VILLA CORONA & PARQUE ACUATICO CHIMULCO

No doubt you are thinking that it is high time I show you around our new digs. 

This is our third full day in Villa Corona having arrived in the afternoon on Tuesday. We've had quite the time so far and are TOTALLY enjoying ourselves. We are DEFINITELY in the right place for us.

We've been into town a few times now - twice for the Our Lady of Guadalupe festivities Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon and evening, and twice to do some shopping. I'll post the Festival photos in the next post. 

This post I'll stick to the Parque Acuatico Chimulco and our trips to the town.

FIRST, A TOUR OF THIS PLACE

The front gate into the Park.

When we arrived we stopped here and went to the office to pay. At first we weren't sure how long to stay so we paid for 1 night @ $275 pesos - around $21. Once parked we realized how nice this place is and quickly went back to pay for a week @ $1,650 pesos - around $127 so $18/per night. Pretty good for full hookups, showers and laundry AND entry fee to the pools for the 3 of us.

Our site - over in the back corner. The light blue colour through the bottom of the trees is the lake - we have a great view.

We are also a bit away from the other RVs - that's our style - we like to be off by ourselves. There are 50 sites here with currently 17 rigs. 

One of those rigs belongs to Croft and Norma of Croft's Mexico. We met them both yesterday which was nice since we have been following their blog. If you want to learn more about traveling in Mexico check out Croft's blog.

The path we take from the RV park to the swimming pools - VERY close about a 1 minute walk.

Our FIRST swim in a pool. Each day a different pool is open while the others are closed for cleaning. The BEST thing about these pools is that the water is WARM - as in a warm bath. 

PURE HEAVEN!

We've decided to stick around here for a bit - so I'll show you more over the posts to come.

Wednesday we walked into town. At first our reason was to - well, just to see it. We were thrilled that we can walk - albeit a bit of a walk with a 3 1/2 year old in tow - but not bad at all. 

When we found out from one of the ladies here about the 'back alley' panaderia, THAT became reason enough.

Down the first street and through the open wrought iron gates, look for the bird cages and parked trucks - were our directions to the panaderia.

This looked like the place. 

And it was the place! PURE HEAVEN - again!

Cassia watching mum make our selections. How to choose, how to choose.

Hasta luego - we'll definitely be seeing them later. Actually that was Tuesday - we went back today.

A few doors down - the tortilleria - fresh tortillas. We haven't stopped in ... yet.

Over the highway and into the town itself - one of the streets decked out in Lady of Guadalupe celebration decorations.

Not long before this we stopped to eat a few of our bakery treats - just as we were saying how thirsty we were we passed this sign.

Now, how can you pass up fresh squeezed orange juice? 

At first we just walked by - we aren't quite used to not going into a store - picking out a drink - paying for it and walking away. A new experience for us to have it made on the spot. But we grabbed our nerve and went in and asked for two - yup - in Spanish - and they actually understood us!

 No need to explain how GOOD that tasted - 2 LARGE glasses for $16 pesos - $1.25.
And out of plastic bags of course. 

LOVE Mexico!

After that we went in search of fresh fruit and then headed home. Since we had swam in the morning we were all a pretty tired.

Today, we altered our approach. We FIRST went shopping and then swam in the afternoon - much better.

Putting more pesos on our banda ancha stick from TelCel was the first thing we needed to do today. When we signed up in Mazatlan we received 1G which lasted us until this morning. This was our first time putting more on it. 

In case you haven't read about the banda ancha elsewhere - here it is. The 'stick' plugs into your USB port and voila! Internet service. It's good to have in Mexico because even though most RV parks advertise wifi - often you can only get it close to the office or it might be down. 

We weren't EXACTLY sure where the telcel store was but we found one pretty quickly.

Francisco or 'Paco' made it all very painless. Because he has been serving Canadian and American clients from the RV Park his English is very good.

We then headed to Villa Corona's zocalo - central plaza.

Well, we couldn't just pass by something delicious looking, being deep fried, now could we? Derek figuring out what we were having for lunch!

And watching it being made. The rectangles are bean and cheese tacos - I'm not sure what the round ones are called but very similar but with chicken added, plus soft not crunchy.

 It was quite the spread and we even splurged on a pop! Grand total $41 pesos - so lunch for $3.15. Those ladies don't know it yet but I think they'll be seeing a lot of us!

Since we weren't far from the church we headed there next. 

The HUGE tree across from the church. 

We then headed back to the RV park but not without first stopping for some fruit. The second time now that I have forgotten to take pictures of the fruit/veggie stand. 

Look at what passed us on the walk back to Chimulco! 

We almost didn't believe our eyes - it took me a minute to put down our stuff and get the camera out - but I got it with zoom. Our very own google map car shot. 

Now I see that we also took a picture of two of our new friends that work here at Chimulco - Rodriguez and Jorge. 

I thought I'd leave you with a picture of our purchases - the fruit - with a HUGE container of raspberries - cost $62 pesos - $4.75 and our panaderia goods $35 pesos - $2.70. Try that at home!

We also stopped at the grocery store for some yogurt and coffee - INSTANT coffee!!! To know us is to know we LOVE our coffee. Sacrifices have to be made I guess!

SEND FRESH GROUND COFFEE OR EVEN THE BEANS - WE HAVE A GRINDER!

PLEASE!

Teresa and the rest of the Wood Clan

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: A BIG hello to Michael Ultra a new A LIFE MADE SIMPLE follower blogging over at RV0777. Michael just hit retirement and getting going as a full timer - check him out - looks to me like he's got some good stuff going on over there.