February 12 to 18, 2009

February 12 to 18, 2009 ; Puerto Angel, Oaxaca to La Placita, Michoacán

Thursday ; Puerto Angel, Oaxaca to Las Vigas, Guerrero

Today was sunny and very hot, temperature in the mid 90's. It's a bit unfortunate that we did not start this trip at the beginning of January as we had originally planned. If we had, we would have been through this very hot part of Southern Mexico along the Pacific coast and already coming north along the cooler coast of the Sea of Cortez. And ... based on where we are now, it seems unlikely that we will make it to Mazatlan by Carnaval ( Mardi Gras ), which was one of my main interests on this trip.

As we had suspected, we did not make it to Acapulco today. It was just too far, given that we are averaging about 40 km. / 25 miles per hour. Occasionally we can travel briefly at 80 km. / hr., more often we are at 70 or 60 km. / hr., and frequently we are at crawling speed going over topes every 150 feet in towns and villages. Today we travelled 400 km. / 250 mi., and it took us nine hours.

We left La Palmera Campground in Puerto Angel this morning, took half an hour to drive six miles back to the highway, then headed west on Mex 200 following the Pacific coast. HA ! The message must have been passed down the line ! We went through four military checkpoints today, and were not stopped for an inspection at any of them ! ! ! We refilled with diesel at Puerto Escondido, a very lovely beach resort town. One of our neighbours at Riverside RV Park Resort back home has enjoyed vacationing here. When we stopped for lunch we realized how hot it was inside the trailer, so we took Teddy into the air conditioned truck with us for the afternoon. He prefers to travel in the trailer, but appreciated the air conditioned truck today. Bo pouted in the back seat because Joanne had Teddy on her lap on Bo's Drop 'N Flop bed for the afternoon. When we crossed from the state of Oaxaca into the state of Guerrero ( Spanish for Warrior ) the road improved considerably.

We refilled with diesel again at Las Vigas, and parked overnight at the Pemex. When we saw this small Pemex, it looked like there was enough room for us to park overnight without being in the way. I pulled up to the diesel pump, got out, and began to ask the attendant in my very poor Spanish if I could park overnight if I filled with diesel. He responded to me in perfect English, albeit with a Chicago accent. He had spent twelve years in Chicago. He checked with his boss, who gave approval for us to park overnight. After getting refilled with diesel and parked, we took Bo for a walk back along the highway into the little village of Las Vigas which we had just driven through. We took a look at two small restaurants, but they had both just closed for the night.

My neck muscles were stiff and sore today. Reminds me of how I used to feel after doing face plants in the snow while skiing. Perhaps I'm getting too old for body surfing ? ! ? HA HA HA !

Friday ( the 13th ) ; Las Vigas to Acapulco, Guerrero

Well, what a noisy Pemex station ... all night long ! We didn't get much sleep ! Oh well, it was safe, and free. Today was sunny and very hot again. We were awake early, and on the road early, leaving the Pemex before 8:00 A.M.. We were only about 80 km. / 50 miles from Acapulco, so we were there by 10:00 A.M.. Yes, yes ... 2 hours to travel 80 km. / 50 miles. That's about normal for driving a large RV in Mexico. With just a bit of difficulty we found our way to Trailer Park El Coloso, got set up in a site, unhitched, and were ready for a day of errands in Acapulco. Our trailer is parked underneath a heavily laden mango tree, but the fruit are not yet ripe, so hopefully none will fall on us.

Our plan is to spend two days at Trailer Park El Coloso, in the city on the east side, the side we were approaching from, getting caught up on errands. Then we'll move around Acapulco to an RV park on the west side of the city, on the beach, for a day or two of relaxing. The only other rigs in this fairly large RV park were a couple of large motorhomes from Quebec. We asked them for some information on shopping, laundromats, water refill places, etc.. They were just leaving for a day on the beach, and offered to guide us to the shopping area on their way to the beach.

They have been here since November. The beach they go to daily is a twenty to thirty minute drive through horrendous traffic congestion on horrendous roads. We fail to see the appeal ! We followed them all the way to the beach, then backtracked to the big shopping area. We shopped for supplies and non-perishable groceries at Wal-Mart, of course. We had lunch at a chain restaurant in the mall called VIPS. It was ... mediocre, at best. We shopped for the rest of our grocery needs at Mega. On our way back to the RV park, we missed a turn. We had no choice but to drive all the way up the hill on the edge of Acapulco Bay before we could find a place to turn around. Well, at least that provided me with a photo opportunity of Bahía de Puerto Marqués. The terrible road conditions, heavy traffic congestion, and drivers whose aggressiveness crosses the line over to dangerous, left me frazzled. And it's the same in every Mexican city. We prefer smaller towns and villages, and we think we should replan the remainder of our trip to avoid large cities, or at least reduce the amount of time we're in or near them. Being in large cities like Acapulco simply isn’t a pleasant experience.

We put away our groceries then headed out for more errands. We had noticed a couple of water refill places nearby. The first water refill place “had no water”. What the hell is that supposed to mean ? ! ? Same thing at the second water refill place. Geeeeezzzzz ... welcome to Acapulco ! We found a lavenderia, and dropped off our dirty laundry to be done. Since we can’t find self-service laundromats, and have to use lavenderias, at least we like to have our own laundry detergent and dryer sheets used. The lady at the lavenderia couldn’t understand what the dryer sheets were for, until we finally figured out she had no dryers in her shop. She hangs the clothes out back to dry. Okay ! We found a third water refill place, and lo and behold, it actually had water ! We went to two propane refill places to refill the small propane tank for the barbecue. The first one couldn't refill the tank because of the Canadian OPD valve. The second said that they could refill the tank ... later, when they had electricity, which at that moment they didn't. But not tomorrow, they're not open on Saturdays ( rolling my eyes ).

We returned to the campground, tired and frazzled, to say the least. We blew off some of our steam, and Bo’s, by taking him for an off leash obedience session in the large, mostly empty campground. He did very well. Good boy, Bo, you’ve earned a Greenie. I climbed up on the roof of the trailer to sweep some accumulated leaves of the tops of the slides, and while up there, I straightened out the bent and battered Extreme vent. We chatted with our Quebecois neighbour, who is from the Gaspé Peninsula, to find out some information on Acapulco’s famed La Quebrada cliff divers, which we might go see in the next few days.

At the open air restaurant that is part of this campground there were a few Ethernet cable Internet connections. I spent an hour before supper and an hour after supper getting caught up on online work, sending and retrieving e-mail, retrieving phone messages, dealing with banking and credit card issues, and updating my blog.

Saturday ; Valentine's Day

Today was another sunny, hot day. Aren't they all ? ! ? I spent the morning doing chores, replacing the windshield wipers on the truck, downloading and processing yesterday's photos. I spent some time trying to make our Wi-Fi phone work, but the only Wi-Fi signals I could find were encrypted. Last night I had received an online message from MasterCard advising me that I must phone their security department. They have cancelled my U.S.$ MasterCard and reissued a new card with a new number, because of concerns that my MasterCard has been "compromised". I suppose that when I began using my U.S.$ MasterCard in Mexico it triggered some security concern. We took Bo, and the small propane tank for the barbecue, and went for a walk over to a nearby propane refill station. They had no problem refilling the tank, employing a "trick" to get their nozzle into the Canadian OPD valve on the tank. Since they're close to an RV park frequented by Canadians, mostly Quebecois, I guess they know the "trick" while other propane refillers don't.

After lunch I read then took a well deserved nap. We drove over to the lavenderia and picked up our laundry. We found the turn off to Hwy. 95, the route we have to take to get through and around Acapulco when we leave tomorrow. We thought it best to find the route today when we had just the truck without the trailer attached. The traffic congestion in Acapulco is the worse we've seen. Coupled with the abysmal condition of the roads and the drivers' tactics, driving here is really unpleasant. We returned to the campground and hitched up in preparation for departure tomorrow morning. We spent a couple of hours online, doing trip planning, researching RV parks along our route for the next couple of weeks. I retrieved and printed investment updates. I spent the evening updating and analyzing my investment files.

