San Carlos Skydiving and Other Scenery | Mexico

San Carlos has skydiving down to the beach.  They fly from Guaymas, about 10 miles away (by road) and then turn you loose at 10,000 feet.  The two I saw come down both had two people, so they must have been first-timers.

 

This is a chute that's ready to be packed up.  You just hang in the sky, it actually takes quite a bit of time to come down to sea level.  Looks like it might be fun, and I'm adventurous, but I really don't think I want to jump out of an airplane that's running perfectly.

 

It's rare to see this type of vehicle in San Carlos, a 1953 Dodge pickup.  The owner told me that it was used back in the 60s to pull boats out of the water to take them to a storage yard.  I had not seen it around town until a few weeks ago.

 

 

I love this kind of fencing.

 

 

There are free range animals here, even though they may belong to someone.  This particular road is not lit at night and sometimes you'll find cows wandering in the road.

 

 

Most Mexicans are Catholic, and are quite religious.  There are all sorts of shrines in the country.

 

 

I'm not sure how this boat got way over here......

 

 

Most Spanish towns I've been in have plazas, a park-like area in the city somewhere.  San Carlos has not had one, so they are now making one, with an ornate fountain and lights that run off solar.

 

 

This is the community church where the plaza will be located.

 

La Manga is the fishing village on the outskirts of town. 

 

This view of the Tetakawi is coming down the road from the overlook, which has been getting a facelift and opened right after I left.

I like this area and visit this little tree and the island each year I'm here.

 

Seaweed adorning rocks along the beach.

 

Andale II | Touring San Carlos Waterfront | Mexico

This past week, I was fortunate to go on a tour by boat to see some of the San Carlos scenery from a different perspective.  The tour was on Andale II, at the marina.

Most of my photos of this area so far have been from land.  I loved getting a different viewpoint.

 

The anchorage looked much larger and I had never seen the actual harbor entrance.

 

I was able to see some of the neighborhoods I have driven through, certainly different from being on land.

There are many rock islands out there, some with caves or small passages through them.

 

 

The white coloring on this rock island looks like it could be a dusting of snow - but it's guano, also known as bird droppings.  Yes, it does smell a bit if you're downwind of these rocks.

This is part of a low-lying island called Honeymoon Island, and was inhabited by seabirds.

One of the seabirds I really like is the frigate, and I got to see one on the trip.

The highlight of the tour was definitely the dolphins.  Our captain went to an area where it seems that the dolphins hang out.  If the boat is going at a certain speed, they swim in the bow waves very close to the boat.  I have always been amazed that they can coordinate their speed with a boat - you never hear of a dolphin being hit by a boat. 

 

This photo was taken just as this dolphin surfaced and blew out excess water, creating a small rainbow.

 

 

 

This one was swimming on his back - sometimes they will be swimming along and turn their body so that they can look at the people on the boat.

All too soon, we had to go back to the harbor.  Thanks to Andale II as well as the Captain and Crew for a fun trip!

 

 

My New Home

Wildcat will be my new home - it's a 5th wheel, Forest River Wildcat.  It's only 26' long, but tons of storage space for that size - way more than any other unit I've seen in that size.  The floor plan is perfect and it has been meticulously maintained by it's previous owner, who was the only owner. 

A thought just hit me - a 26' boat would be TINY - it would be cramped to live aboard - but this is totally different.  Even my 47' boat didn't have this much room, and storage space!  About 15 years of my life has been spent mostly on boats so I know how to live in small quarters.  This should be a piece of cake. 

I had been looking at 5th wheels for about 5 months, any size, make or model up to 30'.  A few days ago, I took a trip to Ocala and Gainesville, Florida to see what was available over there.  I spent the first day looking at units that either weren't in my price range (but they were very nice) or units that had lots of water damage and/or other problems - some I just didn't like. 

At the end of the day, I looked at a unit for sale by a private owner and as soon as I walked in, I knew this was a well cared-for unit, and I really liked it.  I could tell the owner had enjoyed the trailer, he indicated he was reluctant to sell, but his wife was done with traveling in it - and that was final.    He had made multiple upgrades to the unit and I could tell he was attached to it.  I really liked the layout and felt it would be a good match for me.

After looking around and talking to him for well over an hour, I left and found a place to stay for the night.  I sat in that motel room and planned my next day, deciding what RV sales lots I'd visit and seeing what they had available.  Most of them were units similar to ones I had seen in other locations, I had seen the layout and it was just a matter of condition.  There was really nothing new that I hadn't seen in other places.  While I was contemplating this, I went through the pictures I had taken of this unit - going over the pictures that had been on his ad.

