Freedom Shores, Isla Aguada

You land somewhere new and you drive through the gates and you ask yourself hmm, will this work for me? 

The restaurant is gone, the bar too. There are a couple of rooms I believe currently occupied by Mexican tourists. Today the camper vans number seven. 

To our left in the “Adventurer” RV there is a Quebecois couple, Marie and Louis, their two teenagers and their Mexican rescue dog delighted by everything gringo it meets. To our right is a French couple who store their RV the “Tioga” in Mexico and fly back here when they need a break from France. In the middle you see GANNET2 from Key West.

Singularly absent is our Starlink receiver which cannot penetrate the tree cover which gives us all life giving shade.

Rusty has resumed his campground habits giving his seal of approval to Freedom Shores. Our first chore on arrival was to send his import application to Belmopan, the capital of Belize wherein resides the Belize Agricultural Health Agency and they want to know if you are bringing a household pet into the country. They know now. 

The Belize dollar is pegged at two to one with the US dollar so the fees are half as hefty as they look but the good news is you can use US currency in Belize without fussing with a bank. Convenient but Belize is also reputed to be expensive. We will survive. 

As campgrounds go this isn’t bad. We have a faucet with non potable water, a sewer dump and electricity with an open ground that I have corrected with the ground stick I created in El Rancho. I stick a copper rod into the ground and connect it by cable to the ground on a plug which I then stick into the 15 amp household outlet. Open ground problem solved. 

Louis who has lived in the US and speaks colloquial English was interested in the ground stick which was taught to me by a camper in Oaxaca. I passed my modest knowledge on willingly especially as another Canadian camper got electrocuted on the metal steps of her camper last week. No harm done but it was a lesson. He doesn’t even have an electrical checker which I carry to make sure the outlets are good. I feel surprisingly sophisticated on the subject of shore power in Mexican campgrounds. A bird fishing: 

The showers are hot, if a little sulphur smelling, and the bathroom block is a bit of a hike away. But there are toilet seats and, usually, toilet paper. 

It’s a funny place run by a dude who hangs in the administrative block with his abuelita -grandmother- a person he speaks of but we never see which gives her ethereal presence a slightly Bates Motel feel. There is WiFi after a fashion I’m told outside the office but we haven’t needed it yet. The good bits are obvious especially at $16 a night. 

Were you to land here direct from the United States the rough edges and slightly shabby appearance might shock you but by the time you’ve driven this far, and there isn’t much Mexico left, you appreciate the facilities and overlook the lack of maintenance. It has crossed my mind that Boyd’s Campground on Stock Island is 750 miles away and at least ten times more expensive and neater and properly trimmed and regulated. Here there are few rules, Rusty runs free, and we get to swim directly in the flat waters of the Gulf. Put a price on that: 

Then there’s the churro guy. Have you ever had a piece of Mexican fried dough? At a buck and a half for a bag of six?

The dude shows up selling bags of different flavors, banana, cinnamon or classic with optional condensed milk at 30 pesos a bag. Dan was all over him.

Layne got two bags and saved one for later. Dan, from British Columbia who I’ve met twice before on the road, bought four and we sat and crunched and passed around churros. 

“I’ve got to get rid of them,” he said. “Sharon will kill me if she finds out.”  I crunched with a will, and we passed churros to the kids next door. The French lady recoiled in horror when offered such unsophisticated trans fat nonsense. We munched and looked at the ocean and mused out loud how lucky we are. 

Our planned route from here to Belize once we get the Rusty permit.