daveB110
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Re: What is boondocking and dry camping?
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!1.7KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Roaming and boondocking in Mexico
We did eight winters in Mexico, only the final one without boondocking most of the time. We did hear from close friends who had been near scurmishes, and were quite shaken by them. But never for ourselves, we had been a bit on edge a couple of times driving to and from destinations. That's about it. Loved the warm weather and the warm waters found 900 miles south,and beyond. Loved the people, got to know some around our usual spot, 1200 miles south on the Pacific mainland, would never camp out near a border, always made substantial "tracks" right after the border crossing. We have stayed short durations in All-Inclusives, just to visit with fly-in friends enjoying short trips, themselves. But always could hardly wait to get back to "our" beach! No electricity, nobody running a generator, just enjoying, percolating coffee outside while dawn breaks, Bike rides through a farmer's fields to a tiny, out of the way, restaurent for breaKfast, followed by swims around the coral, showers in our shower tent once the sun had warmed the garapfons, a cold Dos Equis from the fridge, friends congregating along the beach, birthdays, Christmas dinners (measure the turkey to fit in someone's fridge) New Years'Eve festivities, having the Launder Man pick up clothes and have them look like new when returned the next day, once a week shopping in a nearby town, greeting the Beer truck for the two new boxes of beer brought to the doorand exchanged, or the man with the water truck for the exchaange of garafons (5 gallon jugs) of water, washing the 4X down near the river and exploring the countryside's backroads with a couple of other vehicles from the beach. To pay for this was a donation of 5 dollars a day and the must do job of removing the blackwater away, placed judiciously near an area where the cattle roamed and into the coco palms - a small price to enjoy the paradise for the winter. We could stay there forever, but for the heat that beat us out, about the first day in March. Gone to higher ground to again enjoy the cooler interior magic of Mexico, this time in a campground balanerio (hot spring). Almost 2 years of our lives, fully enjoyed!806Views0likes0CommentsRe: Comanche, British Bride and British SIL on Vancouver Island
Thanks Grey Mountain, I was sad to hear that you were not going to Vancouver Island, last year. But happy that you posted again. But sad that Sister in Law, Marrion, had just passed on. But, again, quite happy for you that you now have a brand new great grand niece! All the best, Lonnie and Hazel! By the way, as a post script, we live on the Mainland of B.C., but when we stand on a chair, then look out a window on a fine day, we can see southern portions of Campbell River! You will come back again- and again and again, at least in good thoughts, just as we do, with memories of Pacific Mainland of Mexico, and more recently, of your own great country! "Hemingway once wrote, "If you have ever lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go, for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast!" I think RVing is just that as well and, the people you meet in the places you go, are your Moveable Feast!!509Views0likes0CommentsRe: Baja Sunrise
Been to Brisas, the camping spot on the beach near San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sud, not far from what was, in 1999, the Presidente Hotel. We had wandered in off the beach a memorable day as we saw our first, small turtle heading for the water! We had lunch at that camping site. Friends we made some five years later had been at that spot for several years, likely at that time we were there, in fact. We had flown in to San Jose did some all inclusive, and then RV camped with my brother and his wife in their Motor home. Never have been to La Brisas, the one which you say is north of Puerto Vallarta. You are right about the winter's water temperature in the waters around both states off Baja California. Too cold. On the Mainland side, we never stayed long in Mazatlan either, not warm enough there. It was only a short layover on the way to better things.745Views0likes0CommentsRe: Baja Sunrise
I recall La Brisas, as walk in visitors in 1999, I think just for hamburgers (we flew to Baja in those days) We later met former winter visitors for several years there, at "our beach" south of PV. That year, 2004, was their first trip to the Pacific Mainland coast - by Walter and Hazel. But it sounds like you will have had missed them, though. We met another couple who had winters at Brisas, at Villa Corona, from Idaho, but they had left even later than the Albertans, I think. Sounds like it was a popular place, back in the day.745Views0likes0CommentsRe: Baja Sunrise
We once paid 50 $ for a night at Lo de Marcos, to visit with some friends who always stayed there in those days. (Once visited these same folks while they were in Bucerius, with the directions given, as we drove our motor home, to "turn right at the fourth light." We did, and found ourselves crossing the river! Lucky it was nearly dry that fall, and didn't pose nearly the problem as the cobble stone roadways farther into town. We finally gave up driving on the boulders, and walked over to see them.743Views0likes0CommentsRe: Sault Ste. Marie to Montreal
We had a good visit to Ottawa by staying at an RV park south of the city, then driving to a Bus station for the bus ride into Ottawa (Those buses into town have there own two lane road into the city and very close to the Canadian Parliament buildings. You can tour these. A popular attraction is the Canadian War Museum, which has displays that document wars which include the Boer War, WWI, WWII prominently. We took local buses to get there and enjoyed not driving pretty much the entire day.457Views0likes0CommentsRe: Mex 57 traffic
We loved our only visit to Zacatecas. Our only advice would be to not try to drive in the city. Maybe park at the gondola parking (of course with your towed vehicle) and take taxis down town. Then catch the double decker sight seeing bus. We were the only people doing that then and had a good fellow doing the explanations along the route. We had told the driver we would want to take their tour, but only after we had our lunch, and they were there waiting for us (it seemed). We don't usually look at the churches anywhere we go, but one there was extrodinary, with the work done on the outside. We did drive into the city, but the roads are so narrow and unless you knew the city your chances of getting lost are very high- we needed a taxi to show us out of town as we were hopelessly lost!178Views0likes0CommentsRe: Puerto Pensaco Report
We enjoyed the Reef for about 3 weeks, but on the cheap, 6 years ago. We saw some preliminary activity towards planning construction of the breakwater to get Cruise ships to come there. How is that, these days? We enjoyed Rocky Point and liked how they treated us then, out on the sand, as we were three rigs, all confirmed boondockers both much farther south, and in Arizona's BLM lands. We had made the trip there from a month in San Felipe, doing the trip through the Altar Desert. Having always rushed to go farther south in Mexico, we were encouraged to find the Mexican people in the north just as friendly and accomadating as they had been another 1,000 miles farther south.425Views0likes0CommentsRe: Safety concerns and crash data for Class A's?
After driving a 30 foot gasser A around for 15 years (same one) and putting on over 100,000 miles (and about 20,000 in Mexico) I have enjoyed the drive. No accidents, never hit anyone and nobody ever hit me. Lucky. One day I found myself in a sudden snow storm, with, like practically all other Class A's, no grippy tires, there was a slight downhill to the next town, and the semi trucks hadn't slowed a bit coming towards us. I knew we'd be toast if I slid. But I didn't. Quickly found a place to park while it snowed a foot and a half, on April Fools Day. Not safe, but they're enjoyable when you keep accident free.242Views0likes0Comments
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