In the afternoon, I headed into the town of Guaymas to get a SIM card at the Telcel store. The RV park had excellent WiFi, but I wanted cellular as a backup for travels down the road. I got a micro SIM for my Google Nexus 7 tablet. I’ll be able to turn on the tablet’s hotspot capability whenever I need to share bandwidth with my laptop. The SIM was available as a prepaid month-to-month plan that can easily be flexed with how ever much data you should need for that particular month. I was a bit nervous about trying to get all of this accomplished quickly at the Telcel store, but lucked out with a young guy who spoke excellent English and he was able to get me set up in no time!
The town of Guaymas felt certainly like Mexico, but it was surprising just how many U.S. companies are established there as well. Wal-Mart has their own highway sign!
Home Depot had a store nearly as big as anything in the US
and there were plenty of others from Hertz Rent-a-Car to Burger King!
Back to the beach town of San Carlos, I decided to drive a few miles beyond the RV park to the western edge of town. It has the most spectacular sheltered bay just jammed with sailboats and surrounded by beautiful little houses and timeshare condos. Gringo paradise!
Back to the RV park, Millie got to take her first swim in the Sea of Cortez. Quite the happy camper!
Totonaka RV Park is the only RV park in San Carlos and a favorite first night stop for RVers headed further south into Mexico. Yet, with it being only 250 miles south of the border (and with it still being in Sonora, which does not require vehicle permits), it could certainly be a winter snowbirding destination of it’s own (warmer than Arizona winters, with a gorgeous beach to boot!).
The little RV park even has a few rows of motel rooms that line it’s perimeter for those traveling without RVs!
The new View was quite happy there (sporting it’s new charcoal gray Fancher’s sunshade too!).
On our final evening at Totonaka, we did the customary thing of moving out into the main lane of the park for the night so that I could have the Tracker all hitched up and ready to roll early the next morning. We were treated to yet another spectacular sunset!
You're off to a great start! The sunsets are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI see earth, wind, fire and water all in one beautiful sunrise. Well done!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful sunrises and sunsets !!! Looks like a fun trip !
ReplyDeleteWe fell in love with San Carlos five years ago, and bought a home after two years of wintering in rental homes. The town was built 50 years ago to be another destination resort. The cold water in winter month kept that from happening. Instead, it became a Gringo retirement community of 8,000 to 10,000. Now, more Mexicans are buying homes here as well. It's a wonderful place to winter. To clarify one point you made, you do have to purchase a vehicle permit in Sonora if you go east of Highway 15, or south of Empalme. You buy the "all Sonora" or "all Mexico" permit at Kilometer 98, about 6 miles south of where Highway 15 out of Guaymas meets Highway 15 that by-passes Guaymas.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification and additional info Ken! Always appreciate the expertise of a local. I really enjoyed San Carlos and think it's a "no-brainer" destination for anyone RVing in Arizona who wishes to get an easy taste of Mexico (or who wants to enjoy some time at the sea & beach)!
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