Utah to Costa Rica Road Trip

We left as soon as we could then stopped at a gas station to ask for either an “Iglesia de Mormones” or an Internet Café. She didn’t know about the “Mormones”, but gave directions to an internet café instead, which led us down a paved road that turned into a dirt road that led right through a “neighborhood” which was way out of town, but no internet café. We found ourselves back on a paved road that was wide and in good condition. Deciding that we should just head toward Mazatlan, we set off going east on this paved road thinking (hoping) it would lead to the highway. Instead it led to…nothing. This great big paved road went out and stopped in the middle of nowhere. So what do you do? We returned the way we came…and we just passed a dead horse.

Well, we did make it to Mazatlan, and it is AMAZING! Gorgeous, stunning, magnificent, glorious, wonderful! We have been thoroughly enjoying our time here (now 3 days)- it is an absolute paradise. The resort we are staying at is called El Ranchos and it is beautiful!! It is located on Calle Sabalo Cerritos, which is right on Playa Cerritos (Cerritos Beach) www.elranchos.com They are rustic bungalow style villas. Ours is a two story with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, dining, and full kitchen. It is very quiet, quaint and cozy. Most of the time we have the pool or Jacuzzis to ourselves, and the private beach as well. They have an onsite restaurant, which is upstairs overlooking the restaurant, but today they served our lunch poolside.

The most wonderful part about El Ranchos is their spectacular gardens! They are amazing! I definitely feel in paradise being surrounded by them. I highly, highly recommend this place.

When listening to “How to Be a No Limit Person,” Wayne Dyer asks, “How long would you sleep if you had no clocks or calendars, no specific meal times or bed times?” He says some studies show that people only need 4.4 hours of sleep…so we got excited by that and have been staying up late and getting up at 4:30 am to go running on the beach. And do you know what? I feel great! The only “side effects” are that if I sit down for awhile I get really sleepy, and when I lay down (to go to bed or to put the kids to sleep) I crash almost immediately- which for me is great because I used to have trouble falling asleep.

We spend most of our time swimming, either in the pool or the ocean, and playing in the sand. My favorite thing is to collect the countless sea shells- there are so many of them and in a multiplicity of colors and varieties. I think I want to make some jewelry out of my favorites.

We did go to Walmart again. It’s so interesting because it is Walmart, but it is geared to this culture. Some of it is kind of like an open market- the seafood section, and the bakery, where they walk around with trays and pick out their breads. The eggs aren’t refrigerated, they play Mexican music (on a boom box), anyone serving food (behind the meat counter, etc) all wear face masks, and my favorite part, is all the women, and some of the men, can’t resist but pinching Aaliyah’s cheeks! They just love babies and they say, “Hermosa!” (beautiful).

We did have one adventure in Mazatlan. After Walmart, we got heading out of town back to Culiacan (North where we came from), so we tried to turn around, but got totally lost. We were WAY out of town, on some dirt roads, and then found out we were heading the wrong direction, and the ocean was on our right, instead of our left. Well, after much difficulty and asking multiple people for directions (getting directions in Latin America is…mmmm, difficult) we finally got headed back the right way. I can only say that it is the only time so far that I have felt scared while in Mexico. It makes me appreciate Utah roads a lot more- they make sense.

The only other adventure that we’ve had is when Parker walked over to the pool in his clothes, then decided that he wanted to go swimming, so he took them all off and ran back to our room butt naked to put on his swimsuit. That got a few laughs!

Livin’ the Dream, Baby!

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the border from Tucson. We were advised to take the Mariposa exit and cross the border that way. You might have thought we were in Mexico already, the road signs had already switched to kilometers, and when we went through the drive-thru at Jack in the Box for lunch, they took our order in Spanish- Greg had a difficult time because he doesn’t speak “Fast Food” Spanish, so he had to go in to make sure we ordered the right stuff. Then we stopped at Target to exchange the DVD player that we bought a few days ago, which was no longer working.

We finally got to the border where they stopped us to ask if we were carrying any weapons or ammunition. They asked Greg if he had more than $10,000 in cash, which he did---just kidding. Greg told them he only had about $500, and then they asked me how much I had. I just pointed to Greg and said, “He has all my money” to which he replied, “I know women always have a secret stash their husbands don’t know about.” I assured him I didn’t! So they let us pass.

