Mexico: garlic shock and selfie mania

June 2021

Playa Huatabampito

A long beach, quiet only during the week. Over 30 campsites equipped with electricity, water and dumping. We were the only camper for more than a week and enjoyed life with wonderful weather.
As read in the daily newspapers, littering is also increasing in Switzerland. What goes on here in Mexico on the beaches, especially over the weekend, is unfortunately very tragic.

After a family party on the beach, in the best case, the tent that has been set up to provide shade will be taken away again. Beer bottles, aluminum cans, pizza boxes, everything is lying around after people left the beach. It's a shame that the lovable Mexicans don't take better care of their nature.

Saturday or Sunday evenings it gets particularly dangerous on the streets because of the drunken machos driving home. On the beach described above, five rather large families each with their own vehicle, each of the the drivers drunk ten to fifteen bottles of beer! When driving away, one of them turned turned a little too spiritedly and sunk in the soft sand. They didn't push the vehicle out, and none of the four other pick-up drivers had a rope with them. Ironically, the chief of police from the nearby police station brought in a tow rope.

Shurflo water pump

After three years of daily use, our water pump was producing only reduced water pressure. We had the same type of pump in the previous Cirrus Truck Camper, and bought a replacement pump for this. So the pump was replaced in 15 minutes, and the new one works perfectly.

Tanker truck in Mexico

On highways you can always see 6-8 tanker trucks driving in convoy. These convoys are secured at the beginning and at the end by military pickups with several soldiers in full combat gear and with machine guns. In the past, millions of gallons of fuel just evaporated during transport - Mexico that is.

Garlic shock and Chamorro de Puerco in Pueblo Mágico Álamos

Thanks to Brigitte and her cooking skills, I’m getting spoiled daily with culinary delights, so we seldom eat out. But when we do, it has to be special, but may also cost something.
This philosophy has now become a disaster for us at Pueblo Mágico Álamos. It started with the fact that we didn't ask the cab driver about the price before the trip as usual (probably the temperatures around 38 degrees were a bit too high). He shamelessly exploited this with us Gringos and demanded far too much; own fault.
We were the only guests in the much-praised restaurant appetizer and main course. Salad for Brigitte was fine so far. My gazpacho, however, gave me a garlic shock. Chamorro de Puerco, a piece of pork with bones (the waitress's statement), was highly recommended to Brigitte. The whole knuckle of pork served was too long in the oven with too high heat. Beautiful dark is not yet black! My fish with asparagus looked really delicious. The breading was very fresh, which couldn't be said of the fish.
Seasoning was normal, which could not be said for what was offered due to the salty bill!

PS: We have already been able to visit some excellent Restaurants in Mexico and enjoyed the food. Price performance has always been right. In addition, we have already seen some more natural looking Pueblo Mágico like this over-restored Álamos.

Playa Cerritos and Selfie Mania

Already the 2nd time we stood for 2 weeks at RV Park Punta Cerritos near Mazatlan. Specially, because protected by entrance control in a resort and elevated location with view to the sea. Lying under the round, small thatched roof by the swimming pool, you can look down on the beach of Punta Cerritos, which runs through below. From a bird's eye view, you're close to it, but still not in the middle of it.

Of course, it tempted us to take pictures and we liked it. Some noticeable features:
Nothing works without a smartphone, and nothing works without dozens of selfies. The smartphone is somewhat difficult to use with the extremely long, attached fingernails (very modern). The standardized leg position of the women seems to be extremely important for selfies. Mexicans eat incessantly all day. There are far too many visibly unhealthy peoples. Mexicans, unfortunately, can easily keep up with Americans in this regard.

We also saw for the first time Minks, taken out for a swim on a leash. Totally wrong! Underwear is very often worn under the bathing suit. Many Mexicans cannot swim. Children as well as adults run away from every wave screaming loudly.

Corona vaccination in record time

Since we would like to fly to Switzerland in autumn, possibly even to Africa, we inquired in Mazatlan about the possibilities of vaccination for foreigners in Mexico. There we were told that we could not be vaccinated without a CURP number, which we do not have as tourists. CURP = Clave Única de Registro de Población. However, travel agencies offer Corona vaccination trips including flight, hotel accommodation and vaccination in the states for around 800 U.S. dollar per person.
Two weeks later we asked a friend near Atotonilco. He made inquiries and the next day he took us to the vaccination center that was temporarily set up in a sports hall. There, two vaccination forms were filled out for us with the friend's address. Instead of the CURP number, we left two copies of our passports, and the thing was done. We were the last to sit down in a row of twenty or so chairs lined up in a row, and in no time at all we were vaccinated by the doctor who carried his shots on a trolley.
Now the vaccinated people had to stay in the row of chairs for half an hour to see any reactions. The vaccinating doctor asked about our homeland. As we were vaccinated last of the row, he had time and chatted with us. He also pointed out three days of alcohol abstinence. Brigitte asked him if he could take regular medicine. He answered in the affirmative, whereupon Brigitte said, then one may drink tequila. The person in charge of the vaccination center took a picture of us as rare foreigners with the doctor.
After a short information, we could leave the hall.
The whole procedure with formalities, vaccination and waiting time only took an hour. Could this be so uncomplicated and quick for a tourist in Switzerland?