Day 26

We spent the previous afternoon and evening eating and enjoying Margaritas and Cervesas as we watched and felt the Mazatlan Carnival float parade pass from our outdoor restaurant overlooking the beachfront. We had a hard time getting started early

Traffic was still light as we left Mazatlan to head north. Early on we were treated to a few vistas of the coast before the landscape became green with vegetation. Sinaloa is a rich agricultural region. In the mild climate, we saw miles of corn, as well as potatoes and other crops. Trucks were heavily laden with ripe tomatoes, green, red and yellow peppers and oranges.

We stopped several times for people to fuel or get a snack. Late in the afternoon we reached our objective, Topolobampo.

Topolobampo is a major port along the west coast of Mexico and the terminus of the railroad we had ridden through the Copper Canyon. It is also the terminal for the Baja Ferry. We completed our paperwork for the ferry and circled our chairs for pot-luck hors d’oeuvers. There were some tasty treats to be had.

Fireworks greet the ferry's arrival

Most everyone moved into their rigs as the evening was cooling into the clear night sky. We only waited a few hours before the ferry arrived to great excitement. The people of Topolobampo greeted the ferry with a delightful show of fireworks. folks had to contain themselves as first the ferry needed to unload all that had arrived.

California Star prepares to unload

The California Star is a large ship. It was hard to grasp the capacity as truck after truck lumbered off the ferry.

Finally our turn came as we were carefully guided aboard and parked our vehicles close together. We cannot remain in our rigs during passage so we proceeded up to the reception desk where we picked up our cabin keys. It was quite late, almost midnight, when we finally lined up for the cafeteria dinner being served. Some of us were just too exhausted to wait and headed for our cabins without waiting. It was a long but exciting day and it was time for sleep.

Carole & Ken