Searching for parking

I rise with the sun, realizing I have not stretched or jogged since Manzanillo – actually since I left Lake Chapala and that beautiful little Tux…. pueblo.

Barefoot and in my running outfit, I gingerly pick my way across the restaurant palapa area and head down to the ocean. It feels so good to stretch on the cool, hard beach.

I jog into the sunrise, the same direction I walked last nite, paralleling the land at end of the road, for what seems like miles, watching for a break in the continuous although varied fencing while I’m also watching the beautiful skies turn their pinks and oranges, reds and baby blues.

Pelicans allow me to come within 10 feet of them without budging. Other birds move ahead of me as I run, and return behind me once I’m passed.

There is no break in the fencing, except for gaps big enough for people to get through. I reach what I think is a river but getting closer I see it doesn’t flow into the ocean. It is probably a bay or mar – or it could be a lake I guess – as it is separated from the ocean for only a few feet of hard sand.

I’ve run for 30 minutes and I’m bummed there’s no open beach here but I have the whole other direction to look at. I turn around and return the way I came.

There is no activity yet at Daniels. So I back the truck out off the parking area and across the road to park on the dirt side road and out of the restaurant’s way so I don’t have to worry about when I return.

I change into my clothes for today and return to the beach to walk in the other direction. I pass the multitude of restaurants, many with their plastic tables and chairs sitting on the beach under umbrellas or straw-roofed palapas.

When I reach the spot that parallels the white cement wall circle with the bright green grass growing in the middle around a statue of a man on horseback – where the paved road right angles – the  restaurants with chairs on the beach end, although a few restaurants continue.

I am hopeful I will find open beach here but as I walk, this side mirrors the other side: continuous fencing of some kind and mostly empty, deserted-looking building structures on lots.

I see what looks like an opening, climb up the slight hill, and see it is another little parking area between restaurants but I see a dirt road behind the buildings, that is running parallel to the ocean.

I walk down this road, testing it for my heavy truck, just in case I find my space to park. The structures on the ocean side of the road are spaced a good distance apart and are 99% deserted. They have that feel of being tourist shelters.

There are a few smaller structures lining the other side of the road that appear more ordinary and inhabited. I pass a pen with a couple of huge pigs, and another pen with several goats!

Suddenly, there is an empty lot with hard dirt – and some garbage – with no fence, no palm trees, no structures and a nice view of the ocean.

There is no one around to ask about parking here but it looks perfect. I am not yet at the end of the road.

So I take note and continue on.