January 22 to 28, 2009 ; Campeche ( city ), Campeche ( state ) to Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Thursday ; Campeche, Campeche to Uxmal, Yucatán
Today was another lovely, sunny, warm day. We left Club Nautico this morning, drove around the city of Campeche on the bypass ring road, then headed up the Gulf of Mexico coast on Mex. 261. We are now in the northeast corner of the Yucután Peninsula. I drove over an extremely unlevel railroad crossing at 50 MPH because I didn't see how rough the crossing was. We discovered later that many of the clothes hanging on clothes hangers in our bedroom closet bounced off the closet bar, making a big heap of clothes on the floor of the closet. And while we have very few glass items in the trailer, we did have a glass of raspberry honey from the Similkameen Valley back home that broke in a kitchen cupboard today, making a horrendous mess. ( sigh ) I guess I need to watch the road more closely, although I'm not sure that's possible. My eyeballs are already dried out from hours of driving without blinking, watching for topes.
After we had crossed from the state of Campeche into the state of Yucatán, Joanne started noticing that the older women we saw in the little villages were wearing a traditional style of Mayan dress called huipile ( ooeepeelay ). She wanted one ! It's a white dress with brightly embroidered neckline and hemline, above knee length, worn over a below the knee lace skirt / slip.
Our intention was to camp tonight at a campground called Camping Sacbe about 9 miles south of the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal ( ooshmahl ). When we arrived there, the campground no longer existed. Okay ... we decided that we would boondock in the parking lot of the Uxmal archeological site. We drove there and got ourselves set up. We had a late lunch and decided there was enough left of the afternoon that we would visit the ruins today. We had hoped to attend the evening sound and light show at the ruins, but it was cancelled due to annual maintenance.
The ancient Mayan city of Uxmal was built between 600 and 1000 A.D.. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the site, taking many photographs. While wandering around the archeological site, we occasionally saw very large iguanas, which did not seem very afraid of people. I guess they're used to seeing a lot of people. Kevin and I climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid. It seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity to be taken advantage of. As we exited the archeological site, there was a row of vendors selling, amongst other items, huipile dresses. Joanne selected a dress and lace skirt / slip. It's my birthday gift to her. Feliz Cumpleaños, mi amor !
As we returned to our rigs in the parking lot, the Adventure Caravans group of 18 rigs was arriving, and getting tightly squeezed into the parking lot. They had left Club Nautico a few hours later than we did. This will hopefully be the last day that we run into them, competing for campground space. They are staying here tomorrow, and should be continuing their travels a day or two behind us from now on. Eventually we'll lose them when they go into Belize and Guatemala.
Just as it was becoming dark, Joanne and I went for a walk around the luxurious hotel and restaurant complex adjacent to us. Very ritzy ! Very "rich and famous" secluded jungle hideaway kind of place. I prepared supper tonight, making huevos con cebolla, papas, y queso, an onion, potato, and cheese omelette. After supper I wandered over to the restaurant and sat at one of their outdoor tables to use their Wi-Fi. It was encrypted, but with some polite asking for the code from a waitress and waiter, I got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, and retrieved our MasterCard statements. When I returned to the trailer, Joanne was outside, in the dark, behind our rig, in the jungle behind the parking lot, feeding Bo's expensive dog food to a pregnant stray dog with ugly wounds all over the top of her head. HEY ... didn't I get chastised last winter in the Baja for doing something similar ?
Friday ; Uxmal to Piste / Chichén Itzá , Yucatán
Today was sunny and hot. This morning we discovered that yesterday's railroad track incident also resulted in a one gallon water jug that broke inside a cupboard, a spaghetti jar that broke, and a pot handle that broke. We left Uxmal and headed north on Mex 261 to the city of Merida, then east on Mex 180 to the town of Piste. Our goal for today was to visit the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá on the edge of the town of Piste. When we arrived at Piste, the only campground in town, adjacent to the Stardust Inn, was closed. The Stardust Inn also seemed closed. Joanne finally found somebody deep inside the hotel, and we negotiated a no services / boondock stay in the closed campground. Hey ... it's Mexico ... everything is negotiable ! We walked to the site of Chichén Itzá , perhaps a bit more than a mile from where we were boondocked.
Chichén Itzá is a large, well preserved archeological site of a Mayan city that existed from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. We spent the afternoon wandering around, taking photographs, and dodging the many vendors of Mayan souvenirs. The other archeological sites we have visited were not populated with vendors, but this one certainly was ! Particularly interesting was the Group of a Thousand Columns, made up of carved stone colonnades on two sides of a huge plaza. The main pyramid on the site, El Castillo, had an amazing acoustic oddity. When you stood in front of the pyramid, and clapped your hands together loudly, it resulted in an echo off the pyramid that sounded like a musical note played on a stringed instrument.
