Christmas in Bahia Kino, Sonora, Mexico

As the weather started to turn cold and rainy in Arizona towards the beginning of December, the promise of warmer climes lured us towards the Mexican border at Nogales.  About five hours further south we found our paradise in Bahia Kino, a simple, undeveloped Mexican fishing village.

We had been very undecided about our plans to visit Mexico but as it turned out, it truly has been a major highlight of our trip.  And I found my  "happy place"!

In actuality, we had no choice but to cross the border because our US visas were due to expire a week before our flight home on April 1st 2014.  The easiest and cheapest way to get the extra week of extension was to cross the border into Mexico.  Upon our return, the US immigration staff would be able to extend our stay at very little cost to us.

However, this plan was not made without due attention to certain concerns:  The majority of Americans we had met had warned us to stay away from Mexico due to safety reasons.  Each person we spoke to had a different anecdote, some even claiming that their Mexican friends were too scared to visit their native homes.

The news warnings also include stories of police corruption, drug war violence, vehicle hijacking, muggings and so on.  Aside from the safety aspect, our other major concern was whether Winnie could cope with any further poor road conditions.  We have already spent our repair budget at least 10 times over and discovered our home on wheels just cannot handle hills or uneven road surface without major problems; which incidentally Mexico is full of.  And Winnie isn't exactly the best getaway vehicle if you find yourself in trouble... Or perhaps that would be to our advantage when being scoped out to be hijacked!

When we originally started to plan our trip back in 2012 we were both very keen to visit Mexico, a country neither of us had been to before. We had even looked into touring Mexico and heading as far south as the popular tourist destination of Cancun, but in the end this was just a little too ambitious due to our time constraints and the cost of all the extra mileage in fuel and vehicle repairs.  Oh well, keep your eyes peeled for "Road Trip 2: Return to Mexico"!

We ruled out visiting Baja which is a Mexican peninsular extension of California.  The coastal roads are just simply too narrow, windy, steep and in too poor a condition from the reports we could gather from online forums.

In the course of my research, I soon came across the heavenly paradise that is Bahia Kino which is situated on the west coast of the main land.  It appeared to have good paved access roads and was situated within a days drive of the border.  Not to mention that the weather forecast looked fab too.

For safety, we decided to heed the warnings and plan our trip with military precision, ensuring we set off early to avoid driving in the dark, and we would not risk stopping anywhere other than our destination.  We booked ahead to avoid staying overnight anywhere other than a secure RV park.

Initially we planned to stay at La Playa RV and Hotel for only three nights, but as soon as we arrived we knew we would be extending our stay!  White sandy beach on our doorstep, beautiful warm weather high 20s to 30 some days, so peaceful, and the most spectacular sunsets we had seen!  We had the whole RV park and hotel all to ourselves most days; our own private paradise.  After just two days of exploring the old town Kino Viejo, and new town Kino Nuevo, we fell in love with the place and decided to extended our stay for a full month including Christmas and the New Year.

Christmas Day and New Year's Eve were quiet affairs with very little "Christmas-y-ness", and admittedly tainted with a hint of sadness to be so far away from family and friends, but the sunshine did its job of consoling us nicely.  It was just what we needed to recharge our batteries, revitalize us and calm our souls.

To be honest (and please don't hate me for saying this!), travelling is actually quite hard work.  If you think it's a holiday, you've got it wrong!  We were both feeling completely wiped out after the past nine months of non-stop moving house almost every day and all the Winnie hassles. We needed a holiday from "the trip of a lifetime", so we did the sums and figured that if we stayed put for a month, it would actually work out far better than paying our usual monthly fuel bill.  And if we weren't moving, surely the risk of any breakdowns diminished significantly!  Plus the cost of groceries where we were staying is at least a third cheaper than in the USA and Canada - so another bonus there.

With Winnie hooked up to electric and water, and her jacks down, we didn't want to unplug and drive anywhere (or risk driving on the narrow dirt roads of Old Kino).  So we patched up our battered old rucksack with the miracle that is gaffer tape and headed into town on our bikes everyday to fetch water, fresh fish, vegetables and of course the essential booze.  We enjoyed the gratifying two mile round trip cycle into town almost every day for the entire month.  Each day Adam learnt a little more Spanish to converse with the friendly shop assistants and fishermen.  I, however, am hopeless and seem to have learned very little other than how to use an iPhone app to look up a word, which I immediately forget a minute later...maybe my brain is actually a little too relaxed!