Well, I'm sure Acapulco is a wonderful place if you fly in and stay at a luxury hotel on the beach. But for the RV lifestyle, staying at an RV park inside the congested, noisy city holds little appeal except for providing an opportunity to get some errands done. Tomorrow we will move from this RV park inside the city on the east side, through and around Acapulco to an RV park outside the city on the west side, on the beach.

Sunday ; Joanne didn't get much sleep last night. She had difficulty falling asleep because of the loud music coming from across the street where there was a Valentine's Day wedding celebration taking place. Today was sunny and hot, as usual. Just before departing Trailer Park El Coloso I took an empty 5 gallon water jug and walked down the street to have it refilled at an agau purificado refill place. WOW ... a full 5 gallon water jug certainly is heavy after walking a block or so with it ! This morning we relocated from Trailer Park El Coloso in Acapulco, on the east side of the city, to Playa Luces RV Park, in Pie de la Cuesta, a beachfront resort village just outside Acapulco on the west side. It took 2¼ hours to drive 53 km. / 32 miles. The first half of that was inside the city, and it was the worst hour of driving yet on this trip. The Acapulco taxi drivers are stupid and dangerous. At one intersection a taxi turned right from the left side of me, and another turned left from the right side of me. It was highly stressful. The second half of the journey was outside the city, on highways. The highways have been repaired and rerouted and turned topsy turvy so much that the distances and mileage markers quoted in our guide book were useless. As we turned onto one highway at km. marker 21, Joanne zeroed the truck's odometer. We were supposed to turn off that highway at km. marker 11, and we did. The truck's odometer read 8 km.! The distance from km. marker 21 to km. marker 11 was 8 km.!

Pie de la Cuesta is a cute little beachfront resort village. We checked out two beachfront RV parks in Pie de la Cuesta, and chose to stay at the second one. It was a KOA Kampground at one time, probably more than 20 or 30 years ago, and had obviously been designed and built to KOA's standards. But it has been allowed to deteriorate horrendously. There were probably more than 100 campsites, but only about a dozen or so along the beach, and another dozen or so back in the trees have been maintained and are operational. The bathroom and shower buildings, the laundromat, the clubhouse and banquet pavilion have been abandoned, and are crumbling. We selected one of the slightly cheaper back sites, wonderfully shaded by a huge banyan tree. The beachfront sites were nice, but had no shade. As we were walking around with the manager viewing sites, I chatted briefly with a lady in one of the beachfront sites who is from Kelowna ( near where we live in B.C. ). The campground manager spoke a bit of English, and was helpful. She gave us directions on how to take a bus, then a taxi to see the La Quebrada cliff divers.

After lunch we took Bo for about an hour long off leash romp along the beach. It was a lovely, wide, soft sand beach with minimal development. We rested in the shade of our banyan tree. I read and napped. Late in the afternoon we headed off by bus and taxi to see Acapulco's famed La Quebrada cliff divers.

Well ! ! ! Quite an adventure ! ! ! Following the campground manager's instructions we caught a bus marked Pie de la Cuesta / Playa Luces in front of the campground heading to downtown Acapulco. We were to get off at Sanborn's Department Store. And we were to catch the same bus to return. The one marked only Pie de la Cuesta only goes to the edge of the village, not out to the beaches beyond where our campground was located. Okay ... got it !

We had been on the bus for awhile when a passenger walked up to the front of the bus, knelt down, and spoke to the driver. The driver stopped the bus, and stood up from his seat. The passenger stood up as well. Angry words were exchanged. A scuffle took place. The bus driver grabbed the passenger and threw him out the door of the bus, which had been open all the time, as bus doors in Mexico always are. A second man stepped up and began to struggle with the driver. The driver flung him out the door as well. The driver sat down, and attempted to get the bus in gear and pull away. The first passenger jumped back on the bus, wielding a knife. The bus driver spun around in his seat, leaned back against his side window, and kicked out at the passenger hard as the passenger attacked him with the knife. The driver managed to kick the passenger with the knife hard enough that he fell back out the door. The driver hit the switch to close the bus door, got the bus in gear, and drove away quickly. The knife wielding assailant was pounding on the bus trying to get back inside. The driver drove a few blocks, then pulled over and stopped. He swung his legs out into the aisle, and it was only then that we could all see that he had been stabbed in the lower leg. Some passengers rushed forward to give first aid. From somewhere a large gauze pad and a triangular bandage appeared. As he was being given first aid, the explanation the driver was giving was that the two men were trying to rob him. In Mexico bus fare is paid by cash to the driver, so on a busy Sunday afternoon bus drivers must have a reasonably large amount of cash. When another bus finally pulled up behind the one we were on, our driver sent the passengers on our bus to get on the other bus behind us. He was lying half reclined on his seat, somewhat white in the face ( well, for a Mexican ), his legs out in the aisle as his stab wound was being bandaged. I made eye contact, waved, and said gracias as we got off. He smiled appreciatively.

When we got on the second bus, the drunk old man who had been sitting across the aisle from me on the first bus said to me in Spanish "it's a good thing that the robbers didn't see that there was a gringo on the bus because you ( meaning me, and all other gringos, I guess ) have so much money". The man with Tourette's Syndrome sitting beside Joanne just twitched. We took the other bus to downtown Acapulco, got off at Sanborn’s, and took a taxi to La Quebrada. The taxi driver wanted 50 pesos but I quickly negotiated him down to 25 pesos which is what the campground manager said is the correct fare from downtown Acapulco to La Quebrada. We arrived at La Quebrada at 6:15 and the next cliff diving exhibition was at 7:30. We wandered around, found a simple restaurant, and had a simple but nice dinner. When the owner / cook came over to take our order I asked if he had Diet Coke. He said no, but that he would send his mother across the street to the convenience store to buy me one. He did, and she did ! HA HA HA ! Thank you / gracias, señor y señora !

We watched the cliff diving exhibition. Seven young men climbed up the 140 foot high La Quebrada cliffs, and jumped off into the water below. They have to time their jumps with the incoming surf, and jump far away from the cliff wall, or they will hit the rocks below. It was ... interesting. Joanne thinks that watching teenaged boys jump off 60 foot high Bromley Rock into the Similkameen River near our home is better. HA HA HA !

We returned to Sanborn’s by taxi. It was a bit more difficult negotiating the fare down to 25 pesos for the return trip from La Quebrada to Sanborn’s. I had to walk away from 3 or 4 taxis before I found one willing to accept 25 pesos. As we got out of the taxi we noticed that we were a block away from Acapulco’s main town square, and the malecon / waterfront walkway along the harbour. The main town square was packed with people, street entertainers, and vendors of everything and anything. Acapulco’s town square is a “happenin’ place” on Sunday nights. We wandered around for awhile, then wandered over to the malecon and walked along the waterfront for awhile. It was 9:00 P.M., we were tired, and decided it was time to head for home.

At Sanborn’s we waited for our bus for 15 minutes, asking many questions of many people before we found out from a policeman that we were on the wrong side of the street to catch our bus. We crossed the street and waited another half hour, asking many questions of many people before we found out from a bus driver and a woman passenger on his bus that the Pie de la Cuesta / Playa Luces bus doesn’t run on Sunday evenings, only the Pie de la Cuesta bus to the edge of the village. ( sigh ) We caught the bus to Pie de la Cuesta, planning to take a taxi through the village and out to the beach beyond where our campground was. We’re not sure exactly what the situation is regarding the operation of public busses in Mexico. They are extremely old and in extremely poor condition. We think they are family owned private enterprises operating under contract. Our bus was driven by a kid who looked to be about 16 years old. He had very loud music playing on the bus, with flashing neon lights on the bus pulsing to the music. We got off the bus at the edge of the village of Pie de la Cuesta. There was a collectivo sitting there waiting at the edge of the village. We asked if he would take us to our RV park. He said yes, and off we went.