By the time we had finished exploring Chichén Itzá , and walking back to our "campground", it was late afternoon and we were pretty hot and tired. We sat outside, chatting and cooling off until it became dark.
Saturday ; Piste / Chichén Itzá , Yucután to Cancún, Quintana Roo
Last night Bo kept us awake for much of the night. Poor little fellow was suffering from a lot of itchy bug bites. Well, as are we all. Yesterday evening while we were sitting outside chatting, Bo was near us, on his tie out. We were in a "closed" campground, with unkempt grounds. For the second time on this trip, while Bo sits near us, he gets bitten by a lot of bugs. And ... so do we. The tropical jungle bugs don't "hurt" when they bite, like a mosquito, so one is not aware of being bitten until much later, when each bite produces a large, itchy red bump. And poor Bo gets bit all over his abdomen and inner thighs when he sits beside us on the long ... grass, I guess it would be called. My legs and Kevin's legs are covered in insect bites also, from sitting around in lawn chairs while wearing shorts.
Late last night, before going to sleep, I was outside looking at constellations. The Big Dipper was turned vertical, with its handle pointed straight down, the last star in the handle just barely above the horizon. And Cassiopeia was upside down, looking like an "M" instead of a "W". Very weird !
Today was sunny and hot. A few miles after we left Piste / Chichén Itzá we came across an accident on the highway that was blocking the narrow two lane road. A flatbed tractor trailer had dropped a rear trailer tire off the pavement, and while being wrestled back onto the road, the tire was ripped off the trailer, the load of concrete beams spilled off, and the trailer flipped over, tearing itself loose from the tractor. At least that prevented the tractor from flipping also, so the driver was unhurt. But it created a real mess on the road.
We have become accustomed to seeing Pemex stations frequently, all with diesel. Today I got caught off guard. I had allowed our diesel to run lower than I usually do. When we arrived at the town where I was expecting to refuel, the Pemex station had no diesel. I didn’t have quite enough diesel to make it to the next town where diesel was available. I ran the “distance to empty” down to 20 km. / 12.5 mi. then put in my emergency 2½ gallons of diesel. Made it to the next Pemex with diesel, but not with a lot to spare. My fill there cost 1001 pesos. I was certain that the pump attendant would stop at 1000 pesos, but nooooo ... he went to 1001, hoping, I suppose, that I wouldn’t have a 1 peso coin, and I would end up giving him a 9 or 19 peso tip. Better luck next time, amigo ... I had two 50 centavo coins.
Across the street from the Pemex was a propane place, so while Kevin refilled their motorhome with diesel, I drove across the street to refill a propane tank. There was no propane available. I couldn’t understand the man’s explanation. Later in the afternoon, near Cancún, I got the propane tank refilled. We drove through the town, parking by the main square to have lunch.
While refilling with diesel, two men came by and were very interested in our truck and trailer. They asked me how much the truck cost. I told them $60,000. That didn’t mean much to them until one converted it to pesos, using an exchange rate of 14 pesos to the dollar. Then they both looked stunned. At the town square, children came by to see our two rigs, a one ton dually truck with a large fifth wheel trailer, and a large Class A motorhome. They were awe struck. I suppose the children in the little villages don’t see many rigs like this. One little boy came over and had a lot to say to me, quickly. I told him that I didn’t speak much Spanish. I asked if he spoke English. No ! As I stepped into the trailer, he spoke perhaps the only English he knows. “Give money ?” I wasn’t impressed ! As I was putting Bo into the trailer, two children came by and were eager to visit with Bo. A little gringo perrito wearing a bandana, and attached to a leash, is quite a novel sight to them. They asked his name. I told them. Then Teddy came out of the trailer, slowly walking down the trailer steps and onto the sidewalk into the square. Practicing my Spanish, I told them “This is my cat. His name is Teddy. He’s an old cat.” Then, as an afterthought, I added “He’s an old, grey cat”. I didn’t understand their Spanish response, but the looks on their faces said “Well ... we can see that !” HA HA HA !
After lunch we continued on to Cancún. We crossed from the state of Yucatán into the state of Quintana Roo. We drove over the “top” of the Yucatán Peninsula, with the Gulf Of Mexico shoreline on our left, to the north, then around the northeast “corner” of the Yucatán Peninsula, to Cancún and the Caribbean Sea. After a long, difficult journey through the city, we finally arrived at our campground, on the coast of the Caribbean, a few miles north of Cancún, in the suburb of Puerto Juarez, where the ferry to Isla Mujeres is. When we arrived at our campground, Trailer Park Mecoloco, we were assigned two sites right next to Rudy and Regina, friends of Kevin’s and Sandy’s. They met and became friends a few months ago in Livingston, Texas, at the Escapees park. We got set up in our sites, then visited with Rudy and Regina until it became dark and we were hungry for supper. Rudy and Regina are from Switzerland, but have lived for many years in Paraguay.
Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot. As planned, we spent most of the day getting caught up on chores and errands. When we came to Cancún many years ago as fly in tourists, we had a great winter getaway vacation. Now, as RV'ers, Cancún holds very little appeal for us. We don't want to spend more than a few days here. Kevin and Sandy want to stay longer. I'm not yet sure how that will get resolved.
This morning I did some minor maintenance, taking care of Mexico wear and tear on the trailer. I did an obedience session with Bo. It went very poorly. He was feeling ill, and very itchy. It was almost as if he had never heard an obedience command before. We gave him a bath. He was covered in itchy red welts from bug bites. He had one large, scabbed wound on the back of his cheek, under his ear. We clipped the hair off it, the scab came off during bathing, then we applied Aloe Vera gel to it. He had a blood blister, or embedded chigger, or perhaps even a pocket of chigger eggs, under one ear. We were unable to pluck it off with tweezers, or pop it open by squeezing. We'll watch it closely. Poor baby Bo. It's no wonder Mexican dogs always seem to be in such pathetically poor condition. I printed and reconciled our MasterCard statements I downloaded a few days ago.
Last night Kevin invited us to join him and Sandy on a lunch outing with Rudy and Regina to some beachside restaurant about 30 km. away. We initially accepted, then after some discussion changed our minds.
There are two Cancúns. There is the real city, Ciudad Cancún, where half a million people live, and the Zona Hotelera, the Hotel Zone, a seven mile stretch of wall to wall, all inclusive luxury hotels on a barrier island along the Caribbean. We went grocery shopping this afternoon in downtown Ciudad Cancún. It's the first time we've had to unhitch Lanoire from Harvey since we've entered Mexico. While driving in yesterday we noticed two large grocery stores. We went to Chedraui because we've already seen what a Mega is like. Chedraui is more than a grocery store. The centre is a department store, and the grocery store is all around the periphery. Lanoire would not fit in their indoor parking garage, so we had to find a parking spot on the street, not that easy to do. But the excellent selection of pan dulce in the panaderia made it worthwhile. HA HA HA ! An interesting feature of the large Mexican grocery stores is that the bag packers are elderly volunteers working for tips.
Next door to our campground is an archeological site of Mayan ruins. It's one of the smaller, less well known, less visited sites. But what's really unusual is one of the ruins is outside the boundaries of the archeological site, in our campground. Our trailer is parked about 50 feet from the remains of an ancient Mayan building.
I spent the evening working on my photos from Uxmal and Chichén Itzá .
Monday ; Today was sunny and hot. We cancelled our plans to spend the day on Isla Mujeres, because Bo was very ill. He was a bit ill yesterday, then very ill overnight and today. We're uncertain as to why he's ill. Perhaps he ingested some untreated water while we were giving him a bath. We prepared some boiled ground beef and rice to feed him, and I added a little bit of apple juice and Cipro to it. I reluctantly paid for a day of Wi-Fi at this campground so I could update my blog and retrieve my e-mail.
I spent much of the afternoon working online. We trimmed Bo's dew claws. I read and napped. I miss having regular afternoon naps. Late in the afternoon we sat outside and visited with Kevin and Sandy after they returned from a day of sightseeing around Cancún. They are not as impressed as they thought they would be, and are ready to leave the day after tomorrow. By supper time Bo began to improve, and actually had a bit of an appetite, which was a good sign.
We found out that the very efficient and friendly young man who manages the campground is the owner's son. We never see his father because ... he's in prison for 12 years for shooting some politician. I wonder if that's the typical Mexican way to express dissatisfaction with elected officials ? HA HA HA !
Yesterday in the grocery store we wanted to buy some ground beef. They didn't have any, so we bought hamburgesa, formed ground beef / hamburger patties. I barbecued them tonight. They were awful ! The meat was ground to the texture of ... like the inside of a hot dog. And while Joanne boiled one this afternoon for Bo's recipe, she thought that there seemed to be blood or blood meal added to the patty, as well as little chunky bits of gristle. I guess the Mexican definition of what meat should be ground up for hamburger, and how it should be ground, is very different than American / Canadian. I shudder to think what parts of the cow these hamburger patties were made from. They reminded me of a term we used in the pet food industry. We used to describe pet foods made of poor quality ingredients as being made of "lips and ***holes". Notice I didn't laugh, since that's likely what our hamburgesas were made of !
Well, that was certainly an odd, new experience ! I was sitting outside late at night working on my computer when a large frog jumped up and landed on my laptop screen. Scared the dickens out of me !
Tuesday ; Today was mostly sunny, hot, humid, and a bit windy. Bo was still ill overnight and today, although not as severely as yesterday and the night before. We spent the day on Isla Mujeres / Women Island.
