LA SALADITA

So, Thursday was a travel day for us. Usually we like to get an early start, but since we knew we weren't going far - 10:30 am was early enough. Not only did we still have packing to do but we had quite a few goodbyes to say and final chitchatting to do.

Plus, we had to still hit the Commercial Mexicana to stock up for the next week or so. 

It wasn't until about noon before we on the road NORTH. Yup - all NORTH from here.

The 200 through Zihuatanejo. 

De nada Zihuatanejo - hasta luego!

From here we could have driven the circle route through Ixtapa, but what would have been the point -really. So on to Lazaro Cardenas it was.

Again - as I showed on the way in - a nice road at this point.

And pretty nice scenery.

Stuff for sale everywhere in Mexico!

And road construction too it seems! We had to laugh at how close the rebar was to our tires!

Good thing I was SORT of paying attention. The road to La Saladita - that I had remembered seeing on our way down three weeks ago - came up much faster than I expected. It is probably 10 kms or so north of Troncones.

Now, we have never been to La Saladita, and really, couldn't find too many people that had. We first heard about it the same way we found out about Patzcuaro and Troncones - from a lady at Villa Corona. I did do a bit of research about La Saladita - enough to figure that we might like it and we most likely could find a restaurant to park out - just like Troncones. It's a popular surfing spot.

The sign pointed in this direction. By this point Derek is already wondering if we have it right.

Gotta LOVE signs!

After about 5 kms we came to the end of the road - right in the parking lot of a restaurant on the beach. 

Hmmmmm.......

Not quite what we expected. Not much room, NO shade and well, a bit on the dirty side.

We got out and looked around a bit. We spoke to a fellow that said 'Paco's'. Derek said - Mirimar? Which was a sign we had seen earlier. The guy said 'Si'. Of course he did - right?!

So, we went back about 1 km and with great optimism on our part it turns out - we turned down this road. I actually took this picture on the way out - funny that we decided to go to a restaurant whose sign is falling down - but we did!

Again, I took these two shots on the way out. On the way in I was much too busy holding on to my chair AND my breath. It doesn't look near as bad in this picture as it really is.

Note to fellow RVers - don't take this road unless you are small and like us have high clearance!

Yikes!

So, we get to the Restaurant Miramar sign and turn in. Upon reflection, I realize we are big sign suckers! There were other smaller signs along the way but the big sign of Miramar somehow got us thinking that there really must be SOMETHING great down the road.

As we drove down the driveway we started to suspect that there wasn't much going on at the Miramar at all. This is the view looking back but not much different than going towards the restaurant.

The Miramar looked totally closed down but this place on the right still had a few signs of habitation.

We stopped and piled out. While Derek looked towards the beach I walked over to speak with the young boy that was there. A few sentences back and forth and we found out that, not only could we camp - parked on the grass - but there was no charge! At first I thought he was saying that we couldn't stay - but with the words - 'no pesos?!' - we got that all figured out.

One of THE BEST campsites so far - and it's FREE! No services though.

We were enjoying the hammocks pretty quickly let me tell you.

The view from Caballito!

The beach to the left .....

and to the right!

A view of the Restaurant Miramar from the beach. Although we really enjoyed our time in Zihuatanejo - I have to say that it was nice being back at a very quiet beach.

Our first beach in Mexico with a high amount of black sand.

I really feel for the birds once Cassia's feet hit the beach!

As Cassia was running and playing I took pictures. Funny now, since the next beach had a million of these - but this was my very first sighting of these beautiful pink shells. This is how I found them in the sand - still whole!

Another pelican rock.

Even a sand dollar!

I went to pick up this shell and realized it was still occupied. So Cassia and I had some fun watching him make his move across the sand.

Hey little fella!

He decided to move with us there anyway ......

Really neat cloud formations by the time Derek and Roofous caught up to us.

On the way back we found this poor little seagull. For some reason he couldn't fly. 

We were treated to an amazing sunset that night.

Needless to say we were pretty happy with ourselves that we had pulled down into La Saladita. At first we weren't sure we were going to stay - heading back to Troncones crossed our minds. We find in Mexico, checking out an area and having the guts to go up and ask if you can stay at a place really works well. 

We decided to stay another night at La Saladita so there will be a La Saladita Day 2!

Tonight we are at El Faro - we were at La Saladita for Thursday and Friday nights. I could get wifi with the telcel stick but it was so slow it was painful - no way I could have gotten a post up.

We were then without wifi for the two nights we were at Zapote Tizuapan - Saturday and Sunday. Lots of great photos coming up in the next few posts!

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: Looking for ANOTHER Mexico travel blog to follow? How about checking in with Barb and Dale over at Una Vez Mas 2012 - 2013. We met them while at El Manglar - great couple from Ontario. Really nice camera work!

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