Mexico 2011 -12 RV Trip

Not A Lot Happens Around Here

2012-01-19T14:44:00.001-06:00

We have been back to Xpu-Ha for 19 days and I have only posted one time. My friends are complaining, they want to hear what’s happening in dangerous Mexico.

The reason this is the fourth year in a row that we have spent at least part of our winter here is that not much does happen. A few campers come & go, we listen to the live entertainment a few day’s a week coming from the popular beach restaurant right next to us, and on Fridays go to Pizza Leo’s in Chemuyil.

So here are the comings and goings of our camper friends.

Reed & Elaine from New Mexico arrived on on 1/10 in their new 34’ fifth wheel. They are pulling it with a 4-wheel drive pickup truck. After Fred & Emmy left for Belize and points south, they took over their spot.

Elaine bought a new inflatable kayak with a sail rig that they hope to learn how to sail in our protected bay.

Whenever the wind calms down I am still taking my kayak out and over to Puerto Adventuras just for the exercise. It takes about an hour each way.

Gerry and Ann arrived on 1/11, with a new (for them) 20 year old RV that they hope to leave here at La Playa. They were stuck in Texas for more than a month because they had never cancelled their old 10 year RV permit when they left last year. They had at least one un-cancelled permit in each of their names from RV’s that they sold back in Ontario,

The only way they actually got to get a new permit this year was to sell the RV to Ann’s son-in-law Rick, fly him down to TX, then let him get the TIP in his name. He visited for a week and flew back home on 1/15.

They plan to stay until April and fly home. Then in the future they can fly back and forth to their RV,

Gerry figured to get around he will need some transportation so he bought a Mexican made Italian scooter and a kids bike trailer. He can carry groceries and laundry from the Puerto Adventuras about 3 mi away.

Here he is setting up his satellite dish so we will be able to watch the Super Bowl in a few weeks.

Claude & Erika arrived back from Switzerland. They also flew home from the holidays but left their RV at Meco Loco near Cancun, When they got back Claude got bit by a dog vey near where I got bit two years ago. So it slowed their return to La Playa until 1/13. They are camped up on the beach again on the other side of the restaurant. No full hookups up there but a nice breeze and beautiful view.

There is another campground right next store to us run by the same family called Bonanza. They have nice shady spots and cater to smaller rigs and tent campers. Some electric is available. Here is what we look like so far this year. Starting on left, picture 1 to the far right, picture 2. It’s a rather small campground.

Claude & Mags son Steve & Maryann flew back to Ontario on 1/16.

So far, since the beginning of December, the weather has been averaging in low 80’s during day and high 60’s at night. Got a few warmer and a few cooler days and it rained for a couple of days. But mostly any rain lasts a for only few minutes then clears right back up again.

Elaine & Reed preparing for their maiden voyage.

Pretty much all of us are using USB sticks in our computers to get Telcel’s 3G service. Telcel lowered their price this year and even ran a special for new people. You get the stick and two months service for $399 pesos, about $30 USD. After that depending on how much bandwidth you use, the cost is $300-500 Pesos per month. Their signal is reachable in most populated areas of Mexico and is fairly fast.

So it’s 3S - Sunny, Safe and Swell here on the beach in MX. Some day we may be home. If something exciting happens I’ll post some more but my posts will be a little sporadic until we start heading home in March.

Happy New Year–Back to Xpu-Ha

2012-01-07T13:16:00.001-06:00

Well I haven’t updated my blog since I’ve been just hanging out in my hammock and taking life easy.

We flew back direct from Cleveland to Cancun early New Year’s Day. Flight was ahead of schedule, we just made connections to an early bus from the airport to Playa del Carmen and after a Collectivo ride we were back in camp by 2 PM.

A few more campers had arrived and a few left but there is still room for a few more.

Since we were early Claude was nice enough to give us a quick ride back to the new Super Chedaraui back in Puerto Adventuras.

On Monday Claude and Mags drove to Cancun to pick up their son Stephen and his fiancée Maryann. They are going to spend two weeks here between work schedules on the cruise ship circuit. They work in a store on the ships selling jewelry and watches. Here they are checking out my hammock.

I borrowed all these pictures from Mags camera. I haven’t even taken a picture since I came back.

Claude got Steve to give him a haircut, saving a trip into Playa.

Meet our campground hosts, Vera and Dietrich. Dietrich makes sure everything is working in camp and everybody pays their campground fees. If you stay a month it is only 5000 pesos including all hookups, this only comes to $375/month USD at the current exchange rate.

We all got together this Friday night to go out to Pizza Leos again in Chemuyil. We had 15 people there this Friday. Here is a picture of me telling Glen from Alberta all I know. This took about a minute. But he did seem to believe me.

It seems like there is always a celebration or a party or something going on in town.

This Friday was the Feast of the Three Kings. All the bakeries make big bread like cakes that have a small toy Jesus somewhere inside. It’s called Rosca de Reyes. If you find him in your slice, tradition says you must throw a party on Feb. 2, Candlemas Day, and serve tamales to your guests. Or I think that’s how it goes. The cakes are not too tasty, we tried a small piece in the grocery store.

But of course it is also the reason for another celebration. The ladies in town dress up in their beautiful Huipiles, they have their dancing shoes on and they march behind a car playing music and dance around a man holding a king, while holding on to their ribbons.

Even some little ones dressed the part.

It’s a fun little town, when ever we walk around town we usually find a party going on. Here we found a birthday party with a piñata. All the kids were having a great time trying to break it to get at the candy.

These are the friends from Belgium that we met at our campground. Fred & Emmy are the ones who had a bad experience on their way to Mahahual last February .

There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays

2011-12-23T15:05:00.001-06:00

We had our annual holiday party with our 4 children and 11 grand children. Of course we had 4” of snow to make it feel like Christmas.

Had a great dinner, opened a few presents and enjoyed everyone’s company. It’s why we fly home from Mexico to have a vacation from our Winter travels.

Our three little girls; Meg, Joan & Pam.

Brian (Joan’s husband), Greg (Meg’s) and my son Jeff having a Christmas beer.

And in the photo below all 11 of our Grandchildren. From Sierra 3 years old to Jeffrey almost 22 years old.

Last Day in Xpu-Ha – Fly Home for Holidays

2011-12-14T12:59:00.001-06:00

Our last walk down the beach to the old hurricane damaged pier.

Making sure our rocks still declare our palapa private. Last week the names stayed in place all week long.

Two days ago our Swiss friends that we met at Catemaco arrived but they left this morning to head up to near Cancun since they are also flying back home for the holidays. They have been traveling around the world in their Land Rover Camper for the past 11 years. They have been in the Americas for the last 4 years.

Peggy and Mags sitting on the beach near our campsite waiting for me to return, after taking pictures of the Corona Beer Commercials that they were shooting in front of Al Cielo Hotel,

It took 12 guys, 6 days to re-grade the beach, build a beach bar just for the commercial and put down a New York cab right on the beach.

They are shooting a whole set of commercials there, maybe for the Super Bowl.

Here is the new beach bar which will probably wash away when a big high tide comes in.

Mr. Sandman right down on the beach reminding everybody back home to get ready for the snow.

Looks just like a snowman doesn’t he?

Well tomorrow morning at 8 AM Claude will take us to the bus station in Playa del Carmen about 20 min away. The first class bus to Cancun airport takes an hour and cost about $10 USD.

We will return to our camper on New Year’s Day. So if I don’t blog from home Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

Friday Night at Pizza Leos in Chemuyil

2011-12-10T11:43:00.001-06:00

Mags, Peggy, Lisa, Maureen, Glen, Dierck, Vera and Claude waiting for their Pizza’s at our favorite Friday night restaurant, Pizza Leo’s in Chemuyil. Lisa rode down with Glen and Maureen who have a place on the beach at Tanka. They caravanned down with Claude and Mags last week.

While we were having dinner this little group of kids came in singing and collecting tips. Today was the feast day on Our Lady of Guadalupe which is really a big holyday in Mexico.

There are parades and processions everywhere, some travel for miles right along the main highways. They carry large statues, pictures of Our Lady and banners. Some groups play instruments and/or sing as they march everywhere. You see them in big and small cities. If you are travelling you will see their processions everywhere for the past week.

I took another kayak trip on Friday. It was a little windy so I headed south with the wind and in 45 minutes I was nearing the Akumal hotel zone. I had never got that far before and realized that the wind was pushing me along more than I knew.

So I figured I better turn around and head back, it took me 1-1/2 hours to cover the same distance to return to La Playa. I think I paddled about 8 miles total. It was a good workout.

Xpu-Ha–Day 8

2011-12-07T21:16:00.001-06:00

Sunday night near dark Claude & Mags rolled in and temporarily parked in the parking lot until they could pull into the spot next to us in the morning.

We got set up facing each other so that we would have a nice shady place for our evening cocktail hour.

Gerry & Ann are still stuck in TX trying to get their vehicle permit from last year cancelled so they can get a new one.

We have heard from Pat & Mike from CO, it sounds like as soon as they dig themselves out of the snow and cold they will be on their way. I hope to see them here in early January.

Wednesday was a nice cool day with on and off drizzle. I thought it was a good day to get a little exercise in my kayak. I first paddled over to the Cenote near Puerto Adventuras where lots of people were snorkeling. It wasn’t too hot so I decided to paddle all the way over to Puerto’s central beach. But I decided not to stop at all since it was getting past lunch time and I still had an hour to paddle to get back to Xpu-Ha. I was gone 2-1/2 hrs. and had covered about 7 mi. The past few days had bigger waves and rougher seas which makes it harder to go long distances, today was perfect; Cool and Flat.

A week from Thursday we plan to take a vacation from our vacation. We will fly out of Cancun to be home with our family & friends for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. We will be back on January 1.

Xpu-Ha, MX – Day 5

2011-12-04T11:24:00.001-06:00

The weather here so far has been very nice. Nights have been cool, in the low 60’s, but it warms to the 80’s very quickly and then has been cooling off in the afternoon. We haven’t done much other than take our 3 mi walk every morning along the beautiful white sand beach.

There is only one large hotel on the beach the Catalonia Royal Tulum. It looks like they have had a good occupancy rate, mostly French Canadians. The other small hotels have had a few couples, so the beach is relatively empty of people. Here is my blog from last year with pictures of the places to stay along the beach. Xpu-Ha Jan, 2011 Blog

We are anxiously waiting for our Canadian friends, Claude & Mags to arrive, they may be here late today or tomorrow. It turns out that Ann & Gerry are stuck at the border. They bought a different motorhome this year but never cancelled their last two 10 yr. vehicle permits.. You can’t have more than one in your name. So they are trying to get paperwork completed that will show that they sold their old RV’s and cancel those permits. If they can get this done, we hope to see them when we return on January 1st.

Right now there is only room for a couple of more campers in the main campground but several others with small rigs could park up on the beach next to Chalio’s place. This year Dierck is collecting money for camping and getting everybody into their campsites. The rates are the same as last year. 250p/night, 1600p/week and 5000p/month all with full hookups. The power here has been 120 volts and steady all day. The exchange rate is better this year about 13.7 p/$, which makes the monthly rate only about $375.

