Our Tour To "La Manga"

Besides of a few errands in town we wanted to drive out to La Manga, a traditional fishing village a few km out west of San Carlos. I-Overlander mentions a few camping possibilities there and besides of being interested in seeing the village we also wanted to check out camping.

The "La Manga" adventure began with a sudden stop of the pavement. 

Road to "La Manga"

So we followed the gravel road into what looked like a remote village somewhere far away in Central America. Primitive shacks, half finished construction projects, some buildings obviously abandoned a long time ago and  ---- restaurants, a lot of them. They were built like open construction, one or two walls, or no walls at all, the roofs covered with palm leaves

What a great place to eat!

In the village of La Manga

Yes, this was old Mexico as we had never seen it. People there went about their business, a man working on his truck, a couple of people on a beach trying to catch fish, a woman looking down to us from her balcony.

Black Vultures

Beach at La Manga

These fishermen's families have been living here for ever, while modern life developed 7kms away in San Carlos and its outskirts where we had passed along fancy condominium complexes, gated communities and few modern hotel complexes. 

The contrast between rich and poor could not be bigger. While villagers are hoping for "Turistas" to frequent their restaurants, they are also facing a threat that rich developers might show up offering round sums of Pesos for land where they can build even more of the beautiful white condominiums.

Rocky coast at Pietras Pinta

And the area at La Manga is truly beautiful. Small white beaches flanked by rocks with the tempting blue waves of the Sea of Cortez would attract the same type of people who already have invested in their dream property from where they enjoy "million-dollar-views". But it also threatens the century-old way of living for Mexican families.

Cerro Tetakawi new development

Leaving rusty old entrance gates and car wrecks behind, we turned around and drove down to "Pietras Pintas". another truly beautiful beach. This is one of I-Overlander's camp areas, and it would be perfect for a small rig which is capable of navigating along the bumpy narrow roads leading to such treasures, but out of the question for a 40ft bus like ours.

MIRADOR LOOK-OUT

The next stop was the beautiful look-out MIRADOR. One of the most stunning views along the rocky coast. It reminds of coastal areas in Italy or Spain.

View from Mirador

Full of new impressions we made it back to the core of San Carlos and our camp.

San Carlos Air Squadron exercising

We Did Another Move To Explore Town

Sure, we have been sitting around for 2 days doing a little less than nothing. And that can be very relaxing, but it can also be boring.

To help with boredom, yesterday I discovered that one of my solar connectors had melted. Not from the sun, but from too much current going through. So I disconnected three of the panels, but now we are getting less power. Decided to need another (third) run from the roof to the charge controller. That necessitates a couple of extra connectors and some heavy-duty wiring to the charge controller. Since there is a solar company in town we went there this morning to get the needed parts.

They had it all, but when I wanted to pay they didn't know the price. We gave them a couple of hours to figure it out, but when we came back they still didn't have a price. How in the world can they run their business without knowing the prices?

We had other errands. We needed 50 gal. of water. Inquiry at a gas station went negative, then we went to 2 different  RV- parks. One had a locked gate, the other didn't show a human being around. The third park we went to was Totonaka. The manager speaks perfect English, we could get water for USD28, we could dump for USD28 or we could stay overnight for USD28. It all has the same price. Thanks but no thanks. The overnight rate is actually very good, they just don't want people coming for dumping and water.

So we went to Agua Purificado. No, we didn't buy it 5gal at a time, as they had a spigot for city water. We were allowed to back up to it and got it filled. Hallelujah! 

But we had two more errands, the LEY grocery market and the "Lavanderia" we had just used a couple of days prior. Bea dropped off our bedding there. "Ready at 3-3:30pm"!

Finally we were all done and went home. Lunch was fruits with Yoghurt for me, while Bea added oats to it. Always yummy on a hot day!

Our friends had sent us an invitation to get over to their place which we did after Bea had gone back to town for picking up our bedding.

Getting together with RV-friends is always a highlight as stories keep flowing from many past years of being on the road.

