January 29 to February 4, 2009 ; Playa del Carmen to Chetumal, Quintana Roo
Thursday ; Today was sunny and hot. By 7:30 A.M. it was hot ! Bo was recuperating today. He was no longer ill, although he was weak and lethargic from being sick for the last three days.
Yesterday as we were leaving Trailer Park Mecoloco in Cancún I noticed a coconut palm tree with coconuts hanging low enough to be reached. I jumped out of the truck and picked three coconuts. This morning I got out my drill, drilled into them, and drained out the coconut milk. From the three coconuts I got about 24 ounces of coconut milk. I'm looking forward to drinking it after it chills. Then I wanted to smash open the coconuts and get the "fruit / meat" out. I smashed one with a hammer, but it wasn't ripe enough yet, I guess, so the hammer just sort of squished the fibres. I cut them in half with a hacksaw and harvested the "fruit / meat". There wasn't much "meat" in them, and what there was didn't seem all that appetizing. Seemed sort of a slimy texture. Maybe they just weren't ripe enough ? Or maybe some coconuts are only for juice, not the fruit ?
We went with the Limeys in their toad into Playa del Carmen. We drove around for awhile, sightseeing and looking for an agua purificado refill place. There weren't any. Water refill places are few and far between. However, one can return an empty and purchase a full five gallon water jug at literally every corner ; every convenience store, every store of any kind, water jug exchange trucks even drive through the campgrounds. But ... as we found out today, one can only exchange a "brand X" empty for a "brand X" full jug. So ... what we did, was convince a store to allow us to take a full water jug outside, open it, pour it into our Culligan five gallon water jug, then return the one we had just emptied back into the store, and pay for the water as if we had exchanged jugs. Guess that's how we're going to have to do it from now on.
We drove to the Dodge dealer that I noticed as we drove through town yesterday and I made an appointment for regular maintenance service for Lanoire for tomorrow. My service writer was ... ( pant ) Angélica ( Annhayleeka ) ... ( pant ) ! We went to Soriana, a large grocery store in a large shopping mall, and replenished groceries.
Back "home" at Paa Mul RV Park I prepared Lanoire for service tomorrow. I removed all the valve extenders and chrome wheel liners. I unhitched the truck from the trailer. Joanne went to work on laundry. The Brit fellows, Simon, Paul, and Lee purchased a simple Mexican washing machine for their three month stay here, and offered to allow us to use it. I've never seen a washing machine like this one in Canada or the United States. It only washes the clothes. It doesn't even spin dry them. They come out of the washing machine totally wet and have to be wrung out by hand. I put up a couple of clothes lines for Joanne to hang our washed clothes on. We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon on the beach, relaxing and reading.
Bo's heartworm and flea treatments were due a few days ago, but I felt that he was too sick for them. Tonight I gave him his heartworm pill and applied his topical flea treatment. This evening I worked on my photos from our day on Isla Mujeres a couple of days ago.
Friday ; Today was sunny and hot, until late in the afternoon when it rained briefly but heavily. Bo was fully recuperated and healthy.
This morning I took the truck in for service to Automotriz Caribe ( Caribbean Automotive ), the Dodge dealer in Playa del Carmen. Once I completed the difficult task of explaining to ( pant ) Angélica what I wanted done ... to the truck ... HA HA HA ... I walked over to Burger King with my laptop to get some online work done using Burger King's Wi-Fi signal. After awhile Kevin and Sandy showed up at Burger King, also to get some online work done, then drive me home to Paa Mul.
After lunch, Joanne went with Kevin, Sandy, Simon, Paul, and Lee for an afternoon on the beach. I napped, then joined them. Shortly after I arrived, it began to rain very heavily. We waited out the worst part of the rain under a palapa on the beach. When the rain ended, Kevin and Sandy drove me back into Playa del Carmen to pick up the truck at the Dodge dealer. This was the eighth time since I bought Lanoire that I've had the tires rotated. This was the eighth time I've had the service writer photocopy the dually tire rotation diagram in the owner's manual and attach it to the work order. And this was the eighth time that a Dodge dealer's service department had rotated the tires incorrectly ! ! ! And this was the eighth time that I've waited while they redid it correctly ! The service was very expensive. I had expected it to be cheaper in Mexico. My costs for the same service in Canada and the United Sates have been cheaper. But ... the truck has never been so clean. They washed the exterior, and thoroughly vacuumed and washed the interior.
