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| Laguna Santa Maria del Oro |
Santa Maria del Oro Lake
is beautiful and deep, inside the crater of an extinct volcano. At an altitude
of 2400 feet, we thought it would be cooler in early July. But it was hot and
humid.
We rented kayaks one
afternoon and cooled off by paddling across the lake and back. Bella, our doxy,
wasn’t too excited about getting into the single-person boats, but she felt better after she and I jumped out of the boat for a short swim that cooled her off.
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| Laguna SAMAO has its Letters on the Malecon |
Laguna de Santa Maria del
Oro is about 30 miles southeast of Tepic in the state of Nayarit, MX. We stayed
at the Koala Bungalows and Campgrounds on the south end of the lake. There are
only five trailer sites but quite a few tent camping sites. The Church and
Church Mexican Camping book warned us not to arrive on a Saturday or Sunday
because the entrance road gets jammed with parked cars and it’s difficult to
pass to the area behind the bungalows where the trailer park is.
Well, we arrived on a
Sunday afternoon and found out that they were right! Even with our mirrors
folded in, we just squeaked by the line of parked cars. If we would have had a
Class A motorhome or one longer than our 28-foot rig, we would not have been
able to get into our RV site until about 9:00PM when the campers had packed up
for the day.
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| The Nearest Restaurant to the Trailer Park |
A walk along the Malecón and
beyond revealed about half a dozen restaurants facing the lake. All of the
menus seemed to list the same entrees, so we settled for the restaurant closest to the
RV Park and got our fill of chicharrones (fried fish pieces) and French fries.
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| Bella, Covered with a Cold, Wet Towel |
We found it to be pretty hot and humid at Lake Santa Maria del Oro in
early July; even Bella was so hot I wrapped her in a wet towel so she could
cool off. The trailer park only had 15-amp service and no breakers that we
could access, so we were hesitant to run our air conditioner. We finally
decided to try it so we could cool down the rig enough to sleep and it worked
fine.
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| Time to Head Back Up the Hill from Lake SAMAO |
It was time to head to
higher altitudes where the weather would be cooler. Our diesel Class C climbed
out of the crater and up the hill with no trouble, through the little town of
Santa Maria del Oro, and back to Hwy 15D. Next stop, Roca Azul on Lake Chapala.
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I'm glad Bella was able to cool off in the lake and with the towel. Looks like a beautiful spot, but I know you'll enjoy moving to higher elevations. We are warm and humid here on the Yucatan gulf coast, but it was actually hotter in May than it has been so far in July, so with our pool and being oceanfront, we've only had to run the bedroom A/C on one night. We have a variety of fans for the rest of the time. Enjoy your travels!
ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
DeleteThanks for your comment. Wow, you've only had to run your A/C one night? That's great! Having a pool and ocean breeze really helps, I'm sure. We've moved to 6500 feet where it's cooler and dry, so now I'm adjusting to the high altitude. Sometimes I can be such a wimp:)
Have a good July and stay cool.
Terry