Saying Goodbye to This, My Travel Blog

I published my first post on this blog on January 29, 2010, eight months after we started full-time RVing. Almost fifteen years later, I am posting this 590^th post. It is also my last.

The End of Our Travels

2018, we sold our RV and settled at Viewpoint in Phoenix, Arizona. We continued traveling via other modes, so I changed the blog title but retained the domain rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspost.com. 

These blog posts went viral (up to35,000 views) on this blog:

1. Debating the Pros and Cons of the RV Cruising Lifestyle
2. Operationalizing Phase 2 of RVing in North Carolina
3. Finding Christmas on Florida's Treasure Island
4. Going Up the East Coast
5. Turning Wounds into Wisdom: Georgia
6. Discovering More in New Mexico
7. Reliving WWII in the Philippines
8. Looking for a Base in Arizona
9. Traveling Light in an RV?
10. We RVed Fulltime for 8 Years. Here are the 10 Things We Learned
11. Leaving No Stone Unturned in the Canadian Rockies
12. 10 New Landmarks in Charming Mazatlan

The blog became a rich source of material for my two travel books: Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream and Cruising Past 70: It's Not Only About Outer Journeys. It's Also About Inner Ones.

My husband and I returned from our last trip together in May. He did not join me on a short solo trip to the Philippines in August. We also canceled our 16th-anniversary trip to Leavenworth, Washington. Yes, we will no longer be the wanderers we once were.

The Beginning of the End

In mid-2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was invited to write as an expert contributor for Travel Awaits, a travel magazine for the 50+ by the 50+. The magazine was experiencing a growth spurt at a time when no one could travel, but retirement dreams soared.

I needed more time to write for two publications, but I did not have the heart to deactivate my blog. Instead, I wrote articles for the magazine and republished them on my blog.

Of the 60+ articles I wrote, the following went viral (150,000+ clicks):

1. 6 Quaint Small Towns to Visit North of Anchorage, Alaska
2. 6 Charming Small Towns to Visit in Southern Alaska
3. 5 Things My Husband and I Practice in Retirement to Keep Us Young

Under the magazine's leadership, my writing improved. However, I discovered that having non-original content negatively impacted my blog. From 4,000 views per post, it dwindled to 1,000.

When travel returned, the magazine's readership fell. It was bought by new owners, who redefined the content with their writers. I am still on the roster but no longer actively contribute. They republished some of my articles, but all writers' retirement pieces were removed.  

As trips became less frequent, I began writing on my blog about other topics (retirement and renewal, health and longevity). After my leadership award, I also wrote about leadership and management. My views dropped to less than 300 per post. I am no longer true to my niche. My writing needs a new home.

A New Platform

While writing for Travel Awaits, I was unaware that the blogging world had also changed. The plummeting views have been traced to frequent Google algorithm changes, even for the most popular blogs. It wasn't just that I needed original content (although I am sure that contributed). Bloggers turned to newer business platforms.

Two of the most popular ones are Medium and Substack. 

Medium is a single membership model with over one million paid subscriptions. Editors recommend articles to their vast reader base. The onus is to write quality articles about in-demand topics.

On the other hand, Substack has four million paid subscribers distributed among its 20,000 or so writers, an average of 200 per writer. Writers are responsible for promoting their writing and signing up subscribers.

Gemini, Google's AI, helped me narrow my choice to one question: Should I spend my time writing quality articles or promoting my writing to subscribers? I don't have the time to do both, as I want to work on my two new book projects.

It is time to deactivate this blog, even if I have yet to decide. Goodbye, Blogspot, Google's blogging platform. Thank you for being a good home for my travel writing.

Thank you all for sticking with me through the years. I hope to see you again on my new platform or when one of my books is published. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

There’s Absolutely No Reason for Breaking Rules When We Travel

I“It’s just for a photo.” “It’s just a tiny piece.” “It’ll just be for a second.” Those were some excuses I used when I violated a rule to get a thrill. Now at 75, I know there is no place for this. 

Snow and Ice in the Yukon 

On the way to Whitehorse, the biggest city on Alaska Highway, between Upper Liard and Rancheria, we saw rocky embankments with many names of people assembled from rocks.  We had just come from the Signpost Forest where ours became the 67,000^th addition. I was in the “leaving signs mode” so I pleaded with Bill to stop.  When he did, I quickly collected some rocks and began to form the letters of our names. Bill followed. But it was so time-consuming that we just did two letters: B & C, not British Columbia, not Before Christ, but Bill and Carol. 

Then I saw the sign. It said, “Take nothing but pictures. Kill nothing but time. Leave nothing but footprints.” It was too late. I had already committed the crime. Later, I learned that the warning was to prevent people from displacing too many rocks because that would weaken the wall built to protect the road from onrushing snow or ice.   

