More about La Parota RV Park & Tomatina Restaurante and Surf Bar

March 23, 2022

 

We are thoroughly enjoying our stay here at La Parota RV Park in Lo de Marcos.  It’s hard to believe we’ve been here three months already.  We’ve just recently paid for our last month with plans to start heading north on April 21st.  That means we’ll get to experience Semana Santa - Holy week - the seven days leading up to Easter Sunday.  It is apparently the busiest holiday of the year in Mexico with thousands of Mexicans flocking to the beaches for the entire week.  I’m sure I’ll have a blog with many pics and highlights once we experience it.

I thought I’d write a little bit about this beautiful park.  It’s located at the end of a road about a mile or so long that has RV park after RV park here in this small town.  The pandemic impacted quite a few of the parks and not all of them are open, however I’d say the majority are.  The pandemic understandably hit these parks quite hard.  Even this year, for most of the time we’ve been here the park hasn’t been full.  It wasn’t until about January that it started to fill up.  And now into late March many snowbirds have headed home.  The owner Juan Jose has told me that this coming winter of 2022/23 he expects to be full once again.  That’s good news for these businesses for sure.  Many parks in town are right on the ocean while others are set off the beach, some of which have access to pools.  The town is very small though, so the magnificent beach is never more than a couple blocks away.

The road that runs parallel to the beach, leading to La Parota RV park

Juan Jose started the park about 12 years ago.  His daughter owns Tomatina’s restaurant which is right in the corner of the park on the beach.  Over the last 12 years it has apparently grown from a small food stand to the beautiful place it is now.  I remember pulling up to the beach bar for the first time, looking at Dan and saying “paradise found!”.  On a hot day there is no better place to catch the ocean breeze, people watch and have a cold drink.  Friendly staff, great atmosphere and good food!

The bar stools are where you’ll find us.  
Great view, great breeze and always lots of great people to talk to

Fire roasted pizza - yumm! All the food they serve is made in house.

View of Tomatina’s from the beach.  
That’s me on the left bringing back one of their signature piña colada drinks
(more like a bucket of piña colada than a cup!)

The park itself has just over 40 sites, all with their own concrete pads and a beautiful variety of foliage between the sites.  Each has 30 Amp power, water and septic.  There are a small number of sites that are occupied by year round residents .

Yep, those are banana’s growing right behind our rig!

Numerous gorgeous varieties of Hibiscus all over the property

Not sure what kind of shrub this is, but the purple flowers are gorgeous!

(Update:  this is a Rubber vine, Purple Allamanda)

Numerous beautiful butterflies and colourful moths

Every colour of bougainvillea you can imagine!

There is also a main washroom with showers.  The top of the washrooms has a very nice covered area where at one time the snowbirds who visit here used to have events and live music.  There are a few folks who have been coming down to this park for a number of years, some since it opened!  Now that the bar has grown and offers it’s own live music those activities don’t happen anymore.  The bar and music brings in many vehicles, golf carts and people throughout the day and into the evening, making the park quite a busy place at times.  There are definitely days when we look forward to the quiet that comes on Mondays when it is closed.  But we have no complaints, everything quiets down by 8:30 p.m. even on loud band nights.

Although there aren’t organized social events happening there have been weekly visits by a local Chiropractor and massage therapist organized by another RV’er.   They set up their tables in this rooftop patio area. It’s an awesome place to get a relaxing massage as you listen to the waves and feel the breeze off the water.  

Washroom/Shower building with covered rooftop area

A view of the front half of the park facing the ocean.  
Taken from the rooftop patio over the washrooms

Another gorgeous sunset pic.  
It’s not too often there are clouds to accent the beautiful sunsets

We’ve had such a great time here.  It took a little bit to adjust to this small town.  After visiting a few much busier towns like Rincon de Guayabitos and Sayulita, we knew that 

Lo de Marcos was more our “speed”.  We’ve enjoyed many gorgeous days of sunshine with only 2 days in all of our time in Mexico when it rained.  And that was only for a few hours at most!  We have also enjoyed our time out on the water in our kayak fishing and chasing whales.  It sure is a memorable place.  

A view of the beach from out in our kayak.  
Tomatina’s is the building just to the right of centre.

It feels odd to be on our final countdown. I’m sure this last month is going to fly by but one thing is for sure, this won’t be our last visit to this beautiful piece of paradise.

