Traveling to Mexico Again in 2008
Mexico 200 - An Interesting Drive in a 40' Motorhome with Toad
We left Mazatlan and continued on Mexico 15D the Autopista south. Every mile further south we go the greener and more tropical the scenery gets. Farms growing agave, napol, corn, tomatoes and tobacco with mango orchards scattered around the fields. Tropical foliage is everywhere: banana plants, big birds of paradise and palm trees. There are a lot of flowering trees with bright yellow flowers at the ends of the branches, some with red flowers others with pink or white flowers. Also noticed the cactus is starting to bloom too, though we are leaving them behind.
We also left the state of Sinaloa and are now in Nayarit.
The road as far as Tepic was very good - mostly new toll road. Only a few miles of it were still under construction. (I think it was somewhere in this area that we ended up on a portion of the new road that wasn’t officially open yet. Was okay until it dead ended and we had to take the construction road - read dirt - to get off on to a real road.) This section was quite expensive - over US61 in tolls for less than 200 miles. One thing we did notice that was different there weren't many Pemex stations on this stretch of road. Be sure to fill up in Mazatlan or Tepic. The road goes from sea level to over 3000 feet high. As the climb got serious there were large blue barrels of water next to the road every five to ten kilometers. From Tepic to Lo de Marcos at Kilometer 108 we traversed Highway 200. A VERY interesting experience. Right out of Tepic we passed through the little town of Xalisco. Streets were one way, thank goodness. MX200 is a very busy road with lots trucks and busses using it. At one point we had to stop and The Driver had to blow the horn to get the attention of the owner of a parked SUV to come out and move it as we couldn’t get past. As with all little towns, there were falling down buildings and pretty colorful restored buildings. Lots of vendors in the street or on the corners selling sugar cane. Very slow going until we got through town. Then we were in sugar cane country. It must be a year round crop as we saw fields that have been harvested and fields that were just planted and all stages of growth in between. Many, many big stake bed trucks loaded with cane passed us on their way to Tepic where there is a processing plant.
Once past the cane fields we really started to get into the fun part of the road. Do not plan on making time driving that road our highest speed was about 34mph, usually slower. I thought the road was a nightmare.
We also left the state of Sinaloa and are now in Nayarit.
The road as far as Tepic was very good - mostly new toll road. Only a few miles of it were still under construction. (I think it was somewhere in this area that we ended up on a portion of the new road that wasn’t officially open yet. Was okay until it dead ended and we had to take the construction road - read dirt - to get off on to a real road.) This section was quite expensive - over US61 in tolls for less than 200 miles. One thing we did notice that was different there weren't many Pemex stations on this stretch of road. Be sure to fill up in Mazatlan or Tepic. The road goes from sea level to over 3000 feet high. As the climb got serious there were large blue barrels of water next to the road every five to ten kilometers. From Tepic to Lo de Marcos at Kilometer 108 we traversed Highway 200. A VERY interesting experience. Right out of Tepic we passed through the little town of Xalisco. Streets were one way, thank goodness. MX200 is a very busy road with lots trucks and busses using it. At one point we had to stop and The Driver had to blow the horn to get the attention of the owner of a parked SUV to come out and move it as we couldn’t get past. As with all little towns, there were falling down buildings and pretty colorful restored buildings. Lots of vendors in the street or on the corners selling sugar cane. Very slow going until we got through town. Then we were in sugar cane country. It must be a year round crop as we saw fields that have been harvested and fields that were just planted and all stages of growth in between. Many, many big stake bed trucks loaded with cane passed us on their way to Tepic where there is a processing plant.
Once past the cane fields we really started to get into the fun part of the road. Do not plan on making time driving that road our highest speed was about 34mph, usually slower. I thought the road was a nightmare.
The Driver said it was No Problem as long as we weren’t in a hurry. He used the engine brakes a lot. There were many, many, many curves - some that almost came back on themselves. And lot of trucks - with double 53’ trailers. Of course everyone else was in a hurry. There were no sections straight enough to allow passing so it was not unusual seeing people passing on blind curves or when they were cresting a hill.