We arrived home at 11:00 P.M., safe and sound ... I guess ! I think we’ve had quite enough of Acapulco and will leave tomorrow morning. Our expenditures for 2 bus rides, 2 taxis, and a collectivo totalled 84 pesos / $6.29. Pretty cheap, especially considering that the alternative was to unhitch the truck from the trailer, drive the truck into downtown Acapulco, then out to La Quebrada, find a parking spot large enough for a dually, not that easy to do in Mexico, then find our way back home in the dark, and have to rehitch the truck to the trailer in the morning.

Monday ; Acapulco to Ixtapa, Guerrero

Gee ... ( BO ! ) ... for all the sand we slept in last night, one would think that somebody took a soaking wet mop, rolled it in the sand, then threw it on our bed to dry ! Today was sunny and hot again. We left Playa Luces this morning, drove back through the village of Pie de la Cuesta ( Foot of the Slope ), and got back onto Mex 200 continuing west along the South Pacific coast. When we stopped for lunch in a little village there was a good produce stand, so we bought lots of fresh vegetables.

Just beyond the city of Zihuatenejo ( Zeewhatanayho ) is Ixtapa ( Ishtappa ), a resort city created by Fonatur, the Mexican Federal Government's Tourism Development Branch. It's miles and miles of luxury hotels along the beach, with beautiful landscaping, great roads, upscale shopping ... everything the real Mexico is not ! At the end of the long road through Ixtapa is Fonatur's Ixtapa RV Park. It's a nice park, although the most expensive RV park we've stayed at yet.

We got set up in our site. I went to the palapa covered lounge area where there was a Wi-Fi signal and used the Wi-Fi phone to phone MasterCard and sort out the security problem with my U.S.$ MasterCard. ( sigh ) MasterCard had already cancelled my U.S.$ MasterCard because of "suspicious" transactions in Mexico. I had not advised them that I would be using my MasterCard in Mexico. Guess I'll know better next time ! I ensured that Joanne's U.S.$ MasterCard and both our Canadian dollar MasterCards will be okay for use in Mexico. They have already sent me a new U.S.$ MasterCard, but obviously I won't receive it until I pick up a batch of forwarded mail in Yuma, Arizona a month from now, or maybe I won't even get it until we're back home in Keremeos in two months. The RV park had a laundromat so Joanne was finally able to wash the two pet beds from inside the trailer that Bo was sick on a few weeks ago. One of the pet beds seems beyond salvation, even after washing.

This fairly large RV park is half full of Quebecois, and a quarter full of Manitobans, which is odd. We haven't seen Manitoba license plates down here in Southern Mexico before. Neither group is particularly friendly, both groups keeping to their own clique. We went for a walk along the beach. We walked around the RV park. We chatted with a couple from British Columbia. And a couple from Ontario. And a couple from Washington that we met before at the RV park in Tehuantepec. And a couple from Colorado. By then it was dark. We had a late, simple supper. I went back to the palapa lounge with my laptop, sent and retrieved e-mail. I downloaded and processed my photos from yesterday evening at La Quebrada and downtown Acapulco.

This RV park is ... nice. The beach is ... okay. But nothing here is appealing enough to entice us to stay. We'll leave tomorrow morning.

We were kept awake by the very obnoxious behaviour of the group of four Manitoba rigs parked a few sites over from us. Four fifth wheel trailers, with Harley Davidson "hawgs" parked in front. Bikers ! Four disgusting, dirty old men, at least my age, probably older. Four bikini clad, blonde bimbo sluts, less than half the age of the men. Local hookers the bikers picked up, or biker sluts they hauled down with them from Manitoba. Very loud music. Lots of screaming, hooting, and hollering from the bimbos. At least as bad as anything we encountered from teenaged campers at West Hawk Lake when we were campground hosts during the summer of 2005. Worst behaviour we've seen in an RV park in more than 4½ years of full time RV'ing. Very disgusting ! In my opinion there is nothing more disgusting than old men who choose to function at the mental level of seventeen year olds !

Tuesday ; Ixtapa, Guerrero to La Placita, Michoacán

Today was sunny and hot. That's a pretty repetitive theme down here, isn't it ? We were planning to drive about 160 km. / 100 mi. today to stay at Las Peñas for a night or two, then drive about the same distance to stay at La Placita for a night or two. Things didn't work out at Las Peñas, so we ended up driving all the way to La Placita. Turned out to be a good decision, although it made for a long day of driving.

Yesterday and today we drove through 3 or 4 military check points each day. And were waved through every one of them. I wonder how far down the military line the word got passed to not waste their time or ours by stopping us for "inspections". We have discovered that if we administer 2 teaspoons of cold water by syringe to Teddy when we stop for lunch and again when we stop driving for the day, he doesn't seem to get dehydrated like he has been a few times. As we prepare to travel each day he jumps up on our bed, and apparently stays there until we are stopped and open the trailer door to come in. I guess it's just too difficult for him to manoeuver around inside the trailer to go get a drink of water while we're driving on Mexico's rough roads. So he stays on the bed, snoozes, and gets dehydrated as the trailer gets warm during the day. He never was the brightest kitty in the litter box, and now that he's 16½ years old ...!

At the first village we drove through today there was a woman on the side of the road selling fresh, home made galletas de coco / coconut cookies in a large, plastic storage jar. We bought a jar full, for 30 pesos / $2.28. Tonight I counted the cookies. There were five dozen small cookies in the jar. And the storage jar, which will be quite useful when emptied of cookies ( which won't take long at the rate that Joanne and Bo are eating them ! ) would probably cost that much if purchased at Wal-Mart in the U.S. or Canada.

At the second village we drove through today there was a woman standing in the middle of the road ( at a tope, where vendors often stand because the traffic must slow to a crawl to get over the tope ) selling pan de coco / coconut bread ... still hot from the oven. We bought a bag of three small, flat loaves for 20 pesos / $1.50. We didn't know what coconut bread would be like. It's flat loaves of bread with coconut inside the centre. Not exactly what you would use to make sandwiches, but a nice snack.

Unbelievable ! ! ! I have just returned from a late evening walk with Bo. I met a woman walking Charlie, her Standard Poodle. She lives in Keremeos ! ! ! As do we ! What a small world ! We chatted for a long time.

The third village we drove through today we stopped at a small roadside produce stand and bought some fresh vegetables and fruits, including the mini bananas that Bo loves. We call them Bonanas. At the fourth village we drove through we saw an outdoor panaderia / bakery with a stone bake oven. We stopped and bought a different type of galletas de coco / coconut cookies ( one can never have too many coconut cookies ) and some stone oven baked, huge empanadas de cajeta / turnovers filled with goat's milk caramel.

As we continued driving we passed an area where the houses were made of ... wicker ! A large greenish / bluish spiny backed iguana the size of Bo crossed the road in front of us. It looked like a new born baby dinosaur. As we drove through the village of Hua Hua I wondered aloud if there would be a giant fiberglass Canada Goose mounted on a pedestal on the edge of the village. HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA ... sorry ... Canadian inside joke !

When we got to Las Peñas we found our way to a questionable campground listed in our guide book. It's really just a couple of sets of RV hookups in somebody's yard. The drop from the village road to the campground's driveway was huge, perhaps close to a foot. Joanne went walking down the long driveway to check things out. I eased the truck down over the drop off. As I was easing the trailer down over the drop off I was watching the trailer's wheels in my truck mirrors. As soon as the trailer tires were eased down over the drop off, I looked forward ... and stopped ! An electrical wire was hanging down right in front of the windshield, already touching the truck's radio antenna. I considered that a bad omen, and couldn't see any reasonable way to lift this wire up high enough to get it over the trailer. I honked the horn and Joanne returned. I backed the trailer gently up over the drop off, Joanne guiding me from behind. As the truck tires reached the drop off, the dually mud flap caught between the drop off and the truck tire, and tore off, ripping all the screws out of the underside of the wheel well ! ( sigh ) With time and a lot of fussing around I can repair the mud flap and the wheel well ( using fiberglass epoxy on the mangled screw holes ) and reinstall the mud flap. We decided to continue all the way to La Placita.

