February 28, 2018 - Acapulco Trailer Park to Playa Cayaquitos, Mexico

After leaving the RV park this morning we made a stop at Sam’s Club to pick up water and a few grocery items. What a fiasco!! You have to pay to use the parking lot at the shopping center where it is located and finding an access point that didn’t have wires hanging too low over the entrance had us making a couple U-turns before getting into the lot. Ticket in hand, we made our purchases, then got it validated for a discounted price of 5 pesos for our 30 minutes. When we got to the exit to give the guard our ticket, he wanted another 20 pesos because we were “big.” No deal. It was not posted that large vehicles had to pay more, so we stood our ground. He kept trying to get us to pay more and cars were lining up behind us wanting to exit. It was a bit of a standoff, but he realized we weren’t going to give, so he made a call and finally raised the barricade and let us exit. If had been posted we would have gladly paid more. It was the principle of him trying to get one over on us.

We had to make a couple U-turns to get back to the MEX200D toll road that bypasses most of Acapulco. That was a mess. I gave Tobey the wrong instructions and had us going the wrong direction on a one-way road. Fortunately, there was a cut-through road almost immediately so we may not be the first ones to make the mistake at the intersection. As we were following the road around Acapulco we were supposed to turn onto MEX95. Well, the exit was closed for construction and no signs for a detour. We ended up at a toll booth that would make us go at least 40km out of our way and then turn around and come back. We explained our dilemma to the toll taker and he had a policeman stop the traffic while we backed up and made a turn through traffic cones and get onto our road from the other direction! We had to wonder if other people knew about how to negotiate the road closure or just make the long detour!

We finally made it around Acapulco and got back on the MEX200 north toward our destination. The free road passes through agricultural areas and many small villages. One farmer was moving things in his pony cart across the highway.We went by lots of houses with piles of coconuts stacked in their yards.This is a grove of small mango trees. Many of them get to be 50-60 feet tall. They are loaded with mangos which are just starting to ripen.I wanted to hijack this truck which was filled with mangos!This is how some of the highways look with trash littering the side of the road. It makes me appreciate Lady Byrd Johnson’s “Keep America Beautiful” campaign in the 1960s!We stopped in San Luis de la Loma for lunch. Tobey tried the Burrito Mexicana and I had tacos. His was huge – two burritos for $60 pesos! (about $3.50 USD).We are camped at Playa Cayaquitos where we stayed six years ago. After getting settled we had a nice walk on the beach.We had dinner at the restaurant right behind us tonight and they said we can stay here for free. They were having a big birthday celebration for the lady in the flowered dress. She is the stepmom to the man in yellow, Juan Carlos. He spoke English and invited us to join the festivities. He and his co-worker spoke English and we spent more than an hour visiting with them. In addition to the dinner we ordered, they gave us chicken mole and rice, ceviche, horchata, and birthday cake for dessert! It is a much needed break after our Acapulco experience and we felt very welcome!

February 27, 2018 - Playa Ventura - Diamante Trailer Park, Just south of Acapulco, Mexico

We took an early morning walk on the beach an we spotted several large crabs on the beach and three turtle carcasses. The beach was dirty – strewn with plastic cups and bottles, and so was the area around the palapa where we camped last night. That is one of the things that we have a hard time wrapping our heads around – why do the Mexican people just throw their trash everywhere – especially when the landscape is so beautiful? We have a hard time finding good places to leave our trash and recycling is practically non-existent here.

We weren't too excited about this beach so we decided to go ahead and travel north. As we headed back through the village/town of Playa Ventura, we went by a place where a man had been spreading out coconut shells to dry. They use them for fire fuel.One of the things we have noticed on this trip is that many of the locals are burning the brush along the roads to keep the vegetation back. Some areas look like widespread burn areas for several miles and we wondered if the fires got out of control. We passed many areas where smoke filled the air.One little town we went through was selling watermelons. They were the roundest looking watermelons we have ever seen!We stopped in San Marcos for lunch. I had the pollo asado (grilled chicken) and Tobey had carne (beef) and pollo asado. It was a nice change after having so much seafood! There was so much food that we took most of mine “para llevar” (to go).The meals came with tortillas, beans and two salsas. The light green salsa, “salsa verde” was really good, so we got that to go also.We continued to the Diamante Trailer Park, just south of Acapulco, Mexico for the night. It is not on the beach and is quite a large complex. Most of the people are from Quebec, Canada and come for the winter. Several of the spots have permanent structures with outdoor kitchens and living areas and their RVs parked on the side. Because we don’t need electric hookups we negotiated the price down from $340 pesos to $200 pesos for the night ($10.50 USD) for the night and are parked in one of the “less desirable” spots! It’s okay and works for us.