We saw the funniest photo shoot on the beach this morning. A young woman in a wedding dress laid down in the water while the photog. shot pictures of her rolling around in the surf. Must have been her wetting pictures.

We tried out my Skype this morning with video on a call back home. Worked great. So if anyone wants to call us, my Skype ID is keelhauler9, The Telcel service is fast but it drops calls about every 5 minutes, so we can’t stay on-line.

Here is where we are on Google Earth La Playa

Xpu-Ha Day 2

2011-12-01T16:14:00.001-06:00

Tacho put up a new sign this year. I guess nobody knew what his old sign meant. I’m sure it will generate a little more business for him.

It was cool last night but it really got hot quickly. We took a walk down the North end of the beach and saw no changes at all. Take a look at my wide angle shot below.

By 10 AM is was already in the high 80’s. But just after noon a little wind picked up and by 3 PM is was back into the mid 70’s but partly cloudy.

I decided to get my kayak down and get a little exercise. I paddled into the next bay and back for about 45 min without a break. This will start to get me back in shape after all the driving and inactivity.

If it’s not too hot on Friday I may take a quick bike ride up to the Chedraui by Puerto Adventuras and pick up a few things as well as hit an ATM machine. Did this first thing Friday morning, 8 mi round trip. Did it all in 1 hour, incl. ATM & groceries on my bike.

Xpu-Ha - La Playa - Day 1

2011-12-01T08:27:00.001-06:00

Our drive from Mahahual was smooth. We drove 4 mi east of Felipe Carrillo Puerto to find propane so we will have a full tank when we get to Xpu-Ha.When we got back on MX307, we found the just opened a new vehicle LPG fill station about a 1 mi north on MX307.

We stopped for groceries at the new Super Che in Tulum, just 1 km east toward beach. It's well marked. A nice well stocked store.

We said hello to everyone and setup camp before noon with a good ocean view.

Our first walk down the beach. Nothing has changed much on the south end of the beach. The day was a little cool, temperature in the high 70’s. Went down to 57oF at night, almost got out our sleeping bags again.

Last Night at Mahahual

2011-11-29T19:31:00.001-06:00

We took a couple of bike rides to the little town and cruise ship docks. Did a little grocery shopping also. Two big ships were in port today but not many people find their way to this end of the beach near the lighthouse. So even though the two ships had 4000 passengers all we saw here was about 20 people. The campground is nice quiet place with nice bathrooms and showers and only cost 100 pesos per night.

When the construction of all the little water bed rooms are done maybe things will be a little quieter in camp. The owner says she is going to rent the little rooms for $25/night.

The day was sunny but cool, we took a bike ride down the bumpy beach road for about 6 miles, lots of little houses, hotels and dive shops are along the way.

Peggy found a skinny friend in one of the stores. It was amazing to see all the stores and trinket stands come to life when the boat people are in town. From the cruise schedule it looks like the locals only have to work 3 or 4 days a week. Yesterday hardly a soul was around. This morning the place was jumping, with everyone getting ready to sell their wares.

So we will pull out early Wednesday morning and head to Xpu-Ha. We need to fill up with LPG so we have enough for the rest of the winter. We may stop at a Super Che or Soriana to pick up some more food.

See Map 7

We expect to be there by early afternoon since it is only about 150 mi of 4 lane divided highway.

Mahahual– Blue Bay

2011-11-27T20:27:00.001-06:00

See Map 5

We left Catemaco 6:30 AM on Saturday morning, The road to Acayucan had two bridges being replaced but the drive was fine. When we reached the cuota where we expected better roads, it was pot-hole city. one lane was under construction in several places, so it was not as fast as usual. When you get near Chiapas the road really turns to shit but with our early start we reached the Pemex at the Palenque turn where we usually stay by 1:30 PM. But since there was so much construction going on around the Pemex we decided to push on to a Pemex about an hour & 45 min down the road, It was 3:15PM but that was enough driving for one day. This Pemex is on south side and not near any cities. Many trucks stop here also. They had us stay right next to the right side of the building out of the way of the trucks. It was a noisy place but we got plenty of sleep so we able to get on the road at 6 AM. From here on the road was great, we made very good time at got to Blue Bay Campground at Mahahual by noon.

See Map 6

The place looked really different than last year. They have a new entrance road into the restaurant which was good. But the whole place is under construction. They are erecting a dozen little 8’ x 8’ cabins which contain a bed. There is still room to park 3 RV’s here and maybe by February they will have a new campground ready. They still have no hookups but for us with solar power that should not be a problem. The problem may be the construction noise. So we paid for only one night and we will see how it goes.

We are parked right next to the malecon (beach sidewalk), but take a look at what the construction looks like which is right next to us.

There is another small camper here from Montreal, they have been here for a week and were out touring today.

We took a walk down the malecon and saw that they built a new Senor Frogs right next to the Blue Bay. It looks like several places have disappeared and a few new hotels, restaurants and gift shops have sprung up.

Just about the time we were ready to eat dinner. In pulls a huge class A camper who manages to squeeze between our two small campers. The spouse is from Chagrin Falls, OH but now living in Guadalajara. We had a nice evening telling stories and enjoying the warm evening.

Last Day at Tepetapan

2011-11-25T16:55:00.001-06:00

Squeezed between the big ones. I don’t see how they get those big rigs down the Mexican highways and each of them are pulling a vehicle behind.

We look a little small but not quite as small as our Swiss friends , Erika & Claude, who left on Friday morning heading for Villahermosa and then Isla Agauda.

They have been on the road for 4 years in their Land Rover starting in South American and making their way all the way to Canada. They even stopped at Falling Waters in Ohiopyle, PA last summer.

They have a very sturdy, simple, high clearance vehicle meant for rough roads.

I decided to take another bike ride, this time to the other side of Lake Catemaco to a campground called La Jungle and a nature preserve called Nanciyaga. La Jungle, as it sounds, is very jungle like and was used as the setting for at least two movies. The Medicine Man and Apocalypto.

The camping is on the grassy area with lake views. No hookups are available. It is suitable for tents and small van vehicles and the cost is 80peso/person per night.

They have a nice freeform pool with water flowing into the lake.

Several cabins are available and they have a kitchen to make food for their guests.

The problem for vehicles is actually getting down the narrow, rutted, muddy road that is nearly a mile long.

Once on their grounds, it is a nice place where you could launch your kayak to paddle over to see the monkeys on the island.

Nanciyaga’s road is suitable for tourist busses. It is supposed to be a nature preserve but all I saw were lots of cages for birds and animals, and a tourist gift shop and refreshment stand. I was not too impressed.

My total bike ride was only 13 mi but I had a couple of steep hills to do. The camp fees at Tepetapan are the same as last year 200p/night with full hookups and 30 amp service. But If you don’t have an Energy Management System to prevent high and low voltage from entering your rig I would run your refrigerator on Propane (LPG), or you could blow a circuit board in your refer.

We plan to leave here on Saturday morning and drive past Villahermosa to at least as far as the Palenque junction. We have been to Palenque in the past so we will skip those Mayan ruins this year.

See Map 5

Eylpantle Falls Bike Ride & Turkey

2011-11-24T20:15:00.001-06:00

Early Thursday morning we got a heavy rain but after breakfast it got sunny and was a cooler day in the high 70’s.

I rode my bike to town to find a water man to bring me 25 gal of water to fill my freshwater tank. Cost was about $7. We don’t use piped water in our tanks as it is not suitable to drink unless treated and filtered. We buy 5 gal bottles of purified water. We feel the cost to just buy good water is not that expensive.

Since the bike was out I thought I would get some exercise before eating our big dinner tonight. I looked on Google Earth and figured I could ride along the canal that comes from Lake Catemaco and find the road to Eylpantle Falls. This almost 200’ high falls was a scene in the movie Apocalypto, where the warrior jumped off.

The three mile long canal is a fairly flat scenic trail which ends at the power dam. If you go down the hill along the dam and take the first left turn onto a dirt road after a couple miles you come upon a little town and the road is paved to the town of Comoapan.

Then turn left and follow the road to Eylpantle Falls. Total one way is 8 mi. Some hills but not a bad ride.

The town is one big tourist stop with T-shirt stands and refreshment stands by the dozen.

You can view the falls from an overlook above the falls and/or you can walk down 250 steps to the river and look up at the falls. Here are my pictures of Eylpantle Falls:

Even though it was not super hot I was very hot when I returned in time for a quick shower and then our big Thanksgiving dinner supplied by our campground owners Gaby & Gene.

Peggy ready for dinner and my big plate of food.

A great dinner with our camper friends at Tepetapan RV Park & Casitas.

Catemaco Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T16:44:00.001-06:00

We got to Catemaco on Monday afternoon and have been relaxing ever since. Even though the free wireless internet here is a little week it works fine for us since I use and external modem with an antenna. I get a strong signal and it works well at our camper. Claude & Erika the Swiss couple, only have an standard wireless in their laptop and need to go to the pavilion for a good signal.

On Tuesday Peggy and I took a walk to town to see what has changed, it’s just across the road to the malecon. Other than the dozens of boatmen trying to get you to take a ride to the monkey island, the walk was pleasant as a good breeze comes off the lake and it is shady under the trees along the lake.

The fisherman statue picture is not from this year. Someone broke the blade off his oar so he now looks like he has a stick on his shoulder.

We made a stop at the ATM to get some more pesos which is right across from the cathedral.

We saw that there is now a very nice bakery right around the corner from the campground that has a good selection of sweet treats for breakfast.

A short rain shower hit on Wednesday morning so I did some work on the RV. All those topes took a toll on my bed support. I had to re-screw it back on the wall.

After the rain we washed the dirt and grime from the RV. While we were doing that two big motor homes from Montreal rolled in and set up on either side of us. They were the same ones we saw Sunday at Neptuno on the Emerald Coast.

We decided to walk into town tonight with Claude & Erika to eat in one of their fine restaurants,

Peggy is planning on baking her brownies again for desert for our potluck Thanksgiving dinner that Gene & Gaby prepare for their RV and Casitas guests.

One Night at Neptuno

2011-11-21T17:03:00.001-06:00

See Map 4

We got started on Sunday morning at 7 AM, the road was fair until the Alamo turnoff. The Alamo road was great, the construction on the toll bridge was complete. Stopped for some oranges and honey at the fruit stands.

Don’t miss the right turn at the top of the interchange so you can bypass Poza Rica on a very inexpensive Cuota. I’ll bet it saves an hour. We got to camp on the Emerald Coast at Neptuno Campground at 11AM. Cost was still 150 p/n.

We took a nice one hour beach walk. It looked like the storms took out most of the beach access stairs from the small hotels and campgrounds in that area. We had a big steak dinner to celebrate our journey so far, forgetting about our RV problems, that we can fix some other day.

