Raymondo y Marsia's 2012 Mexico Trip

---

Thursday, 26 January. We’ve spent the past four days in Rincon de Guayabitos’s Paraiso del Pescador trailer park. This small, immaculately clean, attractive park is constantly full of regulars who winter here every year. They are like a large family – everybody knows everybody. We only got a space because the folks who occupied our site had to return home for emergency reasons the day we pulled in. Almost all of the “residents” are Canadian. There are only a couple of other Americans. Everybody is friendly and made us welcome. Each evening at 5:00 we gather on the large patio area overlooking the beach where everybody places their chair in a circle, women on one side, men on the other and play In The Box, a dice game where players chip in one peso each (about 7 cents). Ray had beginner’s luck the first night. His windfall, a whopping 25 pesos (or $1.92). Fun but clearly not a high stakes game!

Guayabitos is a wonderful little beach resort town popular with Canadian snowbirds and Mexicans on Bahia de (Bay of) Jaltemba. Because of our location and surrounding hills, we cannot watch either the sunrise or sunset. We only knew of this place because one of our American Legion buddies has property here on which he hopes to build his retirement home. This friend, Joe, is currently at Stanford Hospital recovering from a double lung transplant.

Joe had recommended we visit his favorite watering hole, Crazy Nellie’s, owned by a Canadian woman. Nellie has taken the season off and leased the place to Phear and his partner Ollie from Colorado. Phear, a Cambodian refugee from the days following the Vietnam War, and Ollie are now serving delicious Cambodian food from recipes Phear learned from his mom. We’ve spent our time here prowling the beach and streets, shopping and enjoying fish tacos, seafood burritos, licuados (non-alcoholic, think Jamba Juice), margaritas, and micheladas (sort of a bloody Mary made with beer).

We’d noticed while walking along the beach that this resort lacks the usual beach bars advertising Happy Hour and cheap beer. According to our AAA guide, local law prohibits alcohol sales on the sand. Who knew?

Ed and Michelle moved north from Puerto Vallarta to join us. Unable to get in here, they settled in at a beautiful little campground called Villas El Dorado where their camper is surrounded by foliage similar to Hawaii’s. We’ll head south without them as Ed is suffering from a sinus infection which he has been unable shake despite doses of antibiotics. We will be moving slowly as we hope to spend a few days at each of several locations along the west coast including Puerto Vallarta which they have already “done”. Ed and Michelle will catch up with us when he is better.

---