San Carlos

As we left Nogales we felt an overwhelming sense of adventure with the great unknown in front of us.  But first—paperwork.  We had to get all of our documentation in order and pay the officials for the privilege of photocopying our passports.  Two hours later we were off on the open road, with the great unknown in front of us.  Our destination was San Carlos, and we were all daydreaming of jumping in the ocean.

Four hours of daydreaming later we arrived at the beautiful town of San Carlos.  We scoped out places to spend the night—this was before we learned that we can stay almost anywhere in Mexico—and then decided it was time to see how cheap the food and beers were!

We found a bar/restruant called La Tortuga that seemed pretty popular and pulled over.  The daily special tacos were less than a dollar each and the beers were a dollar and a half.  Needless to say, on our first night in Mexico, we ate a lot of tacos (Matt had 9) and drank a lot of beer!  When it was time for the check, we had an unpleasant surprise.  They had added drinks they “gave us” and even other people's drinks to our tab.  We learned the hard way that you cannot trust people just because they are being nice.  Better to learn it early, right?

Having fun at La Tortuga

We ended up spending the night on a cliff over a beautiful bay with a nice beach.  We woke up and jumped in the cool ocean to wash away the hangover from the night before.  Ricardo and Jocelyn went off to do errands and look for another spot to spend the night—there was broken glass everywhere at the bay.  Sarah and Matt stayed behind with Cubby and watched as the pelicans, eagles and other birds danced around the bay.

The beautiful bay

Our sleeping spot the first night

Ricardo and Jocelyn returned with news of a new spot right on the beach, complete with a friendly dog that they fell in love with (Doggita.)  We hooked Cubby up to Pichula and took off for the new spot.  Upon arrival we found another dog, who was friendly, but a little bit scared (Doggie.)  We couldn’t find Doggita at first, so we started feeding Doggie.  All of a sudden Doggita came out of the distance, tail-a-wagging.  We had an amazing time in San Carlos, and without exaggerating; I can honestly say that Doggita was the highlight!  She was a little malnourished and clearly had just had some puppies, but boy was she cute.  We made it our personal mission to fatten her up.

Doggita

Doggie

Fortunately for her—and us—a fisherman came up to Cubby with some fresh caught fish for sale.  We grilled fish and steak and made some rice and potatoes.  The 6 of us (doggies included) had a mighty feast.  The next night Ricardo made some fabulous ceviche with the leftover fish, that we all loved so much we demanded more the next night.

Our Dinner Table.  Tough life we lead :o).

The next morning we woke up to dolphins swimming right off shore.  They were welcoming us, and almost beckoning us to come swim.  We were tempted, but didn’t want to bother them.  After eating breakfast we decided to go for a hike.  While driving into San Carlos we saw an intimidating looking mountain that looked nearly unhikable.  Our waitress at La Tortuga told us it was called “tetas negras“, or the “black titties” in Spanish, although we are still not sure that she wasn’t referring to the mountain next to it.  She said that there was a trail that ran up it, but to be careful for rattlesnakes.  As we drove up to the mountain, which we lovingly dubbed “Black Titties,” we saw what looked like a trail.  We parked Pichula and Cubby and got our gear together.

Hence the name, "Black Titties"

As we climbed up the trail, we quickly realized that is was simply a path leading to a water tank.  Oh well, we thought, we can make our own trail...how hard can this be?  Boy, would we live to regret that thought.  The following hike was very beautiful but steep, filled with thorny bushes, and riddled with unstable and rocky footing.  What, with a trail, would have been a hour and a half hike became a five-hour epic adventure.  We ended up deciding it was too risky to go back the way we went up and blazed another, equally thorny, trail down the mountain.  Oh Black Titties, we will truly never forget you!

The first summit....say queso!



What a view from the top!



Oh the thorns!  We are almost there though...keep pushing

After such a grueling hike we knew there was only one cure:  Doggita and ceviche!  Exhausted, we all settled in for a good night’s sleep (not counting the party going on outside our window).  The next morning we woke up to the sad realization that our time in San Carlos was coming to an end.  We said our goodbyes to Doggita and Doggy, and hit the road for Mazatlan.  San Carlos definitely set the right tone for an awesome time in Mexico…we couldn’t wait to see what was next!