Got on the road just before 7 AM on Monday morning. Just past Nautla they are paving the road and there must have been an early morning truck accident. We sat there for 20 minutes then got back up to speed. Most of the south bound lane has been resurfaced all the way until the 4-lane starts by Cardel. It’s the best I have seen this road in years. Took only 2 hrs. from Nautla to Cardel.

They finished the bridge on the east side of Vera Cruz, so if you are heading toward the Tuxtla’s you won’t miss the turn to Alvarado on MX180. The drive to Catemaco took 6:45 min with a one hour stop to shop in the nice Soriana in San Andres Tuxtla.

So here we are a few days early at Tepetapan Campground and dreaming of Gene’s big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. There is only one other camper here right now, a couple from Switzerland who shipped their rig to Brazil and have been on the road for the past 4 years. They are also heading to the Yucatan.

Bad Day–Bad Memories

2011-11-19T18:56:00.001-06:00

Maybe it’s the town of Ciudad Valles. Eleven years ago when we headed to the town we ran into a detour with the old RV. The detour ended up in an orchard where we were bogged down in mud so low we tore the outlet off our blackwater tank, our step and fender flares were also damaged. Then we couldn’t cross the detour bridge anyway, we had to back track losing 4 hours and ended up spending the night in a Pemex miles before we got to Ciudad Valles.

This year we made the mistake of trying to get close to the river and park on a kayakers friend’s property. We made it in OK, but I was worried about getting out OK. We started at 7 AM and the first thing we had to do was go down the steep driveway. I figured this was the easy part of the drive. WRONG. The rear passenger side corner touched the ground and pushed the entire rear molded fiberglass panel backward about an inch at the bottom, cracking the shell in several places. A disaster, And we hadn’t moved 50’ yet,

I was worried about the next turn, steep rutted uphill and then a narrow passage between two overhanging trees. Peggy expertly directed me with no problem. When we got to the gate it looked like it was still locked so I walked all the way up the drive to get someone who had the key. When we got back to the gate, apparently the lock was locked but not through the hasp.

The next section was fairly flat with a steep paved uphill. I wasn’t worried, I made it down didn’t I. Well my rear wheel dropped off the side, hit a sharp rock and tore a 6” slice in the tire sidewall. Get out the jack and put on the spare. Another hour passed us by and we still hadn’t got to the last 50; steep rutted section of the road. Believe it or not it walked right up past the ruts with no problem. We were out but my beautiful motor home was ruined.

We easily found a big Michelin store in town who quickly replaced my spare with a new tire. The cost was the same as back home. They also lent me a phone to call an insurance adjuster. The said they would be there in an hour. After 2 1/2 hours and another call we left. We had hoped to at least get to near MX180 where we could stop at a campground in Cerro Azul. But it was past 5 PM and would be dark soon so we pulled into a small Pemex with a 24 Hr. convenient store and parked in their parking lot. We are in the town on Tantoyuca, MX on MX127.

So like 11 years ago, we ruined our RV and didn’t make our destination. Hopefully it will be a better day tomorrow, At least our Telcel Banda Ancha modem is working here so I can tell you all the bad news.

On the way to the Emerald Coast, MX

2011-11-18T16:00:00.000-06:00

See Map 3

We spent three nights parked along the Rio Micos outside of Ciudad Valles.

On Thursday night Tom McEwan from Liquid Adventures showed up with 3 friends. In about a week he has a group coming down from the States to show them the rivers in the area. In the meantime Tom and his friends are paddling the various river sections.

On Friday morning I walked over to where they were staying, Aldea Huaxteca, next to our camp. I wish I would have stuck with my plans to stay there. Their driveway is wide and smooth and there are plenty of places to park my RV. The reason I didn’t camp there was they said on Fri & Sat nights they would have a large Mexican group staying there. But actually we are now leaving on Saturday morning to head for a Neptuno Campground on the Emerald Coast.

Tom was great to let me paddle with them and showed me the lines on all the waterfalls. It’s a great place for first time waterfall runners to learn the proper techniques. We had a lot more water than when I was here 11 years ago and I had forgotten all the lines. The picture of me is from that trip.

After the waterfall run we continued down the river a few more miles where I took out at my campsite. The place we are staying at belongs to Grant Amaral from Idaho. He also leads trips down here. He owns Agua Azul Kayaking

I’ll try to post this before I leave in the morning but if not I’ll post when we make it back to Ciudad Valles. Hopefully we can make up his driveway without incident.

The Emerald Coast is very popular with Mexicans in the summer time. Dozens of hotels and campgrounds are spread all along the highway about 90 mi North of Vera Cruz. The sand here is a fine black sand but it is fairly clean. It is about a 250 mi drive on some rough roads but we will be bypassing Tampico and their crooked police.

Rio Micos

2011-11-17T10:47:00.001-06:00

See Map 2

Since the Tropicana Campground wasn’t in operation and it was very buggy parked in the grass we decided that one night was enough and left at 6:30 AM. They have been continually straightening and widening MX-180 to a full what they call a 4 lane road. It is really a 2 lane road with 2 wide shoulders that are used for slow vehicles. About 16 mi south of Soto de Marina there are 3 construction zones in a 5 mi section. After that you are back to the old road which is not that bad. At the rate they are improving the road they may be finished from MX101 to MX80 by 2013. The 65 mi they have already completed is a really nice smooth wide fast road.

We have never taken MX80 West of Gonzalez through Ciudad Mante. It is a beautiful fast drive all the way until you take MX85 to Ciudad Valles, that road is a little narrower but not that bad so we made good time even with a few stops along the way we got to our destination at 1:00 PM.

We located Don Roy for the gate key and the caretaker Margarita who rode with us down Grant Amaral’s driveway. For my kayaker friends, it was narrower, steeper and bumpier than Rockville road.

I hit my kayak rack on a overhanging tree limb and I had to reinstall the floor flange to the roof. I hope the Shoe Goo that I used to reseal everything works OK.

The camp is right on the Rio Micos, a beautiful setting with Turquoise water flowing over limestone water falls.

We took a little walk along the river, Peggy finds a friendly duck that wants to follow her.

There is marginal cell service here for my internet to work here, so you may get this blog.

I’m not sure how we will manage to get out of this place,

Our next destination is the Emerald Coast North of Veracruz.

See Map 3

La Pesca, MX

2011-11-15T19:16:00.000-06:00

See Map 1
On Monday morning we pulled out of Houston at 6:30 AM, the traffic was not too bad. It took us 6 hours to get to Harlingen, TX. We went straight to the border at Los Indios, TX. It took about 45 min to get our FMM's (Visas) since there was a big group of junk car drivers getting their permits.
We then did a retorno to go back to Harlingen. We told the MX & USA customs that was what we were doing so none of them entered the RV or did a search. We had hoped to have a late lunch at our favorite Texas Bar-B-Q, Long Horn, but found out that they are closed on Mondays.
So I dropped Peggy off at the Mall to do some last minute shopping and we overnighted at the Wal-Mart across the street. We had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden right between the two.
We left at 6:30 AM, when the sun was rising, and crossed the border again at Los Indios with only a 2 minute look by the customs women. There was lots of traffic going in both directions and it felt very safe. We stopped in the town of Valle Hermosa to visit a ATM and go to an OXXO store (Similar to our 7/11’s) to pay my 500 pesos for the 3G internet service. They credited the same phone number that I had last year and when I got back to the RV it showed the payment and I texted the phrase bat30 to the address 5050 and instantly my internet was working using my Telcel USB modem, that we has purchased last year.
There are a lot of topes (speed bumps) in town but after that there are none and the road all the way to La Pesca is wide and fast. We followed the other traffic in case a tope occurred but other than another the short custom’s stop where you join MX180 the drive was fast and uneventful.
We got to La Pesca, MX about noon and found the bumpy road through town was again being all dug up. The road was totally closed.

We had to back track through some narrow dirt streets to make it past the town to the beach side of town. It turns out that the State has decided to make main street a reinforced concrete street to go along with the new airport completed last year. They still hope its proximity to Texas will make this beach down a vacation destination.
When we got to Tropicana Campground it looked closed but about the same condition as last year. We untied the driveway rope and parked where we did last year. We found out that the power and water were working and like last year, I had to drive my own ground stake in to get power into the RV since my EMS requires a ground.

The women caretaker arrived soon afterward and said that the owner was back in Monterey and the campground was closed. We asked her to call him and ask if we could camp overnight. After her call she came back and said he remembered us and we could stay. However it does look like he will be selling the place so another nice Mexican campground goes out of existence.
La Gaviota campground is about 2 mi before La Pesca and is still in operation. We liked Tropicana since it was 3 mi closer to the beach.

Last Day visiting the Priem’s

2011-11-13T09:00:00.001-06:00

It’s nice to be able to keep up our relationship with Rich & Tracey Priem and watch their family grow. They have three boys, Cade – 8, Dane – 4, Finn – 2.

We went out to eat Saturday night with the Priem’s and Tracey’s parents to a new area of Western Houston called City Center. It is an area of hotels, restaurants and upscale stores all set outdoors similar to Crocker Park in Westlake but on a much larger scale.

Tracey is getting ready to compete in an Ironman competition in Tempe, AZ next Wednesday, http://ironmanarizona.com/ where thousands of participants from all over the world will compete. The grueling competition starts with a 2.4 mi open water swim followed by a 112 mi bike race and then a 26.2 mi marathon run. The pro athletes are able to do the entire race in just over 8 hrs. I would be lucky to do it in over 8 days. Tracey hopes to finish under 14 hours.

Our travel plan is to leave Monday morning for Harlingen, TX, get our FMM visas at the border and cross early Tuesday morning at Los Indios.

NATCHEZ, MS

2011-11-10T19:27:00.001-06:00

We got a nice early start on our trip Wednesday morning. The past few years we made two long days to Houston stopping at a Wal-Mart in Jackson, TN for our overnight.

This year we decided to take three days and have a more relaxing drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway which starts about 15 miles West of Nashville and goes 450 miles to Natchez, MS.

http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm is a good site to view maps and information on the parkway. The cool thing is there are no stop signs or traffic lights for the entire distance. And at this time of year there is virtually no traffic. The speed limit is 50 mph but we averaged about 55. The Trace ends in the town of Natchez. There are 3 free campgrounds that are nicely spaced along the way. We overnighted at Meriwether Lewis Campground on Wed. night near the start of the Trace.

We arrived early enough to visit the NP visitor center and take a walking tour around town seeing some of the grand old mansions.

Friday we will head to visit my Cousin in Houston.

Early Thanksgiving

2011-11-07T11:36:00.001-06:00

Like the last few years we invited the family over for a Turkey Dinner before we head off to Mexico. Six couldn’t make it but we still had a good crowd since we have 4 children, 4 spouses and 11 grandchildren.

Dinner is served, Peggy making sure everyone has a full plate.

Leah. Peggy, Pam, Devan & Erika.

Joan. Brian, Meg and Jeff dig in.

The little kids eat in the kitchen. Jake, John, Jett and Sierra,

Erika, Devan and Leah relaxing after dinner

Our Four Kids – Pam, Meg, Jeff & Joan.

