Knock, knock, knock... by the police this time

It was another beautiful quiet night in the Primavera Forest just west of Guadalajara. But we had to put some miles on, because we want to be in San Miguel de Allende by Friday... Saturday morning at the very latest.

So we got things packed up and hit the road around 10:15am for the drive around the western part of the big city of Guadalajara.

Fortunately, most of the traffic seemed to be going the opposite way.

Our side of the road is not bad. Lots of traffic on the opposite side.

The bypass around the west part of Guadalajara.

I had us routed on what I thought was a main road leading north out of the city. But we ended up at a big gatehouse that looked like it led to a gated neighborhood. It was too late to turn around, so we waited our turn in line to get to the gatehouse. They had signs saying that everyone had to show ID and sign in. 

But when we got up to the guard, we explained that we were just driving through, and he waved us in without any questions.

It turned out to be an exclusive community with a lot of expensive homes.

Obviously where the wealthy live in Guadalajara.

But, the road took us exactly where we wanted to go, and we passed the exit gate and got back onto the main road.

It took us through a deep valley.

Lots of great views on both sides.

At one point, Ruth said "I'm sure we've been on this road before".

She's got a great memory, but we had to look it up... it was in March 2009 when we drove from Guadalajara to Zacatecas.

Igor, parked for the night at a municipal park near Ixtlahuacán del Río.

We have shade.

And a decent view of the dam and water.

I had read on the iOverlander app that some people had overnighted here before, but there hadn't been a recent review. The last one was 2022. Anyhow, it looked like it would be a fairly quiet spot, except we had to pick up quite a lot of trash despite the fact there were a couple of garbage cans there.

Mid afternoon, a few families started showing up and having picnics. Two couples with toddler age kids came and asked if they could use one of the tables, and of course that was fine.

They were really nice and when they grilled some shrimp they offered us some. We like spicey food, but these camarones were hot! Our lips were burning for a while afterwards. Ruth reciprocated with some homemade ginger cookies that they enjoyed. Never did get a photo of them.

The municipal police came though the park at one point, but didn't even get out of their truck. We thought it was good that they come down and check on things.

I guess these three must have drowned in the lake way back in 1991.

The reservoir is a little low, but of course it's dry season.

The dam.

This kitty came and kept us company for a while.

The lake at dusk.

We walked down the top of the dam for a view of sunset.

There is a little shrine at the end.

The end of the walkway on top of the dam.

The valley down below.

The young families left at sunset, and we settled in for a quiet evening.

Just as we were thinking about getting ready for bed, we heard the sounds of a couple of ATV's show up. From the sound of the voices, they were young couples... we could hear the girls laughing. We try to avoid places like this on weekends because that's when the young people typically frequent these types of places and play music until all hours. But during the week you've got better odds of a quiet night.

They didn't stay long though, and we heard the engines start and they left. But minutes later another vehicle drove up, and this time we got a knock, knock, knock on the door. I turned on the outside light, and peeked outside. There was a woman standing there with a big gun!

It was the municipal police, and there were three of them. A woman, a younger man, and an older man. They just asked where we were from, and wanted to see some identification. They were friendly enough though, and made some small talk asking where we had been and where we were going. They had a look at our passports, and handed them back saying we were fine to spend the night.

Totally quiet night after that.

Today, we have a longer drive ahead of us and we are heading to a water park near Lagos de Moreno that also has RV parking. We've known about this RV park for a long time, but we've never been there, so wanted to stop in and check it out.

It's more than a three hour drive though, so we are getting an early start!

Our route since we left Etzatlan.

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