The Glaciers of Alaska 

A week later en route to Valdez, Alaska, I remarked “Gosh, the glaciers are puny around here.” There were just tiny patches of white. A few minutes later, as our 24-foot Class C RV was negotiating a bend on the road, a white glistening mountain loomed larger and larger. It was Worthington, a 113-acre road-accessible glacier on Richardson Highway. 

Bill was ecstatic, parked the RV, and began to climb the ice mountain. As usual, I was not as inclined to risk the slippery slopes and shouted for him to bring back a chunk of the glacier. He did. But it was too late when I realized it was quite foolish to break another golden rule, for a block of ice that will not last long anyway and only hug valuable prime space in our RV’s tiny freezer. 

The Littlest Penguins of Australia 

Another opportunity to break another rule presented itself in Melbourne, Australia while I was babysitting my youngest grandson. Every weekend when the young parents were home, I went out to see some sights. One of my first outings was to Philip Island, only a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Melbourne. It’s the home of the world’s littlest penguins, about a foot tall. 

The ranger explained that the penguins waited for dark before they came in after feeding in the ocean. They waited for each other about a hundred meters from shore and waited to form a group for more security against birds of prey. At 5:49 pm, when there were eight of them, they slowly walked into the space between the two viewing platforms. The ranger repeated the rule: No Photography Allowed. But I couldn’t help it. It was the cutest sight. I took a shot.  

The ones who did not swim to feed came out of their burrow to join those who did. Soon they were all around, under the boardwalk. I could not help myself and took a few more shots. I thought I was going to get away with my crime, until a ranger approached me to say, “The penguins do not do well with the light coming from cameras.” I felt so ashamed. I was almost seventy but still unable to follow the rules. 

They are not made to be broken. They are there for a reason. You will be horrified at the consequences when they are not followed. Just look at the tons of plastic floating on the Pacific Ocean. There’s no reason for breaking rules when traveling. There is no reason at all, even when you are not traveling.

  

You Must Get Used to Change and Practice Flexibility When You’re on the Go

It has often been said that, if there’s anything constant in this world, it is change. And when you are on the go, as travelers always are, change happens more often.

 Camping in Chicken, Alaska

 Nothing illustrates this more than this incident in Chicken, Alaska. We were newbies in RVing. We successfully drove across the Alaska Highway from Calgary, Alberta to spend a cool summer month in Alaska. But we returned to the Lower 48 on a different route through Chicken, Alaska, the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City in the Yukon, and then the Glacier Highway in British Columbia. 

  I distinctly remember the trauma of taking a shower in Chicken, a little town of 32 in summer and seven in winter. I thought I had enough Loonies (Canadian coins) for a hot shower at the campground. I ended by rinsing with cold water at the sink in a room with no heater in the cold of fall. I made a mistake and put all of them all at once in the beginning, I was supposed to put each one before each segment ran out. I had to learn to be more flexible. We were in a different “home” every few days.  

Using Public Transportation in Mexico City

Then I remember the folly of resisting local ways. During our 2009 three-week tour of Mexico, we parked our RV in Teotihuacan where the most visited pre-Hispanic ruins of the oldest civilization in North America are located. It is 25 miles northeast of Mexico City. One day, we took the public bus to tour the metropolis. With a population of 18 million, it is one of the most congested cities in the world. We loved our tour of Catedral Metropolitana, Templo Mayor, Plaza de la Constitucion, Palacio Nacional, and the Avenida Central shopping area, ending our day with a visit to the only authentic castle in North America, Chapultepec.

To get back to Teotihuacan, we needed to take the train to get to the bus station. But I was horrified to find that men and women rode in separate carriages to prevent chances of unwanted encounters. I didn’t want to be apart from my husband, so we hailed a taxi instead. Bill lost his cell phone and a lot of money and time going through all the city traffic in that cab. It was good that we made it to the last bus to Teotihuacan. But I should not have resisted local ways.  

Stopping in Guangzhou, China

 One year I went to Melbourne, Australia to babysit my youngest grandson. The cheapskate that I am, I opted for the lowest fares with long layovers in Guangzhou, China.  I thought not only would I save money, but I would also get to tour the second-largest Chinese city after Shanghai. Unfortunately, I discovered the seven-hour layover wasn’t long enough because I needed two hours each way to get to Guangzhou. I decided to spend those seven hours with my laptop instead.

 Sadly, its battery was down to almost zero. It just so happens that I also have a mechanical aptitude near zero. I could not get my chargers to work. Luckily, I discovered that my husband had put a portable one into my bag.  That plus help from a millennial Chinese couple saved me. But when I finally sat down, I was dismayed. I had forgotten that Facebook is banned in China. I turned to surfing, only to find that every search landed me in an unfamiliar site, totally in Chinese. My isolation was complete. I should have brought a book.

