Leaving the turtles behind...Adios!

This is it, folks. The final leg of the journey.
After sending the turtles to their certain death out into the ocean to enjoy life, we continue along the coast, first arriving at Lazaro Cardenas. A large, growing port city, Lazaro Cardenas is playing a very IMPORTant role in US trade:

• Lázaro Cárdenas is home to a deepwater seaport that handles container, dry bulk, and liquid cargo. The port also exports automobiles from various Mexican assembly plants to markets in southeast Asia and South America. The port handled 1.24 million TEU in 2012 and is expanding to a capacity of 2.2 million TEU annually. Cargo moves to and from the port by road and rail equally, with rail service provided exclusively by Kansas City Southern de México. The port is expected to become a major container facility due to congestion at the U.S. ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and its relative proximity to major cities such as Chicago, Kansas City, and Houston. In preparation for the port's increased capacity, railway and highway infrastructure running north–south through the center of Mexico has been upgraded to handle the anticipated increase in volume of goods bound for the United States using this transportation corridor. If a proposed government-backed Pacific port is built at Punta Colonet, Baja California, goods flowing to U.S. states like Arizona and Nevada could bypass the congested Los Angeles region with closer access those markets, providing increased competition with Lázaro Cárdenas.

Since we're here, let's stop at La Soledad de Maciel archeological site, located near the town of Petatlan, Mexico. This site, recently (2000) expanded and is considered to be a significant find in establishing Mesoamerican chronology (source).





The small village of Tecpan de Galeana will be our final pause before reaching our destination. When I saw this image on the town's official website, I thought that was being used to indicate some sort of spa/resort/meditation center...but that's not the case at all. Maybe I need to brush up on my Spanish?

According to Google Translate feature, what it really means is: this glif..."Represents the municipality and the city; It is a hieroglyph, interpreted in its generic sense, meaning "where the ruling queen." It has a picture in a "T" column symbolizing unity; some steps that can be interpreted as different degrees of activity in which the family is based on common progress. In general, the symbolism gives identity to their history, culture and traditions."

I recall times from my youth when as a family we would watch cliff divers in Acapulco as they were showcased on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Remember that show? "Spanning the globe, to bring you a constant variety of sport. The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat."
My last tid-bit will be about the cliff divers. "Another enigmatic attraction at Acapulco are the La Quebrada Cliff Divers. The tradition started in the 1930s when young men casually competed against each other to see who could dive from the highest point into the sea below. Eventually, locals began to ask for tips for those coming to see the men dive. Today the divers are professionals, diving from heights of forty meters into an inlet that is only seven meters wide and four meters deep, after praying first at a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. On December 12, the feast day of this Virgin, freestyle cliff divers jump into the sea to honor her. Dives ranges from the simple to the complicated and end with the "Ocean of Fire" when the sea is lit with gasoline, making a circle of flames which the diver aims for. The spectacle can be seen from a public area which charges a small fee or from the Hotel Plaza Las Glorias/El Mirador from its bar or restaurant terrace.

For more pictures of Acapulco (get out your calendars...you'll want to go!), try this link, this one, or lastly this one. (note: i have NO affiliation with any of these links).

Thank you for following along on this blog. I hope that it has been entertaining and a bit informative. WALK ON!

Leaving Mazatlan, Mexico

From one resort city to another, we'll get to Puerto Vallarta in no time. My earliest recollections of hearing this city's name come from game shows during the 80's. "You've won an all-expense-paid trip to PUERTO VALLARTA MEXICO!!!!!" Can't you just hear it now?

Perhaps the most interesting thing that I learned about Puerto Vallarta is that "Guadalajara and Acapulco were common vacation destinations for gay men and lesbians from Mexico City and, especially, the United States and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. However, since that time, Puerto Vallarta has developed into Mexico's premier resort town as a sort of satellite gay space for its big sister Guadalajara, much as Fire Island is to New York City and Palm Springs is to Los Angeles. It is now considered the most welcoming and gay-friendly destination in the country, dubbed the "San Francisco of Mexico." Previously quite conservative, the municipal government has become increasingly supportive in recognizing and accepting the LGBT tourism segment and in supporting LGBT events such as Vallarta gay pride celebrations which launched in 2013 and is now held annually to coincide with US Memorial Day weekend. It boasts a gay scene, centered in the city's south-side Zona Romántica, of hotels and resorts as well as many bars, nightclubs, and a gay beach on the main shore. Puerto Vallarta has been cited as the number one gay beach destination in Latin America, with city officials claiming a 5% tourism increase in 2013."

