Mazatlan

I really like the drive from Los Mochis to Mazatlan on the cuota (toll) road. The highway is wide and smooth, passing by lush farmland. There are two toll booths on the 431 KM stretch, the first costing $308 Pesos and the second, $200. The "North Beaches" road from the highway to the RV park is open but under construction with a long one way dirt section. We now need a wash.

We checked into the Las Jaibas RV park at about 3:00. The park looks pretty good but is almost empty! They raised the rates to $35 USA per day last year which chased many of the regulars away. He has lowered the rates back down again this year but the damage may have already been done. We paid $1900 pesos for a week which is about $155 Canadian.

We called my niece Robin and George who have a condo just up the street. They invited us over so we went there for a drink and then we all decided to go out for dinner. They have done some improvements to the marina on the way to town and Gus-Gus (pronounced Goose-Goose), one of the nicer downtown restaurants, has opened a new restaurant there. I had garlic shrimp and Norma had a bowl of soup. She was still full from eating 80% of her steak the night before.

I had a beer and a rum at Robin and Georges, a couple of margaritas with dinner and a couple of scotches when they dropped us off and woke up with a minor headache this morning. I should know better!

Las Jaibas has an excellent WIFI signal so Skype works well from here. I called Brooks & Linda and got an update on how their fencing and decking business is doing. They are busy and it looks like it will be busy all winter. Canada has a home improvement tax incentive going right now so many people are using it to do work on their houses. He and Linda are also working on plans to enlarge the business and that is going well too. I am very proud of the two of them. It is hard to build a small business in todays economy but they are both hard workers and will make a go of it.

I also called my sister in Kitchener, Ontario. She is home from the hospital after an operation and says she is feeling well. I don't entirely trust her as she has been known to lie about how she feels, something she learned from our mother. I will keep checking on her.

Dish Alignment for Dummies

Today I set up the StarChoice dish. I was having a bit of a problem finding the signal when a neighbour dropped by with a brilliant solution. You find someone with a working signal, place a piece of paper on the dish and trace where the shadow of the feed horn lies on the dish. You then take this paper to your dish and turn, raise and lower your dish until the shadow of your feed horn matches the tracing. You will now be very close to the correct orientation. Magic! It only works of course when the sun is in front of the dish and if the dish is the same size but what a labour saver - not to mention the frustration.

Well, back to doing nothing, something I do well in Mexico...