The view from our patio was just fantastic.  We spent endless hours gazing at the bay, noting the comings and goings of the fishing boats, the pelicans and vultures soaring above us catching a ride on the thermals, and gazing through our binoculars at Alcatraz Island - the one in all our photos!

Alcatraz is a small uninhibited rocky island, adorned with huge Saguaro cacti, and a breeding ground for several thousand pelicans and seagulls. We have seen some pretty spectacular sunsets so far on this trip, but nothing compares to those we experienced over Kino Bay.  Ironically, a few sweeping clouds in the sky made it all the more impressive, the fluffy white cotton wool and wispy-feathered formations serving to accentuate the scarlets and ambers of the fading light.  Dancing playfully in reflection off the gentle waves, the scene was just incredible!  I took literally hundreds of photos of my island at sunset, I will never forget the beauty and the spirituality of this unspoiled and virtually undiscovered place.  We also took a boat trip out the island of Alcatraz one day, I have never seen so many birds, and even a small sea lion - it was so wonderful to see our island up-close, we were the only people there!

Sadly, for the people of Bahia Kino there is also a great degree of poverty. The houses on the outskirts of town are little more than shacks, cobbled together from a variety of rusty tin sheets, tattered plastic wrapping, driftwood, palm leaves, old crates and anything else they can find.  Some streets are unpaved sandy/dirt tracks, with poor sanitation and malnourished dogs roaming free or resting in the shade on every corner.

Considering the wonderful winter climate and beauty of the bay, there is very little tourism.  We were alone in the RV and Hotel for the vast majority of the month we spent there, which was an unexpected treat of quite and calm for us, but not great for the business or town.  The bad reputation and fear that citizens of their neighbouring country have of Mexico is surely partly to blame for this.

Due to the warnings we had received, we were initially extremely wary of the locals, but we soon relaxed when we felt the genuine friendliness and welcoming nature of everyone we met. We never felt threatened in any way, and we even ventured out at night on our bikes.  We went out in the dark evening twice for a meal out and cycled with just the street lights and starlight.  This was an adventure in itself due to the sand drifts in the road hidden by the darkness, especially after a couple of the local Margarita cocktails which are pretty lethal!

We also met two lovely American couples over the Christmas week who are very much in the open-minded minority of people who venture into Mexico.  They have also discovered the wonderful secret of Bahia Kino, and love it so much that they leave their RVs there year-round to use as holiday homes.  One of the people we met is a wonderful lady named Karen who is heavily involved in charity work and collecting resources for the local schools and families.  Within five minutes of meeting Karen on Christmas Eve-Eve, she had organised for her daughter (back home) to go out and buy me a new hair drier, which she delivered a few days later as she flew in to for a visit.  It was a truly kind and unexpected gesture, and the perfect Christmas present to replace mine which had just packed up days earlier.  Picture the scene the night it packed up: I ended up sat with my head in the open oven door trying to get it dry before bed - with a glass of wine in hand, of course!

To assist Karen with her good work in the local community, we left some bedding, towels, a fold-away table and a few other bits we no longer needed to donate to a particularly poor family she is working with.  Anything and everything donated is put to good use.  We wished we had known to bring other things with us like pencils and paper which are always welcome at the school, since the children have to supply all their own stationery and many other things.  Karen often collects school supplies from generous people in her home neighbourhood in Green Valley, Arizona, which she delivers to the schools every couple of months.

 On a positive note, we witnessed some development and building work going on in their town square, and whilst we were there we saw a covered basketball court and mini football pitch completed just in time for Christmas, much to the delight of the smiley and energetic local children.  There is also a scheme working to build simple "block" housing to provide residents with more secure and comfortable accommodation, some improvements to the standard of living are slowly being made.

We're back on the road in the USA now, with a further 6 month extension of our visas granted upon re-entry into the USA.  The full 6 month extension surprised us a little, as USA immigration officially allow UK citizens on our B1/2 tourist visas only a maximum of 6 months trip per annum.  Adam is already planning and scheming how to extend our trip - shame we have so many important wedding commitments this year, not to mention a wedding of our own to plan and save for...!

We're heading back towards Florida to the Keys as our final destination, before heading back north to Orlando for our flights home on April 1st. We hope to reach Florida within the next month to enjoy our final six weeks or so in the beautiful warm seas and sunshine.  We do still have quite a few planned stops on the way though - at Carlsbad Caverns, Dinosaur Valley, a rodeo near Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, and plenty more adventures still to come in 2014!