Next stop, Tecoman.The main economic activities of the area are:

• Agriculture: Limes, coconuts, tamarind, mango and bananas.
• Livestock: Cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and apiculture.
• Industrial: Citrus and coconut agroindustry
• Mining: Dolomite, limestone and silver

Tecoman is known as "the World's Lime Capital." (source)

I couldn't have been luckier with the location for tonight's stop over. Colola, Mexico. According to LonelyPlanet, "An estimated 70% of the world’s population of black sea turtles, along with olive ridley and leatherback turtles, lay their eggs on the long flat sands of Playa Colola." How cool is that? MUCHO~!

Several international organizations come together to support efforts to make sure the turtle babies make it to the ocean. Most participants spend their time in encampments such as these grass huts.

If  you are interested in learning more about these efforts, please visit these sites (I have no affiliation with any of these websites/programs).

• Cadip
• GoAbroad
• ViveMexico

Headed for the Coast!

Our morning leaving Querobabi heads us in the direction of the Gulf of California coast and the resort city of Guaymas. It is about time that we get out of the desert for a while and enjoy the COAST. Here's where we're headed:

Guaymas, Mexico

Guaymas "is a city located in Guaymas Municipality in the southwest part of the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. The city is located 72miles south of the state capital of Hermosillo, and 242 miles from the U.S. border, and is the principal port for the state. The municipality is located in the Sonora Desert and has a hot, dry climate and 72 miles of beaches."
Sounds great to me! The US has a little history nearby, too. "The Guaymas-Empalme station for space observations is about six miles east of Empalme, Sonora, adjacent to Mexican Federal Highway No. 15. It is operated by the Mexican Space Agency. As a major link in the NASA Manned Space Flight Network, the Guaymas Tracking Station, built in 1961, played a key role in tracking American manned space flights in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs through Apollo 13. The U.S. discontinued its use on November 30, 1970 due to changes in the Apollo mission profile which no longer required the Guaymas station. Equipment designed especially for support of the Apollo program was removed, but other equipment was left for support of Mexican space activities and future programs of mutual interest to Mexican scientists and NASA." (source).

The next town of note that we come to is Navojoa. The only information that I could find on this town referred to it as "liquor country." So there's that...

Our originally planned destination city for this leg, Navolato, Sinaloa, Mexico, leaves me pushing us to go farther and not actually stop in Navolato. I won't go into the reasons here, but feel free to seek it out on google images...









Let's stay in Mazatlan, shall we? Si, we shall. Although the first Europeans to take up residence were Spanish, they didn't have the most influence on the city's history. "Mazatlán is Nahuatl word meaning "place of deer". The city was founded in 1531 by an army of Spaniards and indigenous settlers. By the mid-19th century a large group of immigrants had arrived from Germany. These new citizens developed Mazatlán into a thriving commercial seaport, importing equipment for the nearby gold and silver mines."
Let us bask in the glow of these wonderful pictures as we enjoy some great food and rest.

Get some sleep...

Crossing Borders

Just south of Tucson is the community of Green Valley. Famous as a retirement town, you'll still find plenty to do in this part of the state! Just close enough to Tucson to make a day trip easy, but far enough away to not get caught up in the big city hectic life. This view? I could retire with this...like they say about Arizona; "All beach, no ocean."

We've got enough time for a quick 9 holes, but that's about it. ONWARD!
Get your passports out!!! We're going SOUTH OF THE BORDER!
Nogales, AZ into Nogales, Mexico!OLE~!!

we're traveling RIGHT TO LEFT, though...

I hope at least a few of us speak Spanish! Our trip west WAS going to take us to the east coast, possibly all the way to Florida, but then I wasn't sure about the distance. This trip will take us to warmer climes. VAMONOS, MUCHACHAS Y MUCHACHOS!!
Here's what our good friends at wikipedia have to say about Nogales(s):

• "Nogales, Arizona, borders the city of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, and is Arizona's largest international border community. The southern terminus of Interstate 19 is located in Nogales at the U.S.-Mexico border; the highway continues south into Mexico as Mexico Federal Highway 15. The highways meeting in Nogales comprise a major intersection in the CANAMEX Highway, connecting Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Nogales also is the beginning of the Sun Corridor, an economically important trade region stretching from Nogales to Prescott, AZ, including the Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan areas."
• "On August 27, 1918, a battle between United States Army forces and Mexican militia - mostly civilian in composition - took place. Culminating as the result of a decade's worth of tensions originating from the Mexican Revolution and earlier battles in Nogales along the border in 1913 and 1915, the main consequence of the 1918 violence saw the building of the first permanent border wall between Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, along the previously unobstructed boundary line on International Street."

