Tag Archives: driving

Guadalajara

Mexico Here We Are, ,
Hanging out in Parque Expiatorio
Hanging out in Parque Expiatorio

After leaving the hot and muggy Pacific coast of Mexico we drove inland to Mexico’s 2nd biggest metro area of Guadalajara.  This is another place we’re considering to spend the winter, and by the end of our stay it’s a definite maybe.  We like the weather and the number of things you can do that come with being in a big city.  However, we’re not really big city people, at least with kids, and traffic here is kind of intense.  Traffic is intense all over Mexico in it’s own way if you’re not used to it, but here things like 4+ lane roundabouts, constant traffic slow downs and busy, frequently merging multi-lane what you might call highways take it to a whole new level for us.  I’m sure this has nothing on Mexico City from what I’ve heard, but it was stressful enough for us.

We decided to stay a little ways outside the center of the city at the Crowne Plaza hotel near the Plaza del Sol, partly because it was hard to find dog friendly places and this one was, partly because it had a pool which has been a savior of a feature for us to wear the kids out for bed, and partly because it looked like it was closer to some neighborhoods that I’d read might be quieter and better for long term living.  This put us farther away from city center than I expected, but that didn’t seem to matter a lot since it seems to take at least 15-20 minutes to get from any point in the city to any other.  Even when things looked fairly close together on the map, it would end up taking us 20 minutes to get from point to point when you take into account traffic and parking. Continue reading Guadalajara →

Heading to Puerto Vallarta – Or Not

Mexico Here We Are,

Our trip from Mazatlan to the Puerto Vallarta area started off with a big drama. We thought we had booked a screaming deal on a luxury resort for a week and were all set to kick back and relax when we arrived. Kim’s parents had very helpfully found this deal online for us, and even called the place to make sure they took dogs and ask other questions. So we figured it would be OK to get in a little late since we could check into our two bedroom luxury condo and relax.  We stopped in Sayulita, about 40 minutes north of our destination, for dinner since that’s one of the places we’re considering spending more time.  Then we drove on toward Puerto Vallarta to check in.  To start we went to the wrong place because there’s multiple places called “Luxury Resorts” and I had picked the wrong one on Google maps. By the time we figured that out it had gotten dark and begun to pour rain, so we ended up driving around in circles trying to find the correct place.  It turned out their sign was barely lit at all and wasn’t what we were expecting.  We finally followed the poor directions in our confirmation email and pulled up at the guard house to the place.  We told the guard we were looking for Luxury Resorts and had a reservation, and when he said Luxury Resorts were here we yelled for joy since everyone was ready to get out of the car.

However, Continue reading Heading to Puerto Vallarta – Or Not →

Mexican Border to Mazatlán

Mexico Here We Are, , ,
Our good old Forester takes a break to watch the sunset in Mazatlán
Our good old Forester takes a break to watch the sunset in Mazatlán

Phew, we made it into Mexico, and we’re blowing through the north part of it to get closer to somewhere we can settle down a bit longer.  We entered Mexico on Tuesday, and we’ve been driving almost everyday since to get farther and farther south.  It’s more driving than I expected, but it’s also going better than I’d hoped.  It’s definitely hot, but surprisingly green for what I expected to be desert landscape.  Apparently there’s been a lot of rain here this season, so it’s not normally so green.

The border crossing at the Nogales truck route was easy – almost too easy.  At the border itself there was a sign that said to stop and wait for someone to inspect you.  We did so and two cars drove around us, and there was nobody in sight to actually do anything, so we kept driving too.  We knew from research that most of what we needed to do happened around kilometer 21, so we kept going until we got there.  Continue reading Mexican Border to Mazatlán →