January 20 to 23, 2011; Copala village & Mazatlan

JAN 20, Thursday, village of Copala
We left in two vehicles around 10 am, got on Hwy 15 libre and drove south pass the airport and finally turned on Hwy 40 to Durango. We slowly climbed then the road turned tortuous, full of switchback as we climbed to 2000 feet. This is the same highway we had driven a couple years ago from Texas. We turned off at the village of Copala and drove down the hill through the village and arrived at the restaurant which we had some much about. It was not to be a disappointment! The inside was beautiful and very clean. The menu had 4 different complete dish that were big enough for two so we each share a different plate. We had quesillidia with beans, rice, flour tortilla, and a salad. For desert we had banana cream pie which was included with the meal and the reason this restaurant is so famous for. All that washed with a cerveza of course. The best part was the whole thing was very reasonably priced.
The restaurant was built on a mine shaft and we got to go down and walked through and out a different way; quite cool!
As we left the restaurant, two young boys came over to us, selling small wooden carving. They spoke fairly good English and were quite enterprising and insisting on selling their wares. We finally broke down and each bought a small wooden carving. We found out later that these were made locally by an artist down the road at the town square. Tucker and Keenan had come along for the ride so we got them from the truck and became an instant attraction to the boys. We went walking into town, down small narrow streets and into the town square and the church which dated back to 1565 and still in fairly good shape. We took lots of pictures of course.
Along the way, we stopped in little places that were selling souvenirs and local arts. One place, I sat outside waiting for the girls finish shopping and this little girl, about 5 y.o. and her brother came over to pet Tucker. They were both quite cute and impressed by Tucker’s willingness to shake a paw and play “high 5”.
Copala is named after a bare tree that grows here in the mountains. The tree only grows leafs and flowers in the month of June and July then goes bare for the rest of the year. The town was prosperous at one time because of the mining of gold, silver and other minerals in and around the town; now it has been revitalized by local artistry and tourist. The town itself dates back to the early 1500 when the Spaniards came exploring the area looking for Copala lake, rumoured to be full of gold. They never found it of course.
Needless to say we took lots of pictures which can be seen in our Picasa folder #70A.
We decided to take a drive up the highway to the Devil Spine thinking it was just a few miles up but after an hour of driving on this road, we decided to call it quit and came back down the mountain. As we drove, we saw the new highway being build which will eventually be a cuota (toll) highway and be rid of all those switchback and dangerous curves.
We stopped at Sobriana once back in Mazatlan for some groceries and beer then it was home and happy hour. For dinner, we had shrimps, salad and beans and rice


JAN 21, Friday, Las Jaibas RV Park
The day started quietly! Later in the morning, I got some propane for both the small tank and our regular one. Dave and I went into town to do some grocery shopping, more like booze shopping. We were out of wine and tomatoes juice and Dave was out of a few things too. While driving into town, we came upon two accidents which really slowed things up, both at major intersections. The rest of the day was reading and relaxing.
We had happy hour at 4 pm and had a heated discussion on what the “Devil’s spine” consist of and how long it is. We called it quit at 7 pm and went to each of our home.


JAN 22, Saturday, Mazatlan
Another sunny and warm day with a moist, foggy night. Val did some laundry in the morning then we went to find the last two caches that I had on my GPS with Louise and Dave. Al and Brenda went to the beach with Daisy. We found the caches with no problems (Louise is really getting good at it) then we stopped for a cerveza at Heather’s Place, location of our second cache. Dave wanted a bus schedule so we walked across the street to the hotel and went into the lobby. We could see the pool and patio through the bar so we walked towards it and BAM, Val walked right into the glass door. She was so concentrated on the pool that she didn’t see the glass. We had a good laugh over that at her expense. She ended up with a sore nose. The Mexican bellboy followed her around and made sure he open all the glass door. It was quite comical.
We walked back to “Tres Amigos” and had another cerveza and nachos then we drove to Fernando RV Park to take a look then to a big building behind our place with a mural the size of the whole side wall and I mean huge! Came home and had happy hour with Al and Brenda then it was supper time.


JAN 23, Sunday, foggy in a.m,
I had a few too many last night and had a “hang-over” as a reward! I spent most of the day sleeping while Val read outside. Happy hour at Al & Brenda but it was an early one; lasted barely an hour! The fog did burn off eventually in early afternoon.