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La Quebrada Cliff Divers
Posing for photos after dive.Sunday, May 3rd. We’ve been home for three weeks now. I should’ve posted our final blog sooner but stuff happens
We’re back in our “stick house” as a regular home is called, somewhat derisively, by full-time RVers. It is good to be home and that king size pillow-top mattress is wonderful. We’ve been working our butts off cleaning the truck and camper, sprucing up the yard, pulling weeds, and planting tomatoes. Our tans have faded. Life is back to normal.
As I said when I closed my last blog, how many times couldja say, ”we went to the beach today” which is basically what we did every day, except for driving days, from the time we arrived on the Pacific coast.
I described Puerto Angle, our first Pacific coast stop in my last blog. It is one of the southernmost of Mexico’s Pacific beach villages. Puerto Angle has several beaches but the only camp ground in the area is at Mexico’s only clothing optional beach. We loved Rancho Los Mangos camp ground and its managers. We stayed there for three days. I’ve already posted the nuddie photos so we won’t go there again.
From Puerto Angle’s Zipolite
La Quebrada Cliff Divers
This is the guy who been diving for seventeen years. beach, we moved on to Acapulco where we stayed at the Acapulco Trailer Park. This too, was a beautiful park. We were outside the city limits and right on the beach. We polished our tans and the roar of the surf lulled us to sleep every night. Our hosts spoke excellent English. We caught the bus into town to see the La Quebrada cliff divers perform. The day we were there seven men dived. They went individually, in twos, and in threes. Naturally, they hung around after their show to pose for pictures and collect tips. One of the divers told me he had been doing this for seventeen years.
From Acapulco, we moved northwest to Zihuatanejo to probably the most beautiful bay in all of Mexico. Stephen King fans of The Shawshank Redemption, will remember Zihautanejo as the destination of Andy Dufresne. Actually, according to a Cond’e Nast article, the movie’s lovely beach photos were shot in the Virgin Islands
In Zihua, as the locals call it, we stayed at El Mangler RV Park. There are several very nice RV Parks in the area. We liked El Mangler for its friendly staff and proximity to the beach
La Quebrada Cliff Divers
There are two divers in this photo. This is one of those times we wished we'd brought the big camera. but it is probably not the choicest park but we had free WiFi if we sat in their restaurant. Dining was optional.
We had been warned by others, and especially our hosts in Acapulco, that Mexican families all take their vacations between Palm and Easter Sundays, sometimes leaving town mid week before Palm Sunday and not returning to work until mid week after Easter Sunday. As beaches are the most popular destinations, we were advised to step it up a bit in order to be in place before the Easter holiday began so we cut our time short.
We spent a couple nights at a campground on the grounds of Hotel Playa Azul, in the state of Michoacán. Ray made friends with one of the hotel workers who spoke pretty good English. Although, we were the only RV in the park at the time, Ray’s amigo told him that they’d had quite a few Canadians but we were the first Americans that had come this year. One night while we were there a large multi-generational Mexican family came in on a bus and rented rooms in the hotel to watch Mexico play Costa Rica in a championship soccer
game on the big screen TV in the lobby. Mexico won. The family all played in the hotel pool. Again, we were so impressed by how mannerly Mexican kids are.
On our last night there, we dined in the hotel's restaurant. Our server Jose, about 20, spoke excellent English. I asked him it he learned it in school. “Yes, in Reno, Nevada.” Jose’s parents had immigrated (apparently illegally) to Reno when he was a kid. He grew up there. His dad is still there. It seems the father had used a fictitious name and as a result, has not become legalized. His mother’s paperwork was not in order either so she returned to Mexico. We don’t know how long ago that was but apparently she brought Jose’s brother with her. The brother had recently gotten into some trouble and Jose had come home to help. He had only been home a week. It was strange to him. He is an American kid. We did not talk about whether he will be able to return to the U.S. It is hard for me but I have learned to stifle my curiosity.
