Saturday, 4 February 2017: Champoton

Shorebirds taking flight

Time to leave Ciudad del Carmen and head north.  First though, a bit of a drive around town to check out locations "se renta".  We hugged the coast as much as possible and barely outside of town we saw a house that caught our eye.  I got out of the car to peak inside the window and the lady came out to greet me.  In our very broken, but ultimately effective communication, we learned that the house was in actuality two rooms, one upstairs and one down.  Each floor had two beds, a bathroom, frig, sink and that was about it. The beach was magnificent. That view along with beach chairs, picnic table and hammocks almost made up for the spareness of the accommodations. The price? 200 pesos a night.  Really? $10?  In case we decide to come back...99 31 34 2888 or 93 81 04 2058

We drove another 100 meters down the beach to a restaurant called "Tortugas". I know this is the word for "turtle" not from high school Spanish days but from a Mexican restaurant in Austin back in the day.  Justin went with our waiter to select our fish.  Magically, the "robalo" came back in about ten minutes prepared "a la plancha" or, on the grill.  Our appetizer of guacamole was perhaps the best on the planet and since there were no other customers, the service was excellent.  

After lunch I took time to check out one of the hammocks and enjoy the music before we went for a walk along the beach.   When we came back, we ended up on the outside of a sandbar. Justin ventured toward shore first and found that the water was just a bit above his knees.  I followed without event but Gemma took a bit of coaxing. She is a strong swimmer but she doesn't like it at all.  Safely to shore, we loaded our new found shells into the car and continued our journey northward.

This stretch of Mex 180 from Cd. Del Carmen to Campeche is perhaps some of the best road we've seen in weeks.  Not too many potholes and very few "topes."  We saw more trucks loaded with newly cut sugarcane also heading north.  

Taking the scenic route whenever we can, we turned into a very fancy and very new resort area named Aak-Bal Beach Residences and Spa.  It took us a while to get passed the gate guard and into the grounds.  We found a beautiful golf course and a grand marina, but hardly any people.  There were several buildings where construction had stopped.   We learned that the rooms were about $250 a night but they didn't allow pets.  Since we were there more out of curiosity rather than bone fide interest, we were not too upset to get back in the car and continue our journey.

It was about 5pm when we pulled into Champoton.  Rather than push on the rest of the way to Campeche, we decided to look for a hotel room.  I'd much rather enjoy happy hour and sunset than pull into a new town after dark with no hotel room lined up.  It was raining today.  We hadn't seen hardly any rain since we've been here. We drove past a few hotels and decided to check out La Perla Del Mar.  Initially they said no pets, but George, the manager changed his mind when he met Gemma. 

We enjoyed happy hour at the poolside bar.  Justin's fav seems to be Negro Modelo and I was able to have a clericot again after not having one for the last few days.  Time are tough when a girl has to resort to margaritas.  The outside bar closed at 7pm so we moved inside to the restaurant for dinner. We ordered a camerone ceasar salad but the chef came out to explain he had no lettuce.  Opting instead for a tomato, onion, pesto and balsamic starter we were very satisfied as the tomatoes are fabulous.  Our seafood risotto was scrumptious.  It is not often that you truly have more seafood than starch in a dish like this.  Back in our hotel room, I got lured into a recap of previous super bowl halftime performances.  I've missed most of these over the years so it was almost all new to me.  Great ending to the season to see Jordy Nelson honored as Comeback Player of the year by the NFL.