We invited all our Brit friends for dinner. A few days ago we had been discussing Cajun food, and none of them had ever had jambalaya. So we treated them to a jambalaya dinner. It turned into a miniature potluck. Paul prepared a lovely crab cake appetizer. Joanne prepared jambalaya for all. Sandy made a flan dessert. We chatted and looked at photos on my computer until very late.
Saturday ; Today was sunny, warm, and a bit windy, especially on the beach.
It was our plan to go to Xcaret ( Shcaret ) as a group of seven today, a theme park somewhat like Mexico's version of Disneyland, but based on Mayan culture and water sports. But Kevin did some research on Xcaret on the Internet, and when we saw the outrageous entry fees and additional fees, we changed our minds. We decided to go to Tulum instead.
Tulum is an archeological site of Mayan ruins about an hour south of our RV park. It's not as large or well preserved as the other archeological sites we've visited, but it's situated on the most beautiful grounds, high on a cliff, overlooking the Caribbean. It was the fourth archeological site of ruins that Kevin, Sandy, Joanne and I have visited, but it was the first for Simon, Paul, and Lee. Just as we arrived there was a performance by the Voladores / Papantla Flyers that we had previously seen at El Tajin. This was the first time Simon, Paul, and Lee had an opportunity to see them. We wandered around the Tulum site, seeing the ruins and taking photos. We returned to the parking lot for a very late picnic lunch.
From the highest point of Tulum's grounds we could see a lovely beach a couple of miles to the south. After lunch we decided to walk to the beach. Playa Aventura / Adventure Beach. It seemed like a very long walk, but it was worth it. The sand was the softest we've ever seen, the texture of powder or icing sugar. We waded in the Caribbean and lay around on the beach until late in the afternoon when it started to get cooler, and some of our group were getting sunburned. Paul had brought along Alba, the Mexican puppy he picked up a few weeks ago, expecting that she would come along with us into the ruins. But she wasn't allowed in, so had to be left in their Jeep while we were in the ruins. She came along to the beach with us, and thoroughly enjoyed herself, romping in the sand and the surf. A police truck came by, patrolling along the beach. When they saw Paul romping in the surf with Alba, they called him over and advised him that dogs aren't allowed in the water. On the beach is fine, but not in the water. HUH ? Where's the logic in that ?
We returned home tired, and very sandy !
Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot. I spent the morning on maintenance chores. I used my new torque wrench to adjust the truck tire lug nuts after having had the tires rotated a couple of days ago, then I reinstalled the wheel liners and valve extenders. I took Bo for an obedience session. He did very well. The last time we did an obedience session about a week ago, he did very poorly, because he was just beginning to feel ill. Paa Mul RV Park has Wi-Fi access, but with an expensive monthly fee. Because the British fellows are here for three months, Simon has subscribed to Wi-Fi. I borrowed his access codes, got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, retrieved bank statements, and retrieved investment updates. The stock market is not improving, which I expected it to do as soon as Bush was out and Obama was in. Once again, as usual, my stock market predictions were wrong ! My father would have been so proud of me for upholding the family tradition !
We spent the hot afternoon sitting on the beach, chatting with our friends. I went into the water briefly. It was not as warm as yesterday at Playa Aventura. We sat by a small rock wall, enjoying the antics of the 16 large iguanas lounging around in and on the rocks. Late in the afternoon we drove into Playa del Carmen to buy some groceries and take some laundry to a lavenderia. When we washed a load of clothes in Simon's spinless washer, it took 3 days to dry. So we loaded up our dirty laundry and went off in search of a lavenderia. In Mexico, self service laundromats are extremely rare. Lavenderias are full service laundries. You bring in your washing, the attendant weighs it, you pay by the kilogram, they wash and fold your laundry, and you pick it up in 24 hours. Joanne prefers self service laundromats, but we couldn't find one in this area. The campground directories list this campground as having self service laundry facilities, but that is not the case. With considerable difficulty, and repeatedly asking people on the street, and finding one lavenderia that was closed, we finally found a lavenderia that was open. We dropped off our laundry.