 It is hard to make a woman in her seventies to be more flexible. But I love to travel so I would have to keep on trying. I must be better prepared, arm myself with prior knowledge, and, most of all, have a great attitude when something unexpected happens instead.   

 

The One Real Secret to Traveling Light, RVing or Not

We learned how to travel light when we went RVing full-time across America. It was a conundrum! How can you travel light when you are taking your whole home with you? But now we take pride that every winter when we spend three months in Mexico, my husband and I just take one carry-on and one backpack each.

It all started when I came to America. I had downsized to two suitcases and one Balikbayan Box. When Bill divorced, he bought a duplex, lived in one unit, and rented out the other. When we met and we got married, he moved into my condo. Six months later, he sold his business and I retired from teaching at the university and squeezed all that we needed into our 24-ft. Class C motorhome. There were some boxes we left in my daughter’s garage and the small storage unit of my condo we rented out. When we bought our 37.5 Class A motorhome, we transferred all that we owned to the big rig. We were learning fast how to keep life’s essentials to the barest minimum.

Creeping Clothes

My husband has one rule: do not buy a new item until you want to get rid of an old one.  When tight pressure and extreme temperature caused my flare-up of hives, I changed my dress size to Large and gave away my clothes before I bought Medium ones. Two years later, I changed back to Medium and Goodwill got lots of clothes again.

Pounds of Paper

We learned to be more digital. We read e-books and e-zines. Our files became electronic, except those documents that need to be presented in their original form like passports, birth and marriage certificates, divorce/annulment papers, etc.  Health records are all electronically held in e-patient portals. Photos were scanned into photo frames.

Food and Fare

We had service for four and no more! When there were more guests, we used disposables, even for wine glasses. Cooking pots were just three, small, medium, and large, and skillets just small and medium. But we kept a small slow cooker, and our rice cooker was a small microwaveable container. Other coffee machines had larger footprints so Bill used a French Press. And the refrigerator held only a week’s worth of food. I loved my combination microwave/convection oven and the mini dishwasher.

Bathroom Burden

Our linens and towels were good for us and two guests (the RV sleeps six). The problem was my habit of collecting soaps and shampoos from motels and hotels. That was solved by immediately giving them away to the homeless as part of a zip lock bag where I added a small toothbrush, small toothpaste, a pack of crackers, a can of potted meat, and a small tissue packet.

Other Stuff

There were large storage bins under the RV. We had a small portable fire pit (for sitting out on cold nights), a small barbeque grill, an outdoor folding table with four folding chairs, two suitcases, and two carry-ons, Bill’s fishing gear, a ladder, a small space heater, a small electric fan, and a small vacuum cleaner. We also carried a DVD player, a small micro-chip-based Ziller karaoke system, a 32-inch and a 15-inch TV, a satellite dish, and two laptops.  

 

Our RV was about 350 square feet of living space and weighed 20,000 pounds. But fuel was expensive, so we learned to keep things to a minimum. We learned so well that we only needed 1,200 sq. ft. for a home to settle in after our RVing days were over. The key lesson to traveling light is the same for all travel, not just for RVing. And it is this: when you live light with the barest minimum, you will also travel light!

Pinnable Image

Do You Want to Know the Secret to My Traveler's Soul?

Why do I travel so much? The secret comes from “somewhere in my youth and childhood.” It was something that deep because this passion is unstoppable. It was not magic. It was not chicken soup. But it has something to do with chicken.

How Much I Travel

We are currently in Honolulu, Hawaii. At 75, I am still on the go although no longer as constantly. When we started traveling, we were gone all twelve months of the year. We were full-time RVing across North America, as chronicled in my book, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream. When we settled in Phoenix, it went down to just 60%. We left the desert in winter when it was cold and in summer when it was hot. Nowadays, it has settled at 40%.  

This is still a lot of traveling. What pushed me? There was a time when my job had me going to various countries to gain knowledge about how they pioneered IT applications so I could apply them in the Philippines. Much earlier, global companies I joined sent me to various countries for training. I was thrilled to get such awesome trips for free but that is not what pushed me.

It could not have been just that because when I retired and found my travel/lifetime partner, something powerful was unleashed. When I was no longer confined to trips defined by jobs, my exploration of the world became unhinged. I began to go all over the world…literally!

My Mother’s Influence

To answer the question, I had to go farther back in time. It must have been how I saw my mother who also journeyed across the globe. She was sent everywhere, starting from winning the Philippine government’s scholarship to the US to study how the deaf receive education and how they are taught to speak so she could apply it to the Philippines.

During her year in the US, she wrote us letters about how her studies were proceeding. One of the most life-altering moments of my life. She sent us a letter enclosed dry gold, yellow, orange, and red maple leaves that had fallen from trees during autumn. I was so fascinated I thought, “I wonder if she can send us snow!”

