10/7/2010 - Guaymas

Jake and Andy in the Plaza de los Tres Presidentes.

Yesterday we decided to check out a town south of here called Guaymas.  It’s about 15 miles away so the only reasonable way to get there is by bus.  We always like to try out the local transportation, it seems to be the best way to immerse ourselves. 

It turned out to be one of those days.  We set out with a plan but it was really more like a goal lacking some very important details. Like, what are we going to do when we get there?  Normally this is my area of expertise but I must have been asleep at the planning wheel yesterday.  I didn’t bring a map, didn’t have any restaurants scouted out, no touristy places in mind…nothing.  We were just “going to Guaymas.”  And that we did.   After hours and miles of walking, we finally made it to the local Walmart where we stocked up on a few groceries and took the final bus back to San Carlos.

It was a nice town.  Not so little…about 150,000 people live there.  We had heard it was pretty industrial, but it didn’t really fit my idea of industrial.  At least not the American version.  I expected a huge port with big tanker trucks backed up to the dock, etc.  But only saw 4 boats at the marina.  We’d also heard it was dirty, but again, that’s all relative.  Overall, we enjoyed ourselves, even if my legs were a bit sore this morning from all the walking (totally self  induced – we saw that bus pass by 20 times).  Jake was quite the trooper through it all and was treated to some chicken tenders and his second orange soda pop ever at Burger King.

We had a very calm evening eating the catch of the day wrapped up in some sushi rolls at the local wine bar here in San Carlos.  It even turned out to be a chilly night, which we haven’t felt in over four months.  It looks like the seasons are changing.  Another week or so and we’ll keep moving south.  As we look at our charts we're seriously considering crossing back over to the Isla Carmen/Escondido/Loreto area and heading south on the baja side.  It's over 400 miles to the next major port here on the mainland side.  Not that we mind doing an overnighter or two but we had a good time in that area before and thought it might just be a better trip down.  Not to mention we have our friends on Endurance who just made it back to LaPaz (heading north) from Central America and we would love to run into them before leaving Mexico.  The cool thing about cruising is that you can change your mind at any time :)