This morning we drove in the Limey's toad to the nearby passenger ferry terminal to catch the ferry to Isla Mujeres. Isla Mujeres ( Eesla Moohairrays ) is an island a few miles offshore, about 4.5 miles long by 0.4 miles wide. I don't know exactly how far offshore it was, but the ferry ride was about half an hour. Once there we walked around the main village for awhile, sightseeing and negotiating rates for the rental of a golf cart for the afternoon. The posted rate was 500 pesos, and they readily discounted to 450 pesos. It took a lot of haggling for me to get a rate of 400 pesos, which was my objective. Golf carts are the preferred method of transportation for tourists on the small island.
We took off our shoes and walked along the beach, wading in the emerald blue waters of the Caribbean. We looked at the menu of many restaurants before deciding where to have lunch. I selected a restaurant that featured pescada Tikin Xic a las brasas ( con ensalada y orroz ) / Tikin Xic barbecued fish ( with salad and rice ). Tikin Xic ( Teekeen Cheek ) is a unique fish preparation method / recipe, found only on Isla Mujeres. Kevin, Sandy, and I all had Tikin Xic. It was very good. We each also ordered their two beer special. I tried Montejo ( Montayho ), a brand of Mexican beer I had not had before. Geeeeezzzzz ... I can't handle two beers ! I drank only 1½ , and I was ... affected.
After lunch we picked up our rented golf cart. Joanne was the only one who had not drank beers over lunch, so she became the designated driver. Sandy navigated, Kevin and I sat on the rear facing rear seat, and acted silly while we explored the entire island. We had an interesting experience when we saw a unique house that we wanted to take photos of. The house was designed in the shape of a sea shell. We stopped to take photos, and while we were taking photos, the gringo man by the swimming pool in the yard invited us into the yard to take photos. It was a three generation family from Wisconsin on a winter vacation. They had found this vacation rental home on the Internet, and were intrigued by its design. They were so enamoured of it that they invited us inside the house to take photos of the shell shaped master bedroom and shell shaped master bathroom adorned with shells embedded in the walls. Very interesting. We chatted with them for awhile about the full time RV lifestyle.
We drove completely around the island on the main road that circles the island. We stopped frequently to sightsee and take photos. Halfway through the afternoon Sandy took over the driving. She drives a golf cart better than Joanne. HA HA HA ! At 5:00 P.M. we returned our golf cart and walked to the main beach in town. We stopped at a food vendor cart preparing marquesitas, and each couple shared one. The vendor cooked a thin sort of a crepe, then put banana slices on it, poured con leche ( sort of a sweet cream ) or cajeta ( goat’s milk caramel ) over the sliced bananas, rolled it up, and heated it on his crepe grill until the bananas melted. As soon as he took it off the grill and handed it to us, the crepe hardened quickly to the texture of an ice cream waffle cone. It was really quite good ! We waded a bit, then sat at a picnic table, digging our feet into the soft, white sand, watching the sun set while we chatted. Around 6:30, as it became dark, we walked back to the ferry terminal and caught the 7:00 P.M. ferry back to the mainland. Gee ... I don't really like being on a crowded small ferry at night.
Wednesday ; Cancún to Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo
Happy 55th Birthday to Joanne / Feliz Cumpleaños cinquenta cinco a mi esposa
Ooooo ... Tikin Xic heartburn overnight. Tikin Xic colon cramps overnight. Bo was slightly improved, but still ill today. Poor Bo !
Today was sunny and hot. We prepared for departure this morning and departed from Trailer Park Mecoloco, heading south through Cancún, then south along the Caribbean coast to Playa del Carmen, about 100 km. / 60 miles south of Cancún. Even in a city the size of Cancún the road signage was poor, making it somewhat difficult and confusing to get through the city and out heading to the south. Today it was Kevin's and Sandy's turn to lead, so they had to do the difficult navigation work.
We arrived around noon at Playa del Carmen and found Paa Mul, our RV park. It's a very nice, although expensive RV park, right on the Caribbean beach. Very, very lovely. After some discussion, we decided to commit to staying for a week. We got set up in our sites, had lunch, then I went to the office to pay. On the way, I found Simon and Paul, the two fellows from England that we have met twice previously in the last couple of weeks. They are now joined by another friend, Lee, who flew to Cancún to meet up with them, and join them on their Mexican RV adventure.
Simon, Paul, Lee, Kevin, Sandy, and we sat around our campsite, chatting away the entire afternoon. I finally did go down to the office to pay, and sneaked over to the restaurant to order a birthday cake for Joanne. I have a very long tradition of secretly arranging for a birthday cake to be served to Joanne after her birthday dinner in a restaurant. After the sun set, we all went for dinner to the restaurant that is part of the RV park. We had a lovely meal, albeit expensive, while being entertained by a musical duo, a husband and wife from Clear Lake, Manitoba. I arranged for them to sing Happy Birthday to Joanne when her cake was served.
This rather large, and mostly full, RV park is populated almost entirely with license plates from British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.
