And what we realized was that we could easily spend a week or more doing this route, and just finding places to park the motorhome overnight and explore along the way.
We knew that it was going to be a fairly long drive, so we were on the road right around 8:00am. The first part takes us up and over a mountain too get to the town of Ameca.
Heading towards the mountains.
The road takes us right through these mountains.
You can see the road cut through the rock up above.
Slow going, but I don't mind driving twisty mountain roads. And Sherman handles them well.
Coming down the other side.
Look at all of these little towns that could be explored!
This town has a grand entranceway! We'll go check it out another time.
The highway we were on is part of the Ruta de Peregrino (Pilgrim's Route), a 200 year tradition in this area where people walk the 118 kms from Ameca to Talpa and the Basilica of our Lady of the Rosary. They mostly do the walk during the month of March, and specifically during Holy Week.
Pilgrims walking along the side of the road. This section was recently re-paved!
Scenery along the way.
Funny holes in the side of this hill.
Coming in to the town of Mascota.
Another nice entranceway.
Cobblestone roads.
We like Mascota. Just a nice little town. Again, we would like to spend more time here.
Yep...that's the main road to the coast!
Stuck behind a truck for a little while.
That's a long way down from this bridge!
The bridge we just went over.
We had left Etzatlan around 8:00am, and it was 2:00pm by the time we got around the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta. Busy highway...lots of traffic and noise. No ambition at all to go into the city.
Six hours to do 265 kms (164 miles), and we had only made one short 15 minute stop. It was rare that I saw the speedometer over 70 km/h (42 mph).
We then stopped at the big Mega grocery store near Bucerias and did some stocking up. Prices are noticeably higher in this part of the country, but we did still manage to buy some things on sale. I would say that half of the people in the store were not from Mexico. Hence the higher prices.
As we were finishing our shopping and heading out to the motorhome with our cart, we saw a bunch of RV's pulling in.
It was our caravan group! Too funny.
We actually had an idea that we might see them because we knew that they were headed for Lo de Marcos yesterday, about 35 kms further north. But we didn't know for sure that our paths would cross. Fun to say a quick hello, but it was only that because we are also headed for Lo de Marcos tomorrow (Thursday) when we will get to spend a couple of nights with them before heading on north ourselves.
Then, we had another 15 kms to get to Rancho AltaRose RV Park. We've been here several times before and always have a few laughs with Garry and Jean.
Yesterday's drive, 280 kms (174 miles).
Next time, we will take a week or more to do this drive instead of doing it all in one day!
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And for our Canadian readers...
Thank you for including the maps in your posts. Love to follow via the actual route.
ReplyDeleterocmoc n AZ/Fld/Baja
You're welcome! :-)
DeleteWe always find them helpful ourselves for future trip planning or just for looking back on.
Next time you come through you should stop in Mascota. It's a new Pueblo Mágico and really cute. There are some wonderful day trips from here. Not sure where you would camp but I bet there are options.
ReplyDeleteWe did stop in Mascota back on our trip through to the coast in 2014 along this same route. We drove through Mascota to get to the lake there and spent two nights but we didn't spend time in the town itself, next time we will for sure! www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2014/04/tough-drive-but-worth-it.html
DeleteWill be nice to meet up with your caravan friends again!
ReplyDeleteYes, it will be nice to meet them again and spend one more day with them.
DeleteAlways nice to explore new areas and return to some that need more checking out, enjoy.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is and now we will just have to plan for more time on the next trip through there. Lots of hiking possibilities for us. :-)
DeleteAs we turned in to Mega… the CB radio came alive "we see Sherman! ":) Looking forward to seeing you both tomorrow. Paul, Larry and I had a drive out to your campsite this afternoon, (after spending hours looking for a new spare tire) and found out you were on the ATV adventure! Hope we get a chance to do some more ATV'ing there too.
ReplyDeleteIt was funny because we thought we missed you as we were a little later arriving and Paul had said that you would be there sometime between 1 and 2pm. As I was coming out of the store I said to Kevin "There's a trailer" forgetting of course that Paul has a trailer and then we saw the whole line of you coming. :-)
DeleteSorry we missed you yesterday but we were out having fun. If you guys go ATV'ing to the thermal pools you will love it there!
See you in a little while! :-)
Hello from the coast of Nova Scotia
ReplyDeleteI have a suggestion (hope you don't mind) and you might make it pay somehow is to make the rv parks you are in and going too at the top of the blog into "links" to their website.
Maybe see you n the road somewhere
I really like the upbeat nature of your narratives
Hi there Bruce, thanks for the suggestion. Not sure if you mean having a tab on the top bar with the others or just in the blog post itself? We do always try to include the GPS co-ordinates for each place we stay along with the name.
DeleteHope we can meet you on the road as well! We have done a lot of exploring in Nova Scotia but now that our daughter and her family have moved back to Ottawa it will probably be a while before we make it out there again, love the scenery and the friendly people there!
Right at the top of the text part of every page is the following:
DeleteWhere are Kevin and Ruth right now? Rancho Altarose RV Park, Valle de Banderas, Nayarit, Mexico.
Where are they heading next? La Parota RV Park, Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, Mexico. Arrive March 17th.
the park names transformed to links would get clicks
Heading out soon for the first i
timein my antique Travco
Kevin said that he is able to to do that but not sure there is any benefit as we do normally include a link to the park in at least one of our posts during our stay there also many places we stay don't always have a website.
DeleteWe have seen a Travco on the road a number of years ago and thought that it looked like a neat old RV, I am sure you will have lots of fun on the road, and that you will love the new life.
That is a lovely route. That cobblestone road looks a bit rough.
ReplyDeleteIt really is a pretty route and we love the mountain scenery. The cobblestone wasn't that bad as long as you took your time driving over it.
Delete