Yes, my mother had this outsized influence on my life. More than work and her travels, she fed me tons of chicken wings. She believed, like many in the Philippines during her time, that this would give me the “wings” with which to “fly” the world. I remember eating all kinds of chicken wing dishes: adobo, nilaga, tinola, afritada, steak, curry, inasal, arroz caldo, and, of course, fried. I grew to love anything made from chicken wings.

My Own Discovery

The Philippines was also greatly influenced by the Chinese, aside from the Spanish and Americans who colonized us. They also settled in my home country in droves. The first-ever Chinatown in the world is in a district called Divisoria in Binondo, Manila. At its dim sum places, I discovered Phoenix Claws (is it any wonder then that I ended up in Phoenix?).

This Chinese delicacy of chicken feet became my all-time favorite over the more popular siopao, chow mien, egg rolls, etc. It’s difficult to make (and source) so I order it every time I am at a dim sum place. Before you cringe, you have to give it a try. It’s a gelatinous, sugar and soy sauce-infused and spice-enhanced dish.

Chicken wings gave me the “means” to fly. Chicken feet gave me a reason to “roam” the lands. But now they are no longer high on my list of “Foods to Eat” as part of my largely plant-based Longevity Diet. It’s no wonder I am traveling less.

It’s Not Only the Destination. It’s Even More than the Journey. It’s Reliving the Story.

How many times have we heard this: “It’s not the destination; it’s the journey!”? Well, I think it is a lot more than both. I believe the more important thing is being able to relive the story many, many times over.

Therein lies the beauty of becoming a storyteller. Surely, the retelling can be done by doing so in front of family and friends, especially with nonverbals that accentuate the highlights. I could have easily relied on my Toastmasters experience had I gone that route. However, I prefer to retell silently on paper, more privately, more for all time.  

Not an Easy Road in the Beginning

It wasn’t easy at first, I come from a world of left brains. From a degree in BS Mathematics and a career in computers, it was hard trying to wake up the right side of my brain. My experience consisted of proofs of theorems, business papers, theses, and dissertations. My first book Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream came about only as a compilation of the daily journals I kept as we RVed across North America.  

The other problem is that English is not my native tongue. I was born in the slums of Manila, acquiring basic English skills through scholarships at the International School for high school, the National Science Development Board for college, and at the multinational companies I joined. Tagalog has a very different syntax from English. When my husband edited my work during my early writing days, he returned pages red with corrections.  

But It Has Become Better

But my writing has improved. After all, I have been writing for thirteen years now. But there’s still that limited flair for idiomatic, local English, that which is spoken in the streets and homes of America. That’s why I have the TV on the whole day so I can continuously imbibe by hearing. Unfortunately, it drives Bill away because I prefer to stay in the more spacious and brighter sunroom than my office. But that is all TMI.

Wanting to tell stories better led me to take the pains to photograph better images. Pictures are worth a thousand words and their combination with words makes the reliving a whole lot better. Years after they happened, it's as if they were happening before my very eyes all over again.

Creating More Depth

There is much I have shared from our exploration of the world but my time here is ever becoming shorter. Now that we are traveling less, I have more time to wonder about our wanderings.  Thus, I am the major beneficiary, reaping the benefits of having documented our travels. 

One by one, as I relive each story, I evoke more feelings and thoughts, sifting through the insights gained and lessons learned. I have found new things to write about. Since shifting gears, around my turning 70, I have crafted more travel essays than journals. It enabled me to publish my second book, Cruising Past 70. It’s Not Only about Outer Journeys. It’s also about Inner Ones, a compilation of my essays and best-read stories.

After I turned 75 last November, I am refining and resharing even those inner journeys. I guess it's part of being older and gaining more wisdom. While spending hours traveling from our “armchairs” or musing from our “rocking” chairs, we learn even more, helping loved ones more.

Chasing a Photograph

Once my second daughter needed help and sent tickets for Bill and me to fly to Calgary and babysit her three boys ages 10, 3, and 1. It was our chance to complete the four breathtaking parks that together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the more popular two, Banff and Jasper, the better-known parks on the Alberta side, years before. Kootenay and Yoho National Parks on the British Columbia side of the Canadian Rockies are only 3 ½ hours away from their home.

They are all connected to Calgary through a section of the Trans-Canada Highway, one of the longest national highways in the world at 5,000 miles through ten provinces from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We visited Kootenay and Yoho on separate weekends.  On the third weekend, we revisited Banff and Lake Louise, just 1 ½ hours away. We reserved the newly opened Glacier Skywalk on the Columbia Icefields between Banff and Jasper for the last weekend.

Having negotiated this highway many times, I expected each drive to be uneventful. On the first drive, however, I caught a glimpse of a scene that would haunt me through all eight drives to and from Calgary. There was this lone red car, rising on the road, driving straight into an enormous white mountain.  Sigh. I could not get to my Nikon fast enough; the strap was curled around my foot.

