This week has stood out mainly because we have entered a new state, bringing us onto the mainland, as well as for the culinary discoveries that the lovely locals have helped us uncover. While winning over a bit of our hearts at the same time. Colours, flavours and smiles, lots of smiles. This is how I would describe our experiences over the last few marvellous days.

We started the week waking up on the corner of a football pitch in San Antonio, where we woke up first thing in the morning surrounded by passing shadows. Although this initially gave us a bit of a fright, soon we could see that it was just a few local ladies who started their days with a bit of leg stretching, wearing big smiles. We had as our objective of the day the task of completing the final push to close out our little loop of Baja California Sur, while also making the most of the opportunity to visit the last historic town on the route. Most of these towns have their origins in the mining industry, and El Triunfo was no exception. A pretty colonia town with the main drag full of colourful houses and, of course, its church presiding over the community. We had a good look around like any tourist would and even ended up seeing an English graveyard up by a lookout point, from where we could admire all the vegetation that surrounded the town and how the colourful buildings stood out, along with an old mining chimney. Finally, trying to avoid the heat us much as possible, we managed to make it to the apartment that we had rented for the night, but only after stopping briefly in a local restaurant in order to recharge the batteries. Here is where the week's culinary experience started, as a lovely couple delighted us with a dish called Birria, which is like a beef stew, that went down very well. And the cherry on top? A glass of hibiscus water, which is a refreshing drink that's traditional round these parts.

We awoke all rested and, more importantly, cool. Rob prepared a new speciality, pancakes with fried eggs and home made syrup, to start our day full of energy! He also braved the baking of some bread, as the flat had an oven, so we'd have some nice rolls for our lunches. After, we headed to the promenade which they call the "Malecón" in Mexico. Jumping from shady spot to shady spot, we spent the morning admiring the views and burning a bit of time before buying the food we'd need for the next few days and heading to the north of the city, some 20km, to the place where we'd be catching the ferry the next day. The plan was to sleep on a beach that was next to the ferry terminal and check out the local area a little in the early morning. Once we had arrived we necked a Corona on the beach while watching a stunning, if brief, sunset. We put up the tent in between the mangroves once it was dark and started to pray, hoping that the steady breeze would flow through the tent, something that sadly didn't happen...

It was a very early start, as is now the norm, so we could go and see one of the most beautiful beaches in the area, Balandra. The plan consisted of taking a dip first thing in the morning and then head to the ferry terminal to buy our tickets for the boat that would leave late afternoon. Luckily the beach wasn't far away, and just as we arrived we discovered that the number of visitors was being restricted due to the coronavirus situation, so we had to wait in line until this quota of people got filled so that everyone could head in together. In the end it wasn't a long wait and we managed to have a swim in amongst the picturesque rocks and curious fish that plied the shoreline. Once we finally decided to head over to the ferry we found out that the we'd looked at the schedule all wrong and the next crossing wasn't until the following day. So there was nothing for it but to spend the day there, go back to the same beach to sleep and, why not, have another Corona while watching the sunset!

We got up a little later today since, having not counted on spending the day there, we didn't really have a plan nor were we in a rush to rise and shine. So we spent the morning on the peaceful beach we'd slept on until hunger struck and we went to a restaurant to eat a tasty ceviche with beer. We spent what was left of the afternoon enjoying the air conditioning in the waiting room of the ferry terminal, where we made some blog and podcast progress as well as getting to know the security employees. Once the ferry left port, all very punctually, we rested up while watching the films that were put on the TVs onboard. The journey would last 12 hours, so at bed time we didn't hesitate about following the local advice and finding a little patch on the floor to lie down on and get some shut eye.

