Hacienda Contreras, near Valle de Juarez

Today was a driving day, so we got up at 7:00am and we were on the road leaving Maruata by 7:30am. We would love to spend more time there, and next year that will be in the plans.

We drove about 300 kms (186 miles) and we arrived at Hacienda Contreras RV park around 2:30pm. We only stopped for a total of about an hour. Once to buy gas and have a snack, and then a quick lunch stop, so it took about 6 hours to do the drive. The last 60 kms (36 miles) or so were the worst, taking about 2 hours because of the many topes (speed bumps) and generally poor roads. It was a bumpy driving day!

They put plastic bags on the bananas, but only sometimes. Not sure why.

Don't know what they're growing here.

You can get to Colima and Manzanillo on this road, but apparently they don't know how far away they are!

But there was some nice scenery. Lots of banana plantations and greenery. And a lot of agriculture and farmland in the valleys. The Colima volcano was hidden in the mist and clouds, so we couldn’t get a decent picture of it, although we had seen it smoking two years ago.

A train in the distance.

Most of you know that we’re not really “RV Park” kind of people, but Hacienda Contreras is our kind of RV Park. The sites are large and well spread out, and electricity is metered so that you’re not paying for somebody elses wasteful usage. We don’t require electric, but if we have a few cloudy days and the solar panels can’t keep up, then it’s there if we need it. We’re going to stay for a full week, at 750 pesos ($63.00) per week. That’s the other thing we like…all prices here are in pesos! And the owners, Barb and Sal Contreras are so helpful and willing to share their knowledge of the area.

We drove from sea level to 6400 feet today, so it’s quite a bit cooler here compared to what we’re used to from the last couple of months. Should be highs of around 24C (75F) and lows around 5C (41F). There’s lots of hiking and walking around here, so we’re looking forward to that as well.

As we pulled into Hacienda Contreras, we stopped at the entrance behind a pickup truck and camper rig that had pulled in just ahead of us. Turns out this was Mike and Terri Church , the authors of the Traveler’s Guide To Mexican Camping book that we had bought in Dallas in November. It’s a pretty useful book to have if you’re considering RV’ing in Mexico. So it's great to be able to meet with them.

There are only five or six other rigs here, and they say it’s been a quiet winter here. We sat around for happy hour and then had a campfire with everyone in the evening. We’ve already made plans to do two different walks with Barb and Sal and whoever else wants to join us over the next week, so it should be a fun week. And we can get caught up on some little jobs that Sherman needs, like washing the sea salt spray off everything!