After getting settled, we took the motorcycle and headed over to Puerto Marques, a small Acapulco suburb, about 10 km from here. We first vacationed there in 1996 with Tobey’s parents and our son. We went back in 2000 with our son and an exchange student, and then again in 2012 on our last RV trip to Mexico. We met up with Agustin Garcia, a man we met on our first trip there. He now is the owner of two restaurants – Brisas del Mar and Pepe’s Club. It was fun to see him again. He and Tobey are about a month apart in age and we have enjoyed seeing him each time we have been here. Puerto Marques has grown and become a bustling area – much changed since our first visit!In 1996 we stayed in the tall white tower buildings in the background – Torre Blanca. After our visit we headed back to the RV. We took advantage of the pool to cool down before fixing dinner and settling in for the night. Today we traveled 89 miles and we will make our way around Acapulco and head further north tomorrow.

February 26, 2018 - Roca Blanca to Playa Ventura

What a crazy day this has been! We were up early and took a short walk on the beach before hitting the road. There was lots of mist as the sun was just coming up. We spotted this shore bird taking a stroll, too.It was a much different view of all the restaurants on the beach with no customers in sight! They were pretty busy yesterday!We decided to backtrack again this morning because we heard about Laguna San Jose Maniaitepec which offered bird watching tours and where you are supposed to be able to swim in the bioluminescent water. We thought we would check it out and maybe spend the night there before moving north. WELL, 15 miles back we stopped and talked to one of the tour operators and he said it wasn’t a good time for the luminescence because the moon is too full. The swimming is done at night and the water is supposed to glow/light up from the plankton in the water. We turned around and headed back north. The 30 mile round trip detour took an hour!

We are getting to be good at helping with the cattle drives here! There were three caballeros (cowboys) moving this pretty large herd of cattle down the road. We stopped quite a way back and prevented the northbound traffic behind us from moving while they made their way south and got the cattle off the road.There were a couple of the cows that didn’t want to cooperate, but they soon got them under control!

Going through the town of Rio Grande we remembered how many three-wheeled taxis we had seen there six years ago. They pack lots of folks into them and just zip along!We like to try new things when we travel and we saw several of these little stands selling tepache de pina. I’m not sure the translation for tepache, but it tasted like iced tea and pineapple. It was tasty and only $20 pesos (about $1USD).We stopped in a small town near the Oaxaca/Guerrero state line to find a place for lunch. There were a couple local policemen and they spoke English. Eugenio recommended we have lunch at Restaurant Naya, so we did. Ten minutes later, they pulled in and had lunch, also! We had fun visiting with them and he wanted to have a picture with us and exchange phone numbers! He said to call him if we had any problems. From there we headed out in search of a gas station that had the correct hose connections so we could fill with fresh water. Six stations later – success!

By now it was after 4pm when we finished and were only supposed to have about an hour drive before our beach camping location for the night. That didn’t happen!

When we reached De La Guadalupe traffic came to a grinding halt – in both directions! Some group was protesting something and they just closed the road – MEX200 – which goes to Acapulco. I got out and asked a couple of the cars in front of us if they knew what was going on and they just said it was a blockade and would last for an hour or two! This was our view for almost 2 hours! At the bend in the road, cars could turn right and go into the town so there were lots of cars passing in the other lane to get to the town. Then cars from the town would come zipping down the road heading south and there wasn’t space for them to get through without going off the road! There must have been at least 250 cars backed up each direction. It was crazy!We did watch this goat munching on a tree while we waited and spent time reading! Once they opened the road, it was a steady stream of cars for the next 30 miles or so until our turnoff! We went through another small town that specializes in salt. Stand after stand had it for sale!The sunset as we traveled our last 30 minutes to our destination. We broke our rule of not driving at night, arriving at 7pm. Fortunately, when we turned off MEX200 onto the road leading to Playa Ventura and there wasn’t much traffic. We are camped at a palapa near the beach and will see how it looks in the morning light!

February 25, 2018 Playa Blanca to Roca Blanca, Mexico

This morning we said goodbye to our quiet spot at Playa Blanca and moved north 55 miles to Roca Blanca, a camping spot found on ioverlander.

After a stop in Puerto Escondido to stock up on milk and a few fruits and vegetables we had enough cell service to post and make a few phone calls. It was good to check in with family!