I resolved to be more alert, constantly looking for another chance. Bill welcomed the change; I was no longer the disinterested passenger. A little while later, another chance came but it wasn’t as magical. The car was black, and the road was flat. The following Saturday, we were back on the same road and got another chance! The mountain was more majestic, but the car was white, disappearing into the mist.

Frustrated, I wished we could just stage the scene! My husband reminded me that there were plenty of other beauties all around. I was thrilled to see an enormous yellow truck blazoned against the gray mountains. White fluffy clouds cavorted with the snowy peaks for a mystical effect. A colorfully painted train ruffled against the Rockies’ skirts. Curvy pedestrian bridges punctuated the highway humdrum. There was the ubiquitous RV, in all shapes and sizes. Occasionally, a red-roofed log cabin enlivened the greens. The Canadian Rockies are such a special place. But I felt empty-handed when I got home.

On the last weekend, a snowstorm was forecasted. But we still went and stayed at Canmore, the town before Banff, for the night, hoping the weather would clear. It didn’t. I hated the cold, but it was our last weekend. The way to the Glacier Skywalk through the Icefields yielded zero results. When we reached the highest elevation, more than 6,000 feet, endless rows of frosty evergreens gave me a wonderful Christmas…in June! Was that going to be my saving grace?

But on our final drive home, the gods granted my wish. Although the car was not red and low-lying clouds covered the mountain, the road had a slight rise that recreated the magic I saw the first time. On the rest of the road back home, we tried to outdo each other with the titles I could use when I entered the photo in Viewpoint's Photo Show: Into the Mist, Into the Clouds, Into the Unknown. I was sure my photo would get a lot of nods because it evokes all sorts of feelings: why we drive beyond the mountains, beyond the ordinary, beyond the obvious.

It doesn’t matter how many times I go back to the same place. It doesn’t matter if I drive the same old road. Something else will catch my fancy. I am free to listen to whatever my heart whispers. Even if it’s just chasing a photograph.

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Telling Stories Better than Words Can Ever Weave

Telling Stories Better than Words Can Ever Weave

Little did I know that my third try at marriage would bring out 

my passion for telling stories through travel, words, and yes, even pictures.

Telling Our Stories

After we married, Bill bought an RV, and we went full-time RVing for a total of eight years.  He had the foresight to buy not just a huge GPS but also a Nikon DSLR. On this my third try, I was given the tools with which to give life to previously unspoken passions. He became my travel buddy; he painstakingly edited my blog posts; and he gifted me the cameras with which to take pictures. As someone said: "Once you learn to care, you can record images in your mind and film. There is no difference."

Winning Photo Contests

After completing five years of RVing when we turned 65 and 70, our bodies told us to find more convenient ways of traveling. We turned to snowbirding in Phoenix, Arizona during winter, traveling the world and visiting our children the rest of the year.   

Resort living became our lifestyle between trips. Four pools, six hot tubs, two saunas, ten tennis and ten pickleball courts, two golf courses, a shuffleboard court, a softball field, a billiards hall, many hobby and crafts rooms, a dance studio, a computer lab, many meeting rooms, three clubhouses, three ballrooms, a Pub & Grill. etc. made sure of that. In the fourth year, we sold our RV and bought a home for a base. Part of the draw was some 50 clubs. One of them, the Viewpoint Photography Club, became my favorite.

In my very first year of joining the annual Viewpoint Photo Show, I won Best of Show, People’s Choice, and Judges’ Choice in the Bronze Division with my photo of the Blue Doors of Tunisia. Beginner’s luck! I was immediately bumped into the Silver Division and the competition became stiffer. Still, in the following years, I kept on winning more. Seeing that my passion had grown, my husband upgraded my tools and gifted me with a Sony mirrorless digital camera to replace the bulky Nikon DSLR of 8 years.

Making Stories Deeper

Beginning in 2019, we took comfort travel up another notch and made Mexico our second home through our El Cid Vacations Club timeshare. From January 1 to March 31, when it turns "cold" in the desert, we stay at one of their resorts either in Mazatlan or Cancun. We stay in our Arizona base during spring and fall. In the hot summer months, we use our two other timeshares and visit our children in their homes, all cooler places.   

But I had to give up my membership in the Photography Club which operated during the winter season when all the snowbirds were in Viewpoint. I turned to photography basics to tell better stories, not to win contests. I resorted to natural lighting, good composition, and evocative shots. As I polished my writing into travel essays, my photos also began to tell deeper stories, the inner journeys.  

When Even Photographs Will Be Inadequate

Now we have reached that phase when we travel less. We are traveling more from our armchairs. Just in time, Bill has shifted me to the best camera phone on the market, the S21 Ultra. He said it’s time to capture life, especially family life, with more convenience.  