My new macerator pump just came, hopefully all will go well with installation this afternoon.

We plan to visit my Cousin Rich, his wife Tracey and their three kids in Houston on our way to the Texas border.

Getting the RV ready to roll

2011-11-03T20:16:00.001-05:00

Today was work on the RV and make sure all systems are go.

I took the RV to Sam's Club early this morning and had all 7 tires rotated and balanced. It cost less than $30. Two tire stores near me said they couldn't do it even though I'm under 10' high and will fit in their doors. A nearby truck place wanted $90 for the same job. So we drove over to Sam's in Elyria and after 2 hours we were ready headed back home.

Our next problem, I filled the water system and everything was fine, but when I tried to dump the water that I had put into my Grey water tank I found out that my Sani-Con Macerator Pump was rusted and would not rotate. It also blew the switch from the high current draw. So a quick phone call to the RV manufacturer who for only $250 will ship a new one out tomorrow. Hopefully a switch comes with it and installation goes well.

We installed a new window awning last month to give Peggy a little more shade in the bedroom.

The rest of the packing is going well.

On Sunday we are having the whole family over for a early Thanksgiving dinner since we hope we will be on the road by late next week and will not be back until we fly back for our Christmas vacation.

In between getting the RV ready we have been raking leaves which have been coming down like rain. Don’t want the piles of leaves to matt down and kill my grass over the winter.

One Month before we head South

2011-10-11T04:29:00.001-05:00

Our plans so far have not changed. 2011-12 Mexico RV trip plans
I will post a map and description for each travel day as we move along through the trip.
Most of the trip will be through areas we have traveled before.
Our plans except for our airline reservations are very flexible. The weather and what we find when we get to each area effects our decisions of when we move on.
Feel free to post comments or questions.

Starting to plan our 2011-12 Winter in Mexico

2011-08-29T07:18:00.001-05:00

See Map 1
I have been reading about all the drug violence in Mexico and comparing with my own central city of Cleveland, OH. They both sound bad, so we just won’t go near where the problems are.
Over the past three winters that we traveled to Mexico we ended up in the Yucatan. Xpu-Ha is not far from Cancun and has the whitest beaches in all of Mexico. We had previously moved up and down the West coast of Mexico but never found beaches as nice as those on the Caribbean side.
The campground is small but we have found friends here that also are planning on returning again this year. Claude & Mags and Gerry & Ann from Ontario. Reed & Elaine from NM, Pat & Mike from CO. Still there from last year is Vera & Dierck from Germany. So our plan is to return and again fly back home for a long holiday vacation over Christmas and New Years with our family and hometown friends.
We are looking into camping again at La Pesca in the state of Tamaulipas. This state is where all the drug violence is but La Pesca is a sleepy little beach down guarded by a Mexican Navy Base. I figured if we made an early morning drive from Los Indios at the border that we could get there safely. From there to Ciudad Valles should not have any problems that I have heard of,
We usually tour around on our way down or back home. I thought it might be fun to head to the mountains near Ciudad Valles and camp along the Rio Micos river on our way down. Here is a photo of when I paddled the Rio Micos 11 years ago.

It’s in an area called La Huasteca Potosina. Also see this link Waterfalls of the Huasteca Potosina. However the fall is more rainy than the spring and some of the rivers could be in flood, so a last minute decision will have to be made,
I looked at an alternate route entering Mexico west of Laredo at Columbia. This route consists of more turnpike driving but is more than 100 mi longer and has tolls of $70. We have gone this way several times and it is not as pretty a drive as the easterly route. It also passes the outskirts of Monterey which is where a lot of the violence has been occurring. However, I believe the fact that you are on a turnpike should make it more safe.
After an our stay near the Rio Micos it is an easy one day drive to the Emerald Coast bypassing Tampico. This is a good thing since the police there are always seeking bribes from RV’ers for trumped up traffic violations.
If any of my RV friends have any comments or updated information about my proposed route please feel free to add comments here or in the Shoutbox on the left. As I get more information our plans could change.

Back Home

2011-03-17T20:17:00.001-05:00

After our short visit to my cousin in Houston, we hit the road early on Sunday morning. We watch the weather forecast along the way and try not to drive in snow or rain storms. We like to be back home after the snow is gone and the temperatures are going to be above freezing.

We decided to take an extra day to drive home. We took it nice and slow up the Natchez Trace from Jackson, MS to Nashville, TN. Temperatures were still in high 70's and dry. After spending the night south of Nashville things cooled to the 40's and rain was forecast to be following us North.

We had a little rain here and there and when we stopped in Louisville for the night, temperatures were still in the 40's. We got another early start and we beat the rain back to Cleveland. Temperatures were still in the 40's and we found some snow on the ground at home.

By Wednesday it warmed to 50's with rain so that all the snow disappeared. On St. Patrick's Day it warmed to 68oF and sunny. We got the RV cleaned up and ready to store.

This will be our last blog until next year when we are thinking of heading back to Mexico again. We drove over 7000 mi this year, so fuel and vehicle depreciation was by far our biggest expense.

View a Slide Show of the 2010-11 Trip

Back in the USA

2011-03-09T18:58:00.001-06:00

See Map 8

We left Neptuno Campground around 6:30 AM on Tuesday. Our plans were to make it beyond Tampico. Well, when we got to Alamo, a nice bypass of Tuxpan, we found that they are rebuilding the toll bridge. This backed up the North bound traffic for 2 miles and it was just parked. We sat there for an hour before it even moved one car. Lots of traffic was moving southbound. Finally after an hour and a half we made it. The roads to Tampico were rough but no big chuckholes. We decided to chance driving straight through Tampico instead of the bypass. We figured if anyone stopped us we would say we were going to or from the airport which is on that route.
We made it all the way to where the bypass comes back into MX-180. We overshot a crosswalk stopping for a red light but stopped well before the intersection. Just as the light turned green again a motorcycle cop rolls up and pulls us over. He says we were blocking the crosswalk and he needed to give me a ticket. He asked me to come back by his bike and kept saying I could pay him directly, I told him no, give me a ticket. He finally gave me my license back and said go. NEVER PAY A BRIBE, that’s all they want. He did ask if we drove through town, I said only to the airport and he said OK.
Even with these two stops we passed our first possible camp spot, Country Road Inn, at 2PM. Too early to stop ,so we drove to Soto la Marina where we had camped before at a Pemex. The road gets better each year and was fast with no traffic, It was now 4:15PM but the temperature was in the 90’s, so we said lets drive another hour to the big Pemex we camped at last year at the intersection of MX-101/MX-180. Not a soul around, everything was closed. Was the drug violence the problem? We found several more Pemex’s closed past this one.
We were beginning to wonder where we could stop, finally at the MX-97/MX-180 intersection there is another 24 hr Pemex, a big restaurant and a nice hotel. Not many people around, we got there at 6PM and the restaurant closed at 7PM. Turned out to be a nice quiet stop and only an easy 2 hr drive to the border.
On Wednesday, after our border crossing we went to the Trojan Battery Distributer in Harlingen, TX and purchased two new batteries for the RV. My 3 yr old batteries were shot. We then headed to the Donna Flea Market to have the place we bought our patio mat fix the bad job they did installing the grommets. The mat itself was great, as it lets the water drain through and keeps the sand out of the RV. They fixed it free while we shopped.
On Thursday we head up to Houston to see my cousin Rich and his wife Tracey and their three boys.

Back to the Emerald Coast - Neptuno

2011-03-07T18:59:00.002-06:00

See Map 8b
The Pemex station was a little noisy but we still had a good sleep. We wake up early so after a good breakfast we were on the road at 6AM. We wanted an early start since we were going to cover about 450 mi. I estimated it would take 10-1/2 hours.
We were stopped by only one Military and no police stops. The roads were pretty good until North of Vera Cruz. But the last 50 mi miles was slow and bumpy. We made good time all day as the traffic was light and there was no tie ups in Villahermosa.
We pulled into Neptuno Campground North of Casitas at 4PM. There is only one other couple here. Things were slow at the Northern campgrounds this winter. They had nice hot water in their showers to get rid of all our travel dirt.

Peggy put together a great one dish meal of chicken, problamo peppers, onion and tomatoes in a pasta with herb sauce. No cocktail hour, we left our friends at Xpu-Ha.
If we get a good sleep we will try to make it to Soto La Marina. But there is no rush so we get where we get. Hopefully we can avoid the crooked police in Tampico.

Overnight at the big Pemex near the Palenque turn.

2011-03-06T17:32:00.002-06:00

See Map 8a
We woke up to a lot of rain so we hung around until about 8:30AM when the rain stopped. Then we attempted our exit from the campground with the narrow gate while going over a big hill.
The first thing I did was to knock over one of his concrete campsite markers. I couldn’t see it, the owner was waiting at the gate and Peggy was looking elsewhere. I’ll have a little fiberglass repair now when we get home, but it’s minor underneath the passenger side running board.
The second thing was, it is so steep and my wheelbase is so long, that my generator muffler hanger dug into the concrete but it didn’t seem to hurt anything.
So we got out OK, and unless he does some work on his electrical outlets and narrow gate, that’s the last time for us. We saw another hotel on Calle 39, Eco-Hotel Green River, on the way out of town that had a wider gate but I’m not sure what the camping arrangements are.
The traffic was light all day, the roads were dry and in good condition. One military inspection stop, more curiosity than inspection.
We got here at 4:15PM and hope to leave by 6:00AM on Monday morning headed to North of Vera Cruz.

Heading West to Valladolid and Izamal

2011-03-06T07:57:00.002-06:00

See Map 7
We got a nice early start on Saturday pulling out at 6:45AM with the help of Dierch who waved us up and on to the highway. It is a steep hill out the driveway with no visibility onto a high speed divided highway.
We took the fairly new road out of Tulum through Coba. It was smooth, wide and had no traffic all the way to Valladolid, it took us about two hours. We skipped stopping at the Cenote Suytun Campground and headed through Valladolid right to the prison. They make the most beautiful hammocks that we have seen anywhere. They are expensive, about $55. You could fit the whole family in there.

We were planning of spending the day in Valladolid but maybe we are getting anxious to get back to the USA. We pushed on since it was only a 2 hr drive to Izamal. Ralph & Patti, two campers we met at Xpu-Ha, told us that there is a new campground a few blocks from town at an old Hacienda called Hotel Santo Domingo. He did say the turn in their gate was tight for large rigs. But I figured my small rig could make it. It was unbelievably tight up a large bump, after much maneuvering we made it in with no more that a inch to spare. The camp is small in a goat pasture. The electricity is only 10 amp with no ground.

After setting up we walked to the Magical town. It’s one of 38 towns in MX proclaimed to have a special ambience. It’s a pretty little town with the large church built on an old Mayan pyramid in the 1500’s. The bishop there destroyed all the Mayan books but years later repented and tried to rewrite them as he remembered them.

Pope John Paul actually came here on his Mexico trip to make amends for the churches actions.

The Convent is next to a large Zocalo with awaiting tourist carriages. A second Pyramid can be seen a few blocks away.

