March 22, 2018 - Teacapan to Playa Ceuta, Mexico

We took a walk on the beach before breakfast hoping to see dolphins, but we didn’t have any luck. We said goodbye to our many friends before we, too, flew the coop!We drove about five miles south to the town of Teacapan to look at the Malecon. It was busy with fishermen coming and going, but we got a chuckle out of the trash barrels. They all had a marine theme – perfect for the seaside.We couldn’t find ONAK, the RV park we stayed at six years ago yesterday, so we looked up the GPS coordinates and drove there this morning. It is now called the Color Marino Villas and RV Park, but there wasn’t anyone there. It looked to be in really nice condition, but there is a barbed wire fence around it and the road getting into it was in terrible condition. We parked and walked down near the beach and  saw one caretaker, but no one else. All of the white pads are for RVs to park with a view of the ocean. After looking online, it seems like it is closed. So sad.We again passed fields of peppers and tomatoes on our way back to the highway. There are low concrete pads in the back and they build fires under the blocks and had chiles roasting. Others are out on large tarps, drying.This was one of the commercial drying companies we went by.We saw several trucks and tractors with bags of chiles on their way to the processing centers.A few days back our generator’s exhaust pipe came off the RV. We heard it dragging and were able to stop and retrieve it. Tobey has been searching for a “mofles” (muffler) repair shop ever since. On our way out to the beach, we spotted this one, but they were closed. On the way into Escuinapa, we saw they were open so we stopped. They were able to “MacGuiver” parts together in order to get it back on. They needed to drill a hole in a part and couldn’t find their drill, so Tobey said they used a blow torch to make one! We actually had a really nice time visiting with the mechanic’s family while he and his partner worked on the RV. We met his wife and children, and even his mother and father when they stopped by! His wife was very friendly and the two eleven year olds were learning English in school, but they were shy to use it! It was good practice for all of us – my Spanish got a workout as well as their English. We shared pictures on our phones to show each other families and home. When the repairs were finished, they invited us to come back and visit them when we return to Mexico! $200 pesos – about $11 USD - and we were on our way in less than an hour.Back on the road we did a bypass around Mazatlán because neither of really wanted to stay there. We followed lots of trucks for a while and were a bit nervous about being behind this truck loaded with what we think is jicama. If one of those bounced out at 50 mph, it might do some serious damage to our windshield! We were lucky to pass him.We came on this accident. It looked like the semi had flipped, but no other vehicles were involved. They were busy unloading the trailer onto another truck before the tow truck would try to move the truck.We followed the free road through the mountains and high desert. The landscape was so different from all of the fields of mango and avocado trees, corn, tomato and chili fields it was kind of a surprise.For the last part of our drive to Playa Ceuta, we were back on the toll road. The exit to Playa Ceuta is a small one – a dirt road! It is also the onramp! No merging onto this divided highway, you just go!We parked and walked on the Malecon so we could check out the two restaurants. They close early – about 5pm, so we will wait and have dinner there tomorrow. We saw these cowboys riding on the beach and watched a few families in the water. We are camped on the Malecon and will spend a couple nights here. Even though the beach is rocky, it is a pleasant spot.