Rancho Buganvilias near La Placita is a lovely RV park that was recommended to us as “do not miss” by a friend of a friend back in La Feria, Texas a few months ago. It’s a fairly new RV park developed and operated by a fairly young American couple. The park is developed and maintained to American standards. Correctly wired 30 amp outlets with stable electricity. Good water pressure ... a rarity in Mexico. Sewer at each site. Free Wi-Fi. No roosters ! Long sites to accommodate big rigs. A lovely open air thatched roof restaurant that serves dinner twice a week. The park is filled with large, flowering bougainvillea shrubs, papaya and banana trees. And very reasonably priced ! We are parked beside the couple from Washington with Molly the Border Collie and Buster the cat. We met them about a week ago in Tehuantepec and again last night in Ixtapa. The rest of the rigs in the campground are mostly Ontario and British Columbia license plates.

We got set up in our site, rested briefly, then took Bo for a walk to the beach. It was an eight minute stroll through a coconut palm grove to the beach. WOW ... a soft sand beach hundreds of feet wide, stretching miles in both directions as far as the eyes can see. We allowed Bo to be off leash, and walked slowly along the beach until the sun set. WHEW ... guess we’ll spend a few days here ! ! !

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and hot, of course. Although now that the coast line is beginning to curve slowly northward, and the terrain is beginning to change from jungle to desert, the humidity is quite a bit lower, and the hot weather is more pleasant.

Today was a slow, relaxing day. I spent the morning working on minor maintenance tasks, a never ending responsibility in the RV life, and particularly so in Mexico where the roads take a toll on everything. Loose screws, loose mouldings, broken latches, broken shelves, ... everything gets rattled until it's loose or broken.

We spent the afternoon on the beach. WOW ! And did I mention ... WOW ! We walked along the beach. We romped in the surf frequently to cool down. Bo played with other dogs. We propped our beach umbrella up against the only piece of driftwood on the beach, Joanne relaxed, I read a book, Bo dug himself a cool hole in the sand underneath the driftwood and lay down. WOW ! I want to stay another day ! Or a month ! ! ! We had a lot of fun playing in the surf, all three of us. The water is knee deep out for hundreds of feet, although the waves crash higher the further from shore you get. A hundred feet from shore the waves crash at waist level. Two hundred feet from shore the waves are crashing at chest level, even though the water is still only knee deep. And the power of the crashing waves is tremendous. When the waves crash at chest level, it's impossible to stand in one place. The incoming wave lifts and propels you towards the beach a few steps. Then the receding wave's undertow tries hard to pull you back out into the ocean. It was a lot of fun, and good exercise as well.

We spent some time chatting with our new next door neighbours who arrived today in a truck camper. They are a middle aged white couple from Oregon with a Mexican 7 year old daughter. We assume she is adopted. Her name is Dulce ( Doolsay ), Spanish for Sweet. Their German Shepherd dog's name is Cholla ( Choya ), a type of cactus found in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico. They left Oregon a year and a half ago as full time RV'ers. We assume Dulce is home schooled. They are returning from a trip through Central America all the way down to Panama. They are travelling up the west coast of mainland Mexico around to the Baja where they purchased a piece of property last summer, to take up permanent residency there.

Tonight we had dinner at the park's restaurant where they serve dinner twice a week. Tonight's menu was burgers and baked potatoes, both cooked on a wood fire, and salad. After dinner we chatted for awhile with the young owners of the park about their development of this RV park over the last two years. They have done a great job so far, and have good plans for future development.

DSK

February 5 to 11, 2009

February 5 to 11, 2009 ; Chetumal, Quintana Roo to Puerto Angel, Oaxaca

Thursday ; Chetumal, Quintana Roo through Campeche ( state ) and Tabasco to Palenque, Chiapas

Today was sunny and hot. We expected a long, difficult day. It tuned out to be even longer and more difficult than expected. We got up very early, and were out of Yax Há RV Resort before 8:00 A.M.. We knew we had to make it to Palenque before dark. Chetumal to Palenque is a dangerous area, more so for RV's travelling solo, much less so during daylight. It's one of two dangerous areas we have to drive through. Chetumal to Palenque is 500 km. / 300 mi. on Mex 186 running inland from the Caribbean, following along the Mexican border with Belize and Guatemala. That's about twice the distance we would normally drive in a day, given the difficult roads in Mexico.

Before leaving Yax Há RV Resort I wanted to dip Lanoire's tires in the Caribbean. Previously I have driven her through the surf on the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Sea of Cortez. This was her last opportunity to be dipped in the Caribbean. I considered unhitching her from Harvey, and driving her down Yax Há's boat launch ramp until her tires were in the water, but I decided it was too much effort to unhitch and rehitch. I settled for pouring a cup of Caribbean water on her tires.

Driving through the city of Chetumal I decided to refill with diesel. I pulled up to the diesel pump at a Pemex station, got out and put some Lucas diesel fuel additive in the tank. I turned around to wipe my hands, and when I looked back, the attendant was rushing to get the filler nozzle into the tank and start pumping ... before he zeroed the pump. There was still 100 pesos showing on the pump from the last sale. It's a common gringo rip-off in Mexico, and one must be constantly vigilant to ensure that the pump is zeroed before filling begins. I glared at the attendant and pointed at the pump display. As is always the case with the frequent attempts to rip off the gringo, he looked sheepish, mumbled an apology, and pretended that it was an honest mistake. Admittedly, it's happening less frequently this year in mainland Mexico than it did last year in the Baja, and I reluctantly accept it as part of the Mexico experience, but it's one of the three things I dislike most about Mexico.

As we drove west from Chetumal on Mex 186, the jungles of Belize were on our left. When I stopped on the side of the road to empty my bladder, there was a very strong fragrance of mint. I had stopped beside some manner of mint jungle. Very pleasant aroma ! Belize is a "narrow" country, north to south, so before too long we were driving along the border with Guatemala to our left. Northern Guatemala is uninhabited jungle, except for the smugglers and banditos who come out of the jungle and cross into Mexico on Mex 186. As a result, there were many military checkpoints along the road today. Only the first one stopped us for an inspection. The soldier wanted to see our vehicle importation document, and my driver's license to verify that the name on the two documents were the same.

We had failed to notice that we were going to have to re-enter the state of Campeche today. Campeche has food restrictions. When we got to the border crossing from Quintana Roo into Campeche, we were stopped for a food inspection. Knowing that we had chicken in the freezer and eggs in the fridge, both not allowed into Campeche, I used a tactic suggested to us by our Baja caravan leader last year. When the inspector came over, I told him in English that I spoke only English, no Spanish. Fortunately for me, he spoke no English, unlike the inspectors we encountered at the northern crossing into Campeche a couple of weeks ago. He motioned that he wanted to see inside the trailer. I opened the door, he walked in, looked at the fridge, and sighed, knowing that explaining the restrictions to me in Spanish would be incomprehensible. To satisfy himself, or his boss, that he fulfilled his obligation to inspect us, he turned away from the fridge without opening it, opened a kitchen cupboard door, looked at the package of dog biscuits at the front of the cupboard, closed the door, and indicated to me that he was done. HA HA HA ! No hablo español / inglés cuts both ways, amigo.

