Checking out Chimulco

Visited park Feb 16-19, 2012

This has not been much of a travelling year for us so far but we did add one new park to our list this month.  Chimulco, in Villa Corona, is a balneario or water park.  Mexico has many aquatic parks, often constructed, as this one is, to take advantage of natural hot springs.  Balnearios typically have large parking areas that are not strained to their limit during the winter RV season.  Some parks permit RVs to park overnight without providing much by way of services.  Chimulco, on the other hand, is a proper trailer park with over 60 sites.

The park borders a lake that is surrounded with a large area of accessible parkland, beautifully treed.  It's another popular destination for Guadalajara residents on weekends and holidays.

We visited with friends we met in previous years.  Several couples are all-winter residents at the park.  They are developing gardens at their site, which they reserve from year to year, and improving on the brick and concrete patios, giving them a sense of belonging.  We see this in many parks.  Winter visitors find a location that suits them (in Mexico there is a place to please everyone) and negotiate with the park management to customize their RV site.  It increases the RVers' enjoyment of the park, confirms their ongoing patronage and enhances the park's appearance.  Some of our RV friends are accomplished gardeners and have created real beauty spots for all to enjoy.

Garden and patio in development at Hacienda Contreras.

An RV park that time has passed

San Jose del Tajo RV Park has one big attraction: location.  It is within the greater municipality of Guadalajara, a very attractive city, and within a kilometer of a long strip of big box stores. (The Costco alone is a huge draw for Canadians and Americans spending the winter in Mexico.  Not us, of course.)  In fact, though, few RVers stay at this park anymore.

If our information is correct, the park was developed in the 1950s as a vacation destination for war veterans from Canada and the US.  The setting is gorgeous.  It backs into a mountain which, like others within the city limits, remains largely undeveloped, making it a beauty spot and a reprieve from urban sprawl.  The park's large clubhouse is neglected.  Dusty shelves in one room hold the worn volumes of a swap library.  We have never seen anyone in the pool though we've been told it gets occasional use, mainly in warmer months.  Good luck finding an RV site that has all three utilities (power, water and sewer) in working order.

The trees are magestic.  Several of them bear fruit and you may luck into avocados, various kinds of citrus, bananas, even a papaya.  There always seem to be several different types of trees in bloom.  Flowering plants abound as well.

The original design for the park featured small cabins or casitas with attached, enclosed carports where the owners would park their trailers when they came to stay.  The close arrangement between trailer and casita made it feasible to utilize both spaces for maximum living area.  Some of the oldest trailers remain parked in their enclosure, never to leave of their own accord.  Newer trailers and motorhomes are far too large to fit in the small space allotted many years ago.  A number of casitas have been retrofitted and extended and new units constructed over the years.  Some casitas have striking designs.  Note the elliptical shapes shown below -- no little boxes are these.

The park now includes a mix of RV sites and these small homes, some of which are used seasonally and others as year-round accommodation.  Of the occupied RV sites, most have campers that seem to be parked for the long-term and most of these bear Mexican license plates.

San Jose del Tajo website (don't take everything at face value)  Visited mid-Feb 2012

Roca Azul

During our four winters in Mexico we have stayed in quite an array of RV parks.  We tend to be 'movers' rather than 'stayers', rarely spending more than a week at a time in a given park.  Several parks had seen better days and were only tolerable because of their location, for example, the parks close to the centre of Guadalajara, Oaxaca and Ciudad Victoria.  Others were absolutely charming, but we managed only a single visit as we have not returned to that part of the country.

Hotel Tepetipan in Catemaco with its fabulous trees and marvellous host Gene.

The Maya Bell in  in Palenque has a natural pool and howler monkeys that scream in the night.  Oh, and Mayan ruins within walking distance.

If you read the previous posts you knows of our great affection for Hacienda Contreras and owners Barb and Sal who go far beyond anything you could imagine in tending to their visitors' needs.

Now we are back at Roca Azul, a special place we found in 2010 and have returned to each year, like the Monarch butterflies drawn to their winter sanctuary.  The Roca Azul Resort was established in the 1960s and includes the RV park complete with swimming pools (one fed by a warm spring), playing fields, a large clubhouse, rental properties  . . . and a lighthouse.