We finally made it out of the mountains and back onto fairly flat road. We rejoiced for about 5 minutes, then we were stopped at another road block. We weren't expecting this one. We slowed as we drove over the vibradores. There was a semi truck to our right. An agent crossed in front of us holding what looked like a very large motorized flame thrower. Huh? He revved it up. It began spewing a huge cloud of smoke. The agent fogged the entire semi trailer and axles with something acrid and choking. I immediately rolled up all the windows and turned off the A/C.

We made our way through the cloud to the checkpoint. A man asked us something in Spanish. We gave him a blank look. The dogs barked. He asked us again. We gave him a blank look. The dogs barked. I finally recognized the word fruitas and a light bulb went on. We were at the fruit check! We said, “no fruit, no fruit”. The man nodded and asked us our destination and the purpose of our trip. We told him, and he raised the barrier so we could pass.

Now we were so close to Mazatlan, we fancied we could smell the ocean. We followed the signs to Mazatlan and then to Centro Historico. At that point I realized that in the series of crises that gave us a late start on Saturday, I had failed to print the emails from our realtor. I had no contact phone number, no address, and no directions. All the emails were on my home computer. We thought for a minute that we could drive around Centro Historico and perhaps spot the sign, but we were mistaken.

It was time to come up with a plan. Chuck had the idea to head toward the Golden Zone and find one of the larger hotels where we would probably find someone who spoke fluent English and could help us. It was a good idea, but it was wrong.

We stopped at a hotel, and I went in to ask. The person behind the counter did not speak English. I was able to get a phone book from him, but as I flipped through the yellow pages, I realized I had no idea what the Spanish word for real estate is. I smiled and thanked him and returned to the car. Time for plan B.

McDonald's has free wireless internet access, so we pulled into the nearest McDonald's and parked. We pulled out a laptop and got on the internet from the parking lot. I looked at the car clock. It was 3:15 pm. The office was open until 5, so were were okay. But wait, Mazatlan is an hour different. It was 4:15. Holy crap.

I fired off an email to the office to let them know I was in town and on my way and hastily scribbled down the address and phone number. We looked for a payphone, and, in fact, found several, but none of them actually took money. They all required a Telmex card. We didn't have one of those and had wasted a half hour looking for a phone. 4:45.

Out of desperation, we stopped at Vista Tours. I went inside with my scrap of paper and practically pleaded, “does anyone here speak English?” The nicest man I have ever met stepped forward and asked how he could help me.

I explained my situation and showed him the address. He knew exactly where it was. His eyes scanned my paper and he saw the phone number. He asked if that was the phone number for the real estate office. When I said yes, he picked up a phone and called them for me. He let them know we were in town and on our way to the office. Then he went to a shelf and got a map of the city. He traced the exact route I needed to take to the office, including the one way streets where he drew little arrows for me.

The last thing he wrote on the map I didn't quite understand. He looked at me and said, “here I have written the address as we do it in Mexico. If you get lost on the way, you can just show this to anyone and they will understand where you want to go.” I thanked him repeatedly. And then some more.

Back in the truck, I felt much better. The office staff knew we were coming and they were waiting for us. We would have a place to stay. The directions were easy to follow and we went straight there without a problem. We got our keys and were following the agent, Marvin, to the rental. I looked at the clock: 5:20. Whew. Then realization dawned. It's not an hour later in Mazatlan. It's and hour earlier. It was 3:20.