As we drove through the village of Xpujil ( Shpuhill ) I noticed an agua purificado plant. I stopped and took in an empty five gallon water jug to be refilled. They sterilized the jug, filled it with purified water, capped it, and sealed it. The charge was cinco ( 5 ) pesos, about 37 cents. Pretty good deal ! In Texas I paid 75 cents just for a cap for the water jug. At the outskirts of one village I had to slow down almost to a stop to allow about a dozen domestic goats to cross the road. At another village I had to slow down almost to a stop to allow four pigs to cross the road. Bo had never seen pigs before. He didn't know whether to wind his watch, take a s**t, or steal third base. HA HA HA !

Many of the tractor trailer trucks have little red, rigid ( probably plastic ) pennants sticking out of the sides of the truck and trailer on the driver's side to help oncoming vehicles define exactly where the edge of the truck is, because of the incredibly narrow roads. Today on one of those very narrow sections of road, when an oncoming tractor trailer passed by me, both of us doing highway speeds, one of his little pennants tapped against my driver's side exterior mirror. That's how narrow some of Mexico's highways are !

After taking nine hours to drive 500 km. / 300 mi. we finally arrived at Palenque. Church's Camping In Mexico book lists only one campground near Palenque that is big rig friendly, Los Leones, attached to a restaurant and hotel. When we arrived we found that the campground was no longer in business ( sigh ). We went a few miles down the road, to Maya Bell Campground, listed in Church's book as suitable only for small rigs, noted for its funky population of inhabitants of Volkswagen camper vans. It was very difficult to enter. It was even more difficult to get backed into one of the narrow, small, steeply sloped, wet, muddy entry campsites. I couldn't get backed in in 2WD. I shifted into 4WD HI and still couldn't back in. Geeeeezzzzz ... this was exactly the type of steeply sloped campsite that I was trying to back into that blew out the transmission on our previous truck Dee-Dee ... twice ! I shifted into 4WD LO and backed in without a problem. Good girl, Lanoire. She passed through 110,000 trouble free km. today !

WOW ... what an exotic jungle campground. Thick, jungle plants and flowers. Howler monkeys up in the jungle trees. A large, open air restaurant with live entertainment nightly. We could hear the very pleasant Mexican folk music in our trailer. Sure enough, the campground was full of Volkswagen camper vans, filled with old Quebecois and young hippie California surfer dude types sitting around playing guitars. But when we arrived, tired after a long day of hard driving, we had a lot of "kitchen chaos" to deal with. A kitchen cupboard had opened, spilling its contents behind the retracted slide, including a covered bowl of brown sugar. Of course, the lid had popped off. The cutlery drawer came open, fell out and broke, spilling cutlery all over. Some of it had slid under the slide, of course. While Joanne cleaned up the mess, I repaired the damaged cutlery drawer. Then we dealt with the very difficult task of trying to get the spilled cutlery out from underneath the slide before extending it. We had a minor accident, crushing Joanne's hand slightly under the slide. It could have been a lot worse. Close call ! Just a bruised hand, nothing broken.

It took two hours to get everything cleaned up and / or repaired. By then it was dark, and we hadn't set up yet, except for connecting the electricity. I hooked up the water and sewer in the dark. We had a simple supper, walked Bo, Joanne did dishes, I did my daily journal entry, and we were ready for bed. Long, tough day ! Hope the Palenque ruins are worth it ! With the windows open we fell asleep listening to the trio of Flamenco guitarists playing in the restaurant.

Friday ; Today was sunny and warm, a perfect "June 18" day in the jungle. This morning I took care of some more minor maintenance before we headed off to visit our fifth and final Mayan ruins. We took Bo for a long walk around the jungle campground. We are in the "lower" campground, a series of small, serviced sites for small RV's. The "upper" campground is deeper in the jungle behind us. It's a series of tenting sites, each tent site covered by a thatched roof palapa.

Our campground was about a mile and a half from the entrance to the ruins. A neighbour suggested we take a collectivo to the ruins, because it's uphill, then walk back home downhill. That's what we did. The collectivo fare was 10 pesos each, about 74 cents. A collectivo is a van employed as a communal taxi / short haul bus. They're everywhere. We walked out of the campground, and the first vehicle that came down the road was a collectivo, running between the village of Palenque and the archaeological site, and everything in between.

The Mayan ruins at Palenque are the oldest ruins of the five we've visited. They date back to 100 B.C.. Before entering the archeological site we walked around the small collection of vendors outside the entrance. This was likely the most exotic place we are going to visit this year, so we bought some unique gifts for ourselves and family. Joanne has been encouraging me to buy a Mayan Indian shirt, called a Guayabera, to go along with the Huipile dress I bought her at Uxmal for her birthday. Today I saw what I wanted, and bought it. We are in the state of Chiapas. The Chiapas Indians produce clothing and handicrafts that are unique to this tribal area, although the clothing does have an obvious Guatemalan influence. I bought myself a Chiapas Indian shirt. Joanne bought herself a Chiapas Indian blouse and a Chiapas Indian head scarf.

We entered the ruins and spent a few hours wandering around and taking photos. You would think we would be "Mayan ruined out" by now, but each one has been different, and interesting. What was special about the ruins at Palenque was the jungle setting. By about 1:00 P.M. we were getting tired and hungry. We exited the ruins site, and found an old woman and young man ( mother and son ? ) selling tortas and tacos at a small stand. Joanne had a torta de cerdo ( shredded pork sandwich on a bun ) and I had cuatro tacos, dos de res y dos de pollo ( 4 tacos, 2 shredded beef and 2 chicken ). We shared a glass of fresh orange juice. By fresh I mean ... the old woman squeezed four oranges to make our glass of juice. After lunch, and finishing our gift shopping, we walked home to the campground, stopping frequently to marvel at the jungle flowers and plants. The same flowers and plants that you can buy back home, in little tiny pots, but hundreds of times larger, growing wild. WOW !

We are sitting outside now on this gorgeous, sunny, warm afternoon, me working on my laptop, Joanne resting, Bo on his tie out, Teddy in his tent snoozing, surrounded by flowering jungle foliage and bamboo trees. A little girl in a bathing suit has just come by to visit Bo. She speaks French with an unusual dialect. Her name is Dziya. She is 4½ years old. She doesn't know the name of the country she is from, but we think it may be Belgium.

We have just "relocated" to the swimming pool of the campground. Joanne said she could not pass up the opportunity to wade in a pool fed by a jungle stream. I'm working on the computer while sitting in a very odd wooden hammock type of chair. One of the young hippie surfer dudes is playing a guitar. Joanne has been in the jungle stream fed swimming pool for about a minute, complaining already that it's too cold. Well ... what did you expect from a jungle stream ... warm water ? ! ? A large dog has just wandered over to visit with Joanne in the pool.

We were planning to leave tomorrow, but Joanne has suggested that we stay another day, relax, have lunch in the restaurant, hike in the jungle. Seems like a fine idea ! I was just visited by an old Mexican dog who lives 5 miles away, but hobbles over to the campground on a regular basis looking for handouts. He's crippled in one leg, walks on three legs only, and has a machete wound scar on his forehead ! For the second time on this trip I have been bit by some jungle bug that leaves a large white bump surrounded by deep purple bruising, first on my upper hip at my belt line, and now on the palm of my hand.

Late in the evening Joanne invited me to sit outside in the dark on the edge of the jungle, have a cup of hot chocolate, and listen to the Flamenco guitar music coming from the restaurant. It was a somewhat magical experience. A very emaciated stray cat wandered by. With much coaxing it came over and allowed itself to be petted. Eventually I picked it up and onto my lap to be petted. Joanne decided to go inside the trailer and get some cat food for it. When she opened the trailer door, Bo stuck his head out, the cat panicked, bit me, sinking a tooth deep into my thumb, leapt off my lap and ran. Doggone it, the last time I was bit by a cat, our own cat Toby, I ended up in the hospital for two days with a runaway infection, hooked up to an intravenous antibiotic ! And perhaps even worse than the bite, the damn cat tore my "I touched a whale" t-shirt.

