Day 14: San Carlos
Woke up and decided to get a bite before driving the shortest distance in a long time – 20km to San Carlos. We walked down the road 1 minute until we found a good looking restaurant. There was no one else there, and the man there looked rather confused when we asked for breakfast. He seated us all the same and it was then that we realized it was a seafood restaurant that didn’t have breakfast on the menu at all. He said we could have whatever we wanted, so we asked for eggs. Huevos rancheros for Katie and Huevos Mexicano for me. We weren’t expeting much. When it came, we were amazed. We started with the customary chips and salsa, then the plates of eggs were massive along with beans and freshly made hasbrowns on the side. Halfway through they brought out garlic bread and then the manager brought out freshly squeezed lemonade on-the-house as he saw he hadn’t ordered anything to drink. All this for 50 pesos a plate ($4.12 US). It was a great start to the morning.
After some trouble getting US dollars from the HSBC, we drove the 20km to San Carlos and found the campground with no problems. We made coffee in the Bialetti and Katie had oatmeal as it had been a few hours since breakfast. We sunscreened up and walked the 1 minute to the ocean – waterfront that we had all to ourselves. (It seems that tourism is at a big low in Mexico at the moment. Maybe it’s not the season for it, maybe it’s Mexico’s bad rep.)
After swimming, showering, and re-applying dollops of sunscreen we took a stroll down the main road of San Carlos looking for a restaurant. We walked about an hour and ended up going to a restaurant right across from the campsite.
We ordered the pescado frito (fried fish) as we’re still in fishing country so we figured the seafood would be very fresh. We had decided on this restaurant over one other because the amazing price on margaritas – 30 pesos ($2.40). It also had an amazing view – literally right on the waterfront. High tide probably hits the bottom of the building, but we were sitting a few stories above sea level. We ordered a pescado ceviche tostada as an appetizer (tostada refers to a toasted tortilla and I think ceviche is when the fish is “cooked” by steeping in an acidic marinade.) Katie was a bit sketched out, but I reminded her that we eat sushi all the time (raw fish – not even soaked in acid) so we decided to give the ceviche a go. It turned out not bad, though we probably wouldn’t get it again. The fish had a pickled-type taste to it. The entree turned out to be amazing. It was a massive fish just for the both of us. We realized half way through the meal that the fish actually had 2 sides and we were blown away by the amount of food it was. We ordered a strawberry margaritta “con dos popotes” (“with two straws”) for comparison to the lime. We decided that the strawberry was too sweet and we preferred the lime, though weren’t so keen on the salted rim.
Our whole fish, before eating
Only the skeleton and head remains!
We walked the one minute back to camp just after watching sunset from the restaurant. Now it’s bed time!
Published on July 31st, 2010 | | No Comments | | Posted by Andrew |