And I won’t mind if these Ansell Adams words come true: "When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." I thank Bill for my retirement life of travel, writing, and pictures. 

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Adventures with Family in the Mile-High City

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Feeling More Confident, Choosing a Different Route to Drive Home

It’s a far cry from the feeling we had driving down to Mazatlan. Yes, those urinals we bought will be of utterly no use. As a matter of fact, we felt confident enough that we even took a different route. We followed the advice given to us by a couple we met in El Cid who had been driving the route for years. 

This route is so much better because it divides the trip more evenly to 6.5-6-5.5 hours. The previous one we took was 8-6-4. (Both include border times.) We also bypass Los Mochis, Sinaloa the city with Level 4, the highest crime level according to the US State Department Advisory (our trip down was uneventful, too, but we were so cautious).

Saying goodbye to all the friends we had made in the three months we were in Mazatlan was not easy. We hugged lots and reminded ourselves that we would be seeing each other again on January 4, 2020. I gave copies of my book, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, and boxes of chocolates. 

Packing all the things we brought with us and all the things we bought in Mazatlan was not easy either. But, on the morning of April 1, 2019, we drove our car north on Mexico 15 D, the Cuota freeway. I delighted at the burst of yellows along the way on an early Spring Day. We also stopped at inexpensive Mexican pottery stores. 

Navojoa

The first stop of our three-day road trip was Navojoa. It is the fifth-largest city (population, over 150,000) in the state of Sonora just past the state of Sinaloa where Mazatlan is located.  The Mexican Revolutionary Álvaro Obregón was born in Hacienda Siquisiva in the small town near the city. After the 1910 revolt, he became the President of Mexico, introducing modern agricultural techniques.

Navojoa's Palacio Municipal

seen at the Main Plaza

He made the Valley one of the most prosperous agricultural regions in Mexico. Today, aside from agriculture, foreign as well as local investors have gone into many industries like shrimp farming, swine production, recycled containerboard and box making, and a Tecate brewery (recently acquired from Heineken). The Valley exports mainly to the US because of its close proximity to the border.

The colorful Navojoa signage stands out at the roundabout as you enter the city. Prosperity is evident and we had time to take pictures of the Main Plaza fronting the Palacio Municipal. Four monuments surround the Plaza and the City Clock Tower donated by the Rotary Club leads to it from the main thoroughfare, Mexico 15 D. The Cathedral is just a block away, its spires visible from the Plaza.

the Welcome Sign of Navojoa

Magdalena de Kino

The next stop should have been Santa Ana, about six hours from Navojoa and a little over 60 miles south of Nogales on the US border.  Santa Ana is a small city with a population of just over 10,000 known for raising cattle with over 20,000 head exported to the US annually. The movie The Fast and The Furious was filmed there throughout the months of June and July 2008, as well as the larger town of Magdalena de Kino (population, 25,000).

Padre Kino's Mausoleum

Temple to Santa Magdalena

Hotels.com did not have available hotels in Santa Ana so we booked at Magdalena de Kino which is even closer to the Mexico-U.S. border. When I researched the city, I found out that it is a Pueblo Mágico, one of 83 towns selected for scenic, cultural or historical qualities. 

We loved our stay at the 5-star Hotel Industria, one of six hotels in the city. It is just a half block away from the Main Plaza. The remains of Father Francisco Eusebio Kino, the pioneer Roman Catholic missionary who founded fifteen missions  in the area as well as Arizona was discovered in this town in 1966, 255 years after his death. A monument with a crypt housing his remains and a chapel with his effigy lying down are both in the Plaza. The city is named after him and the patron saint Santa Maria Magdalena. There is a pretty temple/church built in her honor also at the Plaza.

the Main Plaza of Magdalena de Kino

The border was only a little over an hour from our hotel. This time we went through the correct crossing called Mariposa. It is right after Km 21 where we surrendered our auto permit that refunded our US$400. However, we forgot to surrender our visitors’ permit. We will have to find out how to do that by mail. The wait at the US border was a whole hour and our car didn’t have to be inspected by the US Customs border agents.  

the Mariposa Border Crossing

After realizing that we had forgotten to surrender our permits we passed by the Mexican Consulate in Tucson. But we were told they didn’t have an immigration office there and we either had to go back to the border or forget about it. We wanted to make sure we would be given reentry to Mexico next year but we definitely didn’t want to go back to the border. We lost our appetite for lunch and continued on to Viewpoint. We simply said we will stop at the first McDonalds we spot. Would you believe we didn’t see any? We left Magdalena de Kino at 8 am and we arrived home at 2:15 pm.

We will find out if we can mail our visa permit to the Immigration Office. By next year, we will have all the border processes down pat. So, yes, we will drive down to Mazatlan again next year, if they’ll let us!

