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.