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Published: January 24th 2012
Starting our 2012 Mexican blog has been delayed due to the availability and quality of internet connections at most of our recent campgrounds. As it is quite time consuming, we’ve postponed blogging in favor of more fun activities. I’m sorry that this first entry is so long. (As we enter photos chronologically and have posted more photos than text, most photos do not appear near the corresponding text. You will find the majority of our pictures below the text.)
The intent of our blog is to inspire others to visit Mexico and Central America. If you don’t come you don’t know what you are missing. Mexico is warm, sunny, friendly, and inexpensive and has some of the most gorgeous beaches and the best food in the world. And, most of all, it is totally accessible to norteamericanos who want to vacation with their pets. Many people think Mexico is unsafe. Crime almost never involves tourists. We know of only two semi serious incidents involving RVers in the four years we've been coming down here and even they are suspicious. Every incident involving norteamericanos is reported and rehashed on
www.rv.net's Mexico & South America forum which we consistently follow.
For those of you who have followed our travels for the past few years, we are sad to say that our beloved cat, Furgie, is only making this trip in spirit. She passed away on 1 May at the age of 19. The Furg came to us just after we became empty nesters and traveled with us north to Alaska and south to Panama. She flew across the country numerous times but most of all she loved boating. We always said that Furgie introduced us to the nicest people. She walked on a leach and we carried her in a doggie pouch. Many people stopped to talk to us just because Furgie attracted their attention. As Furgie was a lovely purebred Himalayan, people from far-a-way places such as Korea and Denmark regularly asked to take her picture.
So it was with much sadness, we loaded our camper LunaSea on Rambo, our 2004 Dodge dually and headed south of the border with a group of three other like minded truck camper couples. We had travelled with our leaders Paul and Terry and their dog Tomas from British Colombia last year. Tomas is a Mexi-dog they picked up on Baja a
few years ago. Joining our group are Ed and Michelle and their dog Red from Apple Valley, Ca and Merv and Doreen and their dog Finn also from British Columbia. Most of us met up at an RV park and celebrated New Year’s Eve in Palm Springs. We rendezvou’d with Merv and Doreen at Organ Pipe National Park in Arizona on 1 January and crossed the border at Lukeville on 2 January. This is a small crossing and very swift. We spent our first night in Hermosillo, the second in San Carlos where we gorged on shrimp then travelled south to Huatabampito where we stayed two nights, enjoyed the beach and dined with fellow campers.
(There is much to see along the road from the border to Puerto Vallarta. Since we have traveled and blogged about this route in past years we will not repeat ourselves. New readers may find more about this area by scanning below this entry to our blogs of 2011, 10 and 09.)
It was a short drive to our next stop Celestino RV Resort. The campground was pretty crummy but that night we observed an amazing phosphorescent phenomena sometimes called a “red tide”.
None of the eleven couples camped there had ever seen such a thing. Sadly, none of us had a camera of sufficient quality to capture the moment. Attached is a similar you tube video filmed in San Diego. It takes a few minutes to load so please be patient.
Our wave show was greener than this one and lasted over two hours. The full moon and clear sky may have contributed to the show.
Saturday, 7 January, we continued our journey south. Merv and Doreen stayed behind at Celestino. It was hard to say “good-bye”. Paul and Terry don’t like big cities, so they headed further south to Teacapan (pronounced tee ah cah pan) to wait for us. Ed and Michelle, Ray and I wanted to spend some time in Mazatlan.
Along the way to Mazatlan, we passed hundreds of acres of vegetables. With exception of the cute baby corn, the rest were too immature to identify. We passed dozens of acre size green houses in which we think berries are being grown. We also passed a small crop of blue agave. We all know what that is grown for! An article in a Mazatlan tourist paper
says Mexico produces 40 million liters of tequila a year and 90% is exported to the U.S. Mexico’s population is 112 million. The U.S. population is about 300 million which would make it seem that Mexicans seldom drink the stuff – yeah, right?
As soon as we were settled in at Mar Rosa (Mazatlan’s premier RV Park), we renewed our acquaintance with Cindy, the proprietress of Twisted Mama’s. We believe her bartenders create the best margaritas in the world. (Trip advisor claims that Twisted Mama’s are the best in Mazatlan.) The recipe is described in our Mexico 2011 blog. Michelle may have tied Twisted Mama’s record of eight. Ray and I left after two drinks for me and three or four for him to have dinner at our favorite beach side restaurant, Chile Peppers, where I enjoyed a shrimp dish served in a molcajete (a screaming hot three legged lava rock bowl) and a sissy drink called a dirty monkey – think pina colada with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.
Sunday, while Michelle recuperated, Ray, Ed and I walked the malecon (seawall) in search of the perfect street taco we’d read about. As Ed is an avid sports
fan, we stopped for liquid refreshments along the way so he could keep track of the scores. All of the bars had American football games on but we did not find the perfect taco stand. Instead, Ed found a place serving succulent fresh oysters and Ray and I found nirvana in the empanadas and ceveche.
