Villa Corona – Jan. ’10 Mexico

Sunday morning, I made my way back north towards Guadalajara 5 kilometers and found the ATM the cop told me about. With a full wallet I headed back to Villa Corona. I’d spent some time the night before reading the guide book and now knew where the place was, and what sign to expect to see. In the daylight it was easy to spot the RV’s parked behind the fence as well.

All parked in my new spot.

It took some help from staff to help guide me so I could squeeze into the RV spot what with the trees and the patio in the way but I made it without damage with his help and settled in quickly. Then I grabbed the camera and headed out to explore the park. The grounds where very large, and the RV portion was just a part of them. The park was probably 30 years old or more, the tight spaces for RV’s was reminiscent of an earlier age in RV’ing. I just fit in my space, the roads were tight, and whenever anyone pulled close to me in a large RV I checked to see if there was a way out for my rig, if I decided to leave on the spur of the moment. But it was comfortable there and I ended up staying two weeks. And the following weekend, many of the French Canadians all left at the same time, like they were all traveling together, leaving a lot of open park space. They did have a really big party in the meeting hall that Friday night, dancing, boozing, singing, lots of noisy fun for them it seemed, but they didn’t invite any of the rest of us. That’s OK, many of the rest of us just hung out in the heated pool. I’m told, and I’ve read that French Canadians are not very friendly as a group but they seemed OK to me while they were here.

Oh, did I mention that this RV park is also a big fancy water park? With pools of heated water and water slides and a very large wading pool for kids? There are hot springs that supply this area and this place uses thousands of gallons a day. They empty one or two of their pools every night and refill them before the next morning. And it’s the second park using hot springs water. There is a public park up the road just a hundred yards that does too. I looked around for a volcano or similar but never found anything nearby that might be the source of the heated water. When it gets here to the park its only around 104°F so it must travel quite a ways underground first. Loosing some heat along the way.

A look south toward the lake. The water park dumps it’s pool water into it every night.

Another shot of the RV park portion of the property.

The park also rents rooms. These are about half of those available.

And some more rooms for rent.

And the first set of swimming pools, all with heated water.

One of the large pools.

The water slide area. Also supplied with warm water. It’s the off season right now so it’s not open.

Even the heated kiddies wading pool portion is huge.

A giant, kid swallowing, whale.

And another pool for kids.

On the other side of the small hill, the other portion of the water slide section.

While walking to town to market, I couldn’t help but notice this giant catus growing next to a tree. Huge!

And a random shot towards the lake…the lake that was a nursury for billions of Deet resistance blood sucking bugs. Damn that lake!

The mosquitos from this lake are really nasty. First, Deet doesn’t seem to faze them, then their bite is very painful when you notice it. The welt is larger then most, with a big lump, a red swelling surrounded by a ring of white, then another ring of red around that, and it itches enough so that you scratch which causes oozing. You need to have an anti-biotic salve to spread on it several times over the next couple days to keep it from itching to much. And you’ll have many more bites then are comfortable. I would have stayed even longer at this resort if it hadn’t been for the mosquito. They mostly come at dusk, right when you’ve wandered over to the patio for the WiFi. So if you’re not wearing long pants and long sleeve shirt (in balmy Mexico), you get eaten alive. But they come all during the day and into the night. Bahh. But I adjusted and learned to live with them for the two weeks I stayed at Chimulco Trailer Park. They did chase me inside early a few times, the little bastards.

I did enjoy the area and walked into town several times. Villa Corona is a typical Mexican village. Not a single American fast food or big box business to be found. Small, family run stores, a Wednesday street market, and a large town square bordered by a very old and ornate church. I came here often to enjoy the shade of what must be a several hundred year old tree. And then the vendors all over the place where you can get luncherio, dinner, a vegetable snack, fresh squeezed juice drink, or a bag of cut fruit any time.

The streets of town are not very wide and without street signs, except for an occasional small metal or painted street sign up on the side of a building at a street crossing. But not at every corner. On some corners not a single sign. I had a map, but if I forgot to count the streets I crossed, I could miss my destination.  Still, charming, and typically Mexican. I went to several shops and stores and enjoyed the time doing so. But Mexico is not backward. You can find, eventually, anything you need there, just like back home. If a local here needs something special they can just drive into Guadalajara and find it there.

Heading into town…Villa Corona.

There are some very nice properties here in Corona.

At the village market.

This style market goes on for many blocks where you can find nearly everything you need. Not always though, I could have used some ‘C’ sized batteries but no one had any Alkaline type.

I did find 1 kilo bags (2.2lbs) of cut vegetables for under $2 US. Fill the bag with water when I get home, drop in 8 drops of Microdyn anti-bacterial drops, and viola’, fresh vegis for a salad. Yummm.

The water parks Splash Factory.

I arrived on a Sunday afternoon, got use to the place and settled into a routine of early morning WiFi on the office patio, wandering around, sometimes into town, back onto my patio at the RV for reading, then back to the office patio in the evening for more WiFi, followed by a soak in the heated pool before bed.

The following Saturday morning, I hear this occasional horn. I thought it was from a cruise vessel out on the lake. Then when I wander over to the patio with my computer, I see that it’s coming from this giant water ‘Splash Factory’. And soon the pool to the right of this large assembly was filling up with kids. See those buckets above? They are filling with water. Then the horn blows just before they’re dumped. The kids jump out of the pool and get into the splash zone of the dumped buckets. Meanwhile, there are all sorts of water sprays going off. Sprays, streams, twirlers, showers.

The bucket dumps…and this is the small bucket.

Just about time for the big bucket to dump. The horn has sounded.

Big bucket dumps.

These shots were taken early in the day, and as the day wore on, more and more families showed up from the surrounding village and joined in the fun. There were around 100 kids there later that evening. The heated pools just to the right and just to the left of the Splash factory were crowded while kids waited for the buckets to dump. This is winter for the locals so they are use to much hotter weather, and even though it was 75°F, they like to hang out in the heated pools.

The Centro tree. Looks hundreds of years old.

The town square is a typical village meeting place. Every Mexican village has one. There is always a church associated with the centro…unless the village is too small.

The plaza.

And the nearby church.

This is the front of the church, but it doesn’t face the Centro. Unusual in my expirience.

So, that’s the end of the pictures from Villa Corona and the Chimulco Trailer Park. I stayed another week and enjoyed the place immensely.  It is a little off the beaten track but that’s OK, I can shop at a bigger store when I go back to Guadalajara and try to find that RV park I missed coming into town.