BacalarBlog

    Back in La Manzanilla after leaving here last March is a wonderful experience.  Seeing all our old friends, Mike & Marianne, Leon & Jolanda, Raymond, Katriana, Walt and many, many more.  seeing all the improvements, Crocodile and Porpoise monument at the entrance to L a Manzanilla at the Mex 200, Raymonds restaurant finished and operating, looks great and food is wonderful, the main street is ALMOST fully paved, jut the area around the Jardin needs finishing, AND the made a road around the croc pond so no need to drive all the way around by Boca de Iguanas !!!!!   They just dumped a few loads of gravel and made a road around the end of the crocs !   EASY !  But the crocs do come out on the road so you gotta watch your tires !!!   We spent the first three days here up at Mike & Marianne’s in their spare room.  The got there place back together after the robbery so they’re looking good and happy with their new 10 week old doggy, Baracho.  Yesterday we found a great spot on the beach to park our camper for the month of March.  It’s just up from the spot we had last year, just before the cemetery.  We have running water, flush toilets, showers but no electricity, but that’s fine as our solar set up is working just fine with the new battery.  Just as we were setting up our friends from Quebec, Jean-Luc and Angele Martineau show up and move in next to us.  They are the folks that make the new Westy screens and Rainflys I am selling.  How bizarre is that !  So we are all have a great time.  Mike & Marianne came down late yesterday and we were all out for a short swim with our beers in hand.  I had the canoe out fishing this morning, and yes, still no fish !   We have made contact with Jean and Richard & Terry who are camped out in Melaque and we should meet up with them next week sometime.  I got a message today from Jim Cochran who lives up north of Mazatlan and who had offered us a ride on his sailboat.  He’s on his way down now from Puerta Vallarta and should arrive here early next week.  We passed each other on the road Monday when we went into Melaque to get our propane tanks filled.  He was headed North to Boca de Iguanas with his white Westy looking for a campsite.  How bizarre was that.  Anyways, we should hook up with him sometime next week and go for a sail on sea !  While out for propane we stopped to get the van washed at the new VIP car wash in Jaluco just before Melaque at the turn off for Barra Navidad.  It’s pretty far out as far a car washes go.  Modern and equipped with all the latest gadgets and a bar resturant up and a louge up and down with great white leather lounge chairs and couches – far out and the car wash was only 60 Pesos !!!!   They did a great job of getting all the road dirt off since Bacalar !

 

    So, as for the trip up from the south.  It was good.  After leaving Mark & Pat in La Palma de Sola we stopped in La Ticla looking for Jason.  We did not see his van anywhere after driving up and down all the beach roads  so we left and headed for Manzanillo and shopping then went on ahead to la Manz and that’s why we got up here before we thought we would.  Jason if you read this your welcome to stop by, no waves here for surfing but the beer and view is good !

 

Adios,

 

Frank, Rita & Hunter

Click on the photos to enlarge.

 

 

