Last Day at Tepetapan

Squeezed between the big ones. I don’t see how they get those big rigs down the Mexican highways and each of them are pulling a vehicle behind.

We look a little small but not quite as small as our Swiss friends , Erika & Claude, who left on Friday morning heading for Villahermosa and then Isla Agauda.

They have been on the road for 4 years in their Land Rover starting in South American and making their way all the way to Canada. They even stopped at Falling Waters in Ohiopyle, PA last summer.

They have a very sturdy, simple, high clearance vehicle meant for rough roads.

I decided to take another bike ride, this time to the other side of Lake Catemaco to a campground called La Jungle and a nature preserve called Nanciyaga. La Jungle, as it sounds, is very jungle like and was used as the setting for at least two movies. The Medicine Man and Apocalypto.

The camping is on the grassy area with lake views. No hookups are available. It is suitable for tents and small van vehicles and the cost  is 80peso/person per night.

They have a nice freeform pool with water flowing into the lake.

Several cabins are available and they have a kitchen to make food for their guests.

The problem for vehicles is actually getting down the narrow, rutted, muddy road that is nearly a mile long.

Once on their grounds, it is a nice place where you could launch your kayak to paddle over to see the monkeys on the island.

Nanciyaga’s road is suitable for tourist busses. It is supposed to be a nature preserve but all I saw were lots of cages for birds and animals, and a tourist gift shop and refreshment stand. I was not too impressed.

My total bike ride was only 13 mi but I had a couple of steep hills to do. The camp fees at Tepetapan are the same as last year 200p/night with full hookups and 30 amp service. But If you don’t have an Energy Management System to prevent high and low voltage from entering your rig I would run your refrigerator on Propane (LPG), or you could blow a circuit board in your refer.

We plan to leave here on Saturday morning and drive past Villahermosa to at least as far as the Palenque junction. We have been to Palenque in the past so we will skip those Mayan ruins this year.

See Map 5