DSK
Thursday ; Campeche, Campeche to Uxmal, Yucatán
Today was another lovely, sunny, warm day. We left Club Nautico this morning, drove around the city of Campeche on the bypass ring road, then headed up the Gulf of Mexico coast on Mex. 261. We are now in the northeast corner of the Yucután Peninsula. I drove over an extremely unlevel railroad crossing at 50 MPH because I didn't see how rough the crossing was. We discovered later that many of the clothes hanging on clothes hangers in our bedroom closet bounced off the closet bar, making a big heap of clothes on the floor of the closet. And while we have very few glass items in the trailer, we did have a glass of raspberry honey from the Similkameen Valley back home that broke in a kitchen cupboard today, making a horrendous mess. ( sigh ) I guess I need to watch the road more closely, although I'm not sure that's possible. My eyeballs are already dried out from hours of driving without blinking, watching for topes.
After we had crossed from the state of Campeche into the state of Yucatán, Joanne started noticing that the older women we saw in the little villages were wearing a traditional style of Mayan dress called huipile ( ooeepeelay ). She wanted one ! It's a white dress with brightly embroidered neckline and hemline, above knee length, worn over a below the knee lace skirt / slip.
Our intention was to camp tonight at a campground called Camping Sacbe about 9 miles south of the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal ( ooshmahl ). When we arrived there, the campground no longer existed. Okay ... we decided that we would boondock in the parking lot of the Uxmal archeological site. We drove there and got ourselves set up. We had a late lunch and decided there was enough left of the afternoon that we would visit the ruins today. We had hoped to attend the evening sound and light show at the ruins, but it was cancelled due to annual maintenance.
The ancient Mayan city of Uxmal was built between 600 and 1000 A.D.. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the site, taking many photographs. While wandering around the archeological site, we occasionally saw very large iguanas, which did not seem very afraid of people. I guess they're used to seeing a lot of people. Kevin and I climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid. It seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity to be taken advantage of. As we exited the archeological site, there was a row of vendors selling, amongst other items, huipile dresses. Joanne selected a dress and lace skirt / slip. It's my birthday gift to her. Feliz Cumpleaños, mi amor !
As we returned to our rigs in the parking lot, the Adventure Caravans group of 18 rigs was arriving, and getting tightly squeezed into the parking lot. They had left Club Nautico a few hours later than we did. This will hopefully be the last day that we run into them, competing for campground space. They are staying here tomorrow, and should be continuing their travels a day or two behind us from now on. Eventually we'll lose them when they go into Belize and Guatemala.
Just as it was becoming dark, Joanne and I went for a walk around the luxurious hotel and restaurant complex adjacent to us. Very ritzy ! Very "rich and famous" secluded jungle hideaway kind of place. I prepared supper tonight, making huevos con cebolla, papas, y queso, an onion, potato, and cheese omelette. After supper I wandered over to the restaurant and sat at one of their outdoor tables to use their Wi-Fi. It was encrypted, but with some polite asking for the code from a waitress and waiter, I got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, and retrieved our MasterCard statements. When I returned to the trailer, Joanne was outside, in the dark, behind our rig, in the jungle behind the parking lot, feeding Bo's expensive dog food to a pregnant stray dog with ugly wounds all over the top of her head. HEY ... didn't I get chastised last winter in the Baja for doing something similar ?
Friday ; Uxmal to Piste / Chichén Itzá , Yucatán
Today was sunny and hot. This morning we discovered that yesterday's railroad track incident also resulted in a one gallon water jug that broke inside a cupboard, a spaghetti jar that broke, and a pot handle that broke. We left Uxmal and headed north on Mex 261 to the city of Merida, then east on Mex 180 to the town of Piste. Our goal for today was to visit the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá on the edge of the town of Piste. When we arrived at Piste, the only campground in town, adjacent to the Stardust Inn, was closed. The Stardust Inn also seemed closed. Joanne finally found somebody deep inside the hotel, and we negotiated a no services / boondock stay in the closed campground. Hey ... it's Mexico ... everything is negotiable ! We walked to the site of Chichén Itzá , perhaps a bit more than a mile from where we were boondocked.
Chichén Itzá is a large, well preserved archeological site of a Mayan city that existed from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. We spent the afternoon wandering around, taking photographs, and dodging the many vendors of Mayan souvenirs. The other archeological sites we have visited were not populated with vendors, but this one certainly was ! Particularly interesting was the Group of a Thousand Columns, made up of carved stone colonnades on two sides of a huge plaza. The main pyramid on the site, El Castillo, had an amazing acoustic oddity. When you stood in front of the pyramid, and clapped your hands together loudly, it resulted in an echo off the pyramid that sounded like a musical note played on a stringed instrument.
By the time we had finished exploring Chichén Itzá , and walking back to our "campground", it was late afternoon and we were pretty hot and tired. We sat outside, chatting and cooling off until it became dark.
