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Tenacatita RV, Tent, and
Trailer Park - Bienvenido!
Tenacatita, Jalisco, Mexico - off
the Costalegre highway between Puerta Vallarta and Manzanillo
This is one of theeee best beaches in
Mexico, large protected area, boogy boarding heaven, a coral
reef to snorkel over and see thousands of multicolored fish, a freshwater bijou
to fish in behind
the beach, trails to bike ride or motorcycle on, and places to explore.
Bring a thin shorty wetsuit if it's
February to July when the water temperature is lower.. And don't forget the
sunscreen.
Vaya a aqui para
esta información en Espanól
Contact
Oscar or Emma Ortega -
owners - Both speak English
& Spanish.
Cellphone (044)- 333-115- 5406 (from US dial 011- 52- 333-115- 5406)
E-Mail them at emmarortega@hotmail.com
(webmaster
- berry@detailshere.com
www.detailshere.com )
This RV Park because of it's location,
excellent facilities, low cost, and high security is quite
popular so don't wait until the day you
want to go to place your reservation. Reserve very early!
They're usually booked full from November through March
RV or tent space - payment in
advance - about 35 spaces available - will hold big rigs.
250pesos/night currently per campsite for
4 persons with hookup included (water, power, septic).
60 pesos/person for extra
people more than the 2 people.
Use of bathrooms and shower facilities included.
5800 pesos per month for 2 people
5400 pesos/mo for 3 months or more for 2 people
Rooms - payment in advance - only 3 rooms available
350 pesos(2) or 600 pesos (3-4)/night for a
nice room with 2 queen sized beds,
and private bathroom and shower.
See map
for how to get to Tenacatita.
The turn off to Tenacatita from the costalegre highway is at exactly longitude
North 19 degrees 20.776 minutes by latitude West 104 degrees 52.743 minutes
See more pics at:
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11 (crocs)
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picture for a description of the picture to appear
There are more pics further down on this page and
then go to
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Pics 11(crocodiles in nearby town)
This website was created by detailshere.com to share
this place with you. As we live in Mexico now, this beach has become one of
our favorite places to go to for a mini vacation; and we've explored many of the
off the beaten path cubbyholes from Manzanillo to Barra de Navidad, through Puerto Vallarta
and on to Tepic and San Blas.
At $24/night for a campsite with water/electrical/sewer
hookup or $35-$60/night for a room; this secure RV facility/uncrowded
large beach has a lot to offer unless you are into
$200-$300/night hotels and elbow to elbow room on the beach.
Looking for an inexpensive vacation with a
great beach for:
a. laying in the sun / shade or in the water letting the gentle waves
roll over you
b. warm water like bath water, bring a shorty wetsuit though for Feb
through July
c. clear, clean water where you can snorkel and see hundreds of multicolored
fish amongst the rocks in the
protected cove.
d. gentle waves where you and/or the kids can boogie board safely without
getting beaten up by big waves - (if you want bigger waves they're 1/8 mile down
the road outside the protected cove area).
e. lots of outdoor restaurants to choose from with "poco"
(small) prices
f. a beach off the beaten path that isn't loaded with tourists.
This is a favorite Mehicano beach on the weekends but during the week there's
little traffic. And even on the weekends, there's not an overload of people -
there's plenty of room for everybody. Special boats that tow you around on
rubber floats, give you rides up the bijou on the backside of the road, and sometimes parasailing are usually available here on weekends
also. Plus there's plenty of places to bicycle to from here.
g. cheap overnight place to stay - like $24/night currently for a
campsite with hookup included (water, power, septic) or $35 to $60/night for a
nice room with bathroom and shower, with a
security fence all around the place and a security gate protecting the facilities and your stuff; and
ten showers and ten restrooms - don't laugh, those are extreme luxuries in
places like this.
h. you can rent a bicycle to explore the spit or beachfront or ride into
town, rent snorkelling gear to look at the incredibly colored fish out in the
shallows next to the rocks (I spend a lot of time snorkelling when I come here),
rent a boogie board to surf the gentle waves with, or rent a campfire rim to
have a small campfire in at your campsite.
