March 19, 2018 - Puerto Vallarta to Rincon de Guayabitos, Mexico

We bid goodbye to PV this morning and negotiated the laterals on the north end out of the city successfully. Our first stop was at Sayulita.

Sayulita is known for beaches with strong surf and a hippie vibe. We stayed there six years ago and thought we might again on this return trip. What a nightmare!! The little village has grown and was teaming with tourists making it difficult to negotiate the streets. We made our exit as quickly as we could and went on to Lo De Marcos without even stopping to see the beach in Sayulita!

Another 12 miles up the road we stopped at Lo De Marcos, another one of our previous camping stops. Lo De Marcos is a laid-back, Mexican town, much more pleasant than Sayulita. We parked the RV and walked through the town and out to the beach to check out the RV campgrounds. We walked all the way to the south end of the beach then back street side to the north end. There were quite a few people on the beach, but no vendors, just families enjoying themselves. We decided to have lunch in town, but then move on to Guayabitos for the night. There are quite a few Canadians who winter here so many of the restaurants have their menus in Spanish and English! We visited with a couple from Ontario, Canada who winter in Lo De Marcos during lunch. 

Guayabitos and El Tiburon Trailer Park was another 11 miles up the road so we arrived here about 1:30. It’s crazy that we only drove 45 miles today, but the traffic was bumper to bumper a good share of the way. We found out later that today is a national holiday - Benito Juarez Day – so many people had the day off.

There are only five other RVs still here at the campground – most of the people have already headed north. Because we are not using their electric, Tobey checked our solar output and discovered that we were not producing any juice! He went on the roof to check the solar panel and wash it. This didn’t seem to fix it. UGG. He had a couple ideas of how to fix it, but decided we needed some beach time first!

We really like this beach. It is long and easy to walk and even though there are hundreds of people on it, everyone is friendly. We talked about how all of the beaches seem to have different personalities and tried to pinpoint what it was about each of them that attracts not just us, but other people. This beach has lots of colorful beach umbrellas and vendors selling everything from beach floaties, cotton candy, fruit and chips, to fish on a stick.This fish cart was a popular attraction not only to people, but to the pelicans. The birds were lined up, but they had all forgotten their wallets so no fish for them!This guy made a pillow out of sand and had his beers close at hand!We saw several roving minstrels on the beach. They stopped and played for groups of people hoping for tips.After an enjoyable afternoon relaxing, Tobey had time to figure out some possible fixes for the solar system, so we set to work. He reset the solar charge controller and it appears to have fixed it. We won’t know for sure until tomorrow since the sun was getting too low in the sky to produce much energy for us today, but he is feeling pretty confident. YEAH!

We walked into town for dinner and ate at Mona Lisa Pizza. It was a nice change and the small pizza was more than we could eat! We passed Wendy’s Reposteria and thought of our good friend Wendy, at home. This bake shop has been in business for 8 years but we were too full to try anything. Maybe tomorrow? We will let you know if they are as good as our friend, Wendy’s desserts!This is our last picture of the day. It’s not often do you see a pay phone, but they are still alive and well here in Guayabitos.