Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 52 - Feb. 16, 2012 Puerto Escondido - Playa Ventura

Shortly after parking, a young couple from Acapulco in small van parked behind us. Looks like we started something! A dog from the hotel next door came to greet us. We called him Spot (I know, not too original) but he hung out by the RV loving the attention we gave him (and the tortillas).

The disco down the street started up at 10 pm and went until 3 am. Even with ear plugs, neither of us slept well. Tobey had met some Texans who were parked right behind the bar and they had been camping there for five weeks so far. They said the music is every Wednesday through Saturday nights. I’m sorry, you can call me crazy, but I can’t imagine trying to sleep through that for more than one night, let alone four nights a week, for five weeks. This morning we both decided we didn’t want to stay in Puerto Escondido, so we packed up and got on the road.

MEX200 heads inland from Puerto Escondido and climbs into the hills. We passed areas with lots of cattle, sheep, and farms. Papayas, watermelons, and corn all seem to be grown here, as well as bananas, lemons and limes.  We topped out at an elevation about 1550’ before we started our descent back to the coast.

MEX 200 winds it way around the hills through lots of little towns filled with topes so it was slow going today.  In Rio Grande, we noticed the 3-wheeled taxis were again quite prevalent.

Just before we reached Santiago Pinotepa National, we saw a waterfalls and decided to check it out. We were surprised when we turned off the road and saw a HUGE 5th wheel trailer and truck from Maryland. After hiking down the hill to see the falls, we spent quite a while visiting with Bonnie & Rich about their travels with their two boys before we were back on the road.

About 15 miles past Marquelia we turned down a 7 km paved road to Playa Ventura for the night. We had read that you could park by some of the restaurants there. We didn’t see any restaurants that had much potential, but we saw a small road between a house and hotel. We pulled in and asked a young man who was working on the lawn if we could park here for the night and he gave us the okay. The house is owned by Julio, from Switzerland. He has lived here for 16 years.

Spot enjoyed the sunset with us, then we told him goodnight. Tobey is tired tonight. We drove 176 miles and without much sleep last night.

GPS 16.54604°N, 98.93269°W