Saturday ; Piste / Chichén Itzá , Yucután to Cancún, Quintana Roo
Last night Bo kept us awake for much of the night. Poor little fellow was suffering from a lot of itchy bug bites. Well, as are we all. Yesterday evening while we were sitting outside chatting, Bo was near us, on his tie out. We were in a "closed" campground, with unkempt grounds. For the second time on this trip, while Bo sits near us, he gets bitten by a lot of bugs. And ... so do we. The tropical jungle bugs don't "hurt" when they bite, like a mosquito, so one is not aware of being bitten until much later, when each bite produces a large, itchy red bump. And poor Bo gets bit all over his abdomen and inner thighs when he sits beside us on the long ... grass, I guess it would be called. My legs and Kevin's legs are covered in insect bites also, from sitting around in lawn chairs while wearing shorts.
Late last night, before going to sleep, I was outside looking at constellations. The Big Dipper was turned vertical, with its handle pointed straight down, the last star in the handle just barely above the horizon. And Cassiopeia was upside down, looking like an "M" instead of a "W". Very weird !
Today was sunny and hot. A few miles after we left Piste / Chichén Itzá we came across an accident on the highway that was blocking the narrow two lane road. A flatbed tractor trailer had dropped a rear trailer tire off the pavement, and while being wrestled back onto the road, the tire was ripped off the trailer, the load of concrete beams spilled off, and the trailer flipped over, tearing itself loose from the tractor. At least that prevented the tractor from flipping also, so the driver was unhurt. But it created a real mess on the road.
We have become accustomed to seeing Pemex stations frequently, all with diesel. Today I got caught off guard. I had allowed our diesel to run lower than I usually do. When we arrived at the town where I was expecting to refuel, the Pemex station had no diesel. I didn’t have quite enough diesel to make it to the next town where diesel was available. I ran the “distance to empty” down to 20 km. / 12.5 mi. then put in my emergency 2½ gallons of diesel. Made it to the next Pemex with diesel, but not with a lot to spare. My fill there cost 1001 pesos. I was certain that the pump attendant would stop at 1000 pesos, but nooooo ... he went to 1001, hoping, I suppose, that I wouldn’t have a 1 peso coin, and I would end up giving him a 9 or 19 peso tip. Better luck next time, amigo ... I had two 50 centavo coins.
Across the street from the Pemex was a propane place, so while Kevin refilled their motorhome with diesel, I drove across the street to refill a propane tank. There was no propane available. I couldn’t understand the man’s explanation. Later in the afternoon, near Cancún, I got the propane tank refilled. We drove through the town, parking by the main square to have lunch.
While refilling with diesel, two men came by and were very interested in our truck and trailer. They asked me how much the truck cost. I told them $60,000. That didn’t mean much to them until one converted it to pesos, using an exchange rate of 14 pesos to the dollar. Then they both looked stunned. At the town square, children came by to see our two rigs, a one ton dually truck with a large fifth wheel trailer, and a large Class A motorhome. They were awe struck. I suppose the children in the little villages don’t see many rigs like this. One little boy came over and had a lot to say to me, quickly. I told him that I didn’t speak much Spanish. I asked if he spoke English. No ! As I stepped into the trailer, he spoke perhaps the only English he knows. “Give money ?” I wasn’t impressed ! As I was putting Bo into the trailer, two children came by and were eager to visit with Bo. A little gringo perrito wearing a bandana, and attached to a leash, is quite a novel sight to them. They asked his name. I told them. Then Teddy came out of the trailer, slowly walking down the trailer steps and onto the sidewalk into the square. Practicing my Spanish, I told them “This is my cat. His name is Teddy. He’s an old cat.” Then, as an afterthought, I added “He’s an old, grey cat”. I didn’t understand their Spanish response, but the looks on their faces said “Well ... we can see that !” HA HA HA !
After lunch we continued on to Cancún. We crossed from the state of Yucatán into the state of Quintana Roo. We drove over the “top” of the Yucatán Peninsula, with the Gulf Of Mexico shoreline on our left, to the north, then around the northeast “corner” of the Yucatán Peninsula, to Cancún and the Caribbean Sea. After a long, difficult journey through the city, we finally arrived at our campground, on the coast of the Caribbean, a few miles north of Cancún, in the suburb of Puerto Juarez, where the ferry to Isla Mujeres is. When we arrived at our campground, Trailer Park Mecoloco, we were assigned two sites right next to Rudy and Regina, friends of Kevin’s and Sandy’s. They met and became friends a few months ago in Livingston, Texas, at the Escapees park. We got set up in our sites, then visited with Rudy and Regina until it became dark and we were hungry for supper. Rudy and Regina are from Switzerland, but have lived for many years in Paraguay.
Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot. As planned, we spent most of the day getting caught up on chores and errands. When we came to Cancún many years ago as fly in tourists, we had a great winter getaway vacation. Now, as RV'ers, Cancún holds very little appeal for us. We don't want to spend more than a few days here. Kevin and Sandy want to stay longer. I'm not yet sure how that will get resolved.
This morning I did some minor maintenance, taking care of Mexico wear and tear on the trailer. I did an obedience session with Bo. It went very poorly. He was feeling ill, and very itchy. It was almost as if he had never heard an obedience command before. We gave him a bath. He was covered in itchy red welts from bug bites. He had one large, scabbed wound on the back of his cheek, under his ear. We clipped the hair off it, the scab came off during bathing, then we applied Aloe Vera gel to it. He had a blood blister, or embedded chigger, or perhaps even a pocket of chigger eggs, under one ear. We were unable to pluck it off with tweezers, or pop it open by squeezing. We'll watch it closely. Poor baby Bo. It's no wonder Mexican dogs always seem to be in such pathetically poor condition. I printed and reconciled our MasterCard statements I downloaded a few days ago.
Last night Kevin invited us to join him and Sandy on a lunch outing with Rudy and Regina to some beachside restaurant about 30 km. away. We initially accepted, then after some discussion changed our minds.
There are two Cancúns. There is the real city, Ciudad Cancún, where half a million people live, and the Zona Hotelera, the Hotel Zone, a seven mile stretch of wall to wall, all inclusive luxury hotels on a barrier island along the Caribbean. We went grocery shopping this afternoon in downtown Ciudad Cancún. It's the first time we've had to unhitch Lanoire from Harvey since we've entered Mexico. While driving in yesterday we noticed two large grocery stores. We went to Chedraui because we've already seen what a Mega is like. Chedraui is more than a grocery store. The centre is a department store, and the grocery store is all around the periphery. Lanoire would not fit in their indoor parking garage, so we had to find a parking spot on the street, not that easy to do. But the excellent selection of pan dulce in the panaderia made it worthwhile. HA HA HA ! An interesting feature of the large Mexican grocery stores is that the bag packers are elderly volunteers working for tips.
Next door to our campground is an archeological site of Mayan ruins. It's one of the smaller, less well known, less visited sites. But what's really unusual is one of the ruins is outside the boundaries of the archeological site, in our campground. Our trailer is parked about 50 feet from the remains of an ancient Mayan building.
I spent the evening working on my photos from Uxmal and Chichén Itzá .
Monday ; Today was sunny and hot. We cancelled our plans to spend the day on Isla Mujeres, because Bo was very ill. He was a bit ill yesterday, then very ill overnight and today. We're uncertain as to why he's ill. Perhaps he ingested some untreated water while we were giving him a bath. We prepared some boiled ground beef and rice to feed him, and I added a little bit of apple juice and Cipro to it. I reluctantly paid for a day of Wi-Fi at this campground so I could update my blog and retrieve my e-mail.
I spent much of the afternoon working online. We trimmed Bo's dew claws. I read and napped. I miss having regular afternoon naps. Late in the afternoon we sat outside and visited with Kevin and Sandy after they returned from a day of sightseeing around Cancún. They are not as impressed as they thought they would be, and are ready to leave the day after tomorrow. By supper time Bo began to improve, and actually had a bit of an appetite, which was a good sign.
We found out that the very efficient and friendly young man who manages the campground is the owner's son. We never see his father because ... he's in prison for 12 years for shooting some politician. I wonder if that's the typical Mexican way to express dissatisfaction with elected officials ? HA HA HA !
Yesterday in the grocery store we wanted to buy some ground beef. They didn't have any, so we bought hamburgesa, formed ground beef / hamburger patties. I barbecued them tonight. They were awful ! The meat was ground to the texture of ... like the inside of a hot dog. And while Joanne boiled one this afternoon for Bo's recipe, she thought that there seemed to be blood or blood meal added to the patty, as well as little chunky bits of gristle. I guess the Mexican definition of what meat should be ground up for hamburger, and how it should be ground, is very different than American / Canadian. I shudder to think what parts of the cow these hamburger patties were made from. They reminded me of a term we used in the pet food industry. We used to describe pet foods made of poor quality ingredients as being made of "lips and ***holes". Notice I didn't laugh, since that's likely what our hamburgesas were made of !
Well, that was certainly an odd, new experience ! I was sitting outside late at night working on my computer when a large frog jumped up and landed on my laptop screen. Scared the dickens out of me !
Tuesday ; Today was mostly sunny, hot, humid, and a bit windy. Bo was still ill overnight and today, although not as severely as yesterday and the night before. We spent the day on Isla Mujeres / Women Island.
