We drove the short distance to the town of Tepic in the state of Nayarit. Saw this cool sign right after we got back on the main road.
It was only 40 miles, but the road out of the mountain wound through avocado orchards and a town called El Ahuacate (the avocado). It was steep enough to burn in my new brake pads on the way down.
We first stopped in a large city park called Parque la Loma which had a statue monument to the water sister. It was not flowing, but was pretty cool none the less. The pups really enjoyed the walk around the huge park.
As we entered the town we passed a Dairy Queen and it took me about 15 minutes to navigate the streets to get back to the location so Kathy could get a box of Dilly Bars to put in the freezer. Tight, one-way streets with no easy pattern to discern. We then headed in to a grocery store to get our fridge and pantry stocked up again. We have not been good at planning a menu and too much of what we bought spoiled in the fridge. Veggies here don’t have a long shelf life, so we planned for three days of food.
iOverlander noted only one campground in the city, so we decided to head there since it was rated pretty well and the wild camp/street camping spots were further out. It took a bit to get there, but we found it and it was only $400 per night with full hookups, showers, and toilets. We are surprised we are the only ones here. The place was really nice and had eight spots in a grassy field lined with huge trees. Trees are terrible for Starlink, but their WiFi was fast enough to connect and update pages.
We decided to walk into town to try and find some green chilis so we could make enchiladas. On the way out we got another dose of Mexican hospitality and some lessons in Spanish. We saw some fruit on the ground from a local tree and a couple explained it to be Nanche, a small yellow fruit that is popular here and that they make frescas, candy and desserts out of them (and of course, can also be fermented into a liquor). Right across from that tree we saw starfruit on another tree. The gentleman explained that we should wait to pick those when the fruit is yellow, and then proceeded to pick a yellow one for us.
We asked the couple where to get chili verde in the area and they sent us to a local shop. Green chilis, the hatch type, are hard to find down here in Mexico, surprisingly. There are lots of green chilis but not the ones we are looking for. And as I have said, we cannot find cans of them in the stores (only jalapeños and sometimes serranos). The closest we can find are pablano peppers. We walked a couple of blocks to the street and ended up finding the shop, which had pablanos, but not hatch chilis. Further down the street we found a grocery store, but it did not have veggies, so we asked where a vegetable place was. They had tons of peppers, but no hatch type. So we bought several types and figured we’d try them and see which would work the best.
When we got back, the couple asked if we found what we wanted, and we told them we got some to try, but no the hatch variety was not there. About 30 minutes later, as we were oven roasting the ones we bought, he came back with two verde chili types, that look like serrano and jalapeño, which are both too hot for Kathy. The best part of the trip was that Kathy said along the way “this is fun” as we were trying to find the foods we wanted in the various shops.
Well, we realized we forgot to get corn tortillas so we instead hit up one of the little restaurants outside of the campground. We landed at the Mariscos (seafood) one and tried to order again. We learned tostaditios are little round tortilla chips, but still managed to order shrimp ceviche.
We asked if we could get an order with the shrimp cooked, and this time it came out with ceviche on a tostada. I had ordered the breaded fish again, so Kathy munched on that as well as some of the ceviche.
We did have a great conversation with the owner of the restaurant, who was concerned we did not like his food. We told him we were terrible at Spanish and this food is different than what we are used to and are learning about it and enjoying it. It is really delicious, and is insanely healthy with raw shrimp “cooked” in lemon and lime juice and then mixed with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, and chili sauces. My breaded fish is not as good for me, but I think this one was baked, not fried.
Anyway, we are have a great time learning and this area is green and tropical. Not many pictures today, just fun.