It was a pretty pleasant and enjoyable journey. We finally arrived at Mazatlán, our first mainland city! We'd heard talk of its "Malecón" which, at about 21km in length, is considered one of the longest in the world; so it was clear that we couldn't miss it! We cycled along it's length a little before ploughing head first into the old town centre which was full of colonial buildings that oozed happiness and colour from their stonework and with its yellow cathedral perched amongst the innumerable plazas. A while later we went to hunt down the room we had rented for the night and, by chance, ended up talking with the lady that ran the shop on the corner of the street who ended up being the Mum of the guy we'd rented the room off! Since it was nearly lunchtime we spied that the window of a nearby house had some ladies inside selling a home made stew called Pozole to take away. We asked them for a couple of portions, which they happily prepared for us, along with some "dulce de leche" for desert. We made short work of this feast in our little apartment and crowned the experience off with a good old siesta. In all honesty, after chowing down so much food for lunch we didn't plan on having much for dinner, but we what ended up happening couldn't have been further from this... After spending the afternoon hiding in the air conditioning we decided to go out for a walk and grab a bite to eat. It was then that dozens of food stalls popped up all down the street, cooking up grilled meats and shallots, and they looked amazing! After checking them all out we ended up sitting down at one where they served us up a coupe of things, one called a Chorreada and the other a Vampiro (Vampire). Both were pretty similar. Basically consisting of a toasted tortilla topped with a mountain of recently grilled and chopped up beef, shallots, coriander and a touch of lime. They were quite incredible, but I'd say we hoofed down about half a cow in a single sitting... No exactly the light snack we'd had in mind!

Now ready to explore the mainland, we started the day once more with Rob's speciality, pancakes and fired eggs, then headed towards our next destination, a town about 50km away called Potrerillos. After a few obligatory rest stops to survive the sun, in which we saw a stick insect and some wasp nests, we made it into town. We took a explorative look around and closed in on what looked like a bar, but once we got to it found it closed... With out spirits crushed we collapsed on that same street corner to rest from the sun, but what good fortune found us! A few minutes later the family that ran the local ironmonger's struck up conversation with as and turned out to be the most charming bunch! After spending a while chatting, Diana and Ismael invited us over for lunch with them and the family (consisting of José, the older son, followed by Camilo, the one in the middle, and finally the small but lovely Diana Jr.) at their house. Let's not forget Shira the dog also! Diana cooked, especially for us, a series of traditional Mexican dishes called "comida de la plaza" or "town square food" as it would be translated into English. It was made up of tacos, gorditas and enchiladas. Delicious! After eating we spent the afternoon playing cards and laughing the time away with the kids until night came around and they provided us with dinner, which was ceviche and prawn tamales that the family had been preparing the night before. After such a fun and intense day we erected the tent in their courtyard and with the help of a "catre" and some fans we fell defeated in the moonlight.

We got up kind of early and got everything packed away so we could leave at a reasonable time. All the family got out of bed to see us off and prepare us a quick breakfast and even some sandwiches for the road! With a heavy heart, but with also a cheer for having had the good fortune to bump into these guys, we said farewells with the whole family waving us off as we cycled through the entire town, only stopping once we'd turned the final corner. Just as we like to do!(we'll we presume they stopped...) We found ourselves once more before a steaming hot day but although we had hoped to make a little more progress it turned out to be impossible and we had to stop in the town of Tecualilla. On arrival we tucked into a cheeky beer and, as was now customary, met the town drunks who gave as a good splash of tequila to wash the beer down with. This was at 11:30 in the morning mind and given how dehydrated we were we soon found out that this wasn't the greatest of ideas... We ended up heading back to the main road where there was a permanent police road block and a few stalls selling food and drinks. Here we sat sheltering from the powerful sun and checking out the lay of the land to figure out a quiet spot to spend the night. In the end we spent basically the whole day here and met half the town, with whom we share stories and adventures. When night came we still didn't have a great idea about where we were going to sleep but remembered that one of the guys from earlier, who sold food in the buses that came through, sometimes slept in the portacabins the police had there. So we thought there was no harm in asking. We went over to one of the guys working the road block and he didn't hesitate a second in telling us that of course we could stay in one, and best of all that it had air conditioning! The available space inside was about the same as our tent, so to avoid scares in the night and creepy crawlies doing what they do inside out sleeping bags, we put up the tent the best we could inside and boom. Another night in the least expected of places. This bringing a close to our first week of contact with mainland Mexico.