I just held my breath and hoped that if they hit someone we’d have time to stop. The physical road itself was actually good, just been repaved and repainted and even had a little shoulder in most places. The curves were well marked - especially the curvas peligrosa - dangerous curves. Lots of signs and topes to slow you down. Don’t know why they thought some were more dangerous than others, they all seemed bad to me. Most of the signs indicating curves were not the squiggly signs we are used to they were indications of sharp right or left turns and they meant it!
As we continued west getting closer to the ocean and lower in altitude we started seeing roadside stands with palapa roofs selling different fruits. Bananas yellow and green hanging on wires above melons, mangos and papayas stacked in pyramids on tables and the ground.
We started to look for a place to stop. Had heard that the RV parks in PV were full to capacity. I had my laptop with Streets and Trips powered up, the Mexican Camping book open along with the update pages - looking from one to the other trying to figure out where we could stop. There are RV parks in La Peñita and Guayabitos but decided both towns were too far from PV to stop there. The Driver said he had seen some campgrounds in Bucerias, right on the outskirts of PV. Looked them up - none sounded good, two were really small and the directions to the third were pretty iffy. Then I found a little town about 30 miles from PV that had three RV parks and we were just getting to it. So at Kilometer marker 108 we turned into the little town of Lo de Marcos and drove down their cobblestone street. I was reading the book fast as I could. “Oh here,” I read aloud from the book - “You will reach the village square at .5 miles” (if you zeroed the odometer when you left the main road - we didn’t.) “Just beyond you will see the Villas Tlaquepaque on the right.” Okay that was the square we just passed - but I couldn’t see the Villas. The Driver now wanted to know where we were going. “Oh! Oh! There - see the white building - I think that’s the Villas,” I pointed down the street at a white arch that had some writing on it - what I could see looked like VILL to me.
“Is it or isn’t it?” The Driver reasonably asked as we continued to crawl down the street.
“Yes, yes it is. The way in is right beyond it.” By now we were barely moving over the cobblestones and topes and the street had really narrowed down. As we neared the white building The Driver pulled past a car parked on the left and stopped. “Well?” he asked.
“Oh, oh!” I muttered.
“What?” he wanted to know.
“Well the book says ‘it’s narrow and the right turn into the RV park is difficult for big rigs. If you are one of those you’ll have to swing far to the left before turning, hopefully no one has parked on the road in front of the park. If they have don’t try to enter. Just park on the road and investigate the situation. ‘” By now we were completely stopped at kind of an angle in the street. While we were sitting there contemplating the next move the parked car between the jeep and the curb backed up and left. Okay. A big red truck came up the road towards us. And stopped as there was no way he could get by. (By now I’m hoping that there will be room in the park for us.) Thank goodness right then a young man from the RV park came out of the office and said Yes there were spaces available and to just pull in. Easier said than done. At the angle we were at The Driver couldn’t “just pull in.” Meanwhile the Truck driver is blowing his horn, The Driver is miffed, I’m being very quiet. The Driver got out and unhooked the jeep and told me to back it up out of the way. I did. The Driver jockeyed the motorhome a little and managed to make it through the narrow gate. The Truck Driver roared past me on his way to wherever he was going. I took the Jeep through the gate, saw the motorhome disappear through a big arch.
Well all's well that ends well. Got a really nice space in a beautiful park. In fact it is one of the nicest RV parks we have ever been in. Two pools, bar, restaurant, all kinds of game courts, beach access, lots of trees, grass and flowers, Wi-fi and we can pick up one US TV channel. Check it out at http://www.villastlaquepaque.com it’s worth just looking at their web site. We ended up staying for a week.
