Sunday at Totonaka RV Park

We're into the swing of things here at Totonaka. We woke up early after a night of listening to the disco music across the street (things rev up on Saturday night). The sky is blue, the sun shines and all the gringoes are cheerful. The dogs enjoyed their morning walk along the beach and then we returned to a breakfast of fresh papaya and bananas with yogurt and lattes. I made the lattes on Mohita's stove with coffee from the Caffe Fantastico and a little battery-operated frother. Here's Harry sitting in the sun enjoying his.

This is a nice park in a good location. There are about 100 spots and all are filled every day. When people pull in and there aren't spots, they just park on the road in the middle and wait for someone to pull out. Lots of people have been here for weeks or even months. Most of them are in very large bus-type Rvs or big trucks with trailers. There is a thriving Gringo community here in San Carlos. An art league, cooking classes, line dancing etc. All appear to be retirees. There isn't a soul under fifty here, unless you count the children of the workmen who occasionally come through to fix something in the park or bringing water or fresh fish to sell.

People just seem to hang around most of the day and visit from campsite to campsite. Some collect shells, some do crafts or paint, others charter boats and go fishing, or go out for dinner or shop at the variety of tourist shops. There is a group that goes hiking and a group that meets every afternoon at 4:00 for happy hour. For some, happy hour goes on till late in the evening. We've been avoiding that—not wanting to wake up with hangovers. Everyone is very friendly and lots of people have dogs. Because of Geordie's “issues” we haven't been able to talk much to the dog owners, but we meet others in the “clubhouse” where people go with their computers to check email, stock prices, or talk to their friends and family back home on Skype.

Pleasant as it is here, we're not ready to hunker down and join the expats. We're heading south tomorrow with Lorne and Anne to a restored colonial town called Alamos. After that they are going to take the train up to the Copper Canyon and we'll continue our adventures on the road.