Saturday ; Today was another beautiful day. As planned, we spent a lazy day, mostly just relaxing. This morning I took Bo for an obedience session. Well done, Bo. I sat outside with my laptop and composed letters to family members to accompany and explain the gifts we bought yesterday. We chatted with some Quebecois neighbours who came over to introduce themselves because they saw our Escapees sticker, and they are also Escapees. After lunch I read and napped, then we went for a hike with Bo through the jungle.

We sat outside in our lawn chairs and did some trip planning for the next few days. The shortest route for us to get to where we want to be would be to travel south from here on Mex 199 over the mountains to San Cristobal de las Casas. But that route is a 175 km. stretch of road known to be dangerous for tourists. Banditos come out of the jungle and set up roadblocks, then commit armed robbery. For a truck that attracts as much attention as Lanoire, and reeks of "rich gringo", and we are now a “solo” rig, we feel it would be best not to drive this route. So we will take a much longer route to the west, through Villahermosa and Minatitlán, then south on Mex 185 across the Istmo de / Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest section of the "bottom" of Mexico, to the Golfo de / Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific coast.

While we were sitting outside doing our trip planning, a Chiapas Indian man by the name of Carlos came by, showing and selling his craft. He makes a small, Chiapas Indian stringed instrument that you lay down on your lap to play. He called it a harp. It looks like a miniature harpsichord. It has a two octave range of notes. It's made out of cawoba, a local wood ( which I determined ... tomorrow ... is mahogany ). He explained it, he played it ... I bought it ! He included about a dozen song sheets that lay under the strings and show which notes to pluck to play the song, a spare "B" guitar string, which is what he uses to string the instrument, and a makeshift guitar pick made from a piece cut from a phone card. I guess down here you can't just run over to a local music store to buy guitar picks. He showed me how to tune it. He showed me how to replace broken strings. About half an hour later he returned with about another dozen or so song sheets to sell me. HA HA HA ... very good salesmanship, Carlos ! I sat around in the afternoon teaching myself to play Happy Birthday, The Wedding March, and Spanish Eyes.

WOW ... this place is addictive ! Our guide book describes the Maya Bell as "funky", and that it is ! Nieces, take note ; when Uncle Dan is old and senile and drooling, don't send me to a nursing home. Just convert whatever money I have left into pesos and send me down to the Maya Bell in Palenque to live on the edge of the jungle in a little thatched roof palapa, eating fish every day in the restaurant. Joanne wanted to go to the restaurant for supper tonight. It's a night I will long remember. The Maya Bell Restaurant is a "fancy", open air restaurant. Well, everything down here is "open air", with thatched roofs, but no walls. Despite a quite sophisticated menu, the restaurant is "autoservicio". You place your order with a waitress behind a counter. She writes your order. You pay her and take your order to the kitchen window and hand it to the cook. He calls you in twenty minutes or so when your meal is ready. I had Mojarro Veracruzano, a whole Mojarro fish baked in a tomato sauce with olives and some kind of hot, green chile peppers, probably jalapeños or habañeros. Joanne had a chicken breast stuffed with some kind of jungle fungus mushrooms. Both dishes were excellent. To drink I had jugo de piña con leche, fresh pineapple juice with ... I guess it's like sweetened condensed milk. Sort of a Mexican version of a pineapple milkshake. Tonight’s dinner was far and away superior to the rather mundane dinner we had on Joanne’s birthday. And a lot cheaper !

Every night from 8:00 to 10:00 P.M. there is live entertainment in the restaurant. Two groups, each play for an hour. Tonight's first group was two men, swarthy, with long, black, wild, tangled hair. Maybe local Chiapas Indians. They played a large assortment of stringed and wind instruments. With the exception of guitars, the instruments were unrecognizable to us. Their music was a hypnotic, upbeat ... I don't know ... Latin America jungle music ! The second group was three men and a woman. The men were again swarthy, with long, dark, wild tangled hair. They may have been from Central America, which, actually, starts just a few miles from here. The woman was a lithe young blonde, with long, wild, tangled hair ( pant, pant ). Long, wild, tangled or dreadlocked hair seems to be the norm around here. The men all played guitars. The woman played some kind of a flute. The first half of their set was ... I could only call it “jungle jazz”. The second half of their set was Flamenco. WHEW ... I was sweating just watching them play !

The cost of our dinner and the cost of our campsite, together, cost less than the cost of the campsite back at Paa Mul. And this place in the jungle is far more interesting and appealing. Eat your hearts out, Kevin and Sandy ! ! !

Gee, the Howler monkeys, known to us norteamericanos as baboons, were noisy tonight. Shortly after we went to sleep there was a gunshot out in the jungle. That started the neighbour's large dog barking loudly. That started Bo barking. I mumbled "I wonder what somebody would be shooting out in the jungle at this time of night ?" Joanne's half asleep reply was "Guatemalans ?" HA HA HA !

Sunday ; Palenque, Chiapas through Tabasco to Sayula, Veracruz

This morning we reluctantly left Maya Bell Campground. Our stay here has been the highlight of our trip so far, I think. We drove back to the village of Palenque and found a parking spot on the street near the Super Che grocery store. Super Che is the bulk / "warehouse" version of Chedraui. After we replenished groceries we headed out of town, north on Mex 199 to Mex 186, then west on Mex 186. We crossed from Chiapas into Tabasco. We stopped at a Pemex in Villahermosa to refill with diesel and have lunch. Shortly after Villahermosa Mex 186 joined Mex 180. We continued west on Mex 180, crossing from Tabasco into Veracruz, going around Minatitlán instead of through it like we did when travelling in the opposite direction ! As soon as we were in the state of Veracruz, the roads became deplorable ... again ! Oh, yeah ... we remembered from a few weeks ago ! At Coatzacoalcos, as we approached a toll booth a policeman came running across the road waving at us to stop. ( sigh ) Apparently we were at a toll booth for a toll bridge on which heavy traffic is prohibited. With considerable communication difficulties, we finally figured out that we would have to back up quite a long way to get away from the toll booth lane we were in, turn around, and head out of the city to the "truck bridge". Having once backed up and turned around, we had no idea how to find the alleged "truck bridge". We eventually found it, many miles back.

At one of today's many military checkpoints we got waved over for a "random" inspection. Yeah ... right ! ! ! I stood in the bathroom hallway holding Teddy while the young soldier with a machine gun slung over his shoulder rummaged through drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. When he found my carton of cigarettes in one of the cupboards, he took out a package of cigarettes and obviously wanted me to give it to him. Not ****ing likely, ***hole ! Petty corruption pervades this country ! I pretended to not understand. No comprende Español, amigo. Search until the cows come home ... there's nothing in here that shouldn't be. But I'm not springing for a package of cigarettes as mordida to shorten the inspection ! ! !

We had heard that some of the larger Pemex stations allow overnight parking of RV's, for a reasonable fee. We were counting on finding a Pemex near Acayucan or Saluya that would allow us to boondock overnight. We didn't find one at Acayucan, but a few miles down the road at Saluya we saw a large Pemex with a sign advertising free parking for customers. We assumed that meant overnight parking. We filled up with diesel, and received permission to park overnight at the back of the lot where there were already quite a few large transport trucks. Before we could have supper I spent an hour and a half repairing broken drawers and cupboards. The cutlery drawer tracks have been damaged and repaired multiple times already, and need to be replaced, but I'm not going to replace the tracks until we're out of Mexico. In the meantime, I have devised temporary measures using bungee cords to keep the drawers closed while we bounce over Mexico's terrible roads. As soon as I can find a hardware store, I will buy some new cupboard latches and some drawer locks of some kind.

Monday ; Sayula, Veracruz to Tehuantepec, Oaxaca

Happy 5th Birthday to Bo

We knew from our experiences in the Baja last year that this trip would have days like today. Today ... I hate Mexico ! Today ... I hate Mexicans ! There ... I've said it ! ! ! It took us 8¾ hours to travel 317 km. / 198 mi. today. We were 26 km. / 16 mi. from our destination when we got detoured, and it took us another 3 hours and an additional 139 pesos / $10.30 in unnecessary tolls to get to our destination ! ! !