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

La Parota Trailer Park, Lo de Marcos

March 6, 2022

Gorgeous quiet beach steps from our site

When we arrived at La Parota on December 16th the park owner Juan Jose put us into a nice site in the middle row of the park.  At that time, the park was fairly empty with probably no more than 10 sites occupied.  Our site was nice and long with parking available in front and in back, giving us lots of room for the truck, kayak and all our other gear.  We set up our site beautifully with a kitchen area and privacy/solar screens around the front and side.  

Our original site - B4

B4 - middle of the park

Our outdoor living space - site B4

After a couple weeks in that site we realized we’d prefer a site along the outside wall in either row A or C.  Those sites allowed you to back in and gave more privacy than the middle row where people, dogs, goft carts, motorcycles and cars go by both in front and behind you. And, with nobody to the right hand side of us, we kinda felt like we were in a fish bowl.  So, on December 29 when a site right behind us in row A opened up, we talked to Juan Jose and moved.  What a difference!  We now have more privacy.  We also re-arranged the privacy/solar screen to completely shield the left hand side of the rig that is exposed to the sun all day.  What a difference that makes to keep the rig cool.

Our new site - A6
With the truck parked in front and a wall to the back of us we get lots of privacy

Sun screens work great to keep the heat down as well as provide privacy

Our beautiful boy Heffay (aka ‘el Jefe’ or “the boss” en Español)
He’s two days shy of 9 months old in this picture

Heffay showing you the beautiful flowering trees that are along the right hand side of our spot

A nice view from a covered rooftop over the washrooms.
You can see the gorgeous ocean through the palm trees!

We’ve also got room for the cat tent and tunnel for the boys to hang out in at the back of the site along the wall where they won’t be spooked by those passing by.  We manoeuvred our collapsable dog bed inside the tent so the boys could be up off the ground.  Alternatively they can also hide underneath if it’s too hot or if they are arguing with each other, lol.  HeyZeus is wonderful in the tent, he comes when I call him and lets me pick him up and put him in the RV.  HoseHey on the other hand, well although he comes when called, as soon as I unzip the opening he runs back into the tent out of reach.  It’s a fun game for him, not so much for me lol!  We’ve come up with some creative ways to get him out some involving the hose, others involving trapping him in a section of the tube and then unzipping the tube itself and dragging it to the door.  The latest though is luring him to the end and then I step on the tube so he can’t run back to the tent. He’s cool with all that though, and is super relaxed when I open it up to bring him inside.  That says a lot for how far HoseHey has come on this journey.  Before we left Canada, he was almost impossible to pick up without getting clawed, punctured and bloody.  It’s so nice to see how he’s progressed…he’s almost a normal cat now 😋

The boys chillin’ in their tent

Tent and tunnel
HeyZeus is coming to ask me to let him out 😊

Oh, I almost forgot…in the last post I mentioned why we picked this park - because of the easy beach access for the kayak.  See what I mean?  Couldn’t ask for it to be much more perfect than that!

Well, I think that’s all for today.  Now you can see where we’ve been living for the past few months and how incredibly beautiful it is.  I’ve got a few more blog outlines I’m working on.  We’ll see how successful I am in getting this blog caught up an updated a bit more regularly before I start to forget how amazing of a time we’ve been having! 

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

Our arrival in Lo de Marcos, Nayarit - December 2021

March 4, 2022

Lo de Marcos, Bungalows El Caracol y Trailer Park

We arrived in Lo de Marcos the mid afternoon of December 15 as planned.  The drive from Mazatlan was uneventful…well except for STELLA our GPS!   We listened to her again instead of following the excellent directions we had printed from the Nogales to Puerto Vallarta road log created by Bill and Dorothy Bell of On the Road in Mexico (*blue font is a clickable link).  We SHOULD have gotten off the 15D onto hwy 200 which would take us through Tepic but Stella kept us on the 15D to save 20 minutes (not!).  It started out not so bad, as we turned toward the coastline.  Nice new stretches of concrete highway - wide, beautiful vistas.  Then as we approached the coast things got crazy.  Narrow windy roads with drop offs on either side, NOT meant for large rigs with trees overhanging.  Talk about S T R E S S!  But there was no turning around, we were committed.  Thankfully we got behind a transport truck so we just mirrored everything he did, if he was driving on the other side of the road, so were we.  So much for saving time, it easily added a super stressful hour onto the drive.

The route we should have taken - Hwy 200 through Tepic

The road Stella took us on.  Hard to tell from this map, but those curvy roads along the coast were a nightmare!

