De Alba Campground

Dec 2007 - Feb 2008

This campground is about 500 miles south of Brownsville, Texas and about 100 miles north of Veracruz, Mexico.  It  is a two day trip from Brownsville with a stop over at Tampico.  There are two routes.  On the map, the roads are comparable but one route is 60 miles shorter.  Hey, a no-brainer; the short route is the best route.  Unfortunately, there was a 20-mile stretch of road construction on the "best" route.  It took the better part of three hours to cover that 20 miles.  Another section of the road was so rough that our motor scooter bounced off its carrier track.  We had to stop and get it remounted and add more tie downs.  But all in all, the trip went pretty well except maybe for the wrong turn we took south of Tampico.  The turn took us off the highway and into a small town with very narrow streets.  In trying to get back to the highway, I turned the wrong way into a one-way street.  Fortunately, the locals were very understanding and helpful.  One man guided me in backing into a side street to turn around.  Then the local police arrived and guided us through town and back onto the highway.  We offered them some money but the officers refused to take it.  However, some friends of theirs riding with them accepted it.  So much for all Mexican police being corrupt.  Five hours later, we arrived at our destination.

This is our campsite.  The campground was not crowded when we arrived.  There were only five other rigs here and most of them only stayed a few days.  It will get more hectic next month when the caravans start arriving.  Anywhere from 10 to twenty rigs will show up at the same time.  It's very entertaining.

The small trees next to the rig don't provide a lot of shade but that is probably just as well because they are young coconut palms.  A full-grown tree dropping coconuts on us would be much worse than a little sun.

Marilee made me use this picture because the Mercedes grill is very evident.

This is the view from our campsite.  the building on the other side of the pool is a palapa; a palm-thatched roof and no walls.  It is used as a meeting place; a sort of clubhouse.  The green tarp at the top of the roof is to cover the thatch that was blown away by one of the two hurricanes that hit here earlier in the year.  They were the first hurricanes to hit here since 1959.

There is a wading pool for kids in the foreground.  The slides are for the adults.  The term "bigger kids" might be more accurate. 

This picture was taken from the edge of the pool.  The palapa can be seen at the right edge.  The trees blowing in the wind show the nice breeze that's here most of the time.  Away from the beach it is just strong enough to keep cool under your awning and to blow away the mosquitoes.

The beach is nice but it is not the brilliant white sand you will find on the Caribbean or Pacific beaches.  It is typical of the Gulf beaches seen in Texas but the water is warmer.  As you can see, it is not crowded; although there are more people on weekends.  Even then, it won't be really crowded until Easter week.  Then you won't be able to see the sand.

The park is beautiful and comfortable.  The people here are unbelievably helpful and accommodating.  For example, a few days ago a lady here, Clara, took us to a larger town about 15 miles away because I had run out of cigarettes.  Then this morning she stopped to tell us she was going to a city about 30 miles from here and offered to take us along or bring back whatever we needed.  We don't need much because the beer truck and the Coke truck stop in the park twice a week and the bakery truck comes every day.

There is a village about a mile down the road from here that has a small store and several nice restaurants.  We probably won't use the restaurants much because they serve breakfast and dinner here in the park for six dollars per day.