I always used these terms interchangably, never, ever seeing them defined. We camped for seven winters in Mexico, on the same beach. Year by year, it got more popular with RV'ers, usally through friends or relatives joining the group there. At first we could get a good spot if we arrived mid-January but by the seventh season we arrived November 12th, just in time, as there were only about 15 places and Rv's almost always parked to get the best view of the water, never just one window, back or front. People got along well,we made a lot of enduring friends, but where we camped was exceptional - yes, no electricity, no facilities but we were 40 feet from a coral beach at 18 degrees north latitude and the winter's water temperature ranged from 85 in November to about 78 at the end of February at the time the weather began to get hot and humid, and people began leaving for inland Mexico's higher elevations.
Coming from southwestern coastal Canada, our drive was nearly 3500 miles but so worth it! Rv's had to have solar to stay, it was taboo to run a generator - listening to the small, gentle waves making shore, or having the wind rattle something that could mean something stronger might start up, so you would go out to put up the awning (and usually some added sunscreen material). A few hundred yards farther away was the larger beach where most of the touring folks and locals liked the wave action ( and where we would go to boogie board and at times eat at the palapa restaurents) and we could hear the Pacific waves crash down. "Our beach" called Playa Mora, on the much larger Bahia Tenacatita, was sometimes referred to as "the Aquarium,"and such a pleasant place to enjoy some retired years, but only the winters. We snorkled over and around the coral for an hour most every day, always something new to see in that water. the various schools of fish, the Spotted Eagle Rays were an incredible sight, not nearly as big as the Mantas, but very interesting when the chance came to see one or two check out the area. Never saw a shark there. whales were seen far out in the bay every few days, young manta rays also, as they would fly out of the water by the dozens.
We shopped 40 kms south on Mexico Hwy 200 usually each Saturday. Small vehicles would come to sell vegetables and fruit right to our small area, as would the beer truck, the propane truck (for the refrigerater for us, its only use) we had a small bottle we kept outside where we cooked and I made coffee each morning as dawn broke over us.The water truck was invaluable for its purified water in 5 gallon jugs, called garafons. Some went into the motor home's large tank, one came inside where a commonly available hand pump could be used, and outside, one garafon for the outside kitchen and another placed beside the shower tent where the sun would heat it and a spare water pump would allow for two nice showers after a swim, from the bottle. The Laundry man would visit on a Monday and return on the Wednesday, the clothes cleaned beautifully and neatly folded - what a treat for the ladies on the beach, to miss out on that, although generally once a week we would drive to the nearby river, put the vehicles in 4 wheel drive and wash them and whatever matts and big items that needed attention, all the while bird watching with binoculars and a spotting scope on a tripod. by the time we returned to the beach the vehicles would be pretty dusty again. That was Mexico!
A BlueBoy joined the refrigerator as invaluable, too. a bi - weekly eventfor us was to removed the blackwater and take the blueboy out of the area, and drain it and flush it out with sea water, in an area where coconut palms grew and cattle would graze and nobody lived, houses were komerters away, unseen and the crashing Pacific was a very good stone's throw over a bank. Back on our beach we used to dig at least two pits away from the water, and into the bushes, for anyone visiting the beach who needed one, complete with toilet seats and large containers of lime which kept the odour and flies down and cleaned the area up up for visitors and everyone.
We paid an older Mexican gentleman about 5 dollars a day to keep order in the area, and deal with a man who was said to own the land. It was doubtful if that man owned the land near the water, as Mexican law stipulated that the Republic owned the land from the water to several meters up onto land. And our area was an ithmus, water on both sides, calm where we were but rough about a hundred yards away. But the roadway in could have been his, and farther on, on three wooded hills, he may have had jurisdiction and ownership. One year he presented an ultimatum for our man to tell us. He would in one week bulldoze and drop gravel, piled high over the road to our beach, so we would have to leave or be stuck there. It was all recinded later in the week, but not before we had taken him at his word, and reserved and paid for, a week at a campgound a couple of kilometers away. (It had no coral beach!!)
We had lots of fun and there was always interaction with groups of Mexican people who also came, especially just after Christmas. Tents would be set up in great numbers. On our first Christmas we measured a turkey, the right size to be placed inside a neighbour's frige until the big day. We had needed to drive all the way to Manzanillo, Colima, for that, about an hour's drive if I remember. A bigger city, more stores to shop. The day after Christmas a throng of about 60 folks mostly from Guadalajara arrived, set up tents near, and their head honcho presented us with a big bottle of fine tequilla! they ever offered for us to join them as they took over our Man Chuey;s tiny palapa for their kitchen. we didn't go but did think the tequilla was good. They were back the next year, we talked to them more, sang songs with them, taking turns singing. One chap had been working in California. Coming with them from the city were some ATV's and the chap from California had a new Canadian made one, the CanAm, made by Bombardier, and was happy to meet Canadians - although we lived 4,000 km from Quebec.
I like writing, and in this bit of our personal history, I find it brings back memories of some good times. Later on the beach we so loved was raided by some 60 or so state Police in riot gear with automatic weaponry, and evicted permenantly everyone from the beach, then placed double wire fencing around the road cut-off, and left guard to keep everyone out even extending the guard to patrol the beach and prevent water landings. The went on for over four years and finally they allow folks back, after years of court actions. Somebody had wanted to build a huge hotel, and claimed he owned the main beach, outright. Most of our group gave up Mexico travel, and met up in southern Arizona after that and had a christmas reunion attended bymore than 20 who had been on that beach. Great!
