SUNNY SAN CARLOS, SONORA, MEXICO

MAJESTIC MT. TETA KAWI

Beautiful San Carlos, Mexico!

     San Carlos is a beautiful ocean-front resort town, located on the Sea of Cortez on the west coast of mainland Mexico. It is our favorite place to spend our first night in Mexico after crossing the border into Mexico, and it is always our last stop before we return to the United States. We find it to be an easy 250 mile, 4 to 5 hour drive from Nogales, AZ on Mexico Highway 15, a four-lane divided highway.
    We left Arizona during a winter desert rainstorm on November 23. The farther into Mexico we drove, the fewer clouds there were, and eventually the rain stopped. Soon after we took the San Carlos exit at KM 139, the view of the two rugged, red-rock peaks of Teta Kawi Mountain greeted us as we approached this community. It’s easy to understand why this majestic mountain was once a sacred site for native warriors. We arrived in beautiful San Carlos, Mexico in time to see the sun dipping behind Mt. Teta Kawi. The clear blue sky and

temperature in the mid-70s were a welcome contrast from the dreary gray skies and pouring rain that we had left behind in southern Arizona that morning. I felt my mood improving immediately with the change in weather.  Healthy living and traveling in Mexico begins with a good dose of sunshine!
     The four lane boulevard from Highway 15 to the city of San Carlos, with its palm tree and bougainvillea landscaped median, gives a preview of the resort area ambiance here.  The architecture in town varies from white-washed houses with red-tile roofs and mosaic tiled domes, to condominiums overlooking the sea, from motorhomes with small bungalows built around them to form a house to newly built three story stone-faced homes of the wealthy. Overall, this town feels modern and clean. San Carlos is a resort destination for the vacationing wealthy Mexican families, as well as a popular winter home for many snowbirds from the United States and Canada due to the warm, yet moderate weather.

    The moderately warm winter weather and low annual rainfall makes this town popular with golfers and tennis players. The Sea of Cortez offers good fishing, scuba diving, kayaking and snorkeling. There are two marinas, where many yachts and motorboats are docked. On one visit, I met some women in the laundry room of the El Mirador RV Park who were from a sailboat docked in the marina. They told me that San Carlos is a good stopping off place to wash clothes, buy supplies, and have a taste of restaurant food and a little action on land. That’s how I think of San Carlos, as a good stopping off place. Some gringos would argue that this is as far south as they need to go to be content.

     We always look forward to a Sunday afternoon at the Soggy Peso Bar, sitting on the beach with our feet in the warm sand, watching the kite-boarders surfing in the bay, and sometimes listening to live music. This year, the experience was as good as we remembered it!

We shared a lunch of crab and avocado salad with tortilla chips and a shrimp quesadilla.

Delicious, fresh food for a very fair price! Another step in our quest for healthy living. At the

table next to us, a Mexican family of five was having lunch. The baby showed us how to finish the afternoon off right, with a siesta in one of the hammocks always hung between posts in the palapa. This is nap-time, Mexican style. We can learn a lot from the Mexican National people about healthy living.
     San Carlos is a friendly, laid-back resort town that is close enough to the United States to travel to by car or motorhome in less than a day. This makes it a wonderful destination for a short vacation or a stopping off spot on the way to places farther south on the Pacific coast of mainland Mexico. We enjoy staying there for a few day on the way south and again on the way north to the U.S. For more information on San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, see www.sancarlosmexico.com and

http://www.sancarlosmexicoguide.com and my upcoming book, "Healthy Living and

Traveling in Mexico: A Search for Sunshine, Sassy Exercise, Savory Food, And a Simpler Life".

COPYRIGHT © 2014 by Terry L Turrell

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this publication May be Reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or Transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, scanning, photocopying, recording, or Otherwise, without prior written permission .