If I’m being honest, Mazatlan has never been our favorite city. It is widely popular and does offer long, stunning beaches, but for a variety of reasons, we have never embraced this Pacific coastal town.

However, after braving the Devil’s Backbone and months spent at high elevations, far from our beloved beaches, I was more than ready to simply bask in the margarita glow from my beach chair.

This time around we were in Mazatlan to clean up, warm up, and ready ourselves for the overnight ferry to Baja. The last months had been spent at elevations above 6000 feet and we were looking for sun, sand, and sunsets over the ocean. On this, Mazatlan delivered.

We planned to save money and stay off the beach, but our road-weariness brought us back to Mar Rosa RV Park. We had spent a couple of days here the year previous and, while not cheap even by US standards, it was beachfront and walking distance to restaurants and grocery stores. Sign us up.

As the universe of world travelers goes, our favorite evening in Mazatlan was spent in the company of fellow Oregonians. KP and Taylor once lived around 30 miles from us in Oregon. Somehow, in the midst of busy lives and all of us preparing to escape the 9-5 world as we knew it, we never managed to reconnect in there. But, of course, it seemed to work out perfectly to meet up with them in old town Mazatlan. Why not right?

We gobbled down burgers, drank decent beer and good wine, and spent the evening listening to Taylor sing along with the band at a popular old town restaurant. As we all chatted about life on the road and life back in Oregon, it struck us anew just how crazy this world can be. How, in several years of planning between us, along with some mutual traveling friends, did we never manage to reconnect back home? And yet, even with a few hours spent together, we never managed to get a picture of them!

Life on the road is a mystery and a blessing. While not all days are easy, there is often an easy flow of yeses. What might seem like a flawed plan while stuck in a routine seems like just another day of adventure out there in the world.

We parted paths after that one brief meeting. Them to head inland and us to head to Baja, but finally connecting with them nearly 16 months after the first attempt, in a different country and a different life, just felt right. While we are still not in love with Mazatlan, the city, this time around she allowed us to connect in a new and meaningful way.