Let’s be clear: El Rancho RV Park is a trap. I call it the roach motel: once you drive in you can’t get out.
Cali the maintenance man keeps the place spotless, the pool, the toilets, the hot showers and the lawns are perfectly manicured.
We have electricity, sewage dumps, water faucets, a communal kitchen and a pizza oven. All for 350 pesos or US$20 a day.
There is WiFi but we use our Starlink as the sky is wide open. At night temperatures plummet from 85 by day to 50 by night which makes for excellent sleeping weather.
We can buy purified drinking water and Rusty is at home behind the secure walls that surround this slice of paradise.
I sent a friend this picture of me looking grumpy but I only did it to avoid having Dale moan about his responsibilities. Life sucks in Oaxaca I have to explain.
Yesterday Layne kicked me out of my comfortable groove with my out of control hair and we went into the nearby village of Santa Maria Del Tule where we got our hair cut. $20 for both of us.
Hair be gone!
Life in the village adapts to an influx of winter gringos and Europeans when RV travel is at its height but this is out of season travel so we don’t see many foreigners on the streets. Mexicans, especially young ones have their universal priorities.
Walking back to GANNET2 we passed a motorcycle shop where the owner was trying to retrieve his repaired scooter. They looked like they could use a hand so I stepped in.
Wherever you have room you set up your shop even if the ramp up is a bit steep…
The reason we left the campground was to buy some mezcal at an artisanal operation twenty minutes out of town. Some friends of ours were taken there by their cab driver when he stopped off to get some for himself. Geraldo’s family has been running the place for generations.
The Mexican flag is flying everywhere, a left over of Independence Day September 16th.
We bought three bottles at $29 apiece (500 pesos). But first we had to taste, tradition requires it.
Rusty sat at my feet politely declining offers of a taste.
We loaded up with drinking water st a place that sells five gallon jugs at 14 pesos each (80 cents). We paid for three and I siphoned 15 gallons into our thirty gallon tank, returning the empty jug to be refilled each time. We buy purified water as it’s cheap and safe to drink but we always run it through our Berkey filter to take away the taste of our plastic water tank. Then it was time for dinner.
It is not sushi for gourmands or connoisseurs, but we enjoy it and it’s a pleasant opportunity to eat something different.
El Rancho has some drawbacks. One is the local passion for setting off thunderous fireworks at all hours of the day and night. There is the constant sound of gunfire, no lights in the sky or anything, just bangs. It annoys me and it scares Rusty which annoys me even more. Cali the caretaker looking mad at me. It’s hard to tell but I don’t think he is:
The other drawback is the lack of places to walk. The countryside is arid and agricultural, the streets are filled with dogs who overwhelm Rusty, and there isn’t much opportunity for photography. El Tule, the village is pretty enough but not much of a draw.
I am ready to drive to the coast. Layne has her stitches out on Tuesday, stitches she got in the US for the removal of one of those cancerous skin cells popping up on old folks these days. After that she can swim so Wednesday we shall drive for the coast. It’s very nice here but the cage is gilded and I’m ready for more driving, new horizons.
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