We started to look for a place to stop. Had heard that the RV parks in PV were full to capacity. I had my laptop with Streets and Trips powered up, the Mexican Camping book open along with the update pages - looking from one to the other trying to figure out where we could stop. There are RV parks in La Peñita and Guayabitos but decided both towns were too far from PV to stop there. The Driver said he had seen some campgrounds in Bucerias, right on the outskirts of PV. Looked them up - none sounded good, two were really small and the directions to the third were pretty iffy. Then I found a little town about 30 miles from PV that had three RV parks and we were just getting to it. So at Kilometer marker 108 we turned into the little town of Lo de Marcos and drove down their cobblestone street. I was reading the book fast as I could. “Oh here,” I read aloud from the book - “You will reach the village square at .5 miles” (if you zeroed the odometer when you left the main road - we didn’t.) “Just beyond you will see the Villas Tlaquepaque on the right.” Okay that was the square we just passed - but I couldn’t see the Villas. The Driver now wanted to know where we were going. “Oh! Oh! There - see the white building - I think that’s the Villas,” I pointed down the street at a white arch that had some writing on it - what I could see looked like VILL to me.
“Is it or isn’t it?” The Driver reasonably asked as we continued to crawl down the street.
“Yes, yes it is. The way in is right beyond it.” By now we were barely moving over the cobblestones and topes and the street had really narrowed down. As we neared the white building The Driver pulled past a car parked on the left and stopped. “Well?” he asked.
“Oh, oh!” I muttered.
“What?” he wanted to know.
“Well the book says ‘it’s narrow and the right turn into the RV park is difficult for big rigs. If you are one of those you’ll have to swing far to the left before turning, hopefully no one has parked on the road in front of the park. If they have don’t try to enter. Just park on the road and investigate the situation. ‘” By now we were completely stopped at kind of an angle in the street. While we were sitting there contemplating the next move the parked car between the jeep and the curb backed up and left. Okay. A big red truck came up the road towards us. And stopped as there was no way he could get by. (By now I’m hoping that there will be room in the park for us.) Thank goodness right then a young man from the RV park came out of the office and said Yes there were spaces available and to just pull in. Easier said than done. At the angle we were at The Driver couldn’t “just pull in.” Meanwhile the Truck driver is blowing his horn, The Driver is miffed, I’m being very quiet. The Driver got out and unhooked the jeep and told me to back it up out of the way. I did. The Driver jockeyed the motorhome a little and managed to make it through the narrow gate. The Truck Driver roared past me on his way to wherever he was going. I took the Jeep through the gate, saw the motorhome disappear through a big arch.
Well all's well that ends well. Got a really nice space in a beautiful park. In fact it is one of the nicest RV parks we have ever been in. Two pools, bar, restaurant, all kinds of game courts, beach access, lots of trees, grass and flowers, Wi-fi and we can pick up one US TV channel. Check it out at http://www.villastlaquepaque.com it’s worth just looking at their web site. We ended up staying for a week.
If we didn’t want to we would never have to leave the park. A yellow pick up decorated with white flames visited every so often with all kinds of delicious fresh baked pastry goods. As it entered the area where we were parked he would blow his horn and the people would pour out of their RVs to buy. A couple of girls walked behind the pickup to wait on the customers. Every other day the fruit/vegetable truck came in. It was a blue pickup with camper shell pulling a wagon with a palapa roof. The wonderful smelling produce arranged in wooden crates. A whistle announced the arrival of the water truck. He sells five gallon bottles of water.
Most of the people staying in the park are Canadians and stay for four or five months. And most of them have been coming here for years. The owners of the park give two parties a year for the people staying there. One in the fall when everybody arrives to welcome them and another in the spring when they are getting ready to leave. We got lucky and were there for the spring party. It was very nice. Food, entertainment and dancing all provided by the owners.
Most of the people staying in the park are Canadians and stay for four or five months. And most of them have been coming here for years. The owners of the park give two parties a year for the people staying there. One in the fall when everybody arrives to welcome them and another in the spring when they are getting ready to leave. We got lucky and were there for the spring party. It was very nice. Food, entertainment and dancing all provided by the owners.