Besides the huge border fence, border patrol and long line of semis heading into the U.S., you would hardly know you had left the states. The terrain was the same as Arizona or even some of Utah, and the roads were fantastic. The only noticeable difference was that there was no shoulder, but the roads themselves were in great shape. It wasn’t until we started passing some houses, restaurants, etc. that we then said- “Ahh, we are in Mexico”

Further down the road we had to go through customs, where you can go through the lane for Items to Declare, or Nothing to Declare (which is what we picked because everything we had were personal items, not to sell or give a way). It was really confusing, we didn’t know if or where we should stop, there was no one around. After sitting there for a while, finally some man who had been chatting casually with someone way ahead, waved us forward and to a pull off. He asked Greg some questions about what we had in all of our totes, where we were going (he told him Costa Rica), then he casually looked in the car at all of our stuff and every person inside, then let us go. That was it- easy!

We continued following the signs that pointed to Nogales, and then we had to stop at the Centro de Importacion e Internacion Temporal de Vehiculos to get a vehicle permit and our Visas stamped. First Greg went in to get the permit, then came and told us that Kevin and I needed to get our Visas stamped. The Mexican Consulate in Arizona had told Greg that we could include the children on our Visas, so I was supposed to ask them to do that on my Visa. When I got to the man, he told me they needed their own Visas and to bring them in. Problem! We have no birth certificate for Kimball. So I went back to the car to tell Greg. There was a little bit of worry, confusion, and maybe panic- so Greg went back in to clarify what we needed to do (since my Spanish is lacking). It turns out that children over two need their own Visas, so only the two oldest needed to go in. We were safe since Kimball was under two. Everything works out so perfectly!

After finally getting all the paperwork and everything paid for, we were off again. It was so exciting being in a foreign land. Except for Tijuana and Playa del Carmen (Cancun), I’ve never been out of the country. It is so interesting to see how differently things are done here, but also how much they are the same.

Our destination was through Nogales, then Hermosillo and on to Guaymas/San Carlos. We figured it would take us about 3 to 4 hours.

We enjoyed the countryside and the scenery. The roads were terrific, which we were surprised because we had heard they were so bad. It’s probably attributed to the fact that they were toll roads. Every few hundred kilometers we had to stop and pay, usually $48- $58 (that’s pesos, about $4-$5 dollars).

We passed through Hermosillo, which was a big town, and had lunch at KFC. We ran into the problem of Greg not speaking “Fast Food.” We wanted popcorn chicken and chicken strips. They couldn’t understand when he said “popcorn” in American (in Spanish, both the “o’s” are long, so like “pope-corn,” yes really) and he didn’t know how to say “strips,” so again he had to go inside. It took forever, and Greg came out flustered because they couldn’t figure out what he wanted and charged him for drinks and things he didn’t want- all because I wanted some chicken strips! What a good husband.

As we left Hermosillo for Guaymas/San Carlos, the sun was setting, so we were going to be breaking the first rule of “Don’t drive at night in Mexico,” but we wanted to wake up on the beach, and Hermosillo was way inland. Everything went smooth though, and we finally arrived in San Carlos where we had to stop at three hotels to find a vacancy at the MarinaTerra Hotel, a very nice resort with enclosed, guarded parking and lots of amenities. We checked into a suite that opened right out to the pool, so Kevin took a dip while the kids played on the playground adjacent. Then we put the kids to bed.

It was interesting trying to go to sleep. Our room, the master, was located right next to the hallway which led to the lobby, and since everything was tile floors throughout the hotel, we could hear every footstep, every door close, every child scream and every conversation, as well as the jumping marathon some little child was having in the room above us. We couldn’t complain too much, because our kids certainly added their share to the ruckus. My only disappointment was that I wanted to go dancing at the on-site discothèque which opened at 11:00 p.m. and taught salsa and mamba, but I fell asleep before the kids did, so we didn’t get that chance.

