The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Tent camping in Acapulco!

We left Taxco just after 8:30am. Tried to say goodbye to our couchsurfing host Efrain, but couldn't find him. Managed to say goodbye to his father though, and he'll pass on the message. Don't normally like to use couchsurfing for only one night, but we had expressed this in advance and Efrain was still very gracious to accept us. We had about a four hour drive ahead of us to get to Acapulco, so we wanted an early start.

There is only a free road from Taxco to Chilpancingo. We had never been on this road before, but it's in good condition and we had no problems. From Chilpancingo, we could have stayed on the slower free road, but instead chose the expensive toll road. This four lane highway runs all the way from Mexico City to Acapulco. We have done it before in both directions with the motorhome, and we knew in advance that it's an expensive highway. But we figured that with the little blue car it would be quite a bit cheaper, plus we were only doing the short section from Chilpancingo to Acapulco.

273 kms (170 miles).

Well it was still pretty expensive. 215 pesos ($17.20) for the 93 km (58 mile) section of road. Yikes.

Pulled into the Acapulco Trailer Park around 1:45pm. Took a little longer than we thought, but we had the cruise on at around 90 km/h (54 mph) so we were taking our time. We were in no hurry, so might as well optimize the fuel economy!

First thing we did was meet up with John. He's one of our blog readers who has been following our travels for a long time. We met him and his sister Diane when we were here last year around this time when our daughter Lindsey and grandson Cameron had flown into Acapulco to visit us.

We picked out a site, and got the tent set up!

The other side of that short wall is the beach!

All set up!

We went over and visited with John, and he suggested we go across the street where he has his boat moored. We are on a spit of land where the ocean is on one side, and there is a lake on the other side. Anyhow, there is a nice spot over there with a swimming pool and bar so we sat and had a few drinks and a few laughs.

Ahhh, this is the life!

The lake. John's is the pontoon boat. We might go out on the lake today!

The main city of Acapulco is on the other side of this hill. We're actually just north of the city.

Ruth, cooking dinner.

You see that camp stove that we have? Well it's not the most stable. Ruth had made a nice pasta dish with ground beef and while she was cooking it, the other campers had come over and said how good it smelled. There were a group of them playing bocci ball nearby and they were jokingly asking when dinner would be ready.

Well just as it was ready, Ruth had it all in a big skillet. She was trying to wipe the table and somehow knocked the stove and over it went! Saved about 1/4 of it, but the rest went into the garbage. No, I didn't take a picture of the mess! Oh well, no point crying over spilled milk as they say. We consoled ourselves by going out and watching the sunset. Pretty hard to be upset about anything when you have sunsets like this...

Acapulco sunsets are like this pretty much every night!
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26 comments:

  1. Looks like a nice place - maybe we'll get there in the next few years. Too bad about the dinner - I would have been crushed!

    I don't think we could take that much heat!

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    1. Yep, it was a shame about dinner, what we had left was just a teaser because it tasted really good!

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  2. Ach! That's right up there with dropping a full bottle of beer! The horror!

    I think I could probably do the tent camping thing, but I know I'd be by myself. My darlin' wife tried it, a few times, really. I could tell she just didn't like it. Never said much, but I gave up on the idea. After that, the only other "camping" we did was in a class A motorhome. Bit of a leap, I know.
    Much easier to roll out of bed in the morning.

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    1. Yeah, too bad about dinner, Kevin's mouth was watering. You should have seen his face, it was just about the same look as if it had been beer!

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  3. Oh, how I had forgotten the beauty of the Acapulco sunset. Tears in my eyes. Really still one of favorite spots in Mexico.

    How full is the campground?

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    1. There are about 10 or 11 units including us here and one that left this morning.

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  4. Looks like a very nice spot you are in there. Too bad about your dinner, at least you did not have to worry about overeating and leftovers.
    Awesome sunset.

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    1. Love the sunsets here, they are always beautiful!

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  5. Kevins sister ElaineJanuary 23, 2013 at 1:40 PM

    Acapulco sounds pretty good right about now. The HIGH here today in Ottawa is -21C(-6F).

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  6. To bad about your yummy meal but oh what a sunset for sure... That would make anything better ~ right?
    Have fun
    Donna

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  7. Was there a fee for the camp spot?

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    1. Yes, it is at a trailer park. We have camped here before with the motorhome and the only reason we came here this time was to visit with John, a blog reader of ours that we had met here last year with.

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  8. That $17 toll was outrageously expensive. You can drive the 240-mile Ohio Turnpike all the way from Indiana to Pennsylvania for less!

    Were you charged the "gringo rate"?

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    1. Nope, no "gringo prices" they are all stated in writing when you pull up to the toll boths. Toll roads in Mexico are generally expensive and this one in particular. We knew that from past experience with the motorhome and it makes it worth it with a motorhome but in the car with hindsight we should have gone the free road the whole way.

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  9. I think the food gods knocked it over, they must have thought it too good for another meal or to share. I'm sure it was excellent! Add that to a wonderful sunset.

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  10. gorgeous pictures..sorry about supper ..but a great sunset for desert

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  11. butterbean carpenterJanuary 24, 2013 at 8:09 PM

    Howdy R&K,
    I think I'd of kicked their bocci ball into the ocean!! Did they even apologize?? How much more would the toll have been with Sherman?? Hope that's the only trouble y'all have in Acapulco, the Zetas are there you know...

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    1. They never did anything to our dinner, it was me that upset the pan and sent it flying to the ground. Two years ago it cost us $58 for Sherman to do the whole trip but we only did part of it this time in the car so not really sure, forgot to make a point of looking at the prices for the "autobus" which is what Sherman would have been classified as. We had no problems in Acapulco, they leave tourists alone.

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  12. Wow... there sure are a lot of toll roads and expensive ones at that. Glad we have excellent free highways coast to coast here in Canada and very few (Hwy 407 to name one) toll roads.

    If you are not in a hurry... why take the toll roads? Or is it a safety issue while travelling. Again... not an issue here in Canada.

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    1. They have a lot of tolls roads but for every toll road there is also a free road. In the car we will more often take the free road but if we are in Sherman we will often take the toll road because the free roads are much harder on him and the driver, some are very twisty, windy, and very steep so it is hard on the brakes and more costly in fuel. We would probably use up just as much fuel as we spend on the tolls so it generally makes sense to use them with a motorhome. Also the fee for the tolls includes having you vehicle towed should it break down. The odd time it is also wise to use the toll road because the free road may go through and area that is questionable, although we have never had a problem. One more thing, the the free road can often be much slower, what could take 6-8 hours on the free road would take maybe 3-4 hours on the toll road.

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