Monday, 9 January, we moved south to Teacapan where we camped on a truly magnificent peninsula with a west facing beach. Villas Onac’s bathrooms were clean and the showers were hot. They have a huge and lovely but unheated pool. Many RV’ers winter here year after year. We did our laundry, hung it to dry and walked the beach, three miles the first day then our neighbors told us that there was a palapa restaurant about a mile past where we had turned around so the following day we struck out like Louis and Clark and found not the Pacific but Pacifico – the cerveza served at the tiny bar four miles away…eight miles round trip barefoot on a lovely beach to find a beer…..well, its exercise. Between this peninsula and the mainland, there is an estuary where mama dolphins come to have their
babies. Our neighbors say they often see the dolphins and sometime whales frolicking nearby but, disappointingly none came out to entertain us this week.
Thursday, 12 January, we moved eastward to Laguna Santa Maria Del Oro where we camped inside a long extinct volcanic crater with a warm water pond below. This is a popular resort destination for Mexican families. There are numerous restaurants and cabanas for rent. We arrived before the weekend crowds. We took pictures of the tallest bougainvillea any of us have ever seen. Our camper was shaded by a lovely flowering tree which our amigos said was called an orchid tree. We ate some great food and on Saturday we all enjoyed a boat tour of the lake.
Sunday, 15 January, we traveled east to Etzatlan where we three are the only campers. Ray and I walked across the road to visit the neighborhood bar, El Caribe, which we’d noticed on our way in. El Caribe looked just like a joint out of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. The young female bartender wanted to be friendly but spoke no English. Probably nervous, she spoke to us rapidly in Spanish. She showed us the afghan
she was knitting and called our attention to her slightly protruding tummy. We gathered that she was five months along had two ninos. Anyway, before we’d finished our beer and conversation an over made-up fiftyish woman came up to the bar. We settled our tab, gave our new amiga (female friend) 200 pesos por su bebe. She was very appreciative and came out from behind the bar to hug us before we said hasta luego. The next a.m. our campground host, Bonnie, came by to meet us and collect the rent. She was shocked that I went to El Caribe. “Those women are prostitutes”. Heck, if I’d known that, I’d stayed for another beer to watch the action.Monday, 16 January, we drove to the nearby town of Tequila for a tour of the Herradura Distillery. My Let’s Go Mexico guide book (published in 2008) says that there are a total of 16 distilleries in Tequila including Jose Cuervo and Sauza. We chose Herradura because Paul had visited it last year and loved the beautiful old 1870 facility. They produce el Jimador blanco which is Ray’s and my preferred blend for margaritas. The distilling operation
was recently bought out by Jack Daniels but the original family still owns the hacienda. (In Mexico to be called a hacienda, a ranch has to be fully self sustainable.)
This hacienda still houses former employees and their families who have nowhere else to go. Currently, 18 of their 21 bungalows are occupied. The oldest occupant is a 92 year old widow of a former employee.
Our guide Raul spoke perfect English. He told us that his mother, a widow, had married a Mexican American and that they had moved to Dayton, Ohio where he entered high school not speaking English. It was a struggle but he loved the snow and cold weather. His mother did not. They returned after three years. His stepdad returns to the U.S. for seasonal construction and agricultural work. Raul is currently attending college and majoring in a tourism program and hopes to someday replace his boss coordinating events held at the distillery.
The tour was interesting. We were able to follow the process from heating the agave cores (called pinas) thru fermentation and early testing. We did not get to observe distilling and bottling operations. Herradura employs over
2700 people, many seasonal. Women work in chemical, office, bottling and in the fields. It takes eight to ten years for blue agave to mature. Only men, work as jimadors. These are the guys who actually chop/harvest the pina from which the sugars are extracted to be processed into tequila. This is back-braking work. Jimador means to grunt. The tour concluded in a section of the old distillery (closed in 1962) where we had the opportunity to sample all of the blends produced by Herradura. An informative website:
http://www.ianchadwick.com/tequila/production.htm Raul somewhat debunked the Mazatlan tourist paper article that stating that 90%!o(MISSING)f the 40 million liters of tequila Mexico produces each year are exported to the U.S. Mexico exports 70%!o(MISSING)f its production and 90%!o(MISSING)f this goes to the U.S. Now, that makes sense! Incidentally, export tequila is 40%!a(MISSING)lcohol (80 proof) while the stuff they keep for themselves is 42-55%! (MISSING)
Tuesday, 17 January, we drove further eastward to the town of Villa Corona known for its hot springs. The town’s only RV park, Parque Acuatico Chimulco has several pools heated by under ground springs. This is an absolutely beautiful RV park with clean, shaded spaces, and
free laundry facilities. Here our camper is shaded by a huge tree clearly belonging to the rubber tree family but this tree has a loose canopy, smaller leaves and is lighter in color but is one of the most beautiful non-flowering trees I’ve ever seen. All of the pools are emptied daily and refilled with warm soft water. They do not use chemicals. We guess that the water temperature is nearly 90 degrees.
