Rincon de Guayabitos

We left Chacala yesterday morning and drove the 30 kms (19 miles) to Rincon de Guayabitos. This town caters more to Mexican tourists from Tepic and Guadalajara. There are a few American and Canadian people here, but that is largely due to the 7 different RV parks in the area.

Our “Traveler’s Guide to Mexican Camping” book listed Delia’s Trailer Park as being the least expensive. We pulled on to the main road in town and parked at the side of the road. I went and walked to the park just to get an idea of where it was and finally found Delia. This is the mother of Bonnie, the friendly lady who ran the RV park in Etzatlan that we liked so much.

Well I didn’t find Delia all that friendly. And she was totally non-negotiable on the price. It was 250 pesos ($19.50) per night whether we used electricity or not. Fine, and we have the option to say “No thanks!”.

So I went back to Ruth, and we decided to leave Sherman parked where he was and walk around town exploring our overnight options. Like I said, there are quite a few RV parks, so we checked some of them out. Most are well less than half full, however these are popular “destination” parks where a lot of RV’ers come down and stay all winter in one park. So although they are less than half full right now, most sites are booked for the season, but the people just haven’t shown up yet.

The places we checked ranged from 250 pesos to 370 pesos per night. They are not very nice RV parks in our mind, mostly just concrete parking lots with some sites separated by a small hedge. Obviously monthly rates are quite a bit less, but there’s no way we would spend all winter in a park like that.

We saw an older fifth wheel trailer parked by the beach, with a bit of construction equipment lying around and some workers. We went and talked to the Mexican family living in the trailer. It turns out he’s the caretaker for this property. It used to be an RV park, but was shut down in 2009 with the property slated for condo construction, but the project never got off the ground. The caretaker now collects money from the beachgoers to use the washroom and showers left over from the old RV Park. We saw one useable parking spot and asked the caretaker if we could park there. They asked for 150 pesos ($11.70) per night, but we offered 100 pesos ($7.80) and they agreed.

The beach in front of the lot where we are parked.

It’s funny because Sherman’s back end is now up against the wall of the 370 pesos per night RV Park, and only about 6 feet away from a motorhome parked there.

Our site is not ideal, but the Mexican family with 3 young daughters is very friendly and we are right on the beach. Will get some pictures of where we are parked for tomorrows blog post.

The beach is very busy. It’s touristy, but it’s kind of fun watching all the families have fun on the beach. Lots of beach vendors selling just about everything.

We walked to the far end, and then back through town. On the way, we came across another RV park that is actually quite nice. We stopped in and had a long talk with a couple from British Columbia. We spoke to the owner, and she agreed to a dry camping price of 140 pesos ($10.92) per night. We may head over there for a few nights next week.

A colorful resort hotel in Rincon de Guayabitos.