Anyone Heading South 1st Week of April

Yes, and Vancouver is one of the worst in Canada so I know all about bad traffic.......LOL. I have also experienced Seattle many times and it ain't pretty.

I just made a post that disappeared so here goes again. If you bringing pets you need to talk to someone who has done it recently. Last time I was on the ferry from Mazatlan to La Paz pets had to stay below deck and passengers where not allowed down there. They have made changes but I don't know what they actually implemented.

Also plan on a very long trip as it can take hours to load the ship and almost as long to get off at the other end. Also any bad weather can add to the trip. For me my last trip was close to a ride from hell at over 32 hours. The ferry is certainly not up to par with what your used to in Seattle. I love the Baja and have been there dozens of times, mostly by motorcycle, but if I was in La Paz and needed to get to Ajijic I would do it via Tijuana

If you are doing the Baja I would recommend stopping in La Paz to get tickets and vehicle permits, if you didn't do that online, and then continuing on to Cabo just to say you did it. I've certainly got some favorite stops on the way south and if you need more information please give me a shout.

Ohhhhhhh......I hadn't heard that about the ferry before. Thanks for the insight as I had planned on taking that voyage one day.

How long ago were you on there?

They started loading the ship around noon and sailed at 6pm. Some of the time was in the parking lot and the rest on a docked ship. The put on one vehicle at a time with some of the being backed in as the fit was better. The trip from Mazatlan was supposed to be 18 hours and ended up at 32 with a very bad storm. Worst case of food poisoning I ever had was also on the ferry from Santa Rosalia to the mainland. Don't get me wrong about the Baja... I love it just not the ferry system. Nothing like what your used to in B.C. Actually if it didn't get so hot in the summer months I'd probably be living between Mulege and Loreto full time.

You may wish to consider a GPS with Mexico maps. We have a Garmin and while certainly not perfect, it can be quite an assistant.

Baja Ferries has replaced the old ferries. It is now 12 hours to Mazatlan and 6 hours to Los Mochis.

http://www.bajaferries.com/

http://bajaferries.blogspot.com/

http://www.mexbound.com/mexico-ferry.php

We don't have any pets so that wouldn't be a problem...If we go that route we just hope there are no storms.

Looking for a Garmin this weekend...any suggestions. Think I want a 5" screen. My eyes are getting some age on them LOL.

Good suggestion CG, my Garmin works great in Mexico and definitely saved me from getting lost on many occasions. As we all know the highway signage can be very poor or non existent in some areas.

Albert, I meant how long ago were you on that ferry?

frkshnwa wrote:Looking for a Garmin this weekend...any suggestions. Think I want a 5" screen. My eyes are getting some age on them LOL.

Yep bigger is better for the Garmin IMO.........

At that time the website said it was an 18 hour sailing and from the time we sailed it was 32 hours until we docked. That was about 4 years ago and any changes in ships certainly couldn't hurt.

The storm we ended up in the middle of was pretty wild and the crew had never seen anything like it and I believed them as they were sick in just about every corner of the ship you could find. Every 4th wave went up and over the bridge. They wouldn't let us supervise tying the bikes down and we where not allowed on the car deck to check on them. I was actually surprised they survived. My helmet however was totally drenched inside of it as evidence of a lot of water moving around down there.

A must in the Baja is the pig roast on Saturdays at the Hotel Serenidad in Mulege. This is a great place to spend a night or two.

http://www.hotelserenidad.com/

Just don't let the locals trick you into getting up at 4am to watch an eclipse of the moon.

[quote="frkshnwa"]Toll roads sound good!!!! My only concern about that route is Culiacan which we have been advised to not go near....

Total nonsnse. Culiacan is not in the least bit dangerous. In fact, it would be a nice city in which to spend an eveniing. Sweat Phoenix or the numerous shitholes you might land in in Califorrnia. Once you cross into Mexico you are home free. The ignorance of Americans is appalling.

