I've Made it to the Shores of Lake Chapala

The trip from the shores on the Sea of Cortez in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico to the shores of Lake Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico is a long one. Click here to read about the lake.  Because I was part of a caravan made up of three RVers lead by the manager of the Roca Azul RV park in Jocotepec we had to travel at the leaders pace, which was not a good pace for me  We did in 3 days what I would have taken 10 days to drive so I could have seen some of the countryside and seaside towns we screamed through.  The last day, Thursday, I had hoped to break that drive into two days but because Teo, our leader, had to be back to work Friday morning and the gasoline crisis we decided to do it in one day.  Ugggh, 9.5 hours of driving in one day.  As we got closer to our destination we passed more and more closed gas stations.  I was fine on gas, my RV has a 50 gallon tank and the Honda's tank was full, but fellow caravaner Glen has a small gas tank so the closer we got to Jocotepec if we saw an open gas station we all filled out tanks, just to be on the safe side.  Good thing too, as there are no open gas stations here.  We figure that we're going to be here about 2 months and hopefully the gas problem will be fixed by then.

So here I am in Jocotepec, pronounced, Ho-ko-te-pec, at the western end of Lake Chapala.

Tower at our RV park.

The water level of the lake is the highest it's been in years.  

This area is a huge raspberry growing area,

as you can see, it's under water right now.

White birds, two Great Egrets and 3 or 4 white pelicans in the background.  

While I was parked at the beach in San Carlos I met a fellow RVer, Glen in a truck and camper, and we've become friends.  When Glen learned that I was going to Lake Chapala in a caravan he signed up to come along too.  So today, Sunday January 27th, we drove into Ajijic, pronounced ah-he-hec, for breakfast. 

                         

Map to The Peacock Garden restaurant.

The peacocks were napping behind a fence but the gardens were fabulous.

I'm going to put a link to Ajijic's wikipedia page here so you can read about this area and see why I'm here.  At one point in my life I was thinking of retiring to this area.  But now,  I can see that this area isn't really practical for me,  it's too far from my daughter, who lives in San Diego county, and California my state of residency.  But this semi tropical area is sure beautiful.  

The Different Moods of the Water

Morning sun shinning on San Carlos, MX

Calm, flat water, almost at high tide, going down.

Pretty calm and clear.  See the darker area at the top of picture?

I'll talk about that in a minute.

Wind blowing making the water very rough.  High tide.

Ok, now we have low tide.  And rocks which I had never seen before.

Remember that dark area in the other picture, turns out to be seaweed.

I learned that this seaweed needs rocks to grow on.

This woman paddles along with the dolphins several times a week.

Another view of my rv, from Elliott's yard.

Sunrise

This is what you look like after a day running around in the sand.

From the Arizona Desert to the Beach in Mexico

I spent a total of 21 days in Arizona.  During that time I got a couple of things done to the RV.  I had  the grey water and black water tanks cleaned and inspected.  They found that the valve on my grey water tank was showing signs of old age so I had them replace that valve.  In that process they found that the valve that was there from the factory was installed incorrectly.  They showed me what was wrong and what they did to replace it and improve it.  I must say, that valve is working much more smoothly than it ever did.  Also had a hydraulic hose replaced on one of my leveling jacks.  Yuma is a good place to have that done since it is a farm area there is a hydraulic hose place right down the street from my mechanic and within 20 minutes he had a brand new one, freshly made, in his hand and in no time I was back on the road.  Shout out to Diesel Automotive in Yuma. 

I was able to meet up with some of my boondocking friends out in the desert. I saw Nick and Dolores, Linda and Jerry, Beverly, Bette and Kyra. Got to park by Moms Tree and the kitties got to run free.

We had a foggy morning, there's Kyra's RV.

I had a bit of an incident in Mexico, where I bottomed out the RV while turning

into a driveway.  This is what happened to my safety cables.  Ouch!

I have new ones now.

Sunset behind Moms Tree.

And just like that we're back on the beach in Mexico.  

Bubba and I in the early morning sunshine.

Sunset behind Tetakawi.

I'll be here for a week and then it will be time to head farther south to Jocotepec, on the western shores of Lake Chapala.