Adios,

Frank, Rita & Hunter

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Folks, we are now in Ixtapa at the Playa Linda Trailer Park.  We will hang here for a couple days to un-tope and re-pack and take a break from driving with the crazy Mexicanos !  Leaving Puerto we stopped at Roca Blanca a pretty little beach about an hour north of Puerto.  We again meet up with our neighbours Frank and Sue from Perth, have a great lunch then back on the road to Acapulco.  We get as far as Marquilla where we find a great spot on the beach at Sarita’s palapa restaurant.  Have a great swim, fish diner and quiet night but are awakened early by thousands of birds singing.  Pack up and back on the road taking the road through Diamante into Acapulco.  There’s lots of road construction around Acapulco so this was supposed to be the better way.  The road is rough as the pavement has numerous pot holes along with the topes.  Gotta be careful !  We see the Vanagons being used as Collectivo buses are still running.  Many of them just as we saw three years ago so they must know how to keep them running.  All are painted white and there are round and square headlight models, and even some with the CARAT alloy wheels !  By 11 we are in the Wal Mart and shopping then off to all the other stores around and Costco in search of a new camera and aux battery for the van.  No luck with the camera, they are all over priced so the accountant say no camera until we get to California !  The battery, Costco wants to keep for eight hours to check it, so we decide to buy a new one and come back in the morning to either get a refund or an extra battery to carry along.  We go back to the beaches at Diamante and find a Palapa restaurant where we can spend the night on the beach and had a great shrimp dinner on the beach.  Back to Costco Tuesday morning to check on the battery, it’s defective BUT they are not willing to honour the warranty without approval or billing proof from the San Antonio Costco where we bought it.  We did not have the bill nor could they make contact with San Antonio so we were given a note that they took in the defective battery and we are supposed to be reimbursed when we get to a Costco in the USA, We shall see !  Anyways, we got a new aux battery and it is working perfectly.  While in the Costco I see a set of Michelin Agilis 81 tires in the 14×185 size for the Westys that are supposed to be impossible to find, well here they are right on the shelf and only 1,230.00 Pesos.  While cruising the stores for a camera we were in an ELECTRA where they also sell the ITALIKA motorcycles from Korea and we see the first ever 650 water cooled V-Twin cafe racer type motorcycle, only 80,000.00 Pesos, that’s about $7000 CND !  I want to buy it, Rita say no !  So after all the shopping and loading up on bargains at the Wal Mart and Costco we got back on the road North.  Fighting our way trough early morning traffic in Acapulco, dodging the thousands of white and blue VW Beetles, getting stopped once by the Touristicas for stopping on a crosswalk, we make it to Pie de la Questa for lunch time.  Driving all the way to the end between the beach and the laguna as ALL our maps GPS and paper show there is a connection back onto the Mex 200 north, NOT !!!!   Map error !  So, lunch by the laguna where it meets the ocean, turn around and 30 km back to Pie de la Questa where we get back on the Mex 200 north towards Zihauteno, our destination for the night.  Some 40 km from Pie de la Ques, at Penjamo, we come upon hammock heaven.  Vito had told us about this place, so we were on the look out for it.  Hammocks, of all sorts, sizes and colours and good hammocks to boot.  And yes we bought another, a loud pink one, family size and man is it big, and for only 400 pesos, Vito was right, they are the best we’ve seen and the price is so low we did not even try to bargain for it !  So here we sit pool side at the Playa Linda Trailer Park looking out over the ocean and on the Internet, beer in hand, under a huge palapa, can it be any better ?  At 140 Pesos for the night, without services, 360 Pesos with, free Internet, good but cold showers, large clean restrooms, a laundromat, nice beach, good surfing, laguna for the canoe, and a short bicycle ride to the Playa Linda pier and palapa restaurants and shopping.  The place is mostly filled with big rigs from Quebec and few from the states, plus our friends we met back down the road Mike & Peter showed up today !  BUT, no camera so no pics, sorry !

 

Adios,

Frank, Rita & Hunter

    Folks, sorry for the delay in writing but we have been busy and no time or connection to post any messages.  Very hot day and I’m in an Internet cafe on Playa Zicatella.  Far too hot for the beach, Rita’s napping.  We spent a week or less in the new visitors quarters of our friend’s Gord & Joanne’s new house roaming around with them and visiting.  Sunday we moved out to a rental Cabana on Playa Zicatella where we will stay until the 14th.  Then head further north.  Lot’s happening here.   A fellow Westy traveller from Toronto who bought a Westy out of Ottawa, Jim Phelaen, and left for Panama the week before us, showed up at Gord & Joanne’s a few days ago.  Back from Panama so quickly !  Well, it was noce to finally meet him.  He needed some work so I stepped in and got the van back in shape to return to Toronto.  He’s still here for a few days getting a dent repaired after trying to squeeze between two trucks at the Guatamala boarder !  Then Saturday night we all went off the the Puerto Blues Festival,  http://www.zicatela.net/puertoblues/09/en/, to see a good line up of performers topped off by David Rotundo from Toronto.  So, who else shows up ?  Vito, our friend from Bacalar.  So what a night that was.  Plus we met up with Pierre & Charlote on the dance floor, from Quebec, who sold their Westy and are on a big BMW motorcycle. We won a rib diner at the raffle, drank way too many beers, had a great time listened & danced to David and will go back next Saturday night for the next show !   Monday Gord & I took his Kayaks out on a nice quiet Laguna about a 1/2 hour north of here.  Lot’s of birds and quiet water until some water skiers showed up.  So now I’m back in our Cabana as the Internet cafe just has the plug pulled by the electricians.  It’s a nice air conditioned cabana on Playa Zicatella.  Passing hot winter days typing up this message.  Soon will head for the Playa and sunset rituals and then try to hook up with Vito for super.  He’s in Edda’s campground and cabanas up on the hill just behind us.  Still no photos to share, cannot find a camera under $200 !  YIKES !  The cell phone camera pics do not look so good on the comuter so that’s not going to work.  We hope to find a replacement at the Wal Mart or COSTCO in Acapulco. 

 

Adios,

Frank, Rita & Hunter