We come across some vaqueros (cowboys) crossing a river and are reminded that for the next few days, we'll mostly be in small towns an villages. 

The city of Magdelena is famous for missions/churches, festivals, and a giant painting of the "Virgen of Guadelupe" on the side of a cliff. People flock to Magdelena at the end of September for an annual festival commemorating their patron saint, San Francisco Javier.

Next we find the city of Santa Ana. "The main tourist attraction in Santa Ana is the church built in the 1900s to honor Our Lady of Saint Ana. Every year during the month of July, the whole town celebrates the day of their Saint with a fair and dances." (source)

Before we reach the end of today's adventure, we'll pass through a relatively NEW town. The town of Benjamin Hill was founded in 1942 and gained municipality status in 1952. To me, this is interesting because Mexico has been bustling with people for MANY YEARS yet is still founding new towns. I suppose we still do it here in the US, too, but still. The city of Benjamín Hill "owes its existence to the railroad. In 1939 it was just a ranch called San Fernando when the federal government chose it for the junction of the Ferrocarril Sonora-Baja California Ferrocarril and the Sud-Pacífico railways,

Trains in Benjamin Hill, Sonora, Mexico

which was finished in 1948. It was given municipal status in 1952. The name is derived from Benjamín Hill, the Sinaloan military leader whom President Venustiano Carranza appointed Governor of Sonora in 1914."(source)
I found a blog about the town here.
Just a few more miles to our first overnight in Mexico. Can you stand it?






Tonight we are staying in the village of Querobabi. The word in language Querobabi ópata means Milkweed Water and the Pima language means Gavilan Water. Northwest of the town is the Rancho El Suareño, the origin of this community originally called San José de Querobabi. In this place a building that was a station of errands ranging from north to south and vice versa, also built to house the servants of the ranch. Said construction was done under the orders of Don Jose Joaquin Fernandez and Suarez was founded in 1832.

The REAL day ELEVEN, and a FRESH START

Welcome to day 11. I'm about a week behind, but things have been crazy busy at work. We know how that goes, right?
So we're in Santa Monica, CA, on the famous pier. Let's HEAD EAST!!!!!
This route is going to take us along some 'unofficial' roads, and perhaps a ferry or two. Not quite sure yet. The distance we're looking to cover is roughly 2,276 miles, so keep those walking feet moving!!!
Now, let's see what interesting places we come across in our first two days.

We head back into San Bernardino, but then turn slightly southeast toward Palm Springs!! Of note:

• "When the United States entered World War II, Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley were important in the war effort. The original airfield near Palm Springs became a staging area for the Air Corps Ferrying Command 21st Ferrying Group in November 1941 and a new airfield was built ½ mile from the old site. The new airfield, designated Palm Springs Army Airfield, was completed in early 1942. Personnel from the Air Transport Command 560th Army Air Forces Base Unit stayed at the La Paz Guest Ranch and training was conducted at the airfield by the 72nd and 73rd Ferrying Squadrons. Later training was provided by the IV Fighter Command 459th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron. Eight months before Pearl Harbor Day, the El Mirador Hotel was fully booked and adding new facilities. After the war started, the U.S. government bought the hotel from owner Warren Phinney for $750,000 and converted it into the Torney General Hospital, with Italian prisoners of war serving as kitchen help and orderlies in 1944 and 1945. Through the war it was staffed with 1,500 personnel and treated some 19,000 patients. General Patton's Desert Training Center encompassed the entire region, with its headquarters in Camp Young at the Chiriaco Summit and an equipment depot maintained by the 66th Ordnance in present-day Palm Desert." (source)

East of Palm Springs is pretty much low desert. Move along, not much to see here. See?

Are we there yet??? Nope.  KEEP WALKING....We cross into Arizona at Blythe, a bit more fertile than we've seen for the past hundred miles or more thanks to the Colorado River.

