Going to New York

Masochistically so, we are choosing to drive to the national book show in NYC at the end of May, after we drive to Colorado next week, and maybe we will see a bit of Nebraska along the way.

We have a need to stir up some business, put some pressure on us and them, visit with Seb the Younger, eat some pizza, maybe then go up the coast to Westport, MA to see the Pickles, enjoy some shell fish, and then I'll likely want to hustle way over to Montana for some big sky horizon, a relief after all the crowds and trees of the East.

Jelly-like fish whipped

Yesterday afternoon I began my swim out to the buey and stroked right into a Portuguese Man-of-War, all long turquoise thread-like tendrils stinging me whip-like, long welts across my torso, not pleasant, and as I waded back in to shore several friends and the internet suggested treatments like amonia and alcohol and baking soda and even urine.

After rinsing and wincing, Jill applied rubbing alcohol, some cortizone cream, a couple of hours later the welts had faded, and this morning the welts have mostly fade, it seems almost just a memory.

Sayulita Trailer Park

About 6 months since we set up shop (we arrived Thanksgiving Day) an emptying trailer park before small, glassed waves makes a quiet beach morning, yet some worry over the threat of flu.

As she washes a pile of yesterdays dishes Jill requests I not offer to cook breakfast for whoever remains.

Pricing varies. Full hookups

To Panama and back

Jed and his familly, from Ukiah, California, bought some land on an island in Bocas Del Toro, Panama, packed up the kids and drove from Ukiah via Sayulita, where we saw them in November, then drove off for Bocas. We wondered whether they would make it, seemed a long way and a lot of borders to cross, but in April they returned with nearly all happy reports of their journey.

Reading eBooks on the iPod Touch

During the process of building an ebook store I carried a lingering concern,
would I learn to enjoy reading ebooks myself, a lifelong book lover, piles of paperbacks attached to us always, forever a crate of them to lift and move and trade and trip over in our RV?

It is still an odd sensation to find I now prefer reading novels on the
small, agile and well lit iPod Touch, and already paperbacks begin to seem unecessary fat I may finally lose, unexpectedly, though Jill is not there yet.

Working while we travel

Building this ebook store for the last 2 years, soon we'll start the beta, and then we'll open. Watching Sony and Amazon and Barnes & Noble and many others, the shoestring road office must soon compete, quietly at first, with just a bookstore, then we'll see.

Patzcuaro food

Breakfast downtown on the square was as all you wanted it to be, particularly when all you wanted was a Grand Slam at a sidewalk cafe...



and a few times we sampled this Tarascan tortilla soup.



But trailer park cuisine was bearable as well - Jill put together this brunch of local papaya, mango, tuna, slied tomatoes and cucumber, hard boiled eggs and almonds.

Posing in color

Villla Patzcuaro RV park

The Uruapan camp was showered with firework noise and booming salsa all night, daytime temperatures in the 90s, the dogs went languid, slow and stifled. We drove up the free road to Patzcuaro to check out the colonial town and the rv park, a stroll about the square and a torta later we were quickly inspired to move.

180 pesos/night, full hookups (weekly and monthly rates too)

Pie de la Sierra Hotel and RV Park, Uruapan

A mostly pleasant parking lot and RV lot outside the hotel, with electric and water, access to the hotel showers, pool included, and a fairly short taxi ride to downtown. Can get noisy on weekends - the hotel has events, party goers park and frolic in our parking area, big speakers pound out big sound that rocks the RV in the late night, that sort of thing.

220 pesos/night, water + electric

Flores de Las Penãs

Holly and Figaro getting wet

The inn and trailer lot at Las Penãs (room for about 3 or 4 RVs), a few kilometers north of Playa Azul, lovingly called "rustic" and "old Mexico" by some, and after laying around the cliffside hammock-draped patio for a bit, maybe we are curiously seduced by the pleasantly post apocalyptic bombed-out charm, the breezy Squatters Hut by the Sea ambience, open air kitchen and shower, some great seafood just down the hill on the beach where the fisherman slide their boats up the sand.

Not a honeymoon destination for most, but for a day or two it might be hard to beat the view, the roar of the crashing waves against the rocks.

200p/night, electric only, w/ kitchen and shower room.

Barra de Nexpa

A manicured village catering to surfers chasing the famous waves, and though the images don't show it but these were the most desireable waves we've seen.

We only stayed for a moment, pulled over to the side of the dirt road just outside the village and stood along the rocky shore to watch about 30 surfers enjoy the long, large, machine-like lefts rolling perfectly in from a big distance.

New RV park outside Tizupan

Heard of this new RV park put together by the government, right on the sea, a clear blue swimming pool, shapely waves, sounded good.

We spent a couple of nights, did some work, floated around in the pool, had micheladas delivered poolside, swung in the hammocks a little, even got some waves, might have stayed longer if the Easter rush wasn't coming.



200/night, full hookups.

Rancho Buganvillias RV Park at La Placita

A new "cliffside" RV park, called Rancho Buganvillias, owned by an American couple from LA now placing their bets on the Michoacan coast, so up and coming they say.

Breezy and well kept, the owners make respectable pizza a couple of nights a week, the shower and bathrooms are clean and even stylish, a 5 minute walk down a sandy dirt path leads to the long wide open, nearly empty beach, but the path heats up in the afternoon and becomes too hot for dog paws it turns out.

210p a night, plus metered electricity. Full hookups. Regular but mostly close-out waves.

Michoacan coast south of Tecoman

A roadside view somewhere south of Tecoman.

All along this coast, one long empty beach after another.

Pasquales - big waves

Pasquales is a collection of palapa huts and beach side inns just outside the town of Tecoman, and since it owns a wave the surfer guide book describes as frighteningly thick and powerful, we had to make the detour west from Tecopan, and though the winds were up, the surf down, the restaurant barkers were out and not much happening in the water, you could see and hear and feel the power of the waves and I knew I would not be going in. 

The photo above we took while we stood on the beach, but this video shows how the waves can get on a good day...

Sayulita to Melaque

5 months in Sayulita Trailer Park, our longest pitstop in 4 years, we got rooted in a small village way, then yesterday we watched John & Michelle drive off south, and like that we decamped, packed up the View and about 24 hours later were on the road south to Melaque. Took about 5 hours, 130 twisting miles or so down Hwy 200 and then a little hunting in the dark but we eventually found them tucked in at Roberto's Villamar Bungalows, on the beach here.

The Big Snook

Lyman, pictured here, was given this Snook just moments before by a guy fishing out front of the trailer park. It was one of the larger catches from those fishing along the surf this year. Dan the Pickle Man tried for this very fish for months, but somehow it proved too elusive.
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