During the night, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got on the computer to look at the pictures again, and pictured myself living in it.   The more I looked at it and remembered the feeling when I first walked in the door, I started to think it was a waste of time to look at similar units I'd seen before and wasn't that impressed with.  With only 2 hours of sleep, I convinced myself I needed to go back to sleep and decide in the morning.

In the morning, I checked my list again - ho-hum.   And then I checked the pictures I'd taken the previous day.   Yes, definitely, I did like this unit, it was clean and well maintained, even the tires and battery were only 1 year old  -  why should I look any further?  So, the decision was made - I would call the owner and set up a meeting to discuss the purchase. 

The rest of the day was spent discussing the deal, having him get the title and meeting me at the bank where I'd do the wire transfer.  I decided to go to the tag office then and get the title sent in to be transferred to me and get the registration and the plate for it.  While I was waiting for that to happen, I called my insurance company and got the insurance set up.  By that time, I was ready for the three hour drive home.

And so a new chapter in my life begins.  I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time.   It's another big learning curve, possibly not as big as when I went cruising.  In any case, my gypsy spirit requires travel and adventure, and I bet it's gonna be great!

Sign up with your email in the upper right hand corner of this blog to follow my preparations and travels.  I will be posting videos of places I'll be visiting also -
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0_Sjk6aQnK8EmA0-698i5A/feed    Hope you enjoy riding along with me.

Betty Karl

5th Wheel Delivery

Wow - what a day I had.!  A friend took me to Gainesville to bring my "new" 5th wheel home.  Since I don't have my truck here yet, we drove over in her truck.    Actually, she made me drive part of the way, to get used to the truck.  I had a feeling I knew what she was up to.

We got there a little early, so we had a quick breakfast/lunch and then met the owner at the storage lot where my 5th wheel was.  A quick walk-around, the previous owner giving me tips on the unit he really didn't want to sell, but his wife was done traveling in it.  Same story I heard while I was cruising by sailboat a few years back - boat for sale - wife wants to go "home".   I was always happy being "home" wherever the boat was.  Obviously, I was not made from the same mold as these wives!

I've never towed anything, so I watched while the previous owner and my friend hitched up the 5th wheel and brought in the landing gear, connected and checked lights, etc.  We got in the truck, waved goodbye to the previous owner, who stood at the gate gazing sadly at us going down the road.  I felt bad for him, I had the same feeling when I sold some (most) of my boats. 

Not only have I never towed anything myself, I don't think I've ever been in a truck or car hauling anything larger than a small boat or utility trailer.  I was a bit nervous at the noises it was making and kept looking back to be sure everything was OK.  In a short time, I got used to the fact that it was following us as it should - after all, hundreds of people do this daily, things would be fine.

We drove out of town and the road home was a nice road mostly through less populated areas, not much traffic,  a few curvy parts, a few little hilly parts  - hills in Florida can be 25' and we're impressed.  In a short time, my friend told me it was my turn to drive and my anxiety level went up a few notches.   She found a shaded area to pull over and we switched places.  I adjusted the seat, put on the seatbelt, took a big breath, looked in the mirrors to see what I could see.  I slowly took off and after a while, I realized that towing wasn't that hard - at least on a nice road with little traffic!  Oops, someone passed me and I noticed that I had a little parade going.  OK, I had adjusted to 40 MPH, I added a little more speed and finally got up to the speed limit.  0-60 in about 8 minutes!

We drove on and we came to a more populated area where I had to make a few turns and get into a parking lot.  Thank goodness I had a general idea of how it should be done, plus I had input from the passenger seat veteran.  I had been reading lots of information about towing, and You Tube is wonderful for instructional videos about anything you need to know about.   Really, I'm serious - I had watched videos about driving an RV, making the wide turns, backing up and all sorts of things - even dumping the black tank, which I'm sure will be another story later.

We pulled into the parking lot, made a loop through and parked way out in the lot, taking up numerous spaces - I can see I'm going to love huge parking lots.  My time at the wheel was done, I would get in my car and my friend would follow me to my home town.  What a sense of relief when I turned off that truck motor!.  My first time towing was over, but there's still a huge learning curve - on towing as well as everything else that goes with this lifestyle. 

There is a lot of knowledge out there about RVing and the more I read and talk to other RVers, the more I'll learn.  They're friendly and helpful, very much like the cruisers in the Caribbean that I had known and learned from, and in some cases they learned from me.   Maybe someday, some new RVer might learn something from me.