Communicating with the laundry attendant was very difficult. Most of the Spanish we speak is "Dick & Jane" three word sentences. Most Mexicans recognize our gringo language limitations, and respond in kind, with "Dick & Jane" three word sentences. But not the laundry lady ! She spoke long, wordy sentences, very quickly. While the truck was parked in front of the lavenderia I noticed a young Mexican man taking a photo of it. I guess a shiny "new" dually is a rare sight here. Even the staff at the Dodge dealer seemed awe struck by it.
While waiting at a traffic light, a billboard caught our eye. We slowly translated it. The Mexican federal government and local municipal government invite everyone to an outdoor free concert in the main square of Playa del Carmen featuring ... Julio Iglesias ! Two days ago ! ! !
Since we had shopped for groceries a few days ago at Soriana, we decided today to go to Chedraui, the other large grocery store in town. And there ... right beside the Chedraui ... was a self service laundromat ( sigh ). I find shopping in large Mexican supermarkets to be an adventure. I always learn something new. The only way that I found out that today was Super Bowl Sunday was because the "foods ready to go" section had an Especial Paquete de Super Bowl, a Super Bowl Special Package. A roasted chicken cost 70 pesos. The Especial Paquete de Super Bowl included a roast chicken, some rice, some other side dish, and some tortillas, for 88 pesos. Seemed like a good deal, so we bought it for supper. We got a roasted chicken, a huge styrofoam tub of rice with peas and corn in it, a huge styrofoam tub of some kind of black bean sauce, and a package of 40 fresh, still hot tortillas. What the hell are we supposed to do with 40 tortillas ? ! ? What are we supposed to do with a huge tub of black bean sauce ?
Monday ; Today was sunny and hot. This morning Kevin advised me that he and Sandy have decided to stay here a month. We'll be leaving here on Wednesday, continuing on our own. One of the truck tires is losing air. The problem is likely the valve extender. They seem to have a limited life of removals and reinstallations before they begin to leak air slowly. We took Bo for a long walk around the campground. While it's a large campground, probably half the sites are occupied by "permanents" who have constructed elaborate palapa style homes over and around their RV's.
Since we're continuing our travels from here on our own, Joanne and I did some trip planning. I printed the bank statements and investment updates I retrieved yesterday. I reconciled our bank statements. We had lunch, then headed for the beach. After a few hours of relaxing and reading on the beach we headed into Playa del Carmen to run some errands.
First stop was the lavenderia to pick up our laundry. Then Pemex to put air in the truck tire. Then Burger King to use their Wi-Fi system to pay the MasterCard bill. That didn't go smoothly. A few days ago I had run into difficulty with getting some funds from our Canadian dollar investment account to our U.S.$ bank account. So the funds ended up in our Canadian dollar bank account. Now I was trying to pay our U.S.$ MasterCard bill from our Canadian dollar bank account. I tried paying using the Wi-Fi phone, but there was a problem with the "pay by phone" function. So I had to pay online, without knowing what exchange rate would be applied. I simply overpaid, and will end up with a credit balance on the U.S.$ MasterCard. From Burger King we went to Wal-Mart for a few items. Our first Wal-Mart in Mexico. It was quite different from Canadian and American Wal-Marts. Our last stop was at Mega to buy a cheap beach umbrella. As we drove back to Paa Mul it began to rain lightly, and became quite heavy later in the evening.
Tonight for supper I prepared filetes de Mojarra frito con gusto, fried seasoned Mojarra fillets. I bought the Mojarra fillets yesterday, and made up my own seasoning coating mix. We’re enjoying trying different kinds of fish that we are finding in the Mexican supermarkets, and different ways of preparing them. When I tasted my first bite, it was very good. When I squeezed fresh lime juice onto it, it became superb ! Best fish we’ve had in Mexico so far.
I spent the evening working on updating my investment files and reading today’s Miami Herald Cancún Edition which I purchased at Wal-Mart. Who knew ? !
Tuesday ; Today was sunny and hot. The truck tire was still losing air, so I changed the valve extender. In the Rio Grande Valley I had purchased an $80 set of four motorhome valve extenders in a damaged package for $20. That was a bargain, but the motorhome valve extenders are different than pickup truck valve extenders, and I had difficulty getting one installed on the truck. Hopefully it will work, despite the slightly convoluted installation. I trimmed my beard. I took Bo for an obedience session. While responding to a "come" command, following a "sit, stay", he detoured, and urinated on a tent in front of a neighbour's fifth wheel. I was not very happy with him !