We walked part way up in the 90oF heat but didn’t think it would be a very good idea to attempt to climb to the very top.

So we walked back to view the church with its large gold altar and the convent museum.

Couldn’t resist taking this picture of a cute little boy running by all by himself with no one in pursuit.
We sort of got lost walking back to camp so we probably walked a mile out of our way before finding Calle 31 which took us back to camp. In this heat I estimated we must have walked 5 mi all around the pretty little yellow city. Either they got a really good buy on this paint color or it’s a popular paint color, as all the buildings near the town are painted with the same color.

Eating out on our last two nights at Xpu-Ha

2011-03-04T22:01:00.000-06:00

Peggy, Claude, Mags and I headed into Playa on Thursday for haircuts, shopping and a dinner at a highly rated Mexican restaurant called El Fogon. Turns out they have three locations all along 30th street, we picked the one near Wal-Mart since that’s where we were.

The open kitchen and the menu was almost identical to the place we had visited a few times before, Los Amigos, which is also on 30th. We decided we liked Los Amigos a little better but both were very good and reasonably priced.

Alambre with Chicken & Problamo Peppers - - Fajitas

On Friday we headed back to Chemuyil for our last dinner with the whole gang at Pizza Leos. Tough saying goodbye after 3 months of good times. Everyone wants to come back again next year. Saturday morning we leave early morning for Valladolid and Izamal.

Last Week at Xpu-Ha

2011-02-24T12:32:00.001-06:00

I can’t believe that the Winter is almost over. We got here on December 7th and other than the 17 nights that we spent back home for Christmas, we enjoyed every minute here. All the friendly campers and the beautiful beach and pleasant weather made the days go fast. I especially enjoyed reading about the snow, ice and cold weather back home.

People always asking me about safety in Mexico. Like the states, you don’t want to go into a bad neighborhoods at night. Unlike the states most crime is petty theft with no weapons. You read about all the deaths and shootouts here, but 95% of it is in the border towns. I would never camp in Texas near the border of Mexico. Far more likely to be robbed, shot or have your truck stolen.

Here on the Mayan Riviera everyone wants and treats tourists very well. The tourist bring the money that supports the hundreds of thousands of workers who have found their way here for jobs and housing. New small houses are being built everywhere.

How about crossing the border? We try to pick a place where there is no town at the border like Los Indios/Free Trade Bridge which is good for us Easterners. Those heading West have lots of safe options as well. Just stay away from Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa or Matamoras, big cities bring more danger.

What is the biggest problem travelling? Topes, the speed bumps that control traffic whenever you are near any population. Some are huge and could really cause vehicle damage. Gas Stations, they are full serve and many attendants try to scam unsuspecting travelers. But stay at the pump, watch that they start the pump at zero and make sure you tell them and they agree to the size of the bill that you are handing them. They will try to say you gave them a 50 peso note rather than a 500 peso note, if you let them walk away to get change. Police, I guess it’s because they are low paid and think tourists are rich, stupid and scare easily into giving them bribes. They make up infractions and then ask for huge amount of money.

Some tourists submit because they don’t want to be delayed and pay illegal bribes.

I also post this sticker on my RV, that says “No Bite”, “Don’t feed the corruption”

Below are two paragraphs written in Spanish that you could use to stop this illegal practice. If they stop you for a traffic violation. Hand them this.

AVISO A USTED OFICIAL DE POLICIA
Entiendo que Usted ha pedido que me detenga debido a que posiblemente he cometido una violación de tránsito. Obedeceré sus instrucciones de acuerdo a la ley, le entregaré mi licencia para conducir y el registro de mi vehículo. Sin admitir culpa en esta situación, voluntariamente lo seguiré hacia la Comandancia de Policía en donde Usted o alguien podrá informarme acerca de los procedimientos legales a que haya lugar y si me es requerido, pagaré la multa que corresponda. Entiendo que en este caso, se me extenderá un recibo por el concepto de la multa.

(English translation)
NOTICE TO MEXICAN POLICE OFFICERS
I understand that you have stopped me for allegedly committing a traffic violation. I will obey your legal instructions by providing you with my Drivers License and vehicle registration. Without admitting guilt in this situation, I will voluntarily follow you to your local police station, where you can properly inform me of the legal procedures, and if asked, I will pay the required fine. I understand that you will issue me a receipt for these actions.

Or if they ask you to pay a fine or ask for a bribe or a gift, hand them this.

Por favor, tome nota de que:
Tengo conocimiento de que existe la Sindicatura del Ayuntamiento y que si Usted me ha pedido que le pague directamente la multa de la infracción de tránsito, le pediré que me diga su nombre y número de oficial. Es mi derecho reportar esto al a oficina del Ayuntamiento, donde una investigación oficial podría ser iniciada.

(English translation)
Please note:
I am also aware of the SINDICATURA process, and if you have asked me to pay you directly for a traffic violation fine, I will ask that you give me your name and badge number. It is my right to report this to the Mayor’s Office, where an official investigation may be undertaken.

Day Trip to Tulum and Tankah Bay

2011-02-17T22:43:00.001-06:00

We left at 8 AM to drive down to see the Mayan Ruins at Tulum. Even though it is the second most visited ruin in Mexico, this was our first visit.

There are a few more pictographs carved in stone than some other Mayan sites, but they don’t photograph well, so here is an example of the carving at the Temple of the Frescoes.

Claude and Mags have a nice truck which allows us to visit the area attractions without taking public transportation. Here they are with Peggy having entered the portal through the walls surrounding the site.

Here is a view looking toward El Castillo.

A closer view of El Castillo

Tulum is not a large Mayan site but it has spectacular views. El Castillo sits on a cliff directly above the Turquoise ocean.

You could walk down these stairs to the white sand beach called Boca Pela directly below El Castillo.

Here is a good tip. Get to Tulum early in the morning, so that you can avoid the crowds that arrive starting at around 9:30AM.

It's also cooler in the early morning.

They average about 10,000 visitors a day during the winter months so the place is crawling with tourists by mid-day.

Below is a view looking to the North along the ocean.

The ruins are crawling with very tame iguanas of every size and shape.

Mags & Peggy enjoy the Bougainvillea along the path.

After our morning at Tulum we drove back toward Xpu-Ha but decided to stop at Tankah Bay where friends of Claude and Mags, Glen & Maureen from Alberta, CA, had purchased three ocean front lots and moved their 5th Wheel in while they work on improvements. Here is a view from the water of their spread.

Kayaking with a Friend

2011-02-16T16:29:00.000-06:00

A couple more campers arrived yesterday, one from Wyoming and one from Colorado. Don from Wyoming has a sea kayak so I suggested we take a little paddle North into the Cenote by Xpu-Ha Palace and over to the Cenote by Purto Adventuras. I remembered to bring my camera. Don didn’t want to go as far as the next cenote so I continued on.

There is a little Mayan Temple at the end of the large cenote by Puerto Adventuras. You can ride your bike over to it.

It is reachable by kayak about 3 mi from Xpu-ha next to the Barcelo resort.

It’s a fairly large cenote and a good place for snorkelers, since boats are not supposed to enter, but I see one in the background.

A little rain – Cats & Dogs

2011-02-12T16:11:00.002-06:00

While everyone back North is suffering from the deep cold spell, we have suffered a little for the past 3 days. It’s been warm with highs in the 80’s and a heavy rain at night but only a few showers during the day. Today I hope is the end, it rained off and on all day, while the temperatures hovered in the low 70’s. The forecast is for no more rain and temperatures back near 80.

Three new campers arrived in the past couple of days. Elaine and Reed from New Mexico, who have been writing me about Mexico travel for the past month. Two motor homes with campers from France also arrived. One left early today for Mahahual and the other is heading North to Meco Loco. They are both going to be storing their vehicles and flying back to France in the next week.

Gerry & Ann’s string of bad luck continues. If you forgot, here is his theft story. Gerry was driving his truck in Playa yesterday and a big truck backed up into him and then left. The police took chase but they claim they didn’t catch him. The truck driver probably offered the police a little money and they let him go. Gerry is now out another $500, the deductable on his collision insurance. Ann’s older brother died in Florida today, I hope all goes well with them for the remainder of the trip.

This is Gerry & Ann’s dog Bear, they also have a big cat Buddy. Speaking of dogs, the campground is full of them. If a camper doesn’t bring a dog, the local dogs adopt them and offer their barking guard services for a scrap of food.

Goldie eats so much this is how she normally looks, laying down on the job. Sigrid looks after her.

Dierch and Vera look after Leica.

Corelle & Estrella hang around Claude and Mags camper. And keep an eye out

for when I light up my grill. They spend most of the day with Tacho who is their owner. He takes people out snorkeling or fishing in his boat.

The funny thing is all these camp dogs, not Bear, are related and some from the same litter, even though they look so different. They are good watch dogs and they even got Bear to bark and run after strangers. Although Bear then waits until the strangers pet him or scratch his stomach.

So that’s pretty much what is going on around here, nothing much. But at least it gave me something to do on a rainy day.

A Day in the Jungle with Dave & Roz

2011-01-28T12:40:00.001-06:00

Last year at Xpu-Ha, Dave & Roz Humphrey from Ontario were camped for the season and were involved in Dog & Cat rescue. Now they bought some land just Northwest of Playa del Carmen in an environmental friendly community. Eight of us decided to go visit them for a day to see what his place and the area looked like. Dave met us out on the highway with his motor scooter and led us back through the pueblo until we crossed into a little gated community in the deep jungle.

They have divided the area into lots, interspaced by parks, caves and cenotes.

Dave built a little bath, shower area, has solar power and a water supply and fit his large Class A rig into the mix.

They had a large Palapa built to house the cats that they are taking care of.

We loved the bench that was made out of a fallen tree on their property.

This is not the gated community gate, but a very pretty gate on someone else's property.

We took a short walk around the area to a beautiful Cenote. (Underground Spring, found in the Limestone all over the Yucatan)

We finished off the day at Dave & Roz’s with our cocktail hour.

And then we had a nice meal at Los Amigos Restaurant in Playa.

Visit Puerto Adventuras

2011-01-26T07:40:00.001-06:00

Claude and Mags invited us to ride over with them to spend the afternoon at Puerto Adventuras. We walked around and watched the tourists swim with the Sting Rays and Sharks as well as play with the Dolphins. Here are some photos.

Boy being pushed by two Dolphins.

Girl feeding the Manatees Lettuce

Some Photos of New Friends

2011-01-24T11:25:00.002-06:00

Mike & Pat Jones from CO’s RV and trailer to haul their Quads.

Mike and Pat getting ready to ride up to Puerto Adventuras

Ralph & Patti Burns in their small Sprinter, I didn’t get a picture yet of Rob & Shirley in their Sprinter Van but here is the group heading out with Tacho on a snorkel trip.

Tacho pulling anchor, and the group heading out to snorkel.