This morning we drove in the Limey's toad to the nearby passenger ferry terminal to catch the ferry to Isla Mujeres. Isla Mujeres ( Eesla Moohairrays ) is an island a few miles offshore, about 4.5 miles long by 0.4 miles wide. I don't know exactly how far offshore it was, but the ferry ride was about half an hour. Once there we walked around the main village for awhile, sightseeing and negotiating rates for the rental of a golf cart for the afternoon. The posted rate was 500 pesos, and they readily discounted to 450 pesos. It took a lot of haggling for me to get a rate of 400 pesos, which was my objective. Golf carts are the preferred method of transportation for tourists on the small island.
We took off our shoes and walked along the beach, wading in the emerald blue waters of the Caribbean. We looked at the menu of many restaurants before deciding where to have lunch. I selected a restaurant that featured pescada Tikin Xic a las brasas ( con ensalada y orroz ) / Tikin Xic barbecued fish ( with salad and rice ). Tikin Xic ( Teekeen Cheek ) is a unique fish preparation method / recipe, found only on Isla Mujeres. Kevin, Sandy, and I all had Tikin Xic. It was very good. We each also ordered their two beer special. I tried Montejo ( Montayho ), a brand of Mexican beer I had not had before. Geeeeezzzzz ... I can't handle two beers ! I drank only 1½ , and I was ... affected.
After lunch we picked up our rented golf cart. Joanne was the only one who had not drank beers over lunch, so she became the designated driver. Sandy navigated, Kevin and I sat on the rear facing rear seat, and acted silly while we explored the entire island. We had an interesting experience when we saw a unique house that we wanted to take photos of. The house was designed in the shape of a sea shell. We stopped to take photos, and while we were taking photos, the gringo man by the swimming pool in the yard invited us into the yard to take photos. It was a three generation family from Wisconsin on a winter vacation. They had found this vacation rental home on the Internet, and were intrigued by its design. They were so enamoured of it that they invited us inside the house to take photos of the shell shaped master bedroom and shell shaped master bathroom adorned with shells embedded in the walls. Very interesting. We chatted with them for awhile about the full time RV lifestyle.
We drove completely around the island on the main road that circles the island. We stopped frequently to sightsee and take photos. Halfway through the afternoon Sandy took over the driving. She drives a golf cart better than Joanne. HA HA HA ! At 5:00 P.M. we returned our golf cart and walked to the main beach in town. We stopped at a food vendor cart preparing marquesitas, and each couple shared one. The vendor cooked a thin sort of a crepe, then put banana slices on it, poured con leche ( sort of a sweet cream ) or cajeta ( goat’s milk caramel ) over the sliced bananas, rolled it up, and heated it on his crepe grill until the bananas melted. As soon as he took it off the grill and handed it to us, the crepe hardened quickly to the texture of an ice cream waffle cone. It was really quite good ! We waded a bit, then sat at a picnic table, digging our feet into the soft, white sand, watching the sun set while we chatted. Around 6:30, as it became dark, we walked back to the ferry terminal and caught the 7:00 P.M. ferry back to the mainland. Gee ... I don't really like being on a crowded small ferry at night.
Wednesday ; Cancún to Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo
Happy 55th Birthday to Joanne / Feliz Cumpleaños cinquenta cinco a mi esposa
Ooooo ... Tikin Xic heartburn overnight. Tikin Xic colon cramps overnight. Bo was slightly improved, but still ill today. Poor Bo !
Today was sunny and hot. We prepared for departure this morning and departed from Trailer Park Mecoloco, heading south through Cancún, then south along the Caribbean coast to Playa del Carmen, about 100 km. / 60 miles south of Cancún. Even in a city the size of Cancún the road signage was poor, making it somewhat difficult and confusing to get through the city and out heading to the south. Today it was Kevin's and Sandy's turn to lead, so they had to do the difficult navigation work.
We arrived around noon at Playa del Carmen and found Paa Mul, our RV park. It's a very nice, although expensive RV park, right on the Caribbean beach. Very, very lovely. After some discussion, we decided to commit to staying for a week. We got set up in our sites, had lunch, then I went to the office to pay. On the way, I found Simon and Paul, the two fellows from England that we have met twice previously in the last couple of weeks. They are now joined by another friend, Lee, who flew to Cancún to meet up with them, and join them on their Mexican RV adventure.
Simon, Paul, Lee, Kevin, Sandy, and we sat around our campsite, chatting away the entire afternoon. I finally did go down to the office to pay, and sneaked over to the restaurant to order a birthday cake for Joanne. I have a very long tradition of secretly arranging for a birthday cake to be served to Joanne after her birthday dinner in a restaurant. After the sun set, we all went for dinner to the restaurant that is part of the RV park. We had a lovely meal, albeit expensive, while being entertained by a musical duo, a husband and wife from Clear Lake, Manitoba. I arranged for them to sing Happy Birthday to Joanne when her cake was served.
This rather large, and mostly full, RV park is populated almost entirely with license plates from British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.
DSK
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