Caravans

Thanks Russ, I knew when I typed that Fantasy was not headquartered in Ca, I made a boo boo. It is hard to explain to people that a caravan let's you see the real mexico and places you would not see on your own. For example I went the first time to Guanajuato on my own. I missed about 90% of what is available there. Also with the numbers in a Caravan, we have the opportunity to do things like hire musicians to serenade us around the back alleys at night, stuff that is hard to arange on your own and impossible without a group. I only saw the mummy museum for the first time last year, I had no idea it existed. I have been to Puerto Penasco where you are, but haven't seen any of it either. I used to think Caravans were overpriced until I was in the position of having to hand out the money to pay for RV parks, tours & meals. I noticed Kevin Read who is on his first wagon master job and is notoriously cheap, also made the same comment on his blog. Mexico is no longer cheap, many RV parks are charging in US dollars at rates close to US parks. Gouging, IMO, which is one reason the company I am wagon mastering for at least, has moved its pricing to Canadian or Pesos next season. (The Canadian dollar & Peso generally follow each other as both are petro currencies). I know companies like Adventure & Fantasy invest a lot in advertising so have overhead in US dollars, as do all of us, however the currency of Mexico is not the US dollar, but you would think it is. It probably explains the fewer number of RV'ers down here this year as most were always Canadian anyway. This is a very irriating thing to me, it is ripping off Americans & Canadians alike, and the company I am with is now favoring parks that charge in Pesos whenever we can. We moved 4 days from a week in Mazatlan to Teacapan instead, to send a message to one RV park there. That park lost over $2000 as a result of spots that remained empty.

Anyway, you can't go far wrong with any of the companies I listed. People do need to know there have been fly by night ones out there. I remember one outfit (Cowboy Caravans, I believe it was called, defunct now) who left everyone standed on the US side of the border when they did not show up.

BTW, Russ if you ever want to wagon master again, contact me, they are always looking for experienced ones.