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

February 22, 2018 - Puerto Escondido - Playa Blanca

We had a quiet, peaceful night last night and took a short walk on the beach today. There was a surf school located right on the beach in front of us and several surfers in the water. Not many waves in the area where they were surfing, but some big waves were crashing in further along the beach. I obviously know nothing about what makes a good wave and am impressed when I see surfers read and catch the waves. Even though the water was pretty, we both decided this area was too busy for our liking. Crazy as it seems, we actually turned around and headed back south 18 miles to Playa Blanca, a place we stayed six years ago. The area has grown up some since we were here and the restaurant we parked by has closed. There was a building and tree blocking the view we had, so we are parked about 600 feet south of our old spot. There is a lifeguard stand in front of us, but we are between two smaller buildings.

We spent time walking on the beach, sitting and reading for a while and just enjoying the sound of the waves crashing on the sand. Unfortunately, on the way back to the RV this sharp thorn found its way into my big toe! Gosh, it hurt. Blood, too! Fortunately, a quick shower and some antibiotic cream helped.

We had dinner at Restaurante Olguita. Tobey had the shrimp ceviche and I had the pescado al ajo (fish made with garlic). Both were delicious! Dinner, one Pepsi (which made Tobey a happy guy!) and tip was $260 pesos (about $14.00 USD) There was a nice Mexican family at the table in front of us – grandmother, three sisters, two husbands and their three children. The oldest of the children was Kevin Alexander who was in the 6th grade. He spoke English and we spent most of our time talking to him while we ate. He said his parents sent him to live with an uncle in Indiana for a year so he could learn English better. He was curious about what our favorite beaches were, where we have traveled in the United States, where we were going from here. His family lives in Tonamec - about 30 minutes from here and they sometimes come here to this beach area. The family was friendly and their son was a nice young man.

We were treated to another beautiful sunset before heading back to the RV for the evening. We can hear the waves crashing in and hope for another restful night. We have no cell service so we will post this later!

February 21, 2018 - Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, Mexico

We were up early today. We dumped and filled the RV with fresh water and left the campground by 7:30 this morning for our journey to the Puerto Escondido area. It was a long drive – almost 9 hours on winding roads through the mountains out to the ocean. We followed MEX175 most of the way before catching MEX200 north. Besides watching the narrow road, we watched all of the road signs!

One of the main hazards for us are the “topes” (speed bumps). In some areas they must feel that if one tope is good, four are better!Sometimes the topes are marked well, other times it is just luck if you see them!This was a sign indicating how sharp some of the turns were – almost the entire trip!And if the turns weren’t sharp, it was just curvy!Decrease speed – increases safetyDrive with caution – winding roadDo no leave the pavementWe passed through pine forests as we crossed the mountains.Sometimes the road was one lane!We spotted this truck in one small town. He was loaded with baskets and brooms for sale. We went into Mazunte to visit the Turtle Museum which we had tried to see when we were here six years ago. It was open today, so we went in after paying our $34 peso entrance fee. ($68 total – $3.60USD) It isn’t really a museum, it was more of a turtle zoo with several species of turtles on display. It only took us about 30 minutes to see the whole place, but it was a nice break.We continued north on the MEX200 to the “La Punta” pullout from the ioverlander camping recommendations. Google maps was going to take us down some pretty narrow dirt streets, but we stopped and walked to the site, finding a better route. It was pretty crowded with surfers and people on the beach waiting for the sunset, but we managed to finally get a spot to park for the night.

We changed into to cooler clothes because it is HOT – about 86 degrees. We took a walk on the beach and joined the folks watching the sunset. It was beautiful!We had dinner at one of the little restaurants on the beach road – fish tacos for Tobey, shrimp tacos for me. They were quite tasty and we are stuffed! Dinner, drinks and tip $290 pesos ($15.40 USD). Pretty cheap eats!

We are back to our little home and are listening to the sound of waves crashing on the beach. We will decide in the morning whether we stay here of find another beach. Until then, goodnight!

February 20, 2018 - Oaxaca, Mexico

We had a lazy day mostly hanging out at the campground, trying to catch up on email, figuring out our next stop on the trip, and just resting.

When we first arrived here there was an RV caravan with 7 BIG RVs here, and two other campers. The caravan pulled out early this morning – probably 6:30 and one truck camper left around noon. The monster-truck looking camper moved and another camper came in. Busy place!We are not using electric because the voltage here fluctuates so much that our high voltage regulator shuts the electricity down before it comes into the RV. That protects all of our electronic things, as well as the microwave and water heater from being fried! The cost for this gated campground without hookups is $225 pesos per night and $50 pesos for the dump station. $725 pesos ($38.75/3 nights = $12.92/night). Pretty reasonable camping with WIFI included!

We did ride the motorcycle in to the Walmart to pick up a few things and when we got back we discovered our brake lights and tail lights are not working. It looks like someone cut the wires, but we can’t be sure. We will need to have it looked at, but we should be okay to ride during the day. No more night time rides!

We plan to get the grill going in a while and fix some dinner and finalize plans for the next few days.  We’ll do the last minute chores of dumping and refilling with fresh water in the morning before taking off toward the beach.