Tuesday, February 23: Yesterday’s 4 hour drive from San Carlos to Alamos was somewhat stressful. There’s so much to be aware of in addition to pulling an RV and not knowing where we are going.
There are the many speed bumps, large pot holes, narrow highway, no shoulder, constant changes in speed limits, trucks swerving out of their lanes, cyclists and pedestrians on the road (that has no shoulder), cars with no break lights, oncoming traffic in your lane as people tried to pass and the occasional swerving driver. Oh and then there’s the aggressive window washers at the traffic lights in the city areas. They see you coming and you pray that the light will turn green and if it doesn’t there’s a mad rush to see who will be the first 2 people to get to your vehicle and then they’re all over your windshield. We went through one light and got our windshield cleaned and then at the following light another group wanted to clean it again! We persisted motioning NO…and they moved on. However, we believe as they left and walked around the trailer, they may of punctured our spare tire. On another incident, we were at a stop light and a few kids ran between the trailer and the truck. To get over the hitch, the kid stepped on it and jumped over. When we then arrived a highway toll (one of many), we noticed our light cable dragging. We believe it must of been pulled off when the kid jumped on the hitch.
After all of that, we finally arrived in Alamos at a small RV site just as you enter the town. We were a little concerned at first as there was only one other RV on the site. Therefore, we thought we would check out another one on the other side of town but we were advised by our book to drive the route without the trailer first as the town has very narrow streets. So we disconnected the trailer and attempted to navigate Alamos’s narrow streets. It’s a good thing we did! It would have been very difficult to manoeuvre the trailer around some of the tight corners through town. The alternative route would be through the river bed, (that wasn’t completely ruined due to a recent river flow), which would have been very challenging. Except for the very noisy rooster, our campsite wasn ‘t too bad. We met the other RV owner who were a couple from New Mexico. They spoke very highly of Alamos as they have travelled to the town many times.
They provided us with a map and a few suggestions. As well, on the RV site, there were many orange trees. The orange juice in Mexico is amazing. I don’t think I’ll be able to drink store bought again!
Alamos is a small town (10,000) in the mountains about 1-2 hours inland from the coast. It was once a rich silver mining town and as such there is a large cathedral with interesting old buildings and homes with beautiful courtyards. One American home owner said there are about 300 “gringos” living here in the winter of which about 80-100 are Canadians. We spent most of the day wandering around town looking at shops and buildings. People here are use to seeing tourists but not young families so we stand out, people stare but we aren’t hassled at all. I wish I knew more Spanish, but we are slowly learning through interaction and our audio lessons and translation book. 
We had lunch in a small local restaurant where we enjoyed enchiladas. The restaurant appeared as someone's home. The owner was very helpful in menu suggestions and were very good with the kids. Alamos is an interesting small town as the cobblestone streets are only 9-10 feet wide. In some areas, the curbs are raised as the buildings are right up against the curb or street. As you walk down these streets, you notice that some buildings are beautiful homes with swimming pools and gardens in the courtyard. Right beside some of these, you would then see a rusty, crumbled dwelling which would be a home. The entire area is very old and obviously had seen some riches in the mining era. At the same time, you continue to witness the humble and sometimes poor environment of the Mexican people.
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