March 27, 2007

Tecolate Beach, MX

Batteries are Charged

The last couple days at Tecolate Beach have been invigorating. We have been enjoying our ‘beachfront property.’ Even did some snorkeling. A good variety of fishes.

Quite interesting was Sunday afternoon (3/25) after we arrived. The initial view down the beach was semi-pristine. A couple miles of deserted beach. The crowd started arriving about 2 pm (picture). By 5 pm it was crawling with people and cars by the hundreds. Again we noticed the importance of the Sunday afternoon family gatherings to the Mexican people, not to mention the young persons who just want to swill a few cervezas. These new neighbors of ours parked their cars in between our rigs and partied in front and around us, playing Mexican music on boom boxes and car stereos well into the evening. The group closest to us did not depart until after 10.

In the morning, the initial view was saddening: Beer cans/paper plates all along the beach.
At 7:30 a crew of municipal employees (or work furlough prisoners) swept down the beach and picked up all the trash. Our front yard was clean.

The continuing saga of the declining batteries reached a decision point yesterday. The refrigerator was off most of the night, and we had to fire up the generator early to get it going again. My ice cubes were melting!! At the suggestion of one of the leaders, I did an internet search and found a battery dealer in La Paz, a mere 10+ miles away. We took a trip into town and purchased two 6-volt golf-cart batteries, a system that the ‘pros’ on this tour claim is superior to the standard two 12-volt battery arrangement. For the price of $100 each, we are back in business. We kept the ‘old’ batteries in order to negotiate some compensation from Winnebago. Each battery had a dead cell.


This morning we were on dawn patrol to observe the sunrise and get first pick of sea-shells that had washed up during the night.

Although we wish we could stay here for a few more days, we will be departing today for Los Barriles, about 65 miles south, on our way to Cabo San Lucas. At the group meeting last night we were cautioned about the semi-trucks that fly around the corners of the 2-lane highways. We will ‘have our ears on’ to listen for CB warnings of danger approaching.