Chacala

We were up early yesterday and we left Tepic at around 7:15am. Made a quick pit stop for 52 litres (13.8 gal)  500 pesos ($39.00) worth of gas and we were on our way. We like to get an early start, and arrive early. Besides, we didn't know exactly where we were going to end up last night.

But the plan was to go to Chacala. From doing some research, apparently this little beach town used to have a free boondocking area, but it was abused by long term campers dumping sewage where they shouldn't and they put a stop to it. Since then, RV'ers rarely come here because there is nowhere to "camp".

But we don't want to camp, we just want somewhere to park overnight.

Yesterday's drive, 80 kms (50 miles)

Much of the drive was downhill...elevation goes from 3,200 ft at Tepic, down to sea level in only 80 kms (50 miles). We go slow during these downhill sections, using the engine more than the brakes. Had a lineup of traffic behind us at times, but pulled over when we could to let people go by.

Beautiful scenery along the way.

Arrived at Chacala around 10:15am after stopping for breakfast along the way and I pulled over to the side of the road and walked down to the restaurants that line the beach. I could see the previous free boondocking area behind a fence and guarded. So I walked along the restaurants looking for one that had the best parking and went and asked the family who owns the restaurant if we could park for a night or two. They agreed, and for 100 pesos ($7.80) per night, here we are!

Sherman, parked up for the night at Restaurant Isidro. (GPS 21.16402 -105.22416)

We are a 30 second walk to the beach which is just on the other side of the restaurant. We went for a walk before lunch, and found that this is probably the best parking spot in this part of town. There is another bay on the other side of town that we will walk to this morning.

All dressed up for her Quinceanera.

We came across a photo shoot being done for a Mexican girl's 15th birthday. This is a big deal in Latin America, and we spoke to her parents and asked for a photo. The theme at the party is going to be a "Beauty and the Beast" thing, with her father dressing up as the Beast for the first dance. He volunteered to go put his costume on for a photo...

Ruth, dancing with the beast!

We sat under a palm tree for most of the afternoon and watched the waves and Ruth did some reading. I have a hard time reading at the beach, always looking up at the water to see if there's any whales or dolphins to be seen.

The view from our chairs yesterday afternoon.

High yesterday was 30C (86F) and the low last night was 22C (72F). Perfect. We'll probably only stay here for one more night though because there was a lot of dog barking that kept us awake last night. We'll walk to the other side and see if there's any parking possibilities there, but if not we'll move on tomorrow.