From Playa Azul, we stopped for one night
at Rancho Bougainvillea RV Park recently opened by a young American couple, Sandy and Cynthia from Los Angeles. Sandy has been coming down here for years to surf. They are creating a beautiful RV park overlooking a lovely beach. So far, they have been very successful. In the busy winter months, they were full most nights. On the night we stopped, we were only the second rig there. The other rig was long term and parked a long way from the restaurant. They served “cheap red & white wine” and “semi cheap red & white wine” and made us an awesome pizza. Cynthia also made me a “to die for” mojito. This was our first opportunity to take hot showers in a very long time. Being on a hilltop, the stars were brilliant but still not as abundant as we are used to in the U.S.
Next stop, Tenacatita RV Park. We only stayed two days because we were trying to stay ahead of the Semana Santa (Easter) crowds. We loved this town. We seemed to be almost the only gringos in town. The only other rig in this park was a couple from Wisconsin. We never did talk
Steve & Tommie
Full-timers and former Texans who have been living in a truck camper for six years. We kept meeting up on our drive around Mexico. This photo was taken at their campground at Zihuatanejo. to them. Our hosts, Oscar and Emma spoke excellent English. Emma has family in Houston. She goes home all the time. Emma told us that the best place in town to eat was Cato’s so we ate most of our meals there. The food was good and they let us spend long hours in their beach chairs. There was a nice snorkeling beach just north of town. I love to snorkel. Ray was a good sport. The water temperature was okay. The snorkeling was so-so.
From Tenacatita, we drove to Puerto Vallarta. Thankfully, Ray chose Puerto Vallarta RV Park. It was shady, and for the first time in at least two weeks, we had hot showers every night. The restrooms were the cleanest and most modern we had seen in Mexico. The local cops drove their police cars into the park and used the restrooms. Can't beat that kinds of security. We were close to bus stops going into town and to the marina north of town. The park did not have WiFi but for ten bucks a day our hostess would fix us up with a friend that would provide internet access. Our neighbors told us that it
was crappy service but we could walk just outside the park to a terrific restaurant with free WiFi. We were in PV for four nights. We ate at the free WiFi place twice.
Puerto Vallarta is my favorite of the big cities. Although the population is over 300,000, the city is compact and easily walkable and has excellent bus service. We did not go to Mexico and expect people to speak English but after so many weeks of barely communicating in our poquito Spanish, it is a relief that for the first time in almost three months, everybody we encountered, even the lavanderia (laundry) employees speak some English.
Our friends, Greg and Alana have a beautiful time-share condo where they escape to for two weeks every fall. A couple years ago, Greg wasn’t able to get away so I came with Alana. We passed their place on Mexico 200 coming into PV from the south. The next day, we caught the southbound bus out there. We explained to the bartender that we were not residents and asked if it was ok to have a drink. We were having such a good time visiting with the residents that I
got pretty stinko on their tasty margaritas and generous glasses of chardonnay.
Wandering around town we got to talking to Juan, who was promoting time-share tours along with peddling tequila in a downtown shop. Juan had lived illegally in San Jose for some time. It seems that “the governator” had offered a legal path to residency if folks would go home and reapply. Juan implied that Arnold reneged. Juan has married and has two little girls now and expects to remain in Mexico. As Puerto Vallarta is very beautiful, I asked him why he’d want to leave. Juan explained that food, shoes for the kids, and everything else costs almost as much in Mexico as it does in the states but that salaries are much, much lower. More than anything else we learned from this trip that it is survival and a chance for prosperity that drives people to leave this beautiful warm country to go to work at minimum wage jobs in our cities and on farms in the U.S.