During our drive time we love to listen to "Input" as we call it- books on CD (or MP3 in our case). This time we were listening to Napoleon Hill's "The Science of Personal Achievement", a fantastic talk by Napolean Hill himself. I highly recommend it. Our philosophy is "Input determines Output," meaning that whatever you put into your mind, and/or body, determines what you get out, of yourself, out of life, etc. The more positive you put in, the more positive you get out. It is the key to success in life.

We ate lunch in Phoenix at Bajio and Keva Juice (they make GREAT smoothies) located at 2501 Happy Valley Rd. We had a nice little picnic on the rocks.

We arrived in Tucson late afternoon, a little flustered because everyone was ready to get out of car. We picked the La Quinta Inn to stay in on Starr Pass Rd. because it had a pool AND hot tub, laundry services and high-speed wireless internet (Motel 6 and Howard Johnson only had dial-up- who only has dial-up still???). La Quinta is great- we have a fenced in "backyard" where the kids can play that is connected right to the pool.

We spent the evening swimming, then headed across the street to The Waffle House, a little dive that reminded me of something from a Rocky movie, but had great food.

Livin' the Dream, Baby!

After lunch we headed toward Page, Arizona and stopped off at Lake Powell where we enjoyed the slickrock and blue water, while Greg did some cliff diving into freezing cold water (the outdoor temp was only 61 degrees!) then got back in the car and headed to the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon.

We arrived later than we would have liked, and decided to get a hotel and check it out tomorrow. We stopped at a few lookouts on our way to Tusayan, and took some great pictures, but the temp was 41 degrees and it was cold and windy! I was still awestruck by the beauty and Grand-ness of the Grand Canyon- no wonder it is one of the seven wonders of the world, it was incredible! The pictures were taken along the Kaibab and Village Route.

After arriving in Tusayan, we couldn't find a single vacancy, so after a hurried stop at Wendy's (we attempted a sit down restaurant, but the kids were wired), we headed to Flagstaff where we arrived late and stopped for the night. We probably won't be heading back to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, so unfortunately that will be all we will get to see of it- this time.

There were a few frazzled nerves by the time we got here- it was a long day of driving, more than we would ideally like to do. If we had planned better, I think we would have stopped near Page and then visited the Grand Canyon tomorrow. It's rough on everyone getting in late, and makes the journey not as fun- and our purpose is to be happy and have fun. If we can do that, then we're doing well!

Livin' the Dream, Baby!

(Zoom in on today's posting to see our hotel room)

We are so excited- a few times we said to ourselves, "I can't believe we are really doing it, we're really moving to Costa Rica!" Unbelievable. It was a little sad saying goodbye to family, not knowing when we will see them again. (We hope that it will be when you come to visit us down south!)

We really feel passionate about this, and have high expectations for a wonderful future in beautiful Costa Rica (learn more about CR)- we are living our dreams and have so many plans of things that we want to do that will benefit us and the people of Costa Rica, and hopefully make a difference, however small. We really feel that this is a life changing experience- as Henry David Thoreau has said "I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

The journey was uneventful for the most part. The kids did fairly well, with a few "We've been driving forever!" "Are we going to get to Costa Rica today?" I'm grateful for technology and our new DVD player- that helps the time pass easier.

We relaxed in the hot tub when we arrived at our hotel, then went to go eat. We walked across the street to Cafe Rio, but it had closed 15 min. earlier (at 9:00 p.m.). So we walked down the street to the Mandarin Buffet (350 E. St. George Blvd.) which said they were open until 9:30, but they wouldn't let us in at 9:20, even when we were walking around town with four small hungry children. You can bet we'll never go there again. The only thing open was Nielsen's Frozen Custard, but we went back to the room and ordered Domino's instead.

Tomorrow we'll head to Zion National Park, and then maybe to the Grand Canyon.

(Zoom in all the way to today's posting to see our room)

So now we are just waiting for passports for Kyah, Parker, Kimball and Kevin (Greg's brother who is traveling with us). Greg, Aaliyah and I expedited ours, so we have received them already. There was an influx of passport applications this last month because it's now necessary to have a passport to travel to Mexico and Canada. So, we wait. Until then we're enjoying life.

We'll be in touch. Hope all is well with all of you.

(Zoom in all the way on today's entry and you can see Sue's house)