The Weeks Are Flying By

2011-01-22T10:10:00.000-06:00

I can't believe another week has gone by. It was a hot dry week. Highs each day were in the Upper 80's, with lows in the mid-70's. It was partly cloudy all week but when the clouds moved out each day it seemed really warm.
A couple more RVr's found their way to the adjacent campground. Pat & Mike Jones from Salida, CO -MikeJinCO (RVnet name) in a truck camper pulling a trailer with two large ATV's. They are both paddlers and Mike makes wooden paddles (http://cricketdesigns.com/). They have been coming to Mexico for the past few winters and had just come this year through Chiapas. I had some bad experienecs there a few years ago and we wouldn't go back. They ran into road blocks where the locals demanded tolls to let you by based on how much they thought you could afford. They stopped everyone including buses with stop strips and wouldn't release them until you paid. They said they wouldn't go back either.
Another couple from Mass, Rob & Shirley arrived in a Sprinter van. They are eventually heading over to the West coast. They all came over each night to our 4 PM cocktail hours and we all told travel stories. Pat and Mike are heading to Caye Caulker in Belize to meet up with some friends in early February. They hope to leave their RV in Chetumal and take a ferry over.
By Friday they decided to move over to our campground and came out with the gang to our weekly dinner at Pizza Leos in Chemuyil. When we got back from dinner a cold front came though with a little rain but it dropped the nighttime temperature back into the high 60's, very nice for sleeping. It is supposed to be a little cooler this week and of course they forcast a little rain each day like last week but it seldom comes.

Cool Week, Warm Friends

2011-01-16T09:08:00.001-06:00

A Norther blew in this week starting with high winds, then a little rain (Our first daytime rain on the trip), then cooler weather. Highs only in the 70’s and lows in the high 50’s. A chilly end to our friend’s, Claude & Mags, son Stephen and his friend Mary Ann who flew down from Canada to find some warm weather, They both worked on a cruise ship so really liked getting back to some Caribbean beaches. To bad they had to fly out Friday, we enjoyed their company.

People have asked me about what else is on our little 1 –1/2mi long white sand beach. There are private homes, some that rent for a small fortune, boutique hotels, inexpensive rooms, and a large all-inclusive with 288 rooms. I took some photos to show what they look like.

Both ends of the beach have hotels that closed after a hurricane and never reopened. We like to hang out under these abandoned palapas.

This is a low end hotel almost in our campground for under $100.night

About 100 yds down the beach from camp is the Catalonia Royal Tulum, over $300 per night but it is an all inclusive with 6 restaurants and 3 bars.

Next a nice looking new 3 suiter, I’ll have to find out the name and price.

Then some private homes followed by this little place called Al Cielo with an expensive restaurant.

Next to it is the beautiful Hotel Esencia with less than 30 rooms but only includes breakfast for over $500/night. Gets rave reviews though.

So everyday we take our 3 mi walk back and forth down the beach and enjoy the fact that our monthly rate is what these people pay for a night.

Another week of Fun & Sun

2011-01-10T07:46:00.000-06:00

Time is flying, been back a week already. Haven't accomplished anyhing except reading a few novels. Got three long paddles with my kayak while the seas were like glass. I even paddled all the way to Puerto Adventuras about 3 mi North of Xpu-Ha.
Yesterday we had lots of wind and choppy conditions but I really haven't found an area that has good surfing waves.
Went out for our weekly Pizza Leos on Friday and have enough left for a piece for lunch every day, thin crust with everything including Jalapeno Peppers, Peggy takes those off.

We will go shopping today in Playa del Carmen with Claude & Mags.
Last week it was a cool 60o each night. Last night it was 75oF. They are forecasting rain tomorrow but we haven't had rain since we have been here.

Back in Mexico

2011-01-03T08:02:00.001-06:00

Our direct flight from Cleveland was right on time. The weather when we landed was in the high 70’s. We had to wait about 30 min to catch the Playa del Carmen bus but got a Tulum Collectivo that was ready to go when we walked up. They leave from one block North of where they did last year. When we got to La Playa campground road, one of the sons of the owners, Ramon, was there to pick up his wife so it saved us a half mile walk in the hot sun with our heavy packs.

The campground road was packed with cars. It’s a Sunday and Christmas holidays so everyone came to our beautiful beach. No new people in our campground. Everyone greeted us and had taken great care to ensure our RV was OK while we were gone. Claude checked our refrigerator every day which was acting up, to make sure that it was OK. They even swept off our patio mat and washed the salt from the windows. The place was looking good.

We met Claude and Mags son Steve, who flew down for a long holiday break. I wish our kids could fly down here some time. I’ll try to take some pictures later.

Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

2010-12-22T08:56:00.000-06:00

We are back in Ohio for a family Christmas and wanted to wish all the readers of our blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here is a little entertainment for your pleasure, click the arrow in center.

Getting Ready to Head Back to the Snow

2010-12-14T19:33:00.001-06:00

Last night Claude & Dierck brought Ann back with her 5th wheel from Bacalar. Gerry is arranging to get his truck flat bedded back to Playa del Carmen where he might have better luck get some keys made. The key specialist in Chetumal could not make him a computer chip key. Gerry made it back today at 1PM so hopefully a key will get made and he will finally have his truck back.

Beautiful Altamira Orioles fly into the pine tree behind our camper every afternoon. We also have fun feeding the iguanas right behind the fence.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is our last day before heading back to Cleveland for the holidays. In the past we left our RV at Meco Loco Trailer Park in Puerto Juarez just North of Cancun, since we fly out of Cancun. This year we decided to leave it here at Xpu-Ha to save ourselves the drive there and back and setting up twice. It will cost a little more but since Claude was willing to drop us off in Playa del Carmen Thursday morning to catch the ADO airport bus we decided to just leave the RV where it is.

The snow is supposed to stop on Thursday but even though it is cool here I’m not sure how we will react to the freezing temperatures back home. We have 4 kids and eleven grandchildren that we are anxious to see at Christmas time and we plan to fly back right after our big New Year’s Eve celebration.

Enjoying the Beach and Weather at Xpu-Ha

2010-12-13T13:39:00.002-06:00

Last Thursday we were expecting Claude & Mags along with Gerry and Ann to arrive at La Playa campground. They all live about 70 mi North of us near Chatham, ON and we camped here with them last year.
Late in the afternoon Claude rolls in and tells us the bad news. While they were camped along the road in Bacalar, Gerry & Ann were burglarized by some kids. The worst part was, besides taking their computer, they stole both sets of truck keys, so now they are stuck there until they can get some new computer programmed keys made for them.
Of course Mexico is much safer then Westlake, I read today in the news, “WESTLAKE, Ohio -- Monday, December 13, 2010, Three homes were burglarized Saturday and Sunday in the same neighborhood.”, so I guess no matter where you are, watch out.

We like to walk to the end of the beach by an abandoned hotel and sit by our own private Palapa.

Of course we marked it so no one else will use it.

This is the beach directly in front of the camp.

This morning Dierck and Claude are driving 3 hrs back to Bacalar to see if they can pull Gerry’s 5th wheel back to camp so that they don’t have to sit there along along the highway. They hope they can tow his truck somewhere that is safe until the key gets made. They tried offering a reward if the kids returned his keys but no luck so far.

On the beach in Xpu-Ha

2010-12-08T14:37:00.004-06:00

See Map 6

Everything still looks the same

The solar arrays I have don’t seem to be able to keep up with our use of electrical power so we decided early Tuesday morning to drive to Playa del Carmen and do some shopping and then drive back south about 15 mi to La Playa campground at Xpu-ha. The batteries were down to 50% capacity and are either weak or we are using more power than we can produce with the low sun angles.

The roads were perfect, no construction all the way back and we made good time. About a 3:20 min drive including a search by a military drug dog on the way out of Mahahual. No drugas. The roads through Felipe Carrillo Puerto are unchanged, you still have to drive right through the city, but all the rest of the roads were 100 kph(60mph) with a few topes in the little towns. The new highway overpass in Playa looks done but it is not open yet. Peggy wanted to wash some clothes so we went to the laundry at the Cheduraui, did some shopping bought some Propane and still got to camp in the early afternoon.

We met our old friend Siegfried whose husband died here at Xpu-Ha a few years ago. Vera & Dierck from Germany have been here for a month and a half. We expect Ann & Gerry along with Claude & Mags to arrive tomorrow from Ontario across the lake from Cleveland. A couple of the campers moved to a new campground just North of Playa del Carmen.

We took a beach walk early this morning before it got too hot. It went down to 52oF this morning, we darn near froze to death. It’s in the high 80’s and sunny today. A week from now we will be going back home for 18 days to enjoy Christmas with our family. A vacation from our vacation. Let’s hope it doesn’t snow too much.

Snow back home in Westlake

Quiet Sunday on The Costa Maya

2010-12-05T13:03:00.002-06:00

Costa Maya - Wiki

The RV batteries didn’t seem to be taking a charge or holding a charge. So I pulled them out to inspect and found a lot of oxidation on the terminals, I cleaned them up and things look better, we will see what happens tonight. The refrigerator seems to be working just fine since our problems a few days ago.
Not much went on on Saturday night and even less on a Sunday. A nice warm sunny day at Blue Bay. We decided to bike down the Malecon and then over to where the cruise ships dock. We heard that there were stores there and that was as far as some passengers ever got. Everything was closed of course since the next ship doesn’t arrive until Tuesday. It’s really fun bicycling on the nice smooth roads with no traffic. We get a strong breeze off the ocean which makes it feel cooler than the 85oF temperature.

This is the lighthouse at the end of the road right next to the campground. If you get this far looking for the campground you missed the right turn. The malecon starts here and is about a mile long with the beach on one side and restaurants and shopping on the other side.

Enjoying Mahahual – Warm & Sunny

2010-12-04T16:37:00.002-06:00

The other campers from Mi left on Friday and headed South to near Xcalak where the gal has a little B & B using large tents, called Okotuil Beach Club, it seems a little pricy for a tent.
For those that have the time and don’t mind the lack of hookups this place is great. It’s 35 mi off the main highway down a perfectly smooth what they call a 4 lane road. When you see the Lighthouse make a right turn toward all the little hotels, then take the first left turn into a driveway of a construction site. It is also the only way to get into the campground. We had to wait while they moved a vehicle and stopped working in the middle of the driveway to get in here. The camp is right on the Malecon and next to the beach.
Peggy and I took a nice bike ride up and down the Malecon and over to the the little town to buy some vegetables and watch the Holland Am. Nieuw Amsterdam try to dock on a very windy day. It seemed to take hours to dock and we didn’t see many tourists in town. There are no more cruise ships until Tuesday. I’m not sure how all the little shops and bars survive here, the Malecon is empty of tourists. On Friday night there were a few locals at the Blue Bay Beach Club which runs the campground. We heard them go home at 3 AM. I hope Saturday night is not too noisy.
We are starting to really enjoy our stay here, it’s very pretty setting, they have beach palapas to sit at and a place to tie up your hammock. We took a 12 mi bike ride heading south of the 1 mi Malecon. There are little places all along the bumpy road and a few places to camp. We saw 3 dive shops along the way.
In town the dogs are all friendly and used to bicycles. But as we got out far away from town a few dogs chased us and intimidated Peggy, but they didn’t snap at us.
Saturday afternoon I finally got my kayak down and paddled over to the cruise dock and did some surfing. The surfing was a little scary since the waves are breaking on a coral reef and some of the coral heads are above the water. Luckily I missed them all. They have nice cold showers and a toilet in a big Palapa for the campers. The place is brand new, so I hope he gets enough business to stay open.

