friends, Jake and Sharon, just left for the airport to head back over to Santa Rosalia in a twin engine, eight seater, Cessna. Accompanying them is their cat, Lillie (Lupe), four small bags and an empty gas can. Their boat "JAKE" is in the marina in Santa Rosalia and they are anxious to get back to her and back out on the water. They came over about two weeks ago so we could take care of Lillie while they went down to Zihuatanejo for a family reunion. Jake's sister and husband picked them up here in San Carlos for the trip south.

It took them just three days to get from here to Zihuatanejo. They took an interesting route, one that I would love to try. Bruce and I have driven all the way up the coast from Acapulco and it felt like it took forever though it only took three days from Acapulco to Puerto Vallarta. It's a beautiful drive, especially through the coast of Michoacan. The coastline is spectacular though the driving is a bit slow (and God forbid there should be an accident which brings traffic to a halt indefinitely).

Jake and Sharon drove the autopista to Tepic, cut over to Guadalajara and drove down the inland route through the mountains, past Paracho and Zamora and on to Zihuatanejo. They were on the road for three full days but that is very fast. Bruce and I are going to do that sometime. On this route you pass through the mountains that take you to a piece of Mexico that a lot of people don't get to experience. It is really special. There are small mountain peaks and it gets very cold at night in the pine forests. Everything around Paracho is made of wood and the people wear coats and sweaters late in the day. It's wonderful and if you have some time you should stop in Paracho and check out the guitars. It's the guitar capital of Mexico. People come from all over the world to have guitars made and, as you can imagine, the guitars are a fraction of the regular price. In Paracho, beautiful shawls are hand made in wool. They are usually blue and black. The pottery there is also very different; a lot is glazed a beautiful bright green. It's a fantastic experience. I'm told the road now that heads over the the coast is nice and wide and well maintained so I look forward to a trip down there.

Back to Jake and Sharon; they had a good time with family in Zihuatanejo and decided to leave early and take the bus back to Guaymas. Jake was told it was a 24 hour trip on Estrella Blanca, a really nice bus, with good air conditioning, snacks on board and movies. When they got to the bus depot in Zihuatanejo, the Estrella Blanca wasn't there so they had to take the Sonora Norte, a less substantial bus....but still it had air conditioning and movies. They are such good sports, truly and they will try anything once. After all they are boaters; they are retired and have no real schedule. They are living the dream. Well, I guess this particular bus took the libre (free) road the entire way. From Zihuatanejo to Puerto Vallarta, it's mostly a two lane road anyway, but after that there are a lot of stretches of autopista (freeway) that are very nice. Apparently, the bathrooms were not quite usable (no water) and food opportunities were fleeting. The bus stopped in every tiny town imaginable. Still they are good sports. They showed a couple of movies; most notably Cantiflas movies. Cantinflas is a folk hero in Mexico, one of the first great comedians and actors to become world famous. I think he was on the Ed Sullivan Show way back in the 50s or 60s. On the buses, there are no headphones, the movie just blasts and reverberates throughout the bus. I guess at one point Cantinflas' face was frozen on the screen for quite a while and the TV was just above Jake's head so it was hard for him to sleep while Cantinflas was staring at him. Still, they are good sports!

They called us from Mazatlan at about 4:00 PM and thought they would be a few hours late...which of course was fine with us. We realized they would arrive after midnight so we thought we would just go to bed at our regular time and wait for their call. We both fell asleep on top of the covers; I was still dressed. I slept fitfully all night. I kept waking up and looking at the clock. Then at about 4:30 I got up because I was a little worried. Jake has a Mexican cell phone and I tried calling; no answer. We were about to go into Guaymas and look around for them (I had visions of them there with a dead cell phone and no way to get up to San Carlos). Well a few minutes later, the phone rang and they were in a taxi heading to San Carlos. Bruce went down to the gate to meet them and they finally arrived here. They were fine. Sharon looked like she was in shock and they were both really tired. Nothing special happened except that they had to take the Sonora Norte instead of the Estrella Blanca. Everyone who travels around Mexico knows that there are all kinds of inspection points (especially for buses). There are the army checkpoints looking for contraband, the fruit and vegetable inspections and the federales. These can happen several times in each state. Sometimes you get off the bus, sometimes you don't, but it takes a long time.....so long story short it took about 32 hours instead of 24 and there were no snacks and drinks served and no decent bathroom, but there were movies and there was air conditioning. As the weekend went on we heard more and more funny stories about the bus, but it was a little too fresh in their minds to be really funny yet. That will come with time.

Many people in Mexico travel by bus. It's usually the most economical and they run often. I have taken the bus twice; a round trip from Mexico to Cuernavaca. I was on the Estrella Blanca and the bus was beautiful. I had a little pillow, blanket; there was a bus attendant who served drinks and snacks and several little TVs. It was wonderful. I didn't check out the bathroom but I'm thinking it was probably OK. The lesson here is - hold out for the white star of Mexico!

Jake and Sharon flew back to Santa Rosalia this morning with Lillie and all of their stuff. We had a fantastic weekend together here in San Carlos. We've been friends since we were boat neighbors at Shilshole Marina in Seattle. Boat neighbors are very special because we had our own little community and always helped each other out. We moved in 2001 and they left on their boating adventure in 2007. They visited us in Mexico every year and they are usually our first guests wherever we end up in Mexico. They're pretty young to be retired and they are loving the boating life here in Mexico. It's wonderful to see good friends doing what they planned; boating in paradise....with little side trips now and then. I know them and I know they will get on a bus again though they might wait for the White Star!