i. you can buy cold pop and beer here, snack chips, and wood
bundles.
j. small stores (abarrotes) are nearby where you can get packaged food, snacks,
pop, ice, suntan lotion, mosquito repellant for evenings, and other necessities;
much like a small store at a lake resort.
k. There's a fresh/saltwater bijou on the
backside of the beach road to explore by canoe, small boat, or hire a tour boat
for $20. It's like a trip up the Amazon and loaded with fish to catch and
teaming with birds and treeclimbing crabs and many other things to command your
attention.
l. a stone's throw from Melaque or Barra de Navidad (half
hour) if you really want to
visit a larger tourist town or Manzanilla - a smaller more traditional Mexican beach
town (not to be confused with Manzanillo which is a larger town another hour further down the road south).
m. a couple hours away to explore the Colima volcano; which is currently somewhat active
and in yellow alert status
n. only 4-5 hours from Puerto Vallarta; or 1 hour from Manzanillo where the expensive hotels,
touristy beaches, and good airports to fly into are. Rent a car from
there; about $50/day. Don't forget to bring a tent that breathes well for
warm nights or call ahead for one of their three rooms which has two queensized
beds in them and sleeps 4, and a Spanish/English pocket dictionary; not a lot of English
spoken in Tenacatita.
See map for how
to get to Tenacatita See more pics at:
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picture for a description of the picture to appear.
How to know you are there
Oscar & Emma Ortega -
owners of Tenacatita RV & Trailer Park are pictured above in front of the rental rooms
, security gate, and sign at the
entrance to the park. In fact, the white gate above, the two story
yellow building with the rental rooms above and showers/bathroom
facilities below, and the big sign painted on the side of their house
across the street are your ONLY clues that "this is the place". There are no addresses or numbers of places at
Tenacatita de Playa. They speak English and Spanish as well. When you turn off
the main highway #200 to come to Tenacatita (it is well signed) you will pass
through two small villages before you see the ocean. It's 9km from the highway
to the beach. When you see the ocean you
will have a chance to turn right or left at the intersection at Tenacatita de
Playa. Turn left; go about 500 feet or so until you see this yellow building, sign on
the right, and white gate on the left and you
are there! Oscar and his wife live in the pink house, oceanside, right across the street
from the RV park. Print this page out so you will have these pics with you when
you arrive so you will know you are at the right spot.
Roads
See map to Tenacatita. There's only one road from Puerto Vallarta or Manzanillo to Tenacatita so it's hard to get lost.
And the road is a good road and toll free; one lane each direction. Flying in to Puerto Vallarta
or Manzanillo will get you
here the quickest. Guadalajara is only a little bit further away than
Puerto Vallarta though from Tenacatita. Use highway 80 from
Guadalajara, again a good road and toll free (or use the Cuoto toll road #54
which is a better road but 35 miles longer) and it gets you here in about 5
hours as it winds up and down through beautiful mountainous areas - remember
Guadalajara is at 5300'elevation; Puerta Vallarta , Manzanillo, and Tenacatita are at sea level. The
road from either place is a beautiful drive. If you are going further I would
suggest getting the mapbook called "Mexico 2002", about 140
pages - see www.mapasguiaroji.com
, available in any major grocery store in Puerto Vallarta as well as
Guadalajara; about $15 US. I would also recommend a Garmin
E-Map GPS unit and the world map CD to go with it that contains maps of Mexico
you can program into it. Using satellite signals it's tough to get lost with one
of those as it zooms down to 50' on the screen if you need to and you know
instantly when you are going in the wrong direction. http://www.garmin.com/products/emap/
. We never leave home without it. Before we got to know the huge city of
Guadalajara; it was an invaluable tool to get us back home.