Today was sunny, hot, and humid. We left the Pemex in Sayula this morning heading south on Mex 185. Our objective for today was to cross from the Gulf Of Mexico coast down to the Pacific Ocean coast across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrowest part of Mexico. We stopped at a roadside stand near a small village when we saw that the vendor had mandarinas for sale. She also had packages of something we had never seen before ... tortillas dulce de coco / sweet tortillas made from coconut. They were paper thin, and crisp like a potato chip, although the size of a dinner plate, as large tortillas are. We enjoyed them. Bo also enjoyed them. To him, they were his "coconut dog biscuit" birthday treat. HA HA HA ! Well, that and a mandarina also for a birthday treat. The woman was also selling jars of some kind of sweet, pickled berries. I asked if they were "hobas", which we bought in Northern Mexico a few weeks ago. She said no, they were "keenchays".

We were hoping that when we crossed from Veracruz into Oaxaca ( pronounced Wah hahka ) that the roads would improve. They didn't ! I stopped twice today attempting to refill one of the large propane tanks from the trailer, and a small one for the barbecue. Our propane tanks all have OPD ( overflow protection device ) valves, required equipment on propane tanks in Canada and the United states for at least the last dozen years or so. Refilling them in the Baja and Northern Mexico hadn't been a problem. Here in the South it is. At the first propane place that we stopped, the attendant immediately recognized that he couldn’t refill our tanks. At the second place, all three attendants thought it would be "no problemo". Yeah, well ... they were wrong ! They could not get their nozzle into the small barbecue tank's valve. Despite all our tanks having the same valve, they managed to somehow wrestle their nozzle into the larger trailer tank, and partially refill it ... maybe ... hopefully. They charged me for twenty pounds of propane, in a thirty pound tank. Who knows how much propane actually got into the tank ? ! ? And who knows if they damaged the valves ?

As we were driving through the city of Juchitan, we were required, along with everybody else, to turn around and go back. The road ahead was blocked. We have no idea why ! Getting the trailer turned around in the middle of a city required backing up a considerable distance, surrounded by cars and busses all attempting to turn around, before I could back into a large enough space to turn around. The only directions we could get, in Spanish, to get through the city and back onto the highway, were to "turn left at the gas station, then turn left again". Okay ... we turned left at the gas station. Where the next left turn was supposed to be we never found out. We drove through Juchitan, then a short distance later we were in the city of Ixtaltepec. It was a small city, with narrow streets, and no obvious signage. We floundered around and through Ixtaltepec, then a short distance later we found ourselves in the small city of Ixtepec. We are travelling with a road map and an atlas. Neither one is very good ! And these small cities that aren't on the "main" highway have no signage.

We got hopelessly lost and tangled in Ixtepec. At one point, I realized as I was crossing an intersection, that our road changed from two way to one way. We were supposed to have turned right at the intersection we had just driven through. The same thing happened to us a couple of times near Cancún. Mexico's road signage varies from extremely poor to non-existent. The locals know what to do, and where, but tourists are left "in the dark". Joanne had to go behind the trailer, and stop rush hour traffic, as I backed up through the intersection. And Mexican drivers are not courteous towards tourists who are uncertain or have made a mistake. A little while later, while still twisted around, on a narrow two lane street made into one lane by parked cars, I stopped at an intersection to consider who had the right of way, me or the oncoming cart drawn by two oxen ? ! ? I thought it prudent to wait for the oxen cart to get to the intersection and around me before proceeding.

The ordeal was excruciating. Finally we managed to get out of the city and onto a country road. It eventually crossed the toll highway. Hallelujah ! A road going somewhere that we can recognize. We got on the toll road, and almost immediately came to a toll booth. We paid the toll and continued. A short distance later, the highway into Tehuantepec crossed the toll highway. Except that now we were on the west side of Tehuantepec and the campground we had been heading to was on the east side of the city. Joanne wanted to turn towards Tehuantepec. I was tired, frustrated, disgusted, wanted my money’s worth out of the toll, and didn’t want to drive through another city, encountering hundreds of topes in the process. I decided to stay on the toll road until the next city, Salina Cruz, and find a Pemex to stay at overnight. ( sigh ) Just before Salina Cruz we had to pass through another toll booth. We crawled all the way through Salina Cruz looking for a Pemex to stay at overnight. Two were too small for overnight parking. One was large enough but wouldn’t permit it. We crawled down the congested free highway back to Tehuantepec. Same story with the Pemex stations there. We crawled over another few hundred topes and made it across the city to the campground that we were initially headed for. The second toll was completely wasted ! And even the first one would have been unnecessary if we hadn’t been forced to turn around in Juchitan.

What a tiring, disgusting experience ! When we arrived at the ****hole of a campground, ( with no services, for 150 pesos a night ! ), there was one other rig there. They had arrived just a few minutes before us. And although they had started from a different city this morning than we had, their route was almost identical to ours. They had actually passed us while were stopped on the side of the road having lunch in La Ventosa. And their day’s ordeal was almost exactly the same as ours. Except ... perhaps even a little worse ! While they were lost and floundering around in Ixtepec, they hooked a low hanging electrical wire with the top of their fifth wheel, and got stuck under the wire. They had to get some help to get the wire lifted while they got untangled and backed away. A few days ago they smashed their air conditioner shroud on a low hanging branch. Their air conditioner is now covered by a tarp with a lot of duct tape. But ... they have travelled through Mexico by RV previously, enjoy it, and are somewhat philosophical about the trials and tribulations. Although today really did get to them !

Our final indignity of the day was to discover that a quart of Joanne’s beloved Yomi Lala chocolate milk drink had burst in the cupboard. Fresh milk is rare here in Mexico. Most of the time we have to accept buying UHT ( ultra heat treated ) milk in quart sized “drinking boxes”, like fruit juice comes in. All that bouncing around over topes caused one of the boxes to just self-destruct at the seams. A cupboard full of chocolate milk, leaking out, across the floor and under the slide ! ( huge sigh ! )

Tuesday ; Tehuantepec to Puerto Angel, Oaxaca

Happy 60th Birthday to my sister Sharon

What a dolt I've been. Like ... duh ... I coulda had a V-8 ! I've finally figured it out. We have been getting waved over for "random" inspections at many of the frequent military checkpoints. I've thought that the soldiers were simply curious to see inside a "rich" gringo RV. I've been smiling, and friendly, and attempting to speak to the soldiers in Spanish ... until yesterday and today. The soldiers never want to inspect in the outer storage compartments of the trailer. They never want to inspect in the bathroom or bedroom closets or drawers. They're only interested in the fridge and the kitchen cupboards. The fridge is always the first thing they open. The corrupt ( by Canadian and American standards, not by Mexican ) buggers want mordida. They're looking for a cold drink to be offered, or a snack, or perhaps some cigarettes. Yesterday left a sour taste in my mouth. I hadn't completely worn that off this morning when we were stopped yet again ... for the first of two times today. I put on my best scowl, and my most hostile voice, and refused to say anything other than "I don't speak Spanish", said in English ! It was nice to see that "I still got it" ! HA HA HA ... my best ( worst ? ) hostile routine can intimidate even a soldier toting a machine gun. At the second military checkpoint, the soldier who came over to inspect us spoke a few words of English. I began bitching and complaining as soon as I rolled down my truck window that I was sick and tired of being inspected at every military checkpoint, every two hours ! By the time I had walked around the truck and trailer to the trailer door, and was unlocking it, the soldier was attempting to stifle my bitching by telling me that these inspections were "federal law". When I barked "BULLSHIT !" at him, he looked exasperated, realized he was wasting his time trying to get any mordida from such a hostile gringo, and told me I could leave. Now that we know that hostility shortens the "inspection" because they realize the futility of trying to get mordida, the strategy we will try at our next "inspection" will be to send Joanne to open the trailer and watch the soldier conduct the "inspection". We suspect that the Mexican machismo soldiers will be reluctant to attempt mordida with an "old" gringo woman. Maybe the word got passed down the line, because at the third military checkpoint today, they just waved us through.

