San Carlos, Sonora

San Carlos is a prosperous boomtown on the shores of the Sea of Cortez with a population of 2500 Mexicans and a revolving group of Canadians and Americans over wintering.  If you are looking for an authentic Mexican experience this isn’t it. For a vacationer or a winter snowbird San Carlos is ready for you. 

English is spoken here and you will see busy gringos running around town trying to look at ease in a tourist town. It’s a similar attitude to the way some people want to look  cool in Key West and be part of the scene.  

Dining out is a popular hobby along the waterfront.

In the heat of summer we spent a couple of nights at the Totonaka campground to get ready to cross the border.   We stopped here in June last year as  it was desert hot already, too hot for comfort in our van without continuous air conditioning and they have full modern American style outlets. Now the place is packed with RVs hooked up for the winter. I’m told last Saturday they had room for three RVs to be packed in. Not everyone enjoys Mexico as we do. You can do it your way. 

We are wild camping further down the beach behind the little strip of sand you can see below. It’s ten minutes away by car and fifteen by bicycle if you need to come to town for supplies. No hookups. 

The town sprawls around the coast with resorts and marinas and gated communities catering to foreign visitors and investors but the four lane waterfront is the commercial hub. My wife’s hair stylist said she lives in Guaymas, the port city around the bay. It’s too expensive in San Carlos where foreigners are buying property. We’ve heard that story before.  

There is construction underway all the time in San Carlos. Tucson is 300 miles north on a modern four lane highway. To visit San Carlos you need a tourist card and Mexican car insurance both obtainable online. There is no requirement to get a vehicle import permit so the six hour drive requires one quick stop at immigration to get the tourist card stamped and you are on the beach in Mexico. No wonder it’s so popular. 

I read about the murders in Monterey Park and the school kids killed in the mid west. Here campers leave their gear outside, on the beach, overnight, untouched. 

Layne stopped here to buy some medications for her tooth implants. They have a sign in the pharmacy offering a long list of drugs including narcotics, no prescriptions required. 

I got my teeth cleaned at the “American Dental” office. I gave the receptionist who is fluent in English my name and phone number. Dr Juan led me to the chair and did the cleaning. $55 on my American Express no forms to fill and no disclaimers or promises not to sue. You want freedom? Mexico will put that desire to the test. 

In Mexico you are responsible for yourself. There are no guarantees  or armies of lawyers to cater to your sense of injustice. No one owes you anything. You can give it a shot but if it doesn’t work out it’s on you. Whatever it is. Some days it’s scary, others it’s annoying and some  it’s exhilarating. It’s possible to sleepwalk through life in Mexico but as an American tourist it’s not very easy to ignore the possibilities. 

For us the draw is the free camping in the wilderness that could be closed off for development at any time. San Carlos is convenient and Guaymas has Walmart and Sam’s Club and Autozone and Home Depot when you need them. But the beach is the draw. Park where you like. 

It gets muddy in the rain and noisy on Saturdays when families picnic with competing music. You have to accept a certain level of trash along with your isolation. 

At night the town twinkles across the bay. 

At our end of the beach we have one condo development and a few lights. 

I’d rather be here than Quartzsite if I were looking for an inexpensive winter home in my RV but fortunately most snowbirds seem to prefer sitting in the Arizona dust bowl. This wild camp could easily be over filled if they only knew.