We eventually made it safely to Lo de Marcos.  And as we entered the small town we decided to turn Stella off shortly after she tried to route us down some narrow streets.  Well, let’s be honest, they are all narrow.  Especially with cars parked on either side.  Realizing Stella was no use to us, we turned her off and navigated by sight and feel.  Of particular importance was looking for low hanging wires and enough room on the street to get by/around.  With a rig that is 13.5 feet tall, keeping an eye out for low hanging wires is critical, particularly in small Mexican towns.  Although very bumpy due to washed out cobble stone roads with numerous topes (speed bumps), we made it in one piece to El Caracol bungalows and RV park.

It was a tight entry to El Caracol but as usual Dan manoeuvred the rig beautifully into our spot.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get her level - too much of a slope and soft grass.  The park manager was very helpful and friendly.  We arrived just when she was getting ready to leave for the day so we agreed to settle up when she returned the following day. 

Our site in El Caracol

After hooking up the water and power we took Heffay and HeyZeus to check out the beach. The park was beautiful, small and quant but sadly the beach access for the kayak wasn’t good.  So that night we walked across the street to La Palapa restaurant where we had delicious fish tacos and talked about our options.  These were the first non-breaded fish tacos we’d had since coming into Mexico and they quickly became our favourite with cheese melted and fried into the fish along with an amazing fruity salsa with pineapple added on top.  I wasn’t sure at first, but boy when I bit in…YUM!!  While enjoying our tacos we talked about our next steps. We’d booked this spot until end of January, but also knew there were numerous RV parks in the town.  

The next morning we set out to explore the other parks to check out their beach access.  Just as we were getting dressed and ready to go out, we realized we had picked up a big furry hitch hiker from Mazatlan…OMG!!!!!!  And, although I tried to relocate him, I was unsuccessful.  He was just too fast and there was no way I was risking him getting away from me to hide somewhere in the RV.  Sorry fella, RIP you furry beast - ACK!!!  

One of two gorgeous trees in El Caracol

We visited Villas Tlaquepaque which was where we had been originally trying to get into.  It is an absolute gorgeous park with beautiful pools, restaurant and bar and located centrally right off the main road in “Lo-de” as the regulars call Lo de Marcos.  They had space, but sadly did not have good beach access for the kayak.  And, even if we could get the kayak to the beach, it was not possible to launch there as the waves were always very strong crashing into the beach at that end of the town.  Prices were $16,000 pesos per month (approx $975 Cdn with current conversions) for stays of 3 months or longer plus metered hydro.  We were told they hydro averages out to $1500 pesos per month (approx $91 Cdn).

Next we visited Cruz Maria - a small RV park right on the ocean as well - but it was full up so we went next door to La Parota RV Park.  La Parota is a nice big park with large lots and beautiful flowering plants in between each site.  It has 30 amp power, good water pressure,  septic and nice concrete pads at each site $11,000 pesos per month (approx $670 Cnd) plus metered hydro at 4 pesos per kWh.   It also has a surf bar and restaurant “Tomatina’s” and best of all EXCELLENT beach access for the boat with an actual ramp onto the beach.  Thankfully, the owner Juan Jose had lots of spaces available for us to choose from.  We moved into La Parota later that morning. 

Google view of La Parota RV park

 

Our Site - B4

Nice view from Tomatina’s Surf Bar & Restaurant

Meanwhile on Vancouver Island, literally since the day we left on November 7th the weather had been unbelievable with flooding due to torrential rains washing out major highways and restricting trucks ability to deliver goods (and gas) whole towns flooded out, empty grocery shelves, gas rationing, snow storms with 30 cm of snow dumped on Nanaimo over one evening and even a tsunami advisory in Victoria and Sooke in mid January.  All the while, we’ve been here in paradise!  Oh, how grateful we are!

Total distance driven Mazatlan to Lo de Marcos - 247 miles (398 km)

Total tolls - $2187 pesos (approx $135 Cdn)

Total fuel - $215 Cdn

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!

Mazatlan, Mar-a-villas RV Park

March 4, 2022

Mazatlan December 10 to 15, 2021

We arrived in Mazatlan in the early afternoon of December 10 and made our way to Mar-a-villa’s RV park situated on the northern end of the hotel strip in Mazatlan.  It was a nice small RV park, right on the ocean.  Gorgeous sunsets and beautiful weather.  Unlike other years, when the park was booked solid, we were fortunate to get a spot.  A beautiful spot just steps from the ocean.

