Lake Chapala is Mexico’s largest natural lake, but more importantly, it was the location of the condo we had rented for a few days over New Year’s Eve. Daydreams of elaborate meals, prepared in a fully operational kitchen, served on a real table (“Maybe they will have some candles we could light!”), daily hot showers without the need for flip flops, laundry churning away in the washing machine and a full sized bed filled my head as we drove to the lake.
We woke up on the side of Tequila Volcano, having slept really well in the cool mountain air. We took our time getting packed up for the day, knowing we had only a short drive into town. The morning in Tequila was spent looking after a few chores; we filled up our water tank with agua purificada, we spent an hour in the laundromat (clean clothes!!!!), and looked for a place to park the truck and camper for the evening. We were planning on sampling some tequila, actually a lot of tequila, and we didn’t want to have to move the truck later. We asked at one hotel with courtyard parking if we could camp there, but they were going to be full for the night and didn’t have room for us. We asked about the safety of camping on the streets, and were assured that it was perfectly safe. We ended up parking the truck on a dead end street surrounded by nice homes, and headed out for the day.