Thurs Dec 10th – VC to Lo De Marcos

We left the park in Villa Corona at 9 am, temperature was 15C.  Since the ramp to the highway is steep, we had to remove the hitch and connections for the car from the RV.  Bev drives the car while Vic drives the RV.  We meet further along the highway to hook the car to the RV.  We followed a route to bypass Guadalajara by taking the road to Buenavista and then north on hwy 90/70 to toll road 15D.  As we travel the road to Buenavista we pass fields and fields of sugar cane.  We travel behind a truck loaded beyond capacity with sugar cane. Luckily, he turns left when we turn right so we are delayed only a few minutes.

Fields of sugar cane and truck loaded with it.

We join the toll road which is nicely paved and in good condition.  While passing through the Tequila area, the hillsides are covered in Blue Agave plants. Mmm, tequila. Mmm, margaritas. We hope to stop and tour the place when we pass by on our return home.

Fields of Blue Agave Cactus

By 11:30 am, we have paid 2 tolls for a total of 440 pesos and the temperature outside is now 21.8C.  We are descending and appear to have moved into another climate zone as we are now seeing tall cactus on the mountain sides.  The altitude is < 1000 metres.  Within 15 minutes we are climbing again, reaching the 1277m altitude.  We stopped at the 86km mark on the toll road at a lookout point to take photos.  We are now just inside the border of Nayarit, previously we were in the state of Jalisco. 

Cactus

By 12:15 we are doing a steep climb to the 1456m altitude.  We are seeing thousands of little yellow butterflies as we drive. At 12:23 we exit the toll road to take the road to Las Varas rather than continuing on to Tepic. An hour later the scenery changes once again and we now start to see banana trees among the foliage.


Over the next 2 hours, we descend steep hills as we make our way to the Pacific coast.  Vic runs in second gear and even down to first gear trying not use the brakes.  In the end, we have to pull off for a half an hour as the brakes have overheated, brake fluid has boiled, leaving the pedal going right to the floor.  Even though we have heard stories of others with brakes fading and using the brakes as little as possible, we still run into this problem. Next time we will use first gear even though it seems too extreme...but necessary.

We are just 15 km from Las Varas and know there is a Pemex station that we can stop at to get more brake fluid.  We reach the Pemex station, fuel up, purchase brake fluid (which we have as spare) and bleed some air out of the brake lines.  The brake fluid really isn’t down, it just the overheating has caused the air in the lines.  Not long afterwards, we pull off at the LP gas station to top up our propane.  We purchase 3/8 of a tank for 161 pesos. The propane is still leaking. Manana.

Passing through Las Varas brings back pleasant memories of our first visit to this area with friends in 1998. We used to go to market day there and purchase delicious tortas from one of the local vendors.  We pass the sign to Chacala, Alta Vista, La Penita, Rincon de Guayabitos and Los Ayalos – all places we had visited over the past 11 years when we flew down to join friends for a week or two of winter vacation.

We finally reach Lo De Marcos at 4 PM Central which is 3 PM local (mountain) time.  We park the RV outside the Pretty Sunset RV resort and drive in the car to visit 5 different parks to check our rates and site availability.  On our way back to the RV, we spy our friend Dale who is staying at Savage RV park which we had not checked out.  We decide to take a site there as it has the cheapest rate for a 2 month stay and includes free Internet wireless access. We are booked for 2 months at 4900 pesos per month, which is much better than US600 month at a couple of other parks.

At last we have reached our destination and start to settle in for a long stay!  We do minimal set up as we are exhausted by our long day of driving.  Our friends give us an hour and then ask us to join them for Happy Hour at the shared palapa – perfect end to a long day! Margarita time!

We have traveled 3,213 miles and spent about $160.78  in tolls, $1311.46 in fuel, and $41 in propane. Our camping costs, including up to Feb. 10th, is $1355.56. All prices converted to Cdn$.