Mahahual – Finally got to Yucatan Coast

2010-12-02T19:24:00.001-06:00

See Map 5

Yesterday after we got to camp we noticed that the refrigerator temperature was 54oF instead of 38oF. We spent most of the afternoon checking everything I could think of including asking my friends at RV.Net who had lots of suggestions. I finally saw a suggestion that said “Put a fan behind the refrigerator to get good ventilation”. I had a 12v fan that I wired in. Low & behold the temperature went back down to 38o. We let it run all night and it was 34o in the morning. When we hit the road at 6 AM, I turned off the fan and watched the temperature. It stayed cold all the way to Chetumal where I bought a little smaller car fan to use if needed.

The roads were great, hardly a chuck hole anywhere and only one short place where they were paving. We made very good time, had time to shop at the big mall in Chetumal before driving to Mahahual on the coast. Those roads were perfect also except for the usual topes. We got to camp at 2PM in time to see one cruise ships leave port. The second much larger ship left at 6PM but there were no boat people in town when we took a walk down the beautiful new Malecon. Tomorrow another ship will arrive, and then no more ships until Tuesday.

The campground is run by a guy from Mexico City that speaks very good English. It’s called Blue Bay and it is just a few hundred yards from the Lighthouse at the end of the road. They have laid out enough room for at least 10 rigs but there are no hookups of any kind. The fee is a reasonable 120p per night with free Wi-Fi if you are close to the bar. One other couple from MI is camped here but are leaving tomorrow.

Peggy wants to take a bike ride tomorrow to get a close up view of the cruise ship and see that end of town and take a ride down the wide Malecon. It’s interesting that this town only exists for the cruise companies to provide a port to visit besides Playa del Carmen and Cozumel. They call it "The Mayan Riviera". The ship we saw “Oasis of the Seas” holds 6000 passengers and 2000 crew. I glad they were all back on board when we got there, The Holland Am. Nieuw Amsterdam is in port tomorrow, it’s only 2000 passengers.

Freedom Shores – Isla Aquada

2010-11-30T20:14:00.002-06:00

View from our RV at Freedom Shores RV Park

See Map 4
After a very nice week at Villas Tepetapen in Catemaco we hit the road at 6:30 AM for Isla Aquada. There were two bridge detours on the way to Acayucan but other than a few bad places it was a good drive.
When we got on the Cuota we noticed that no traffic was going West back toward Vera Cruz. They said the road was closed for a while, no reason given.
We went East but the cuota was in bad shape so it was slow. I thought it would be really bad near Agua Dulce as that road washes out in the storms every year but the have put down some nice new pavement in that area. There were many bumpy stretches along the way to Villahermosa where we turned to go North.

Isla Aquada Taxi

For the first time they did not look in my refrigerator for Pork, Chicken, Eggs and Citrus Fruit at the Campeche border. They asked, and I said I had none, so they waved me on.
The numerous Topes before Ciudad Del Carmen were bad and it took almost 9 hours to complete our 330 mi journey. There was one military stop but they just asked for Passports, no search.
We are now at Freedom Trails Campground for two nights. Price is still a high 300p per night, but nice sites on the water with good electricity. We are in the same site we have had every time we have come here. I love the little motorbike taxis they use in the little town. It was a hot day with temperature near 90oF, but no rain. We have not had any rain on the trip so far other than a few rain drops last Friday night. But last night we got a good hard rain and today, Wednesday, it is very windy.There is one other RV in the campground and they are from Mexico.

Our Last Day At Catemaco

2010-11-29T16:12:00.002-06:00

My Thanksgiving Dinner

Friday was a little cooler and we hung around camp until dinner time when we walked to town with Marilyn & Bob from Austrailia. They bought a used Class-C RV in TX and are going to Panama and then back to the USA for a year. We had a nice dinner over the water at Jorge & Pepe's. Our new friends left early Saturday morning.

On Saturday I thought it would be good to bike over to a campground called La Jungla, on the other end of the lake. After a couple up good hills 5-1/2 mi later I got there only to find they would not let me in as they were getting ready to film a French movie all next month. This is the same area that they filmed Apocalypto. I think they filmed Medicine Man there also. Must be a nice jungle setting on the large lake.

Sunday we walked to town to buy a new pair on sunglasses for Peggy. She cannot find her clip-ons that she had on when we entered Mexico.

Monday John & Elsie left for Cancun, Two other campers also left. But a huge bus camper arrived. They are on their way to Paamul. I biked around some more and did some shopping at the new Bodega Aurrera, owned by Wal-Mart.

We plan to leave about 7 AM on Tuesday after a really nice week at Villas Tepetapan & RV Park and drive to Isla Aquada which is on the coast in the State of Campeche.

See Map 4

Catemaco Bike Ride

2010-11-26T14:27:00.001-06:00

When you walk along the Malecon in Catemaco you will see dozens of launches and boat captains trying to sell you a ride to see the monkeys on the small island in the lake. I had paddled my kayak there before, so we passed on a boat ride, We checked out the shops and restaurants instead.

I found this artist rendering of the Catemaco-Tuxtla area, I loved the detail and it gave me the idea to take a bike ride along the canal that comes out of the lake right past our campground.

The ride was good idea after the big turkey dinner last night. Most everyone one in camp and in the Casitas attended, so there was lots to eat.

The road down to the canal is a little bumpy but the path is not too steep. Peggy was able to peddle back up it without a problem. The path along the canal has several dips and Vados but was a nice ride with some good views looking back toward San Andres. After about 2-1/2 mi the canal ends in a small lake where the water then plunges through a huge pipe to the power station below. We started down the hill but realized that it goes down a long way and we were not going to take that long a ride in this hot weather. So, we turned around and peddled back to camp to have a nice lunch. It would be a nice walk for those that don’t have bikes along.

Catemaco–Tepetapen RV Park

2010-11-24T09:35:00.004-06:00

See Map 3
It’s only a 200 mi drive from the Emerald Coast to Catemaco but it takes 6 hours. So we left Neptuno campground at 6:15 AM to allow us plenty of time for grocery shopping and bad roads. The roads south of the campground have improved a little and they are currently paving a section which slowed us a little. The two overpasses they have been working on for the past two years on the Vera Cruz bypass are still being worked on and getting though the intersection and on to the correct road to the Tuxtlas is still a problem.
We always stop at the Soriana in San Andres Tuxtla, it’s a really good mega-store supermarket. While shopping who pops up but Sunny & Kurt who have Casitas at Villas Tepetapen. They hopped in our RV and saved them a bus ride back to camp. I kayaked here with Sunny last year and it was a surprise to meet her here.
When we got to the RV park we found John & Elsie there to greet us. We will be staying with them near Cancun before and after we fly back home for the Christmas holidays, like we did the past two years.
Finally more RV’s then we have seen for the entire trip so far. Catemaco is a nice destination and the campground owner is friendly and keeps the campground in great shape. Here is Gene cleaning the pool in the morning.
We probably will stay here for a week, especially after Gene confirmed that the big Thanksgiving Turkey dinner is on again this year. He improved the Wi-Fi and signal is strong, fast and free.

On the Emerald Coast, North of Vera Cruz

2010-11-22T13:38:00.003-06:00

See Map 2
We stayed at La Pesca until Sunday morning.As usual the owner was great and made us feel very welcome, especially since we were the first RV of the season. He hopes more campers or cabin renters come or he may have to close it up, and it is a very nice place close to the town and the beach.
We pulled out at 6 AM under a bright full moon since it is a 9-1/2 hr, 380mi drive to the Costa Esmeralda. Right after Altamira, a few miles before the Tampico bypass, we saw the Transito police where they stopped us last year. So we were going slow and staying in the right lane, but they stopped us for a second anyway and said keep going slow in the right lane, no attempt at a bribe. On the bypass where you go over the highway overpass to start heading back North, another Transito stopped us for no apparent reason asked for my drivers license, he handed it back and said adios. Maybe it was a seat-belt check, who knows. Maybe it was the big stickers on my RV that says in Spanish. “Stop feeding the corruption, no bite” We never saw any military stops southbound at all.
The bypass was as bad as ever but the roads south of Tampico were much better, very few road craters. There was about 5 mi of construction south of Soto de la Marina but it did not hold us up. Traffic was light, we took our time and stopped for some oranges south of Alamo and got to Neptuno campground before 3:30 PM. No other campers, he said a few days ago there were two RV’s. Guess what? No cell service to try my new 3G stick and no Wi-Fi anywhere nearby.
We will stay at Neptuno for two nights, I looked next door at Trailer Park de Alba and it looked open but no one was there, we usually stay there but someone told us it was closed. On Tuesday morning we will head to Catemaco and Tepetepan campground. We like the friendly people there and hope that they will again have their annual Thanksgiving pot-luck dinner with the campground owner cooking up the turkeys.
I checked again and now I can connect my computer to the internet with my new card, Yea.

La Pesca - Perfect Weather for Bicycling

2010-11-19T14:54:00.000-06:00

On Thursday it got really windy and cool in the morning, so we waited until the wind died down in the afternoon and took a bike ride to the beach. It’s only 1-1/2mi away by nice paved road and since it dead-ends on the beach there is not much traffic.

It didn’t look like the hurricane did much damage as all the palapas were still standing awaiting some tent campers.

I found out that they still have a little internet place in town about a mile away, I can’t use my new 3G card since there is no cell service in this sleepy little town.

On Friday the temperatures warmed back up to the 80’s and the wind died. So our morning ride to the beach was very easy with perfect temperatures and sunny skies. We took a nice beach walk as well. After lunch I did some writing and Peggy read her book and I biked back to town to post this.

Drive to La Pesca, MX

2010-11-18T16:27:00.001-06:00

See Map 1
We awoke early and headed over to a nearby McDonalds to use their free Wi-Fi and then headed to the border crossing at Los Indios, it’s only a 20 min ride so we got there about 7AM. I think the crossing opens at 6AM but the place where you can get your FMM visa’s doesn’t open until 8AM and if you need a car permit or want to pay for your FMM that doesn’t open until 9AM. We left a few minutes after 8AM, but did not pay the visa fee, you can pay at any time during the trip at any bank in MX.

We drove to Valle Hermosa and got there to buy a Telcel 3G card for my computer so we can get internet access when within cell phone range. Too early again! The Coppel store doesn’t open until 10 AM and we got here at 9 AM. However the Bancomer bank across the street opens at 9 AM so I decided to pay for my FMM and exchange some dollars for pesos. We did a little shopping and I was first in-line at the Telcel booth. They were very helpful in buying the computer 3G stick and signing up for the service but it took an hour to do it. The stick cost about $50 and 30 days of service cost $40.