Are All-Inclusive Resorts Worth Your Money? Part 2

MITIGATING THE DISADVANTAGES 

It seems like the ideal life. No more housekeeping, laundry, dishwashing, cooking, and other mundane activities. Everything is available at the flick of the finger, so to speak: food, facilities, fun, and fascinating sunsets. You have no worries, cares, and hassles. All your time for things that make you happy. But there are three definite major disadvantages.

Weight Gain

You have all the food you want...and at the best locations. It is all-inclusive so you want to get the best values for your money and eat as much of the best ones as fast as possible, especially if you are staying for a short limited time. This is exactly what we did. On the first month, it was no wonder I gained  many extra pounds and developed a “baby bump.” But, on this our eighth week, I have returned to my original weight. Although traces of the bump still remain, I am well on the way to returning home as I left…without it. The following are the best practices we developed to deal with this major disadvantage.

go-to eating place

First, we put breakfast back to simple: in the room. Just like at home, we have breakfast as soon as we wake up. So we stocked up on simple things like cinnamon rolls and butter, bagels and cream cheese, or granola with nuts and raisins, together with lots of fruits and juices. We still go down to breakfast twice a week: once on Wednesday to have oatmeal or yogurt and hot chocolate; on Sundays for brunch of pasta and paella.

my favorite salad

Second, we put lunch also to a simple event. Our go-to place is La Alhambra, the open-air buffet by the sea which features a grilled item every day-grilled fish, roasted pork tacos, grilled fajitas, etc. I stick to this one dish. The restaurant also has the most complete salad bar in the entire complex. My go-to salad is a small plate of jicama and lettuce with a sprinkling of fake crab meat; usually, without dressing.

Third, we still make dinner our Event of the Day but we don’t go to the buffets anymore. We stick to a la carte dining. In buffets, there are a lot of filler items and you can get drawn to fill your plate with many of these. Even with small samples of each, they can add up to a bunch. A la carte ordering gives you the best dishes from the chef, the freshest versions of the dish, and limits what you can order. In the beginning, we ordered an appetizer, a soup or salad, an entrée, and a dessert. Now, we stick to sometimes just an appetizer or two or an entrée and split the salad and dessert.

Fourth, we are also eating healthy because there is just so many fruits, vegetables, seafood, fish, chicken, and pork available alongside with red meat. In fact, the latter is almost a no-no for us now. In the beginning, we were drawn to the New York, ribeye, filet mignon, churrasco, or arrachera steaks but now we are opting more for fish, shrimp, lobster, and chicken, sometimes pork. And we always start with salads or vegetable antipasti and make sure we have some fruits for the day. I am sure we get our required daily allowances of many vitamins and minerals.

Mexican cazuelitas

Fifth, our exercise regimen has been consistent. We spend thirty minutes at the fitness center every day. Bill hits balls at the golf course and tennis courts. We sometimes even join dancing classes. Our Fitbit shows that we walk at least 10,000 steps every day because we walk from one facility to another among four buildings in the resort complex and not use the free shuttle provided. At home, the kitchen and dining room are just a few steps from the bedroom and the living room. This is even complemented by afternoon walks on the beach or to the shops of the Zona Dorada, the shopping zone beside the complex.

  

Social and Cultural Isolation

There is another major disadvantage of all-inclusive resort stays. Let me call it the risk of social and cultural isolation. It comes from being confined to the resort facilities, again to get the best values from the money you paid, especially if you are staying for a short limited time. 

First, to counter social isolation, El Cid offers many activities. Bill and I have joined Spanish, dancing, cooking, and cocktail-mixing classes. Bill has sometimes joined tequila tasting and me, Texas Hold’em. Every evening, there are shows in the El Cid Theater: Mexican, Impersonators, Broadway, Tropical, Children's, and Audience Participation. Lobby bars have karaoke nights, casino nights, live music, etc.  Each restaurant offers different kinds of live music with different cuisines. And there are always activities on the beach. These are all opportunities for meeting new friends.

my Texas Hold'em group

Second, even if family and long-time friends are more special, we cannot transport all of them to Mazatlan. The staff of El Cid including the wait staff, the maids, and the drivers, and the guards, and the Mexican people, in general, are so hospitable, they can be our "family" while we are in El Cid. In fact, there is an Elite Lounge dedicated to hosting all-inclusive guests and catering to our every need. The Lounge is also where we have met many new friends from fellow guests. We look forward to meeting all of them again in the next season when we return to Mazatlan.

Bill's tequila tasting group

But how about cultural isolation? This is why we choose Mazatlan instead of Cancun. Mazatlan has an excellent broader community one can get involved with. With a population of 650,000, the city has a full plate of entertainment options, from concerts to movies to theater to opera. We have also done three-day trips and have four others scheduled before we go home. An Art Walk every first Friday of the month is such a fun activity. Trips to the Library have been enlightening and enjoyable.