Tomorrow we will be departing, on our own. We are disappointed that Kevin and Sandy have decided to stay here for a month. There are advantages and disadvantages to both travelling alone, and travelling with a companion RV rig. We're slightly concerned about safety and security. An RV rig travelling solo is much more vulnerable to both banditos and policia with a mordida habit. I think policia with a mordida habit are the much bigger risk. On the other hand, Joanne and I are both looking forward to being "alone" together. We enjoy travelling with just each other, without having to accommodate anybody else's agenda or schedule.
We spent our last afternoon here on the lovely Caribbean beach. After a few hours on the beach, with our new beach umbrella, I returned to the trailer and had a short afternoon nap. We went into Playa del Carmen to adjust the air pressure in the tire with the new valve extender, and refill with diesel. When we returned to Paa Mul, we hitched the truck to the trailer in preparation for departure tomorrow morning.
Wednesday ; Playa del Carmen to Chetumal, Quintana Roo
Today was sunny and very warm, a really nice "June 18" kind of day. This morning we prepared for departure, then went looking for our five British "friends" to say goodbye. We had to search them out, as they were making no effort to come over and say goodbye. And neither had they made any effort to socialize with us last night, our last evening together. We left the campground with Joanne in tears. And she cries neither easily nor often. She has to feel very hurt to cry. And I should know ! Our last two "friendships" with British couples as travelling companions have left us hurt both times. It certainly has left me with some new perspectives on definitions of selfishness, self-centredness, and inconsiderateness.
We headed south on Mex 307 towards Chetumal and the Belize border. No more than half an hour on the road, there was a loud thumping from the driver's side rear of the truck. I pulled over expecting to find a blown rear dually tire. It was the new valve extender, which had "blown" and become detached at one end. On the side of the road I managed to wrestle off the remains of the valve extender. At the next Pemex station down the road I pulled in, removed the hub cap and wheel liner, and checked that the air pressure was still okay. I'll have to live without the ability to check the air pressure on that tire until I can purchase a new valve extender. And I guess the other three motorhome valve extenders that I have will have to be left on a bargain table in an SKP RV park. Another twenty bucks down the tubes !
The roads today from Paa Mul to Chetumal were good. And I quite enjoyed not having to be concerned with travelling companions. Joanne, however, felt emotionally poorly all day, wondering what was the point of having "friends" ?
Chetumal is on the Mexico / Belize border. We arrived at Yax Ha RV Resort around 3:00 P.M.. The only other rigs here when we arrived were a caravan group, Amigos Rodante, a caravan company based in Hawkesbury, Ontario, a little bit east of Ottawa on the Ontario / Quebec border. They specialize in RV caravan travel to Mexico for French Canadians. There were only Ontario and Quebec license plates in the campground until we arrived. Shortly after we arrived, a Canadian rig from Nova Scotia arrived. The campground is on the grounds of an old fort. It is surrounded by an old stone wall with cannons mounted on it, facing out to the Caribbean Sea. Lots of room for big rigs to manoeuver, lush grounds, beautiful palm trees, gorgeous ocean views, properly wired and grounded 15 amp electrical outlets, no water or sewer at the sites, but clean, private shower rooms and bathrooms, nice swimming pool and restaurant.
We walked around the grounds with Bo, then sat outside on our lawn chairs, Bo on his tie-out, Teddy in his tent, listening to the waves lap against the stone wall at the back of our site, me working on the laptop using free Wi-Fi. We discussed whether or not to spend tomorrow on a day trip into Belize. We had been planning that with Kevin and Sandy, but now that we're without them, we decided that there isn't enough attraction in Belize to justify the bureaucracy and expense of entering and exiting Belize in one day.
Thursday ; Today was sunny and hot. By 7:30 A.M. it was hot ! Bo was recuperating today. He was no longer ill, although he was weak and lethargic from being sick for the last three days.