Frank:

First, I would go to:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=401&ra=true
and study up on the most current models. Pay particular attention to the initials following the model # - L = lifetime, M = maps & T = traffic.
Traffic means nothing in Mexico as far as I know but lifetime updates to maps is important.

I believe that the following models include Mexico lifetime maps:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=401&ra=true

From there I would look at Amazon or Costco for good deals on the models of interest.

Here is Amazons current offering and there are some good deals:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_7/192-8470761-2763267?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=garmin+gps&sprefix=garmin+%2Caps%2C267#/ref=sr_pg_3?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Agarmin+gps&page=3&keywords=garmin+gps&ie=UTF8&qid=1329525209

From personal experience I wouldn't be concerned about purchasing a 2011 model as long as it has the features you want. I had a couple of issues with some models and Garmin was outstanding in letting me warranty out to better models on one originally purchased through Amazon.

[quote="hound dog"]

frkshnwa wrote:Toll roads sound good!!!! My only concern about that route is Culiacan which we have been advised to not go near....

Total nonsnse. Culiacan is not in the least bit dangerous. In fact, it would be a nice city in which to spend an eveniing. Sweat Phoenix or the numerous shitholes you might land in in Califorrnia. Once you cross into Mexico you are home free. The ignorance of Americans is appalling.

While in Culiacan you might want to try the rotisserie chicken,said to be the best in Mexico and no visit to Culiacan would be complete without seeing the Jesus Malverde altar/museum.

Went to Costco going with the Garmin 2460lmt. They have it for $199 USD which is far lower than the sites I visited on the internet plus if you are not happy you can return it (within reason) to the fine folks at Costco. Will then be ordering the Bici Maps through Mexico Mike since there coverage is much better than Garmin for Mexico.

http://www.mexicomike.com/mexicomapsroadlogs/products.php?cat=GPSMexico

Still haven't decided rather to go Nogales or Baja but most likely Nogales unless I can find more information on places to stay along the way in the Baja. Looking at reservation costs now for the Nogales route and finding it pretty spendy and a lot are booked for those first couple of days in April. Probably make a decision today.

My coverage with Garmin has been spot on. It even shows all the obscure side streets in the smallest of towns so not sure how this add on could be much better???

frkshnwa wrote:Went to Costco going with the Garmin 2460lmt. They have it for $199 USD which is far lower than the sites I visited on the internet plus if you are not happy you can return it (within reason) to the fine folks at Costco. Will then be ordering the Bici Maps through Mexico Mike since there coverage is much better than Garmin for Mexico.

http://www.mexicomike.com/mexicomapsroadlogs/products.php?cat=GPSMexico

Still haven't decided rather to go Nogales or Baja but most likely Nogales unless I can find more information on places to stay along the way in the Baja. Looking at reservation costs now for the Nogales route and finding it pretty spendy and a lot are booked for those first couple of days in April. Probably make a decision today.

frkshnwa:

Baja would be fun but look to spend a great deal more time in transit even without consideration of the ferry ride. The drive down to Lake Chapala from Nogales on the cuota is not in the least bit confusing and you don´t need any navigational tools to achieve that goal at all. We found motels in which to stay all along that route with four dogs and three cats when we moved down here in 2001. For those of you traveling with pets, keep in mind that almost any motel you call in Mexico to reserve a room indicating you will be accompanied by pets will say absolutely not. Then, when you pull into the parking lot and approach the desk clerk with appropriate humilty, they almost always give in. They may request that you wait until the housekeeper leaves for the day but one of the charming things about the Mexican culture is that most service people hate to say no. Respect them and they´ll respect you. Get rude and you sleep alongside the road and you do not want to do that in Mexico - or Arizona for that matter.

For those of yu traveling with pets, bring pet cages - that helps a lot.

Have a nice trip.

frkshnwa wrote: Looking at reservation costs now for the Nogales route and finding it pretty spendy and a lot are booked for those first couple of days in April. Probably make a decision today.