Mt. Lemmon, AZ

We're headed directly for Phoenix (a name which i ALWAYS need to look up in order to spell), but we'll turn southeast before we get there. The place is one big, hot, flat parking lot with a few mountains sprinkled in to make it an adventure. We traveled quite a ways across the desert to get here but we'll continue a bit more until we reach Tucson. I used to live there (1991-1993), and would move back someday. The southern most ski area in the US is located just north of Tucson in the Catalina Mountains. 

Also in Tucson is Sabino Canyon, a WONDERFUL place to hike, play, eat, and try not to be eaten.

try not to get eaten

Of note is the Military Aircraft Boneyard. When I lived there, one of the areas wasn't fenced off and we would ride our mountain bikes around among the planes for hours and hours.

Get some rest. But first, some FOOOOOD.

Day ELEVEN.

Leaving San Bernardino, we really only have a relative PAR 5 to get to the ocean. We should be there by mid morning...if we leave early enough.

Since we're all eager to get there, Here are some scenes from the greater Los Angeles area:

Downtown LA, as seen from the Sn Bernardino area. Roughly...

What shot of LA would be complete without this?

I want to take a moment here to thank all participants of the challenge. You have surpassed my expectations!!! When I was choosing a route to follow, I picked this one because the distance seemed nearly attainable. Well, we've reached the beach, as it were, in only TEN DAYS.  As I write this, I show 2547 cumulative miles in 10 days. There are missing numbers, so it may be even fewer days than 10, but let's stick with that for now!
Route 66 is 2,451 miles long. We made it!!! Now what??? Tune in MONDAY to find out where we're going for the remaining two weeks. I leave you with some images and information about Santa Monica Pier.

"Many simply imagine it just runs right into the Pacific Ocean. And while that may sound silly, that's pretty much exactly right. In an effort to end the epic highway on a high note, the Route 66 Alliance and the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corp. got together and on the 83rd anniversary of the highway's inception, declared the end of the Santa Monica Pier the official stopping point of Route 66.

The landmark is identified by a mysterious sign that showed up, perhaps as a movie prop, on the corners of Santa Monica Blvd. and Ocean Ave., and then about 50 years ago, just as mysteriously disappeared. The sign in question said “Santa Monica” above a bold “66”, under which it plainly stated, “End of the Trail.”When the pier was officially designated as the last stop for Route 66, it only made sense for a replica of the long-missing sign to be erected at the very end, looking out over the Pacific in a symbolic display of what was the destination of so many travelers over the last century." (source)

Days NINE and TEN and then some.VEGAS, BABY!!

From standing on the corner, we continue west to Flagstaff, Arizona. BEFORE we get there, though, we walk through Winona (Why-nona). In the Route 66 song, it is the only location that is mentioned out of order. Did you also know that, "the singer Wynonna Judd adopted her name upon hearing "Winona" in "Route 66.""

Flagstaff is just up the road, so we'll check in there for a bit.Why not, it is snowing (apparently)...







Kingman is the next big town, and if we were staying on Route 66, we'd be heading into California. HOWEVER, since we've been kicking butt and taking names from the very start, let's take a little detour NORTH for a bit. Whadda ya say??

Can't stay here too long, though, as we have many miles to go before we sleep. We'll fill up at one of the many buffets, then head south west, back toward Route 66.

Barstow, CA takes up 41.4 square miles. By comparison, the town of Hartford (which includes WRJ, Hartford Village, Wilder, West Hartford, and Quechee) takes up 45.9 square miles. Our area doesn't quite look like this, though, does it?

We'll stop for the night in San Bernadino, CA. Here is some trivia for you:
"A well-known landmark of the San Bernardino Valley is the arrowhead that sits high on the mountainside. Clearly visible since long before the white man came, the figure has many legends concerning its origin. The Indians, well aware of the medicinal value of the hot springs, often gathered there to bathe in the hot springs. The Mormons called the mark the "Ace of Spades".
Measuring 1,375 feet long and 449 feet wide, the arrowhead is visible from as far away as 30 miles on a clear day. Although it was commonly believed at one time that the Indians had made the arrowhead to mark the location of the hot springs, geologists now say that it is a natural phenomenon, a natural uplifting of the soil."(source)





Honestly, at the rate we're going, and the steps we've ALREADY logged, we'll  be in the ocean on my next post....
Today's edition covered this distance:

Amazing.