We also got new neighbours from Arizona, a nice couple with a truck camper on their way farther south to Puerto Vallarta.

Now I hope that I will be getting those solar parts tomorrow, if not - I am using other methods to get it done.

While we did some driving around in town today, we got ourselves a bit out of the town center. It was a sobering experience! San Carlos is certainly pretty in its location and a lot of nice residences have been built, but the roads leading to and around some of these areas are in the most pitiful condition you can imagine. It's ok that they are gravel roads, but huge, I mean really HUGE, potholes, and big rocks in the middle of your path are making this a very poor experience. While we were searching for the best way to avoid potholes and rocks, we imagined what all this would look like under a torrential rainfall.

Living behind walls

"Residential Street"

Building lot for sale

We Are Learning Some Mexican Ways

Being the last day before the weekend, we took off for exploring a part of the area. Key was doing it early and before the heat of the day would settle in.

On the map I found a possible place for dumping waste water - a campground in connection with the Hotel Playa De Cortes. 

After entering Hwy 124 we took the first turn-off to the right - which was a good, but narrow road. It led along a nature preserve and we saw the "Delphinario" complex. 

View across the nature preserve with Cerro Tetakawi in the background

Then we got through some pretty upscale neighbourhood some of the part of a gated community - clearly folks with a fat bank account.

The Hotel Playa De Cortez is located at the end of a bigger main road with a huge wall forcing you to stop. Half of the Spanish-style opening was closed off with a gate, but the left side was open. An empty chair placed on the side signaled that a guard should be sitting there, but at this time there was nobody. We drove into the yard and saw something what looked like an RV-Park, but entirely empty and overgrown with weeds. In the background on top of a mountain a building resembling a castle, made of concrete. From a video I have seen, I know that this monstrous building was the former headquarter of a local cartel boss. I briefly checked out a faucet but there was no water. A single very old 5th-wheel, grown in with weeds was parked in one of the sites. And not a single human soul around. I got a eerie feeling and we got out of there. 

Googling the hotel, I found out that it is still open for business, except for the campground. It was built in 1935/36 and was famous for its features and elegance. Booking.com offers overnight stay for $77/night.

Ok, it wasn't the place we had hoped for so we went into Guyamas and to Walmart. The Walmart is absolutely comparable to any Walmart in the US. We got ourselves some swim shoes which hopefully would protect us a bit against the stings of the baby stingrays, we had been warned about.

While I went into Walmart first, Bea and Dixie stayed in the car, AC on full blast. Then we switched. Now, I certainly made a mistake by going into the self-checkout. My Spanish needs a lot of upgrades if I want to understand the messages this machine shows. Trying and failing I needed the help of a Walmart associate several times. Next time, I will seek out a human cashier for sure.

Next Bea wanted to find a coin laundromat. There are only a few, if any, in Mexico. Laundromats in Mexico are full service where one drops off the laundry, then comes back (after shopping for hours) to pick up your stuff. Some of these facilities are clean others are filthy. We found a real clean one close to downtown San Carlos with an English speaking lady behind the counter.

Getting back to camp, it was the usual heat, and I went for cool-off into the ocean.

Not Much Cooler Yet

While we were traveling south we froze. Except for the last 4 days when reaching New Mexico,we had been longing for warm weather. Now our glances on the weather forecast are hopeful for some cooler weather. Today's 34C ((93.2F) are still not giving us much relief.

As a precautionary measure Dixie got an old T-shirt of mine which was doused in water. 

Then she found her "hole" where she lay the entire morning. Bea even set up a sun umbrella for her to get some shade.

In the afternoon we got more shade on the other side and we hung out there the rest of the time.

Late afternoon our camper neighbour came over letting us know that a group of volunteers were releasing sea turtle babies into the sea. So we went over to observe.

And wasn't that quite the event happening here? The little ones, about 150, were let go in the surf zone and while most of them went straight for the water, others needed some help to waddle into the right direction. Spectators like us had arrived to follow the release. 

Providing some directional help