We had a second quick stay at B&B Casa Juarez on our stop back in La Paz to get the truck window replaced. The parts actually did arrive on that Monday, 12 days after they were ordered. After getting the window replaced and the car washed (Nina was bitter because she’d come to enjoy drawing pictures in the filth), we took our newly minted tourist cards down to the Banjercito at the ferry dock and paid our car import tax. We also booked tickets on the next day’s Baja Ferries sailing to Mazatlan. There is only one way to transport a dog on Baja Ferries, at least on the ship we were on, and that is in a crate locked in a small room with the other dogs. We felt so bad for Ted. It took several stops and calls on Monday to find a crate large enough for him (and it was still a bit cramped, but he fit OK). It was also pricey! $2400 pesos. Ouch.
The ferry was much nicer than we expected. You start the boarding process around 5:30 or 6:00pm and it pulls out of port at 8:30pm. There was a kids play area that delighted Nina to no end, and a couple of coin-operated little “rides” in a car or on a motorcycle. She loved it.
Dinner was served in a cafeteria immediately upon boarding and it was totally acceptable. Our private room was nice – we sprung for the nicest of the non-VIP rooms because the upgrade fee was negligible. It had 4 single beds in bunk-bed style that folded down from the walls, a little “patio” (in quotes because it was tiny and totally closed in so useless, really), a TV/DVD combo (they will lend you 2 DVDs with your room), and a bathroom with bathtub/shower/sink/toilet.
The ferry reservation people had referred to the boat as “new” but there were indications that it was just remodeled, not new. For example, there was a large, inoperable ~70’s-era radio in our room with Chinese markings on the knobs which had been over-stickered with Korean markings. This boat had been around. But it was remodeled quite comfortably.
We all had trouble falling asleep – Nina due to pure excitement, and Dmitri and myself due to the novelty of having an English-language movie available to watch. Dmitri got to go visit Ted at 10pm and midnight. These were the only allowable times. At midnight they actually let the dog owners take their animals out of the locked room for a little leg stretch.
It had been a pretty short night when the sun shown in and Nina woke up spewing the words “kids area, kids area, kids area!”. At least she was in a good mood. We groggily got ourselves dressed and began the disembarkation process which, yes, included a couple of visits to the kids area. Thankfully the coffee was free – tips requested. There was also a sweet kind of donut-bread thing available for a breakfast snack.
None of us were pleased about the blistering heat that welcomed us in Mazatlan, except Ted, who was so happy to be out of that crate he would have bounded around on the surface of the sun.
Nina and I waited as long as possible to leave the air conditioning on the boat. Only one human – the driver – is allowed to be in the car for both embarkation and debarkation. So Nina and I took the bags and met Dmitri and Ted who were in the car pretty shortly after debarkation. We read it can take up to an hour for the driver to meet the rest of the party but for us it was quick – probably because Nina and I lingered in the A/C for so long.
We were hungry, so we immediately stopped at a nearby large restaurant on the water that Dmitri had read about from other ferry travelers. It was OK but not worthy of the online praise, and they were serving a buffet style brunch. The heat, hunger, short night of sleep, and separation from the kids area had Nina in a world-class meltdown. We’d just been seated when a gal with 2 dogs Dmitri had met at the 10pm and midnight dog visits on the ferry walked up to the same restaurant and joined us. She was a French Canadian making her way down to Sayulita. She got front row seats for the meltdown! Just as Dmitri and I were contemplating ditching the kid with the French Canadian and making a run for it, they closed the buffet and brought our check.
The mood for all 4 of us immediately improved when we climbed back in the air conditioned car and started making our way towards San Blas. Nina got a nap. Ted got reassured that he was not being abandoned in a crammed crate on a boat with a bunch of whiney, barking dogs. Dmitri and I got a touch of sanity restored.
Loco Dirty Familia 
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