On Saturday, April 4th, I did something I have long wanted to do. I went zip-lining. Sometimes it is called a canopy tour. Ray came along but
did not participate. He said he had gotten enough of this type of stuff in “basic training”. We rode for about a half an hour up a dusty road in the back of a truck to a place where our hosts had strung 15 or so cables from place to place. Our butts were harnessed in and we each had a cable clamp. We were issued gloves to serve as our brake. After a few minutes of instruction, away we went. One young woman forfeited her $60.00 dollar fee after she saw the heights. A couple other gals dropped out after completing a few lines. I guess it could be considered dangerous but no one had any serious injuries. We got kinda jammed up and one gal plowed into me as I was getting off one line. She apologized profusely because should have braked. Another guy got his hand stuck. We all had nick names. The cute girl was "Barbie", etc. They called me "mamacita" because I was the oldest. One of our guides, “Papacita” sort of took me under his wing. He had lived in Salinas, California. After we returned one of our guides told Ray that his mamacita
was “a dare devil”. I’m not sure about that but I enjoyed getting a bird’s eye view.
Sunday, March 5th. Today was a long drive. We had hoped to spend a few days at Guayabitos where our amigo Joe has recently bought property. We could see that Guayabitos’ beaches were muy bonita but we could not find our way to the campgrounds, probably because of the number of tour buses in town. Guayabitos is a very popular destination for Mexicans. This is why we were particularly disappointed that we could not find a place to stay.
From the time we left Puerto Vallarta, at least every 20th southbound car had California license plates. Large families with luggage racks on their cars heading home to spend the Easter holiday with their families. One car had a mattress set tied to its top.
The sight of a fortyish man with a humongous suitcase along the road in one small village brought tears to my eyes. Clearly the man had been gone a very long time or was bringing a lot of gifts home to his family.
Because we couldn’t find a place to stay in Guayabitos, we drove
on to Mar Rosa campground in Mazatlan. It is a nice park. We had stayed here in December 2001. At that time, all of the beach front sites were occupied by folks who eschew northern winters and commit to spending four months here at Mar Rosa RV Park The park charges more for those spaces. This time they were all empty. Our host told us that the front row snowbirds had all left about two weeks before. There were were about half a dozen norteamericanos in there when we arrived. A few Mexican tent camping families joined us. They are friendly. In public restrooms, I am used to people averting their eyes and ignoring each other. Here, in the banos, everybody speaks.
From Mazatlan, we drove north to San Carlos which is just a short day’s drive from the Nogales border and mostly just a gringo town. The town sits on a pretty bay. Lots of norteamericanos keep their boats at the marina. There are several campgrounds in the area. We chose Totonaka for its proximity to restaurants. For our last supper in Mexico we had huge fried shrimp crusted with coconut and some pretty awesome margaritas.
We
crossed the border at Nogales. Crossing took over an hour and a half. The guards told us that it would have taken much less time had it not been the Easter holiday weekend. U.S. border guards confiscated our two avocadoes and a package of ham but ignored our beef and chicken products.
Some conclusions: The trip was easier and less hassle than we had expected. And, for the most part, the roads were pretty good. Of course, we would have gotten a lot more out of the trip had we been able to speak Spanish but we had no trouble getting gas, food and lodging with our minimal Spanish. We found the Mexican people to be warm, friendly, helpful, patient and honest. The fact that we are “gringos” did not seem to make any difference. At no time did we feel threatened or even uncomfortable.
We were in Mexico for ten weeks and put 5200 miles on our truck. Lodging/camping was our biggest expense, costing about $1150.00 or approximately $17.00 per night, about half the price of a U.S. campground. Our fuel costs were about $900.00. Tolls were an additional $225.00. We had brought along quite a bit
of packaged and pre-cooked frozen food, not knowing how isolated the campgrounds would be. We brought quite a bit of it home with us. We ate out often. With a nice dinner and drinks for two at a table overlooking the water usually costing less than $30.00 with tip, it was hard to eat in the camper. When we did eat “at home” we usually bought fresh veggies and made salads.
It is too early to make plans, but we are already talking about “if” we go back to Mexico next winter, what areas we will visit. Just in case, I plan to spend the upcoming months learning to speak better Espanol.
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