After three nights at San Carlos, I headed south on Mex 15d towards Mazatlan. I’d planned my trip so I would be able to stop at a RV park right on the coast in a town and area with impossible to pronounce name…El Mirador RV Park at Playa Huatabampito Km 15, Huatabampito, Sonora. It’s a 7 & 1/2 hour trip from San Carlos to Mazatlan, but only 4 hours to the El Mirador RV Park, so I didn’t need to leave the Tontonaka RV Park until around 11am. The El Mirador is around 33 miles off the freeway via a shortcut but the route is a main road to a rather large village, plus there was plenty of traffic so I wasn’t worried about a hijacking or anything. I was still short of pesos so I kept my eyes open for a bank but didn’t see any on the route through the village of Huatabampito. After that village the road is still good, but you’re into farm country so the traffic was light. Then you pass through a one street village and then you’re along the coast. The road is remote with few buildings the last 5 miles of so and for a time I was a little worried that the RV park might be closed…what with all the drug related murders in Mexico in the last 5 years there aren’t many RV’ers these days.
Finally spotted the RV park as I drove right by their gate…there was a wire rope strung across the entrance for some reason, probably lack of business so they were getting sloppy. Had to turn the rig around and backtrack, then jump out of the RV and drop the rope so I could get in. There wasn’t any ‘Closed’ sign so I figured they just hadn’t gotten around to dropping the rope themselves that morning. Sure enough, when I went into the office, they were happy to see me. But the gal that owned the place was very morose. When I asked about business this year, she said it was bad, bad, bad. When I’d driven up to the office, I could see the campground, but there wasn’t a single RV. Hmm, not looking to good for their business. I paid using the few pesos I had left, with a little left over for dinner. I parked right at the sea wall with a spectacular view of the Pacific.
Miles of empty beach...
No parking pads and the sand was very fine...tracked pounds of it into the RV.
Note how crummy the RV looks, it is 18 years old though. And I have plans to have it painted down in Mazatlan. I hadn’t really thought about this but the front bumper is a different color then the front wheel well surrounds. Doesn’t help the looks at all. And the vinyl taping is really sad looking. The Bounder logos are still in good shape though.
Looking west...more empty beach.
The owners are very friendly, have a kitchen, and when I signed in, they gave me two free margarita coupons. That’s pretty typical of west coast Mexico RV parks, free drinks when you sign in. And I appreciate it.
The office and restaurant.
They have WiFi, but it’s so weak, I had to drag my laptop over there to get a signal. Pretty slow too.
Looking back at the empty RV park.
It’s sad that the drug wars here in Mexico are keeping the RV’ers from visiting. Very few Americans coming down these days so the two RV parks I stayed at in Mexico this trip are virtually empty. This one, since it’s so far from Mex15d, is totally empty except for me.
View out my front window.
The owners have 2-3 teenage daughters, and after I’d parked, one of them came out with a guy and sat on the seawall smooching for a couple hours. They like that they can’t be seen from the restaurant with my RV blocking the view. The same thing happened the last time I’d stayed here a couple years ago. Couldn’t tell if it was the same couple. I had to resist the urge to shout, “get a room you two“.
Anyway, around six, I wandered over to the restaurant with my laptop, checked the menu, and discovered I did have enough pesos for dinner. Had a great Mexican dinner, and plenty of it, for just $5-6US ($70-$80 pesos). After dinner I asked the owner if she could help me get some pesos. My MS Streets & Trips software showed me that the nearest ATM was in the village, but when I’d driven though that day I could see that the streets were very tight and it would be difficult for me to find parking for my rig. But she arranged for the handyman, who lived in town, to meet me on the outskirts of town on his way to work the next morning. He’d give me a ride to the ATM and I wouldn’t have to negotiate the streets. Great!
Anyway, that evening was quiet with a spectacular sunset. Without WiFi, and no TV to speak of, I just enjoyed the nice breeze and the rosy glow as the sun sunk into the sea. It really would have been better with some other RV’ers to talk to and enjoy a nice drink with but…
There she goes.
Ahh, nice breeze rolling in off the ocean.
Nice.
I have to mention that being alone here, with no other RV’ers to talk to or to have as a backup, was a little rattling. There weren’t any lights on the property, they closed up the restaurant soon after I finished eating, so the place looked abandoned. No security to speak of. And lots of strangers had noticed me driving to the park. I wasn’t even sure that any of the family stayed on the property…the owner told me she lived in town. This was one of those times I didn’t feel at all comfortable here in Mexico so I locked all my windows, double locked the front door and crossed my fingers that no one would decide I was an easy target. For both money or equipment out of my RV. But, nothing happened, and after reading for a couple hours, I slept well.
I just checked the El Mirador RV Park web site and it’s been shut down, so I guess the owners have given up trying to run the RV park with so few people coming down these days. It is in a really nice spot but it’s too far from the freeway for most people. And many RV’ers are fearful of driving too far off the freeway because of the occasional hijacking that’s happened down here. They are pretty rare though, and usually happen near the border, and at night.
Next morning, I headed off back to town and the handyman was waiting along side the road when I got there at the appointed time. Parked the rig in a nice big parking lot on the road back to the freeway and off we went in his rattle trap of a truck to the ATM. Some times in these small villages, my card won’t work because they might not be connected to a main trunk line for the system, but this time, no problem. I got my $2,000 pesos, gave the handyman $200 pesos for his trouble and off I went heading south to Mazatlan. To get back to the freeway had to drive on a fairly poor road but it was only 16 miles or so to the freeway and other then scraping a tree that wasn’t trimmed, didn’t have too much trouble with the route.
The trip from here to Mazatlan is only 370 miles so I arrived in Mazatlan early and headed straight to the California Trailer Park. It’s right across from the ocean, and right on the south end of the Golden Zone. Once I’d gotten parked, I noticed that my neighbor was having some painting done on his RV. And by the same people I wanted to do mine…but that’s a story for next time.
Thanks for visiting.