If you plan on driving from the states down here,
it's about 1800 miles and 3 days from the Nogales border, depending upon how many stops
you make. Not much for motels along the way. We normally just find a side
road a mile off the highway and call it a night in our club cab pickup truck. The roads are two
flavors; Libre (FREE, good roads, - but usually only two lane and a lot of
trucks will slow you down); and Cuoto ( toll roads, fast - two lanes in each
direction, great roads but with a high fee in my opinion. )Tolls vary but can be
as much as $8-$9 per stretch in places. You could spend $96 in toll fees getting
from the border to Guadalajara. I would not take the Libre (free) roads without a GPS
unit. The Cuoto (toll) roads bypass the cities and are well signed; the Libre roads normally go
through the cities and that's where you can get turned around and lost without a GPS
unit.
How to Vacation
People like to vacation for several reasons: to rest, and to see the world; and
maybe a little of both. If you are primarily in the "rest"
crowd; fly into Puerto Vallarta or Manzanillo, rent a car, and head down the coast to
Tenacatita and there are quite a few stops along the way you could make to do
some shopping and sight seeing at. And spend most of your time at Tenacatita
(bring or buy plenty of sunscreen - getting fried the first day isn't good -
sunblock 30 or 45 works). If you like to see the world, as I do,
make the loop from Puerto Vallarta to Tenacatita to Guadalajara and back to
Puerto Vallarta via Tepic; like a big triangle. You could even include the
Colima volcano in that trip as that road takes you to Guadalajara also.
Guadalajara has a lot to offer. I used to think it was a desert, being
inland; as much of inland Mexico IS a desert. WRONGO in the
Congo. At 5300' it's lush and green and home to many artisans who
market their furniture, pottery, lamps, leather goods, etc. in districts inside
Guadalajara like Tonala and Tlaquepaque at very reasonable prices. Visit
the "abastos" off Lazaro Cardenas Blvd, a produce/dry goods
marketplace that is unimagineable in size - blocks and blocks and blocks and
blocks of shops and storefronts where produce comes in by the truckloads and truckloads and
truckloads. And it's priced right. You can buy an 85 pound sack of oranges there
for about $7. Guadalajara has a first class zoo you should take in
on the north end just off the Periferico, a freeway that runs all the way around
the city. To travel inside the city you should have a Garmin GPS E-Map
or a thick mapbook called Ciudad de Guadalajara 2002, available at the
large groceries and www.mapasguiaroji.com
; about $10 US.
The People
I heard many scare stories about Mexican banditos before we came to Mexico to
live. However, I had visited Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, and other
places on week long vacations before and had never run into such. My
experiences had all been positive. Having lived here a while
now; I have to say I find the Mexican people very friendly and
accommodating. They have no axes to grind and not a lot of cares
outside their own world. The new president is lessening the political
corruption, but you may still find it cheaper to pay the police a bribe for a
ticket instead of going to court. There is no racism here; as there is in the
US; except maybe amongst the Mexicans themselves in some instances. I have never
been called a gringo here, and I have never yet had anyone be other than helpful
and courteous to me, no matter how badly I screwed up their language in my
attempts to communicate in Spanish. This may not be true in more destitute
places like Mexico City where crime runs much higher; even to the point of
kidnappings for ransom. Use good judgment when you come; keep
your family together always, especially smaller members. Don't flash money or
expensive belongings around and don't come dressed with your $1000 gold chain
necklace or fancy clothes. There's no one here to impress. For most part
these are very poor people struggling to etch out a day to day existence. They
are not an unhappy people because of their poverty. And family is very important
here; much more so than in the US. Do bring lots of tip money and don't be
afraid to pay extra for things that appear too cheap; it is greatly appreciated
by these people. I would not pick up hitchikers although I do often myself
when I am alone and I figure I know where they are going and it is local. I
always carry spare gas because they can't afford to fill up their tanks and are
always running out between stations when they can put a few pesos in. Do a
little STO (service to others) on your trips here; Yahweh will reward you
for it later. Look at a vacation as a give and take situation. You
receive the warmth and hospitality of these good people and their environment
and in return you do what you can to help them; and monetarily is usually the
best means. I used to go to the second hand stores and buy up as many
baseball type caps as I could when I came and give them out. They prize these
caps here. Just a thought.