As soon as we settled in Ray and I set out to explore the town, starting first with pollo asado (a small whole barbequed chicken) at a street side restaurant with tables and chairs placed in the dirt. This feast along with rice, salad and a couple Modelos cost us 110 pesos (or about $8.50). We were stuffed but set out to explore the town where we found the city center and zocalo (central park) and a beautiful inglesia (church). We topped off the day with an evening soak and a glass of wine with our amigos.
Wednesday and Thursday, we enjoyed the heated pools and worked on our tans. What a life! Thursday, was our 49th anniversary. They roll up the sidewalks during the
week so our group trooped over to the nearest taco stand for some out of this world tacos where we shared the one table with a young Mexican family.
Friday, 20 January, we split with our amigos and moved further eastward to the Lake Chapala area. We passed hundreds of acres of farmland. We wonder what percentage of this produce is sold locally and much fruta y verduras (fruit and vegetables) are shipped to the Estados Unidos (U.S.)
Roca Azul campground is about two miles from the town of Jocotepec. (Hoe coe teh pec). We met some of our new neighbors, including Ken and Kris, retired teachers from Northern California who live full time in a truck camper similar to ours. After we settled in, we walked into town over a bumpy cobblestone road, explored the town and enjoyed a cerveza across from the Zocalo where we could observe the comings and goings of the locals.
This morning we enjoyed the best showers since leaving home with plentiful agua caliente (hot water). We then walked back into town to catch the bus to the city of Chapala. It and the neighboring city of Ajijic (Ah hee heek)
are both situated along the shores of Lake Chapala (approx 50 miles long and 12 miles wide), the largest fresh water lake in Mexico. Though this is high desert at over 5000 feet, cooling air from the lake gives this region one of the best climates in the world. These two villages are the most popular destinations in Mexico for ex-patriots. An estimated 20,000 norteamericanos live here full or part time. We visited the American Legion, not much going on there, and explored the town. Chapala is very pretty, touristy I guess, but since the tourists are almost all retirees living in homes and condos it is unlike beach resorts popular with young people on spring break.
We couldn't inspect the city’s cathedral because there was a quinceanera in progress. I don’t know much about these events but in the Spanish culture this is a big deal. The ceremony celebrates a young girl (15) becoming a woman. We've read that this occasion is almost as important in a young woman’s life as her marriage. This young lady was wearing a turquoise gown similar to a 60’s prom dress.
We had been looking for horseradish to make cocktail sauce
to serve with the kilo (over two pounds) of large frozen shrimp we'd bought from a street vendor a couple weeks ago for the paltry sum of $7.50. Horseradish clearly is not a common Mexican staple but we assumed that if it was available anywhere in this country it would be here in Gringoland. Our campground neighbors recommended we shop at Super Lake in Ajijic. This store had six varieties of horseradish along with an amazing supply of other specialty items such as three sizes of caper berries and tahini sauce which are not normally found in Mexican stores where pickles and peanut better are foreign,. We could live in the Lake Chapala area. Someday we may fly in and spend a few months.
Today, 22 January, we drove back to the coast. The 250 miles took us over eight hours. Mexico has two types of roads, cuota (toll) which are as good as in the U.S. (mostly better than California’s) and libre (free). In most areas one has a choice. Today, we did not. The libre was well maintained and the traffic not too heavy but we were slowed by having to drive thru the villages, entertaining but
the pavement ends at the edge of town. Traffic is slowed by topes (toe-pays - (speed bumps)) and cobblestone streets.
The drive through the mountains was at times very scenic then the terrain flattened to plains with cattle ranches. At Puerto Vallarta, we headed north through tropical vegetation often creating tunnels over the road to the touristy beach town of Rincon de Guayabitos. We got the last space at the beach side RV park Paraiso del Pescador. This is a great park, right in town, with friendly English speaking management, clean restrooms, hot showers, and great wi-fi.
We’ll spend the next few days in humid heaven. We are the only Americans in the park. All others are Canadian, mostly from B.C. The neighbors helped Ray maneuver into our tight space and invited us to join the evening get-together. We declined in favor of setting out to explore the town in hopes of finding a sports bar for Ray to catch the last of the playoffs. Not finding such a bar along the main drag, we topped off the night with a semi-healthy margarita pizza, our first pizza since we hit the road in December.
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Johnnette Reed
non-member comment
Fun!
It looks like you guys are having a fun time exploring,and seeing new things.I will check in in a couple of weeks to see were you guys are then.Enjoy and keep up your travel blog.