EL FARO

I knew that Monday afternoon's drive would be pretty quick - we only had just under 50 kms to do. 

I had heard so much about the little beach community of Maruata - from the lady that had clued us in about Troncones, La Saladita and Patzcuaro, and from Kevin and Ruth and other fellow bloggers. We were looking for Letty's Restaurant where we could beach camp. Maruata is known for it's sea turtles and I was pretty stoked about that as well - for Derek and I, but especially for Cassia.

More winding roads - more beautiful mountain scenery. We also stopped for gas at kilometer 200. Note to other travellers - there are no Pemex gas stations for a 150 km stretch, so fuel up on either side of that. Although if you forget, the little towns do have their own versions of 'gas stations' - palapas with jerrycans.

And yup! More goats!

I had received instructions from Kevin a head of time to help us find the beach and the restaurant we were looking for. I'm glad we did because we found them both with very little problem - just one little moment of wondering which road to turn down. But since they all lead to the beach we were just fine.

It was a foreshadow of things to come when Derek said - upon entering the beach area - 'this is it?' in a combo tone of disbelief and disgust. Oops - maybe I didn't show him enough pictures of the beach and sea turtles.

But he stuck with me for a bit anyway. Long enough to drive down the beach road - look at the PACKED palapa at Letty's restaurant - turn around - look again as we drove by a second time - and then put the peddle to the metal - well as best you can in a small Mexico village with a TON of topes.

'Nope.' Says Derek.

'Too busy - too compact.'

I don't even have any pictures to show! It was all a bit devastating - I mean I had planned a stop in Maruata for months! But I have to be honest - he had a point. After all the low key beach camping we have been doing - especially in the few days leading up to Maruata - it was hard to convince ourselves to make it an overnight place.

Maybe next time Maruata - when it isn't a Mexican holiday!

Being the navigator and overall event manager it was up to me to come up with Plan B.

Good thing I have Church's book let me tell you! Maruata is at kilometer 150 on the coast. According to our Mexican camping book we had three other choices - El Faro at 172km, Playa Palma Sola right next door to it, or La Ticla at 186km. So, we decided to go check out El Faro and if it didn't work continue on to La Ticla.

The village of El Faro and it's beach are only 1.9km off the highway so it was an easy trip to make. And look what we found when we got to the end of the road - literally! Another Centro Ecoturistico! It obviously didn't have an RV Park because we would have read about that for sure - but it did have a restaurant and bungalows - and I noticed tents on the beach side - plus a large enough parking lot. 

I wandered in - asked if we could camp for the night in our van - well - not exactly like that - I was using what little Spanish I knew with hand gestures. They all got the point though - said 'si' and $50 pesos each. Perfect - another $100 pesos night. No charge for la nina.

Very very sleepy looking beach community. A view down the road toward the other beach restaurants - that all appeared closed.

A view of the place on the beach side. The washrooms were ok and there were cold showers. And lightning fast wifi - and I mean fast - the best we've come across in Mexico and that on the Michoacan coast.

The palapa - when we arrived cars were parked under and tents were set up.

The beach! Left .....

and right. It sure doesn't come through in this picture but the incline down to the beach is very steep! I wish I had taken the camera when we first arrived because Cassia threw herself down the drop off - pretty funny to watch - she didn't do that again.

We did take a walk to the other end but it was very challenging with the slope ...

and the very coarse sand. I have never seen such large sand grains - ever! 

A look back at our end of the beach.

I took a bunch of pics of Cassia in her pretty top that we bought for her on the Isla de Janitzio. It's still large enough to be a dress on her - sort of .... the sun angle was just right.

Never stop appreciating the beautiful flowers we get to enjoy in February.

Since we were so close to the beach we went back and forth a few times. 

This time with Roofous. 

This is the first time that we have let Roofous off of the leash with other dogs so close by. We weren't quite sure what would happen - although Roofous is very friendly with other dogs. He and Blackie were fast friends and completely wore each other out in the deep sand and steep incline. Derek's trying to get them to run but by this time neither would have any of that.

Another day done in Mexico. We made only about 75 kms but that's ok - we were in no rush. We didn't even get that far the next day before we found another little beach community!

We somehow managed to pull ourselves together to walk to the Villa Corona Market Day today. We are all still feeling pretty poorly - can't seem to kick whatever it is we have - sadly. Nice to pick up some produce and some more nieve - limon and fresa - sure wish we had buckets of that stuff in our freezer. It would sure help to sooth our sore throats. Derek was happy to see a dvd guy there - he loaded up! I'll do a post on the market after we visit again next week - today my camera battery ran out just as I was getting going!

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: As this is second trip to Villa Corona - the place is really growing on us. It seems to be a nice place to live - not too big or small, with enough amenities and VERY nice people. I thought I would do a bit of a search and realized they have their own website - so here it  is - Villa Corona - Mexico.

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