MEXICO ON THE ROAD IN

Buy your travel medical insurance on line new! For a free quote click here 

 Home ○Regions ○ Planning & Info ○ RVing ○ Road Logs ○ Insurance ○ Photos ○ Mexico News ○  Ontheroadin

Isla Aguada

La Cabana Fishing and RV Resort

Dorothy Bell

 Thomas ran a fishing lodge with his wife for 10 years. Then an American customer told him there was money to be made and convinced him to open a trailer park as well. “Why not with this much land?” asks Thomas. Now 40 years later his trailer park is a destination spot for caravans of nervous Canadian and American RV’ers who convoy themselves throughout Mexico.

 It is a lagoon-side camping site with large shade trees, power, water and sewer. You couldn’t ask for more. Every glance is a better view and I know the one-day I have scheduled for this place will be extended.

 Isla Aguada sits nestled at the southern most point of the “C” of the Gulf of Mexico. It is a small community – almost a suburb of Ciudad del Carmen on Highway 180 – the coastal highway along the gulf. If you weren’t looking for it, all you would see is a couple of fisherman holding fish up to passing motorists along the roadside.

 Isla Aguada sits between the Gulf and a large lagoon just seconds to the south. This is the major mating and berthing place for Gulf dolphins from Florida on down. This is a sweet Mexican stop, where people steal a longer glance at you because you are so different. You are odd.

 There is no pavement, only hard packed dust and sand. Stores dot the streets. Some of the houses have windows and some just have a strip of cloth hanging in the portal for privacy. It is not a fancy town but neither is it poor or embarrassed.

 Thomas points me in the right direction for fish. It is a five-minute walk along the beach to the fisherman’s co-op – a one story concrete bunker with permanent cement tanks and a scale at the center of the operation. I am told to wait as a new boat unloads its catch.

 Six or so men gather by the boat on the beach and fill large coolers with fish. They throw back to the ocean those that are too small or are not good eating. The gulls and pelicans line up for dinner. They are not frenzied. They almost seem bored at this routine.

 Then the men, one on each side of the cooler, run up the beach to the coop. A sorting process takes place where fish are manually thrown into lots of like species. There are five main categories while I am there. Then another team of two men runs up the beach and the process continues. At the end of the sorting, each type of fish is weighed and recorded. Today the men look very happy.

 I am given a big snapper – only $10 – and am sent on my way. It is easily a 8 lb fish. My children will be happy.

La Cabana Fishing and RV Resort