Money
Just as in the US where we have dollars and cents; in Mexico we have pesos and
centavos. One peso is about ten cents US. The exchange rate is
about 10 pesos for $1US. Just divide everything you see here
priced by ten and that puts it into dollars. If your grocery
bill is $232 pesos - you just spent about $23US.
For most part you will find $500 peso bills
($50US), $200 peso bills ($20US) $100 peso bills ($10US), $50 peso bills ($5US)
and and $20 peso bills ($2US). They also have 20 peso coins ($2US), 10 peso
coins ($1US), 5 peso coins (50 cents US), 2 peso coins (20 cents US), one peso
coins (ten cents US) and coins called centavos - 10 centavo coins (1 penny's
worth), 20 centavo coins
( 2 cents worth), and 50 centavo coins (about a nickels worth). Gas
stations usually take US dollars as well as pesos. And there are money changers
in most every town (currency cambio) where you can exchange your dollars for
pesos.
Gas
Gasoline is expensive in Mexico. Currently it costs about 7 pesos per
liter; or about $2.80 US per gallon. Diesel is cheaper by a dime a
liter. ALL gas stations in Mexico are
priced the same. Sometimes you can get water in the gas so it helps to have a
can of additive with you that dissolves water as well as an injector cleaner
additive if your car starts running a little rough. Gas stations are one of the
few places outside of restaurants where you will find a public restroom;
and some of them have a small one or two peso charge to use the facility.
Bring your own toilet paper as many restrooms are not furnished with toilet
paper.
Food & Drink
A restaurant guide to the Tenacatita restaurants can be found at http://www.costalegre.ca/Tenacatita_Restaurants.htm
Mostly they all serve seafood.
This is an interesting issue. There are several basic sources of food
here. Fresh fruits , vegetables and packaged foods purchased at grocery
stores, small 7-11 type stores or even smaller ma and pop stores called
"abarrotes", roadside stands and flea markets; restaurant food;
and roadside taco stand food.
In the biggest cities there are fast food places like McDonalds, Burger King,
and Kentucky Fried - but not in 99% of the smaller towns. We don't do a lot of
restaurant eating because the roadside stands are so cheap to eat at. I
can feed a family of four on tacos with drinks for around $6-$8 max. Many worry
about getting Montezuma's revenge if they eat at anyplace other than a
restaurant . I have found it made little difference whether I ate at a
restaurant or a taco stand. If food was left unrefrigerated long enough you
could get it. We eat almost exclusively at roadside stands when we go
anywhere and very very seldom do we ever get any intestinal diarrhea from it.
For most part the stands that are there day after day after day have sufficient
health and cleanliness standards to keep people from getting sick. Tacos,
burritos, rice, beans, and corn tamales are the mainstay here. Not a
lot of variety comes with the meal. Three to five tacos, a soda, and
salsa. It's not like having a big combo plate at your local Azteca. You
can find that in the bigger restaurants but you'll pay $6 - $12 and up a plate for it
(boy am I cheap, huh?).
DON'T drink the water unless it comes in a
bottle. Drink bottled sodas, bottled beer, purified bottled water; but don't
drink water out of the tap; ANYWHERE, unless you want to invite intestinal
bacteria to make the next 24 hours quite miserable for you. Also in
Spanish "agua pura" is pure water, "pura agua"
is just plain water out of the tap; don't get them mixed up. In Spanish
the adjective comes AFTER the noun instead of before it.
If there's any other information you would
like to see added here, send an email to the webmaster berry@detailshere.com
You might also want to visit my other Mexico page at www.detailshere.com/mexico.htm
which has links to visas, entry requirements, etc. and links to more
Mexican information pages like www.iaqi.com/mexico
and http://www.mexonline.com/websites.htm
and http://www.costalegre.ca/MainPage.html
which shows other beaches from Puerta Vallarta to Manzanillo. And if you call the Tenacatita RV Park and they have no vacancies for when you
want to visit go to here
for a page that shows a couple other hotels in the area.