Today was sunny, hot, and humid ! We left our "campground" ( rolling eyes ) this morning, and wrestled our way through the city of Tehuantepac. We stopped at a large Pemex to refill with diesel. Joanne suggested we attempt to start paying for our diesel purchases with a credit card, to conserve our rapidly dwindling cash. Some of the larger Pemex stations accept credit cards. While the attendant was gone to process our credit card, Joanne began to wash the truck windshield. When he came back he hustled over to help Joanne, and promptly broke a windshield wiper on the truck ! ! ! That didn't do much to improve my mood. A few miles after Tehuantepec we wrestled our way through the city of Salina Cruz, then got stopped at the first military checkpoint we came to. It worked to my advantage that I was already crabby because of the broken windshield wiper.

We drove west along the Pacific coast on Mex 200. We passed by Huatulco. I recall that my brother and his family had a fly in vacation to an all inclusive resort in Huatulco when it was a fledgling resort area, quite a few years ago. As a resort area, Huatulco seems to have never got off the ground. Another failure of Fonatur, the Mexican Federal Government's Department of Tourism Development. Last year and this year we have seen quite a few of Fonatur's failures.

As I'm typing this outside the trailer at 5:30 P.M. Teddy is beside me in his tent. A couple of chickens have just walked by, clucking softly as they look into the tent at Teddy. Teddy is stunned ! HA HA HA ... what's the matter, Teddy ? Never been stared at by a chicken before ?

Yesterday and today we have been driving through areas of Mexico that seem awfully backwards, even by Mexican standards. We have seen a number of twig framed mud huts. Children up to about five years old are naked. Children up to about twelve years old have no shoes. We continue to hand out CANADA pencils to children between about five and ten years of age that we encounter. In Northern Mexico the children were thrilled. But down here on the southern coast, the children seem afraid of gringos, puzzled by our offering, and reluctant to come over to take a pencil. So we have been just tossing it near them.

We stopped for the night at Puerto Angel. It took us about 6 hours today to drive 223 km. / 139 miles. I think we might stay here tomorrow, and get rested up on nearby Zipolite Beach before tackling the long drive to Acapulco. I think Zipolite was some Mexican Revolution hero. I'm not sure we can make it from here to Acapulco in just one day. The campground here is reasonably decent. Or my standards are getting lower ? We have 15 amp, ungrounded, incorrectly wired electricity, and water. No sewer. Our campsite has an outdoor shower, "enclosed" by thatched walls. When we arrived I was so hot and sticky I put on my bathing suit and had a cold shower, scrubbing off accumulated road grime. It was great. The "cold water only" shower isn't really cold. The water comes out of the faucet barely cool.

Joanne and Teddy are finding the weather to be too hot and humid here along the Pacific coast in Southern Mexico. Joanne was feeling a bit “heat ill” today. When we arrived here at Puerto Angel we found Teddy dehydrated, laying on our bed, having lapsed into his “I lie down and die now” mode, which happened once before, a couple of months ago in the Rio Grande Valley. We don’t know whether he’s become too senile to remember to drink when he’s hot, or is it too difficult for him to walk over to his water dish and drink while we’re bouncing along over Mexico’s tope and pothole filled roads ? We administered four syringes of cold water to him over a two hour period, until he was rehydrated and perked up.

Wednesday ; Today was another sunny, hot, humid day. I started my day with a very refreshing cool shower in our campsite's thatched wall outdoor shower. I tried repairing the broken windshield wiper with the remarkable glue I bought at a flea market in Yuma a year ago, but the glue has dried out. Darn ... I’ll have to get more when we get to Yuma in about a month.

This campground is called La Palmera, and not surprisingly, it's filled with coconut palms. There are so many coconuts the owner dumps them in a pile at the edge of the jungle. The coconuts here are hard and brown. The ones I picked near Cancún were green and soft. I took one from the pile here today, to see if the milk and the fruit are better than the ones I picked near Cancún. I sawed it open, and got the milk, but there was no "meat" inside, just fibres. I'll drink the milk tomorrow morning after it's chilled.

Our next door neighbours are a French speaking couple from Switzerland. This morning the lady came over to see if we want to participate in today's bulk purchase of fish by the occupants of the campground, when a local fisherman comes by with his daily catch, as he does every day. Yes, we do ! He usually has a daily catch of about 20 kg. of dorado, which he usually sells for 110 pesos per kilogram. Sometimes his daily catch is tuna. Later in the morning a man came by selling freshly caught shrimp. ( bulging eyes ) HUGE SHRIMP ! He was selling a large bag full for 110 pesos. I didn't want a full bag, so I negotiated to purchase half a bag for 50 pesos. We decided to freeze them individually, for ease of barbecuing, so we rinsed them and laid them out on pie plates to be put into the freezer. There were thirteen giant shrimp, for 50 pesos / $3.75 ! After they were frozen I packaged then into 3 meals for one, since Joanne doesn't eat shrimp. Wow ... 3 shrimp dinners for me at $1.25 each.

After lunch we walked about a block over to Playa ( Beach ) Zipolite. Very, very nice ! ! ! We were a bit startled by all the naked people walking on the beach and romping in the surf. We set up our beach umbrella and lawn chairs on top of the ridge in the sand left by high tide, and spent the afternoon resting on the beach, me reading a book. The Pacific Ocean surf was quite large. I watched some people body surfing and decided to give it a try. HA HA HA HA HA ... what a lot of fun I had ! Late in the afternoon we wanted a snack. Joanne walked out to the road, heading for a nearby convenience store to buy a couple of ice cream treats. As she got to the road, there was a man on a bicycle cart, selling ... four flavours of home made ice cream. She bought two huge bowls of ice cream for 30 pesos / a bit less than $2.50. Mine had fresh coconut in it ... as well as a few little pieces of coconut shell ... HA HA HA. We watched 5 dogs romping on the beach and playing in the surf. A couple of them were actually "doggie body surfing", running out into the surf as a wave would retreat, then turning around just as the next wave would hit them, picking them up and carrying them back onto the beach. HA HA HA HA HA ... I've never seen dogs body surfing before !

When we returned to our campground our neighbour lady had our fish purchase waiting for us. Five large fillets of dorado, a.k.a. mahi-mahi, for 100 pesos. Each fillet is large enough for a meal for two. Five meals for two for $7.50 ! We took Bo for an obedience session. He was unfocused and did poorly. We chatted with a fairly young couple of full time RV'ers from Canada's Yukon Territory. We swapped RV'ing in Mexico horror stories. They hit a low hanging branch that punctured a hole in their fiberglass motorhome and shattered the solar panel on their roof, and their driver's side exterior mirror has been clipped and shattered. I took our neighbour's recommendation and picked some of the fruit growing in our campsite, some kind of a lemon and mandarin hybrid, for my Diet Coke. I processed the photos I took on the beach today, including a photo of a naked couple walking by. That's probably a violation of nude beach protocol, but hey... I'm Canadian, eh ?

The fish we had for supper tonight had been swimming in the Pacific Ocean less than seven hours before we ate it. Now that's fresh ! ! ! I prepared filete de dorado frito con gusto Cajun de Daniel. This was the third time I prepared fish this way, my own recipe creation, and I have perfected it !

Late in the evening we went for a moonlight walk on the beach. It was ... romantic. I can't remember how many years it's been since we walked on a beach at night.

DSK

January 29 to February 4, 2009

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.

Gawd ... Mexican Wi-Fi is so slooooow ! I spent hours this evening trying to upload photos to my blog !

DSK