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!