Yesterday as we were leaving Trailer Park Mecoloco in Cancún I noticed a coconut palm tree with coconuts hanging low enough to be reached. I jumped out of the truck and picked three coconuts. This morning I got out my drill, drilled into them, and drained out the coconut milk. From the three coconuts I got about 24 ounces of coconut milk. I'm looking forward to drinking it after it chills. Then I wanted to smash open the coconuts and get the "fruit / meat" out. I smashed one with a hammer, but it wasn't ripe enough yet, I guess, so the hammer just sort of squished the fibres. I cut them in half with a hacksaw and harvested the "fruit / meat". There wasn't much "meat" in them, and what there was didn't seem all that appetizing. Seemed sort of a slimy texture. Maybe they just weren't ripe enough ? Or maybe some coconuts are only for juice, not the fruit ?
We went with the Limeys in their toad into Playa del Carmen. We drove around for awhile, sightseeing and looking for an agua purificado refill place. There weren't any. Water refill places are few and far between. However, one can return an empty and purchase a full five gallon water jug at literally every corner ; every convenience store, every store of any kind, water jug exchange trucks even drive through the campgrounds. But ... as we found out today, one can only exchange a "brand X" empty for a "brand X" full jug. So ... what we did, was convince a store to allow us to take a full water jug outside, open it, pour it into our Culligan five gallon water jug, then return the one we had just emptied back into the store, and pay for the water as if we had exchanged jugs. Guess that's how we're going to have to do it from now on.
We drove to the Dodge dealer that I noticed as we drove through town yesterday and I made an appointment for regular maintenance service for Lanoire for tomorrow. My service writer was ... ( pant ) Angélica ( Annhayleeka ) ... ( pant ) ! We went to Soriana, a large grocery store in a large shopping mall, and replenished groceries.
Back "home" at Paa Mul RV Park I prepared Lanoire for service tomorrow. I removed all the valve extenders and chrome wheel liners. I unhitched the truck from the trailer. Joanne went to work on laundry. The Brit fellows, Simon, Paul, and Lee purchased a simple Mexican washing machine for their three month stay here, and offered to allow us to use it. I've never seen a washing machine like this one in Canada or the United States. It only washes the clothes. It doesn't even spin dry them. They come out of the washing machine totally wet and have to be wrung out by hand. I put up a couple of clothes lines for Joanne to hang our washed clothes on. We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon on the beach, relaxing and reading.
Bo's heartworm and flea treatments were due a few days ago, but I felt that he was too sick for them. Tonight I gave him his heartworm pill and applied his topical flea treatment. This evening I worked on my photos from our day on Isla Mujeres a couple of days ago.
Friday ; Today was sunny and hot, until late in the afternoon when it rained briefly but heavily. Bo was fully recuperated and healthy.
This morning I took the truck in for service to Automotriz Caribe ( Caribbean Automotive ), the Dodge dealer in Playa del Carmen. Once I completed the difficult task of explaining to ( pant ) Angélica what I wanted done ... to the truck ... HA HA HA ... I walked over to Burger King with my laptop to get some online work done using Burger King's Wi-Fi signal. After awhile Kevin and Sandy showed up at Burger King, also to get some online work done, then drive me home to Paa Mul.
After lunch, Joanne went with Kevin, Sandy, Simon, Paul, and Lee for an afternoon on the beach. I napped, then joined them. Shortly after I arrived, it began to rain very heavily. We waited out the worst part of the rain under a palapa on the beach. When the rain ended, Kevin and Sandy drove me back into Playa del Carmen to pick up the truck at the Dodge dealer. This was the eighth time since I bought Lanoire that I've had the tires rotated. This was the eighth time I've had the service writer photocopy the dually tire rotation diagram in the owner's manual and attach it to the work order. And this was the eighth time that a Dodge dealer's service department had rotated the tires incorrectly ! ! ! And this was the eighth time that I've waited while they redid it correctly ! The service was very expensive. I had expected it to be cheaper in Mexico. My costs for the same service in Canada and the United Sates have been cheaper. But ... the truck has never been so clean. They washed the exterior, and thoroughly vacuumed and washed the interior.
We invited all our Brit friends for dinner. A few days ago we had been discussing Cajun food, and none of them had ever had jambalaya. So we treated them to a jambalaya dinner. It turned into a miniature potluck. Paul prepared a lovely crab cake appetizer. Joanne prepared jambalaya for all. Sandy made a flan dessert. We chatted and looked at photos on my computer until very late.