We don't tire of inspecting each branch of the Michaels Gallery chain with their quality Mexican home decor. There are three main shopping districts: the new Mazatlan Galleria Mall area with Liverpool and Sears department stores and Walmart/Sams Club nearby, the Zona Dorada, and the Old Town Mercado and Centro Hispanico. And there is a major Flea Market in Juarez every Sunday morning. We should not forget the large supermarket chains like Soriana, Mega, and Ley. As a result of great shopping values, we are bringing home an art piece for the house, favorite new hats, quality inexpensive clothes, and some new jewelry!

Since we are staying for three months each year, we actually are able to make and keep friends and not be isolated within the confines of the resort. But then you will ask what about cost, especially because we are staying for such a long time. This is the last major disadvantage of all-inclusive resorts.  I will discuss in Part 3, four weeks from now after we have seen how everything goes and counted all the expenses at the end of our thirteen-week stay. Then we will have the final answer to the question "Are All-Inclusive Stays Worth Your Money?" 

Are All-inclusive Resorts Worth Your Money? (Part 1)

We just completed the first four weeks of a thirteen-week all-inclusive stay at El Cid Resorts’ El Moro Beach Hotel. Bill has long wanted to retire in Mexico and, since I did not want to primarily for health care reasons, we have compromised on this program. I have gained x pounds even with a focused effort to stay slim by exercising daily. It is not really the pounds but it’s where they land. There is a noticeable “baby bump” that I do not like. It makes me not want to don a swimsuit in this beach paradise!

the four El Cid Resorts in Mazatlan

This is what all-inclusive means in El Cid Resorts. It means all-you-can-eat and drink at any of the following food and beverage outlets whenever we stay in any of these vicinities: four Mazatlan hotels (El Moro, La Marina, La Castilla, and La Granada), two Cancun hotels (Ventus and La Marina), La Ceiba in Cozumel, and those that will open in the new Cabo San Lucas facility. This year, we are in El Moro in Mazatlan. 

some of the restaurants in El Cid Resorts

These are all that are available for our use:

1.    9 Restaurants

La Concha-international food

El Patio-Argentinian food

La Marina-international food

El Alcazar-Italian food

Ban Horu-Japanese food

La Pergola-international food

La Cascada-Mexican food

La Alhambra-international food

La Terraza-international food

2.    5 Snack and Drink Bars

La Gruya

El Patio

La Conchinita

Snack Bars at La Marina

3.    2 Lobby Bars

El Moro

La Castilla

4.    4 Exclusive Elite Lounge, one at each hotel

some of the facilities at the El Cid Golf And Country Club

It also means free use of the facilities of the Casa Club (the Mazatlan Golf and Country Club owned by El Cid) such as the swimming pool, tennis courts, the fitness center, and sauna and steam bath. Discounts are available at the golf course and the Spa Garden. There are also huge discounts for boating and fishing at the Mazatlan Marina Yacht Club which is at the La Marina premises. El Cid also owns Pronatours and tours come at sizable discounts there, too.

the beach fronting El Moro

There is a beachfront and two pool complexes with swim-up bars and large hot tubs for resort guests to use at La Granada, La Castilla, and El Moro. In addition, there are three private pool complexes and a private beachfront for the exclusive use of Elite members like us at El Moro and La Marina. Finally, at every hotel, activities are organized targeting various interests of guests. We have taken courses in Spanish, salsa and other Latin dances, cooking, and mixing drinks, for example. There are more.

some of the activities we joined

In addition, Mazatlan is a great Mexican town to visit. With a population of 500,000, it is considered the Shrimp Capital of the World, has the longest Malecon in Mexico, and has, for an icon, the highest lighthouse in the world on a hill by the bay. There is a vibrant downtown center and many short day trips can take you to colonial villages, a few islands, and even the city of Durango up in the mountains.

It really means great vacations with abundant food, adequate facilities, and many adventures at one great location. But there are major drawbacks to this lifestyle, not the least of which are unwanted weight gain and unwarranted expense. Others may set in for those who stay too long (like us). Boredom with the food, activities, and facilities and the increased feeling of isolation even amid plenty of people (due to lack of solid social circles unless you are adept at meeting strangers) may all set in.

But these are negatives that arise only because of the way we use the benefits. If we exercise moderation and balance, then there will be fewer. of them And with better planning, there may be none. I am developing a few Best Practices for All-Inclusive Resort Stays and will post about them after the eighth week as Part 2 of this series. It is a lifestyle that deserves honing because it is the best that one can have. We are giving ourselves the chance to enjoy it before we leave his world permanently. We do believe it is worth the money and an analysis of costs will be in Part 3 after our twelfth week.

pinnable image

pinnable image

pinnable image

I hope you will stay tuned.