Cardel, Mexico

Monday December 1…9:30pm

We woke up to a cloudy day and had made the decision that if it was cloudy, we would move on. So we packed everything up, and were on the road before 9am.

The highway mostly follows the coast along this section. We have some small mountains off in the distance to the right side of us, past the banana tree farms and the sugar cane fields. Everything is lush and green.

We decided to take a side road that might take us to a lake. The road was a bit slow going, but it was really pretty and we enjoyed the drive. It was only for about 15 km’s (9 miles) so it wasn’t too bad. It got us to a small lake, but no where real nice to set up for a few days. Had the day been nicer we thought of staying in an area that was by the old bridge for the night, but as it wasn’t the nicest day so we continued on.

Senic road we took for 15km's...very slow going, but nice to look at

A fence made of cactus

We took the main highway (Mex 180) to the town of Cardel, just before Veracruz. We had read that there might be free camping on the beach just east of town. The road to the beach goes through several little villages and is very slow going. We eventually make it to the beach, Playa Chachalacas, but it’s not really that nice, and we had a hard time finding somewhere decent to park. We had made camp on a nice firm piece of land overlooking the beach, but when we found the owner he wanted 250 pesos each ($23.00 CAN, $18.00 US) so we declined. I don’t really think he wanted us there at any cost!

We ended up parked in a womans driveway. Can’t win all the time! Anyhow, she charged us 25 pesos each ($2.30 CAN, $1.80 US), so we can’t complain about that. We went for a walk around the town. It’s not the nicest place, I think because it’s too close to Veracruz. Everything I’ve read about Veracruz says that there is no point in going there, so tomorrow we will take a bypass route on our way to Lake Catemaco which is a National Park area.

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…404

December Fuel $ 0 CAN

December Grocery $ 8.65 CAN

December Overnight costs $ 2.30 CAN