Saturday ; Today was sunny, warm, and a bit windy, especially on the beach.
It was our plan to go to Xcaret ( Shcaret ) as a group of seven today, a theme park somewhat like Mexico's version of Disneyland, but based on Mayan culture and water sports. But Kevin did some research on Xcaret on the Internet, and when we saw the outrageous entry fees and additional fees, we changed our minds. We decided to go to Tulum instead.
Tulum is an archeological site of Mayan ruins about an hour south of our RV park. It's not as large or well preserved as the other archeological sites we've visited, but it's situated on the most beautiful grounds, high on a cliff, overlooking the Caribbean. It was the fourth archeological site of ruins that Kevin, Sandy, Joanne and I have visited, but it was the first for Simon, Paul, and Lee. Just as we arrived there was a performance by the Voladores / Papantla Flyers that we had previously seen at El Tajin. This was the first time Simon, Paul, and Lee had an opportunity to see them. We wandered around the Tulum site, seeing the ruins and taking photos. We returned to the parking lot for a very late picnic lunch.
From the highest point of Tulum's grounds we could see a lovely beach a couple of miles to the south. After lunch we decided to walk to the beach. Playa Aventura / Adventure Beach. It seemed like a very long walk, but it was worth it. The sand was the softest we've ever seen, the texture of powder or icing sugar. We waded in the Caribbean and lay around on the beach until late in the afternoon when it started to get cooler, and some of our group were getting sunburned. Paul had brought along Alba, the Mexican puppy he picked up a few weeks ago, expecting that she would come along with us into the ruins. But she wasn't allowed in, so had to be left in their Jeep while we were in the ruins. She came along to the beach with us, and thoroughly enjoyed herself, romping in the sand and the surf. A police truck came by, patrolling along the beach. When they saw Paul romping in the surf with Alba, they called him over and advised him that dogs aren't allowed in the water. On the beach is fine, but not in the water. HUH ? Where's the logic in that ?
We returned home tired, and very sandy !
Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot. I spent the morning on maintenance chores. I used my new torque wrench to adjust the truck tire lug nuts after having had the tires rotated a couple of days ago, then I reinstalled the wheel liners and valve extenders. I took Bo for an obedience session. He did very well. The last time we did an obedience session about a week ago, he did very poorly, because he was just beginning to feel ill. Paa Mul RV Park has Wi-Fi access, but with an expensive monthly fee. Because the British fellows are here for three months, Simon has subscribed to Wi-Fi. I borrowed his access codes, got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, retrieved bank statements, and retrieved investment updates. The stock market is not improving, which I expected it to do as soon as Bush was out and Obama was in. Once again, as usual, my stock market predictions were wrong ! My father would have been so proud of me for upholding the family tradition !
We spent the hot afternoon sitting on the beach, chatting with our friends. I went into the water briefly. It was not as warm as yesterday at Playa Aventura. We sat by a small rock wall, enjoying the antics of the 16 large iguanas lounging around in and on the rocks. Late in the afternoon we drove into Playa del Carmen to buy some groceries and take some laundry to a lavenderia. When we washed a load of clothes in Simon's spinless washer, it took 3 days to dry. So we loaded up our dirty laundry and went off in search of a lavenderia. In Mexico, self service laundromats are extremely rare. Lavenderias are full service laundries. You bring in your washing, the attendant weighs it, you pay by the kilogram, they wash and fold your laundry, and you pick it up in 24 hours. Joanne prefers self service laundromats, but we couldn't find one in this area. The campground directories list this campground as having self service laundry facilities, but that is not the case. With considerable difficulty, and repeatedly asking people on the street, and finding one lavenderia that was closed, we finally found a lavenderia that was open. We dropped off our laundry.
Communicating with the laundry attendant was very difficult. Most of the Spanish we speak is "Dick & Jane" three word sentences. Most Mexicans recognize our gringo language limitations, and respond in kind, with "Dick & Jane" three word sentences. But not the laundry lady ! She spoke long, wordy sentences, very quickly. While the truck was parked in front of the lavenderia I noticed a young Mexican man taking a photo of it. I guess a shiny "new" dually is a rare sight here. Even the staff at the Dodge dealer seemed awe struck by it.
