Cuastecomates Mexico Road Trip
After sitting still in the La Penita RV Park since November 2007 it was time to lock up the tininthewind motor coach, jump in the car and head south on Mexico Hiway 200 along the west coast toward Manzanillo, and who knows if all went well maybe even as far south as Zihuatanejo.
We had told our friends we would be leaving and approximately the day we would be back, and of course we told them if we got in trouble along the way we would e-mail them and they could decide what to do about us.
We got a relatively early start on Monday morning and the first leg of our trip would be to Puerto Vallarta. We had made this trip on numerous occasions both to pick loved ones up at the airport and to go to Wal-Mart. Once we got to Wal-Mart and continued south on Mex 200 we were in uncharted territory. Unlike me, I had done very little pre-planning as we both decided it would just be fun to “wing it.” Getting around and through Puerto Vallarta was quite easy and navigating the tunnels that I had read so much about was a piece of cake.
The hiway south from Puerto Vallarta was two lanes but in excellent condition as it wound its way along the coast. At times my mind would go back to my trucking days as this hiway and the scenery reminded me a lot of hiway one going north out of Los Angeles. The ocean scenery was spectacular. We left the coast only for about 50 miles as we climbed some pretty high mountains and then dropped in to a very fertile valley with many fields of various crops but especially banana plantations.
Our destination for the day was to be Cuastecomates, a small community tucked into a small, secluded bay located about a mile west of Melaque. It features a 300 yard long beach with gentle waves. There are a number of palapa restaurants along the beach and supposedly one hotel at the south end. This little out of the way community has been overshadowed by Melaque and Barra de Navedad which are a stones throw away and we were hoping that its remoteness just might suit us and we were not disappointed.
We arrived in Cuastecomates about 2:00 in the afternoon and although we could see the hotel, decided to walk the beach a little and check out one of the palapa restaurants. We both had a good meal and then meandered over to see if we could get a room for the night.
The hotel was certainly not a five star but it looked very elegant perched on the hillside overlooking the beach. The desk clerk, a young man, spoke no English but was able to communicate to us that it would be $650 pesos for the night. That is about $65.00 U.S. Since there were many parking spaces available I assumed they were not busy so thought I would try to negotiate a better rate. Sometimes we gringo’s do look like an easy mark. We got the room for $45.00. It was a huge room, very clean, with a spectacular balcony view of the ocean and bay. The gentle rolling waves will lull us to sleep as we will simply leave the sliding glass doors open and enjoy the sounds.
