San Pancho

The rain continued pouring as we broke down camp. I got soaked to the bone dumping the sewer and disconnecting the water and electricity. Heated a piece of the banana bread we bought from the roving vendor yesterday and pulled out of El Chaco around 9:00.

Climbed the mountain and passed through Aticama and then threaded outer way through the encroaching jungle working hard not to rub up against the trees hanging into the road. Sometimes, we would have to stop to let oncoming vehicles pass, so as not to damage the RV. The jungle grew thicker and more beautiful. We passed through several small villages with their selection of innovative speed bumps; the invisible unmarked speed bump, the long low sloped yellow painted humps, the series of metal round half balls, and the vibrating dots. PJ is the tope spotter, keeping a lookout for upcoming bumps.

We passed through some tight traffic in Las Vargas, then made the right turn down to the beach at Chacala. Steep drop on a potholed cobblestone street, barely squeezing through the cars on either side. Lots of buses parked up at the campground, disgorging crowds of Mexican tourists from inland areas. We sat for an hour or so taking a break. I made a quick post since we had been without internet for two days. We walked the dogs around the palm grove and contemplated staying overnight, but we both agreed that Chacala wasn’t the place we want to rent at right now, so we carried on down to San Pancho.

The road into San Pancho got a little tight as we got into the downtown zone. Didn’t really find an RV park, but some young guys had a grassy area where you could primitive camp for a few bucks per person. We inched our way through the gate scarcely clearing the branches on the tree overhead. Lennon guided us in and we let the dogs run loose with the other local dogs in the camp. Totally chill spot. 

San Pancho is hipster heaven, dreads or man buns are the required headgear. Everyone works really hard at looking like they aren’t working really hard at looking hip. A few older fogies like us, but mostly a younger bohemian crowd. We walked around a while and got some dinner at a taco stand up the road. Waves are crashing on the shore and a few surfers are catching some lefts out in front of the main square. Went back to the RV, played with the dogs and caught up on first of the month internet stuff.