While waiting at a traffic light, a billboard caught our eye. We slowly translated it. The Mexican federal government and local municipal government invite everyone to an outdoor free concert in the main square of Playa del Carmen featuring ... Julio Iglesias ! Two days ago ! ! !
Since we had shopped for groceries a few days ago at Soriana, we decided today to go to Chedraui, the other large grocery store in town. And there ... right beside the Chedraui ... was a self service laundromat ( sigh ). I find shopping in large Mexican supermarkets to be an adventure. I always learn something new. The only way that I found out that today was Super Bowl Sunday was because the "foods ready to go" section had an Especial Paquete de Super Bowl, a Super Bowl Special Package. A roasted chicken cost 70 pesos. The Especial Paquete de Super Bowl included a roast chicken, some rice, some other side dish, and some tortillas, for 88 pesos. Seemed like a good deal, so we bought it for supper. We got a roasted chicken, a huge styrofoam tub of rice with peas and corn in it, a huge styrofoam tub of some kind of black bean sauce, and a package of 40 fresh, still hot tortillas. What the hell are we supposed to do with 40 tortillas ? ! ? What are we supposed to do with a huge tub of black bean sauce ?
Monday ; Today was sunny and hot. This morning Kevin advised me that he and Sandy have decided to stay here a month. We'll be leaving here on Wednesday, continuing on our own. One of the truck tires is losing air. The problem is likely the valve extender. They seem to have a limited life of removals and reinstallations before they begin to leak air slowly. We took Bo for a long walk around the campground. While it's a large campground, probably half the sites are occupied by "permanents" who have constructed elaborate palapa style homes over and around their RV's.
Since we're continuing our travels from here on our own, Joanne and I did some trip planning. I printed the bank statements and investment updates I retrieved yesterday. I reconciled our bank statements. We had lunch, then headed for the beach. After a few hours of relaxing and reading on the beach we headed into Playa del Carmen to run some errands.
First stop was the lavenderia to pick up our laundry. Then Pemex to put air in the truck tire. Then Burger King to use their Wi-Fi system to pay the MasterCard bill. That didn't go smoothly. A few days ago I had run into difficulty with getting some funds from our Canadian dollar investment account to our U.S.$ bank account. So the funds ended up in our Canadian dollar bank account. Now I was trying to pay our U.S.$ MasterCard bill from our Canadian dollar bank account. I tried paying using the Wi-Fi phone, but there was a problem with the "pay by phone" function. So I had to pay online, without knowing what exchange rate would be applied. I simply overpaid, and will end up with a credit balance on the U.S.$ MasterCard. From Burger King we went to Wal-Mart for a few items. Our first Wal-Mart in Mexico. It was quite different from Canadian and American Wal-Marts. Our last stop was at Mega to buy a cheap beach umbrella. As we drove back to Paa Mul it began to rain lightly, and became quite heavy later in the evening.
Tonight for supper I prepared filetes de Mojarra frito con gusto, fried seasoned Mojarra fillets. I bought the Mojarra fillets yesterday, and made up my own seasoning coating mix. We’re enjoying trying different kinds of fish that we are finding in the Mexican supermarkets, and different ways of preparing them. When I tasted my first bite, it was very good. When I squeezed fresh lime juice onto it, it became superb ! Best fish we’ve had in Mexico so far.
I spent the evening working on updating my investment files and reading today’s Miami Herald Cancún Edition which I purchased at Wal-Mart. Who knew ? !
Tuesday ; Today was sunny and hot. The truck tire was still losing air, so I changed the valve extender. In the Rio Grande Valley I had purchased an $80 set of four motorhome valve extenders in a damaged package for $20. That was a bargain, but the motorhome valve extenders are different than pickup truck valve extenders, and I had difficulty getting one installed on the truck. Hopefully it will work, despite the slightly convoluted installation. I trimmed my beard. I took Bo for an obedience session. While responding to a "come" command, following a "sit, stay", he detoured, and urinated on a tent in front of a neighbour's fifth wheel. I was not very happy with him !