Not far out of Puerto Escondido we stopped for the cattle drive. This young man and another on foot were moving cattle and goats from one side of the road to the other. We waited while they got them going in the right direction, although a couple of the cows didn’t act like they wanted to cooperate!There were miles of papaya trees and mangos. Some of the papayas were starting to get ripe, but I am not a huge fan of papayas.We noticed two big trucks and several cars stopped at this roadside restaurant so we stopped for lunch there, too. It’s always interesting to eat where the locals do. We ordered carne asada tacos and the boy waiting on us said we would get carne asada (grilled beef), beans and tortillas. Okay. The tortillas were really good – almost like a combination of flour and corn. The meat is paper thin and a little tough to cut, but it was very tasty. We arrived at Roca Blanca about 12:30 and are camped on the street behind Restaurante Marisol, one of the restaurants on the beach. We spent some time on the beach and took a swim. The waves were pretty strong, but it was refreshing. We talked to a few people on the beach and many of the “gringos” seem to be from Quebec, Canada. Most of them live in Puerto Escondido for the winter.

We had dinner at Restaurante Marisol and enjoyed watching the last of the families on the beach and a couple of surfers catching waves.This is a pretty popular beach with the locals with lots of activity all day. The restaurants are slowly closing down and people are heading back to their homes. We will only spend one night here. Next stop? Who knows?

February 24, 2018 - Playa Blanca

Well, Friday nights in Playa Blanca are as quiet as Thursday nights with only the sound of the waves crashing on the shore! It looks like Saturday night will be quiet, too.

This morning just after breakfast Tobey was looking out the window and spotted a whale. We dashed out of the RV to watch. It was alone, and too far out to take pictures, but we followed down the beach a while watching it head south. We did see it spout, breach and watched its tail fluke before it went under and we were unable to spot it again. What a great start to our day!

On our way back we spotted a fisherman casting his net into the water. It looked like he was catching some really small fish, like sardines. The rest of the day was pretty lazy – reading, playing cards (Tobey is winning), walking on the beach, having lunch – repeat! We did stay out of the sun between noon and 4pm because we didn’t want to get too much sun. Tobey took a swim late this afternoon and the water was still pretty warm.For dinner we went to the Restaurante Sutnam. It had been closed most of the day but there was quite a crowd when we arrived about 6 pm. The customers were really friendly to us, one of the abuelas (grandmothers) came over and talked to us for quite a while. She was very patient with my Spanish. When we were almost finished with dinner, she came over and gave us a hug and kiss and wished us good travels. Their group spanned five generations and had to be at least 30 people. As they were leaving, they were all hugging the restaurant owner goodbye. When I asked for our bill, I also asked the owner if they were her family. She told us yes, and that aren’t usually open on Saturdays, but her aunts had called and asked if she would open for them today. Not knowing, we crashed the party! When we finished paying I told her that “now, we are part of your family, too!” She liked that and hugged us both. We chatted for a while then she wished us safe travels. Another beautiful day in Mexico!

February 23, 2018 - Playa Blanca, Mexico

We had a very quiet, peaceful night – the only sound was waves on the shore. Pure heaven! This is our little campsite and it is pretty quiet so we think we will stay another day.We took a long walk on the beach this morning, maybe 2 miles round trip. Tobey spotted another fish tail in the sand – thankfully, neither of us stepped on it! After our walk we took a siesta so we would have the energy to walk next door for lunch! This restaurant is just south of us and we had a nice lunch – Tobey had the fish filet and I had three shrimp tostadas and a diet coke. $200 pesos including tip. (about $11USD)After lunch we stayed in the shade reading and keeping out of the sun. We saw these fishermen bringing their boat in. Once it was onshore, they hooked the rope to a truck that pulled it higher on the beach.There are several areas where the rocky areas that create a sheltered area for swimming – or mostly sitting.We again headed south on the beach about a mile. This afternoon we spotted a turkey vulture scavenging on a puffer fish.Further down was a lone pelican on the rocks. Earlier in the day when my camera was still in the RV there were five of them here. We did watch this guy fly a few times and dive into the water and come up with a tasty fish.The egrets were hanging out on the rocks, too.On our way back to the RV, we saw this little turtle trying to make his way out to sea. He would get going, then a wave would  come in and tumble his progress backward. He was only about 3-4 inches long and would be a treat for the pelicans.We went to the Restaurante Olguita for  dinner again today. Tobey had the fried shrimp and I tried the coconut shrimp. Tobey’s was good, but mine was great! Both of them had 8 shrimps, rice, and salad. Tonight’s dinner with tip was $300 pesos ($16.75 USD).While we were waiting for our dinner to arrive we enjoyed watching the waves and the pelicans swooping by skimming the waves.We also had fun watching these boys and three other younger ones playing on the beach. They started off sitting in the fisherman’s boat, then kicking a soccer ball, and by the time we were finishing our dinner,they were all splashing in the waves. We commented that it reminded us more of when we were kids and played outside until it was dark. When the restaurant started putting little battery powered lights up, the boys got their soccer ball and headed home.We again had a beautiful sunset and hope for a beautiful day tomorrow. We asked and our waiter told us there will be many people on the beach tomorrow and Sunday, so we will see how crowded busy really is here!GPS: 15.73376N, 96.81394W