Only being in Mazatlan for a few days, and intending to use at least one of those days as a rest day from driving the horrible roads from San Carlos, we only saw a small piece of the huge city.  Population - 502,547 (2017).  It’s a large and very very busy city with numerous large traffic circles to keep traffic moving (or tourists confused - ha ha!).  Mar-a-Villas was nice, really fast wi-fi (likely because there were only 9 sites occupied), 30 Amp service and a great location.  Even though there were only 9 sites occupied, there were a number of sites that had 5th wheels parked in them but empty.  We heard through talking to locals that some of those were from folks who hadn’t come down yet and some were parked there by the owner - perhaps to rent or sell at some point.  The only downsides were the water pressure was not strong enough.  That’s not uncommon for Mexico.  To overcome it wasn’t a big deal we just had to run as if were were boon docking.  Filling our water tank and then using our water pump to get enough pressure.  Not a biggie for a short term, but I think it’d get old if staying any longer - the refilling of the tank every few days and the sound of the pump running.  Another downside was traffic at times.  With the impacts of covid we learned that the owner had to change his business model.  Rather than keep the park reserved for RV guests - including the use of the club house at the beach etc - he had to expand to keep afloat.  This included allowing access to the beach for others to have weddings, parties etc.  It wasn’t so big a deal for us, but we could understand from the “regulars” point of view how this had changed the “feel” of the park for them.  

We did get a chance to visit a couple other RV parks in the area including:

Las Jaibas RV Park (light blue font is a link) - Like other parks, this one was fairly empty due to covid.  It was a nice clean park with a pool, not on the ocean, but within about a block.  Prices were 200 pesos per person per night (75 pesos cheaper than Mar-a-Villas)

Punta Cerritos -A very nice park with many sites that RV’ers lease year after year.  Many with full size palapa’s built over their rig and even extending out to provide coverage for outdoor kitchens they’ve built up with brick surrounding walls, concrete/tile countertops, built in grills etc.  They also had laundry facilities, a small putting green, high speed wi-fi ($500 pesos/month extra) and a gorgeous pool overlooking the ocean.  I didnt’ write down what the cost was per month to rent a site…but I think it was somewhere around $675 US plus metered hydro.  This park is set up high on a cliff on the ocean with stairs to take you down.  We were really impressed with this park.  We considered renting a spot there for a few more weeks/month but they didn’t have any sites available.  They were in the midst of installing new hydro posts to a section of the park that had been burned out by a fire a couple years back.  Although the manager said he thought the sites would be ready in a week “or so” we decided not to wait around.  After all, a week or so Mexican time could end up being a month.  We didn’t want to be waiting around. 

Another park we hoped to check out, but didn’t get the chance to was Tres Amigos RV Park.  It’s another park right on the ocean.  

While in Mazatlan we stocked up on some groceries and found some better quality pet food than we had available to us in San Carlos/Guaymas.  We also visited our first Soriana’s store.  Wow, what a beautiful store, so much nicer than a Walmart but carries a similar assortment of products from groceries to household goods to electonics and appliances.  

We also got out on our electric bikes.  There is a gorgeous bike path that runs the through a manicured median down the entire length of the hotel zone.  Our first venture out we stumbled across a small shop that offered couples massages.  It was a great deal $550 pesos (approx $35 Cdn) for 1 hour of deep tissue massage.  Just what we needed after that drive from San Carlos!  

It was in Mazatlan that HoseHey decided he’d had enough of staying back in the RV while we took HeyZeus and Heffay for their regular early morning walks.  Typically not interested in walks, he usually ran away when we tried to pick him up to put his harness on.  It was great to see him gather the courage to explore outside.  Honestly, I think he was going a bit crazy watching the birds from the window and wanted to get outside to get a closer look.  

And of course, Heffay and HeyZeus loved exploring the new place.  The beach waves were too rough for Heffay to go for a swim.  Similarly, the sound of the waves crashing freaked HeyZeus out a bit, so he only explored a small part of the beach.  

Big beach and a happy pup (six months old)

Dan taking HeyZeus for his daily walk

Gorgeous long and wide beach

Gorgeous flower from a Plumeria tree

Love this sign!

Overall I’d say we were pleasantly surprised at Mazatlan.  We could possibly see ourselves checking it out for longer in the future.  Temps are also pretty reasonable with lower humidity and cool evenings.  We liked the convenience of being on the outskirts of a big city with all the amenities you’d need.

On Dec 15th we hit the road again, this time headed to Lo de Marcos where we had booked a site at El Caracol until January 31st.  More about that in the next post.  

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!