Well, our four rigs made it through Puerto Vallarta but it was not easy. This must be the absolute worst city to travel through. It has very poor signage and our major highway turned into small cobbled streets with construction. We made a few wrong turns but eventually found the road to Barra de Navidad...highway 200 and down the highway to Chemala and our camp at Playa Negrita.............
11/24/08-11/27/08....El Negrita Beach, near Chamela, Jalisco. GPS 19.52606, -105.07112 for highway turnoff
Satellite view
El Negrita beach is very beautiful and quiet. It has a small restaurant, rustic showers, bathrooms, grass camping with no facilities. The swimming and snorkeling is great. There are a few bugs in the evening. Rent at this spot is 40 pesos per person ($4.00 Cdn.) Ice cold Pacifico beer is 12 pesos......... Thank you to Glenna Strang and Deni Ida for recommending this spot.
By Marilyn:
Thursday morning, November 27th. It's American Thanksgiving Day as we leave the lovely beach cove of El Negrita behind and head towards El Tecuan on another adventure! Bill and I, with much encouragement from our little group, take the lead over the bumpy road away from the beach and by 10 o'clock we are once again on the highway at km 63-64 heading South. We don't have far to go today but as we don't know the condition of the roads ahead we allow ourselves plenty of time to get to our destination which is the beach at the end of the road to El Tecuan. At km. 33-34 we see an old lighthouse structure with the words Playa Magica written down it's length. We turn onto a rutted paved road and a sign overgrown with vegetation points to El Tecuan - 10 km. Then shortly another sign that proclaims - Mex 200 Mile 1.
The road is winding and climbs a bit through lush tropical vegetation and road conditions keep our speed to 10-20 km/hr. The vistas are beautiful and when we bring our eyes back to the road Bill's sights a huge hairy spider (tarantula we think?) the size of a small dinner plate, with a black body trimmed with orange and with orange and yellow legs. It makes haste from the centre of the road into the bush and a photo opportunity is lost! We are soon heading downwards and as we round a corner and I see the end of a slippery tail slide into the left side of the road. It's a huge snake that finding itself up against a rock bluff, immediately turns back across the road in front of us and slithers off down the steep bank. Alas he also was camera shy but it was a lovely black and purple color about 4 ½ - 5 feet long and 4 inches around.
Now before us we see a series of steep valleys that open up to an old, long deserted Mango Plantation that is being cultivated and revitalized. Some of the older trees are being cut down to large stumps and we can see new trees which have grown hardily from older stumps. A young Mexican with a big machete waves to us from the grove and as we pass under the trees ahead a big sign welcoming us to Playa Magica appears, a bit worse for the years of wear. We travel further as the trees over the pot holed road grows denser and closer and it is difficult for us to zig zag under its canopy without avoiding some of its branches and their residents. Looking up we see a maze of silken webs spun from one side of the road to the other and they are occupied by numerous resident spiders of amazing sizes. They are none too pleased that their webs are disturbed and we acquire a few unwelcome passengers on our rigs. One huge squirming long legged monster drops down right in the middle of our windshield and I'm still itching just thinking about it!! (took me a long time to get out of the truck when we finally stopped...Bill had to sweep off the hangers on before I'd open my door).
Our arrival at the beach was a spectacular treat. Pounding surf on sandy beaches with rocky points and Islands offshore. An old abandoned resort graces a high bluff overlooking the surf and several homes line the coast to the South, some abandoned, others inhabited and well cared for. One in particular is called "Shangrala" and is a lovely home. We choose to spend the night at the North end of the beach and situate our rigs to catch the incoming breeze off the ocean. Now it's time to explore the shore and the little town just North of us called Arroyo Seco. Our evening happy hour is spent exclaiming over our exciting drive in from the highway and enjoying a glass of wine while the surf booms onto the beach behind us. Life is good.....!!
Playa Magica is a free camping beach. It has plenty of area for camping either close to the beach or on an abanded airstrip parallel to the beach. The beach is beautiful sand but has large rollers and is not suitable for swimming. Some large rugged rocks provide access for fishing. There seems to be a lot of sea breeze here providing cooling but blowing sand as well. A small 4x4 road provides access to a nearby town with 3 small stores for supplies. The road from the Highway 200 is an old paved un-improved road while in fair condition has lots of low hanging trees which will sweep the tops of higher rigs like campers.
Well....here we were taking our laundry to the local laundrymat in La Manzanilla, I was talking to the clerk weighing the clothes (laundry is charged by the kilo) and Billy was talking to someone in the restaurant right next door. I was sorta listening to his conversation and the girls voice was vaguely familiar so I went over to see..... YUP!.... as you can see from the picture it was Joclyn and Kat who were Los Barriles Regulars but doing a Mainland Mexico trip this winter.
They would like to say HI to all the Los Barriles crew and to tell them that the fishing is not all that good here, its hot and humid, lots of bugs and spiders and crocodiles all over the place. BUT they love it.
11/28/08-11/30/08....Boca Beach, near La Manzanilla.
Satellite view
Boca Beach is about 3 Km off of Mex200 turning off at the sign for Boca Iguana. It is now the only RV park located here. The park has water, power, sewer and showers. Power is very poor with no grounds on most of the plugs and you are not allowed to use it for A/C or fridges. The showers have hot water but no shower heads...just a pipe. Lots of palm trees and access to the beach. The rate this year is $25 or 250 pesos on all the rows except the front which is $40. It takes about 6 years to get a permanent spot on the front row.
