Mexico City + GPS a no go! 

We left the lovely resort town of Mazatlan early on Sunday morning, once again bright and early.

After some serious climbing of mountains to the City of Tepic amidst some hair raising Mexican (and Californian) drivers we arrived at our camp for the night, an RV park called Roca Azul on Lake Chapala, just south of Guadalajara.

The park was not what we had expected; it had grandeur about it from days gone by, but sadly was mostly empty and the amenities were not available.

We had our choice of sites and chose one that was in part shade and part sun. It was by this time around 4:30 pm and we had only a little daylight left.

We are finding it a little difficult to travel the way that we had intended. We did not bring a cooler as having ice readily available felt more of a chore than it was worth. We therefore were intending to pick up foods from markets as we traveled for each day’s rations. This truly has been a challenge!

In San Carlos we had a full grocery store, in Mazatlan – only little corner stores with prepackaged snack foods, chips and pop. We are therefore spending more money on eating at restaurants than has been planned.

On arriving at Roca Azul we were disappointed to learn that there were not only no markets to be found, but we would have to drive back at least 2KM or 3KM to find any type of food.

On Monday morning we headed out of the area, headed for a camp ground that we had found just outside if Mexico City. Our GPS had us return back the way we had came and we ended up traveling through Guadalajara on a Monday morning – during rush hour traffic. Although there was a lot of traffic, it ran very smoothly and we sailed through with no problem whatsoever.

The hours flew by as we travelled along the incredibly scenic Highway 15D. Toll booth after toll booth – the hours passed.

Before we knew it, we were in the midst yet again of a rush hour traffic – this time, in the outskirts of Mexico City.

We learned quickly that our GPS was having trouble with this particular area of the world…. Well, after having to turn around 2 or 3 times, going through toll booths each time.  By the end of the day we likely spent $100 (Canadian) in toll booths just going around in circles.

Finally, deciding enough was enough we pulled off to the side and put the GPS away – deciding to head towards a major centre in the vicinity of the camp ground we had found. Low and behold, the GPS once again found its way, or so we thought.

The machine took us to a small town, and down a dirt road to an open field with a donkey grazing…. We re-entered the coordinates for the site, double checked the Camping in Mexico guidebook that we are using and tried again… no luck!

We are now nearing sun down and have no idea how to find the campground in the town that have now been circling for the past 45 minutes. We make a decision to head back to the hotel that we had passed – no dogs allowed!

We the programed the GPS to find us a hotel – again, wrong turns, incorrect directions and recalibration brought us somewhere far off of the highway and traveling through small Mexican towns.

The locals began to smile at us and wave as we continued to pass by them.  ENOUGH!

Okay – last chance, there is a hotel showing on the GPS that is approximately 6KM away; if this doesn’t work, we are on the highway heading towards our destination set for Tuesday.

There it was – Hotel Manna – in the middle of no where, our resting place for the evening! A double bed room with walk in shower, tv and a safe place to rest our heads – all for only $350 pesos (equivalent of approximately $27 CN).