Semana Santa starts April 1; Mexicans flock to the beaches and prices go up.

Frank:

If you haven't done so already, you might want to read the following link:
http://www.mexconnect.com/cgi-bin/forums/gforum.cgi?post=170527;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread
Even though we have traveled Mexico with a GPS for going on 4 years, I have certainly learned lots of tricks and ways to improve my unit from this info.

I certainly agree with CB's opinion on the Garmin maps but it is one of those opinion things on whose maps are better. What impressed us was when driving through a very small village with nothing but dirt streets in the middle of Michoacan, they were all on the maps.

The biggest limitations we have found with using a GPS in Mexico are:
1) it rarely recognizes one way streets.
2) actual address numbers can be useless
3) because Mexico may use the same name for multiple streets, you may be asked for the "colonia" for the street you are looking for
4) Mexico has a habit of changing street names at traffic circles or roundabouts - even though you may enter a circle on one side and exit on the direct opposite side, if there is a name change the unit will tell you that you have to turn
5) POI's (points of interest) are virtually useless along with most searches by name
6) the voice verbalization of street names can be entertaining unless you switch to one of the Spanish voice options and they are much closer

One of the main tricks that I constantly use is the "where am I" feature. If it is a location that I may wish to find again, then I will assign a name to it and then save to my favorites. That makes it super easy to return again rather than trying to remember how you got there and just where it is.

[quote="CheenaGringo"]Frank:

...I have certainly learned lots of tricks and ways to improve my unit from this info.....

Gawd!

I never realized one could improve one´s unit with GPS. Now I´m interested. I always thought GPS was for getting from place to place,not for getting into some place.

It was Willie Nelson who recently said:

" Ah just turned 73 and Ah´ve outlived my dick."

Perhaps GPS is the answer to is problem if it is, indeed, a problem.

I've used both Bici Maps and Garmins. I quit using the Bici Maps as they were coming out with major updates (read have to pay again) way to often. They also refused to fix a routing problem between Joco and Guad where the routing was way out. That was a year or so ago and perhaps that problem is gone now. What I noticed is that the Garmin maps got much better every year and I had no reason not to use their lifetime free update service.

hound dog wrote:It was Willie Nelson who recently said:

" Ah just turned 73 and Ah´ve outlived my dick."

Perhaps GPS is the answer to is problem if it is, indeed, a problem.

Hey remember when "Willie" was at Manix in Ajijic a few years ago.........

One of these days, I might wake up and proof my posts to see if the Dawg may be able to twist my words around. I do have to compliment the Dawg for being so astute! While the Dawg wasn't along for the ride when Brigitte and I drove to Sayula and back, I did have our GPS along for the ride. Not only did I save the exact location of the furniture factory, but the unit tracked and recorded the exact route we followed. Because of this info, I was able to recently provide directions for Roof Bob to drive from Chapala to Sayula. So I guess one could say that at age 65, my unit still has a good memory!

I must say that it is true for Google maps also. We put in Azteca Inn in
the golden triangle of Mazatlan and it put us 4 miles inland on a cul de
sac but to be fair we always have trouble in Mazatlan driving around
and so does everybody even the locals if they don't know a neighborhood.
Can't wait for the construction to be done but the beach is worth the
drive especially if you are not doing some beach time somewhere else.

Z

Hahaha......I used to stay at the Azteca 25 years ago when we used to hit Mazatlan for "Spring Break". Best valued hotel in the triangle with a nice beach and great bars just across the street.

CanuckBob wrote:Hahaha......I used to stay at the Azteca 25 years ago when we used to hit Mazatlan for "Spring Break". Best valued hotel in the triangle with a nice beach and great bars just across the street.

Has not changed. Still a great value and the swing shift guy is a very nice fellow. Bar feeds you in the pool without you even having to move. Hot tub and a decent if
not fancy resturant. Beach accross street. Sorry to say but Mazatlan is pretty slow this winter. Hope it changes for the sake of the workers and families.

Z