Tomorrow we will be departing, on our own. We are disappointed that Kevin and Sandy have decided to stay here for a month. There are advantages and disadvantages to both travelling alone, and travelling with a companion RV rig. We're slightly concerned about safety and security. An RV rig travelling solo is much more vulnerable to both banditos and policia with a mordida habit. I think policia with a mordida habit are the much bigger risk. On the other hand, Joanne and I are both looking forward to being "alone" together. We enjoy travelling with just each other, without having to accommodate anybody else's agenda or schedule.
We spent our last afternoon here on the lovely Caribbean beach. After a few hours on the beach, with our new beach umbrella, I returned to the trailer and had a short afternoon nap. We went into Playa del Carmen to adjust the air pressure in the tire with the new valve extender, and refill with diesel. When we returned to Paa Mul, we hitched the truck to the trailer in preparation for departure tomorrow morning.
Wednesday ; Playa del Carmen to Chetumal, Quintana Roo
Today was sunny and very warm, a really nice "June 18" kind of day. This morning we prepared for departure, then went looking for our five British "friends" to say goodbye. We had to search them out, as they were making no effort to come over and say goodbye. And neither had they made any effort to socialize with us last night, our last evening together. We left the campground with Joanne in tears. And she cries neither easily nor often. She has to feel very hurt to cry. And I should know ! Our last two "friendships" with British couples as travelling companions have left us hurt both times. It certainly has left me with some new perspectives on definitions of selfishness, self-centredness, and inconsiderateness.
We headed south on Mex 307 towards Chetumal and the Belize border. No more than half an hour on the road, there was a loud thumping from the driver's side rear of the truck. I pulled over expecting to find a blown rear dually tire. It was the new valve extender, which had "blown" and become detached at one end. On the side of the road I managed to wrestle off the remains of the valve extender. At the next Pemex station down the road I pulled in, removed the hub cap and wheel liner, and checked that the air pressure was still okay. I'll have to live without the ability to check the air pressure on that tire until I can purchase a new valve extender. And I guess the other three motorhome valve extenders that I have will have to be left on a bargain table in an SKP RV park. Another twenty bucks down the tubes !
The roads today from Paa Mul to Chetumal were good. And I quite enjoyed not having to be concerned with travelling companions. Joanne, however, felt emotionally poorly all day, wondering what was the point of having "friends" ?
Chetumal is on the Mexico / Belize border. We arrived at Yax Ha RV Resort around 3:00 P.M.. The only other rigs here when we arrived were a caravan group, Amigos Rodante, a caravan company based in Hawkesbury, Ontario, a little bit east of Ottawa on the Ontario / Quebec border. They specialize in RV caravan travel to Mexico for French Canadians. There were only Ontario and Quebec license plates in the campground until we arrived. Shortly after we arrived, a Canadian rig from Nova Scotia arrived. The campground is on the grounds of an old fort. It is surrounded by an old stone wall with cannons mounted on it, facing out to the Caribbean Sea. Lots of room for big rigs to manoeuver, lush grounds, beautiful palm trees, gorgeous ocean views, properly wired and grounded 15 amp electrical outlets, no water or sewer at the sites, but clean, private shower rooms and bathrooms, nice swimming pool and restaurant.
We walked around the grounds with Bo, then sat outside on our lawn chairs, Bo on his tie-out, Teddy in his tent, listening to the waves lap against the stone wall at the back of our site, me working on the laptop using free Wi-Fi. We discussed whether or not to spend tomorrow on a day trip into Belize. We had been planning that with Kevin and Sandy, but now that we're without them, we decided that there isn't enough attraction in Belize to justify the bureaucracy and expense of entering and exiting Belize in one day.
Gawd ... Mexican Wi-Fi is so slooooow ! I spent hours this evening trying to upload photos to my blog !
DSK
Hello this is lee from playa i would just like to say i an sadden and shocked to hear that you feel that way about all 5 of us i am also horrified at your lies as i made every effort to say goodbye as did we all but for unfortunatly you were too childish to talk with sandy or kevin about there staying in playa i would like to thank your assistaince in makeing my mind up about you being an arrogant inmature fool you spent 2 days ingnoring sandy and kevin because they wanted to see diffrent things than please give all our love to joanne we think she has a lot to cope with our thoughts are with her
ReplyDeleteHi i would just like to ask do you have an issue with british people? Also as you have fallen out with two couples do you not think that it could be you that has the problem? Something to think about maybe?
ReplyDeleteandrew florida