Isla De La Piedra

Stone Island. But, like a lot of things around here its not really what it says, its actually a peninsula that is isolated like an island so the local folks just figure it actually is. And, like a lot of things around it here its also a surprising contrast to what you might think its like, just a short water taxi ride across the harbor from the bustling port of Mazatlan and you have miles and miles of wilderness beach.

Its one of our favorite things, an early morning walk through the neighborhoods of Los Pinos beach and then over the hill to the Port and lunch at the Island.  As we walk along we talk about the se vende signs and maybe what you could do with this or that house if you bought it. I think I'm a guy who could do it...live here for the rest of the program, but MP needs more stimulus in her life and I'm pretty certain she needs the good ol U.S. of A.  Once through this area we come out on a shoreline drive that has all these wonderful overlooks built. Its just about as scenic as any place in the world could be.

The water taxi costs 25 peso round trip. Its your basic panga boat with a 1985 vintage Yamha 115 horse...That starts every time with the first pull, thats right a 115 horse with a pull start, yikes. Years ago I had a 50 merc with pull start, now that baby would make a man out of you so I can't imagine the ooomph it takes to get this baby started. But our captain makes it look easy and in no time at all we're across the harbor. We walk across a dirt road and onto the beach, the island has maybe 20 palapa style restaurants and everyone has their favorite, ours is Pili's run by a guy named Rudy that we've gotten to know well through the years.

The coolest thing about the island is its relaxed atmosphere. Theres just nothing to to do here, nothing. Theres a small town or colonia and a few stores but the only industry I see is eating, growing coconuts and fishing for what you need to eat or serve to your customers. MP has chicken and I have some nice fresh shrimp tacos on homemade tortillas and of course a couple of pacificos.

While we're having lunch I'm negotiating a high finance business deal with Rudy. He wants 300 pesos for an hour of the 4-wheeler and I want to give him 200....MP and I are going to explore the farthest reaches of Stone Island like the Estrella complex about 10 miles down the beach, and of course look for dollars, a little cost recovery. So we settle on a package deal, lunch, 6 cerveza and a T-shirt along with at least an hour on the machine, I told him we could be gone longer if we run into a good restaurant down that way.

Those two pics tell the story of just how isolated this place is. We rode for 45 minutes and only saw one person who was a gringo surfcasting by himself, I kind of wanted to stop and chat with him but I kinda sensed MP might go goofy if I mentioned fishing on my day off from it. So on the way back I cruise a little a closer to the surf line, I really don't want Rudy's machine to get in the salt but we all know thats where the dollars are.... and walla....payday....1/2 a dollar...like I said, there ain't much to do on Las Isla.