It took us 3 1/2 hours to get to La Pesca on very good roads with very light traffic. Of course there were two military stops and one customs stop along the way which went very quickly. We saw a lot of military in vehicles along the way also.

We got to La Pesca a little before 3pm and temperatures were in the high 80’s. We found that the Tropicana Campground had weathered the Hurricane that passed right over it this summer well, it looked the same as last year and the USA owner was happy to see his first RV of the season. He is very troubled that his tourism business has dried up but of course it is still very early in the season.

The campground has full hookups for one site and if he fixes the electrical has water and electric for about 4 more sites along with 4 nice cabins. It is right on the river and about 1-1/2 mi to the free ocean beach camp sites.

We awoke to a very windy morning and temperature about 70oF, there is no cell service here so I had to bike into town to post this.

Entering Mexico Wednesday Morning

2010-11-17T07:36:00.000-06:00

We spent 4 nights with the Priem’s in Houston. Rich & Tracey and their three sons, Cade, Dane & Finn really entertained us. We took a couple of short bike rides. Rob Hammond drove all the way down from Austin to be with us for a Sunday evening Mexican dinner with an entertaining singer. Tracey’s parents stopped over for a great Salmon dinner on Monday. We left around 9:15AM on Tuesday morning to drive to San Benito, TX a few miles south of Harlingen to have a early dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Longhorn Bar-B-Q . We got there around 3:15PM which left Peggy plenty of time to shop at the Mall in Harlingen before retiring for the night in the nearby Wal-Mart parking lot with several other campers also heading to Mexico. I‘m posting this from a nearby McDonalds early in the morning. We will cross at Los Indios.

Wednesday’s plan is to stop in Valle Hermosa to see if I can get a 3G phone card for my computer from Telcel, get some pesos from an ATM machine and head to the little town on the coast called La Pesca.

Extra Day on The Road

2010-11-13T08:23:00.000-06:00

Since we got started on our trip a day early we decided to visit Sabine National Forest in Texas on the border of Louisiana. Its on Toledo Bend Reservoir, the fifth largest man-made reservoir in the United States.

At this time of year the beautiful campground was virtually empty. Big wooded sites for $4 per night. It's supposed to be one of the best Bass fishing lakes around. We could see why since the lake was down about 4', probably a winter drawdown, all you could see were trees in the lake.

We got to Houston after lunch to spend a few days with my cousin Rich Priem and his family.

On the Road Again

2010-11-10T19:17:00.001-06:00

As Willy Nelson sings we are "On the Road Again". We got packed up and took a look at the forecast for beautiful warm sunny weather heading to Houston, so we left at 6:15AM Wednesday morning. We got to our favorite Wal-Mart--Sam's club overnight stop in Jackson, TN on I-40.. They even have free Wi-Fi this year. We got here about 4:30 PM and had a burger at Steak & Shake.
We should arrive late Thursday in Houston, everything is running well and traffic was not too heavy. We will visit Rich & Tracey Priem and family for a few days before heading to the border city of Harlingen, TX, another Wal-Mart stop.

Here are some family pictures I took at our Thanksgiving dinner.

We leave Cleveland in one week.

2010-11-03T14:53:00.000-05:00

Getting the RV cleaned up and checked out.
Found out that black water tank valve automatic actuator was intermittent, I ordered a new actuator from Phoenix, got it in a day at amost half the price of local RV dealer. I'll put in on in warmer weather when I need to dump.

My computer crashed this morning, Dell said that my warranty had just expired and it could cost as much as a new computer to repair it. So, I ordered a new laptop computer.
Then I renewed my warranty since I could still do that. Got a better help person who says maybe your memory needs to be pulled out and reinserted. Tried that and it worked like a charm, too bad there was no error message to that effect.

But now my computer works just fine and I can play with and configure my new laptop at my leisure. It is supposed to arrive by next Tuesday.

We hope to get on the road to Houston, TX early on Thursday the 11th.
I'll start posting more regularly now.

When we get to Mexico I'm going to try to see if I can get a Telcel Internet 3G stick for the computer. Last year my friends at Xpu-Ha all had one and they said the internet service was faster than the slow campground Wi-Fi. It costs about $40/month but it may give me better internet coverage. You can signup by the month, no long term contract.

We plan to head back to Mexico in November

2010-09-21T12:47:00.000-05:00

We plan to head back to Mexico in November, see my Planning Map and Overall trip description with links to each segment.

Thinking about our 2010-2011 Winter Trip

2010-08-15T10:30:00.000-05:00

Had a hot summer in Cleveland this year.
I got in lots of WW kayaking in WV
Peggy's only sister Bobbie passed away on July 5th after a long bout with Cancer.
Not much else going on here. Golf, Cut the grass, Kayak - repeat.
Planning a mystery play, train ride, dinner in the mountains of WV with friends this September.

Reading all about the drug wars in Mexico but the fact that all our previous trips to Mexico were so much fun, the weather so good, that we most likely will go again, leaving in mid November.

Peggy really enjoyed the Yucatan over the past two years so we will likely plan a trip similar to last year's.
We will start with La Pesca, head south to the Emerald Coast.
Stay at Catemaco and then maybe head back to Xcalak before heading north to Xpu-Ha.

If we hear from any of the friends we met over the past few years we could change our minds. We usually alter our plans as we travel and talk to others.

When I start getting some specific dates and routes I will post here and on our Mexico web pages.

Back Home Again

2010-03-18T07:52:00.000-05:00

We left the warm weather of Mexico and spent 6 days visiting my cousin Rich & Tracey and their three boys in Houston. I helped set up a new Netbook for Tracey and watched their contractors totally re-landscape their back yard. Only got a chance to bike one day with Rich & Cade since the weather was on the cool & rainy side. Their youngest boy, Finn, is now one year old and is getting really big.

We left for Atlanta where the weather was nice and warm and dry for two days. I got a chance to touch-up a lot of rusty chipped paint on the RV from being too close to the ocean for so long. We stayed 9 days with Peggy’s sister Bobbie who is still recovering from her bout with cancer last year. Peggy helped get her house back in shape and I helped put a new bathroom sink in.

The weather in Atlanta then turned cold with lots of rain. The temperatures were below normal for this time of year. On Wednesday, we finally left early for Cleveland, which is a 12 hr drive in our RV from Atlanta. The weather was dry and the traffic was light. We made it home ay 6 PM and found that the weather in Cleveland was now warmer than Atlanta.

This will be my last blog for our winter trip. I will update our slide show for 2009-10 when I get the time. Now I have to clean up the RV and fix the kayak rack that got bent when the kayak hit a canopy at a Military checkpoint.

Back to the good old USA

2010-03-01T18:30:00.001-06:00

See Map13
We left the San Miguel campground early Saturday morning. It was MUCH easier getting out their gate than getting in. After a few back and forth's we were on our way at 8 AM. Traffic was light and the roads were good. I especially liked the new MX-101 south of Ciudad Victoria. The only narrow road now the whole way from the border to SMA is MX-80. It is only 30 mi long and the surface was fine. It was still early, so we stopped for the night at the huge Pemex at the intersection of MX-101/MX-180. We had a nice night sleep before leaving for the border at 6 AM.
When we were camped at Xpu-Ha we saw the nice patio rugs that Jerry and Claude had, the water drained right through and they looked a lot better than our blue tarp. They purchased them at a place called Top Hat in the Don-Wes Flea Market near Weslaco, TX. We thought it was only open on Sunday but found out that Top Hat was open every day. We decided to cross the border at Progreso since it was close to Donna, TX. We found out that the roads were torn up in Nuevo Progreso plus we had about a 20 min border wait. We like the Los Indios crossing much better, no town and good roads.
They make these mats to whatever size you needed. They sew up the edges and put in the grommets in about an hour or so. So we shopped the flea market and were on our way to our favorite restaurant the Long Horn Bar-BQ, 1/2 mi SE of TX-509 on US-77S marginal road in San Benita. This place has the best TX beef brisket and hot spicy bean soup anywhere. Cost is only $8 and they bring the all you can eat soup when they seat you. Service is super fast.
We spent the night at the Harlingen Wal-Mart, it has good security and is very quiet. We got a 6 AM start for Houston but got stopped for 30 minutes at the US security stop north of the border. We still got to Rich & Tracey’s home a little after noon. We will probably stay here until the weekend, then we will head to Peggy’s sister’s in Atlanta, GA.
We will head home after another week, If the snow ever stops falling in Cleveland .

San Miguel de Allende-You can’t go back

2010-02-26T21:59:00.002-06:00

See Map12

Our trip is winding down and speeding up at the same time. It seems like we just left for Mexico and made a lot of new friends from all over the world. And all of the sudden we are talking about heading to the border and hurrying back to the good old USA.

SMA was one of the first places in Mexico that we visited in our RV 15 years ago. We enjoyed the town then and had heard that it was now very popular for North Americans who either moved here permanently or winter here each year. But, they are loving the town to death.

This little town can’t handle the crowds. The streets are extremely narrow and there are wall to wall cars. You walk down the narrow sidewalks and have to duck from getting hit by their sideview mirrors.

Why they don’t close half the roads and make it enjoyable place to stroll and shop is a mystery to me. They could use little cabs to get everyone around town. Now everyone seems to have a car and jams the streets each day to a standstill. It reminds me of Naples, FL in the high season. You can walk faster than the traffic moves. You have to walk so close to the buildings that you have no idea of whether the next door is a restaurant, a store or someone's home. And to make matters worse they are building a huge condo complex only four blocks from the center of town.

However it is still a beautiful little town with a big cathedral on the zocalo (Park in town center). They have a really nice Artisan market in an enclosed walkway, which includes a flower, and vegetable markets.

We purchased some beaded art work from the boy on the left. He was a good negotiator, he got his price, closed the sale, and carefully wrapped the gift.

Pewter ware seems to be the big seller here. We must have looked at pewter in 10 stores or booths in the market, however it seemed to all be priced the same with the about the same inventory selection.

We leave tomorrow morning to get even closer to the border. Our only worry is whether we can get our RV out of this tiny campground. The street is narrow, the gate is narrow and our 26’ motor home almost didn’t make it into the park. Hopefully with lots of help and maneuvering we can make it out of San Miguel RV Park without damaging the RV. They said that 26’ RV’s could fit into the park but we have an extra long wheelbase and a huge turning radius.

A Day in the Historic District of Puebla

2010-02-24T18:39:00.000-06:00

How do you like this camper vehicle. It's a German tour group, 25 people can ride in the front and sleep in the little cubby holes in the back. They arrived in our camp about 6 PM and the sides open up into a large kitchen to feed the group tour. They pulled out early in the morning heading to Mexico City and an identical one pulled in with another group on Wednesday night.
We caught a bus on Wednesday morning with a couple of other couples from our campground to spend the day in the Historical District of Puebla. Only 5 pesos per person each way and it takes you near the center of town. Pueblo is the fourth largest city in Mexico but was very safe and friendly. After watching our bus maneuver through the narrow streets we were sure glad we camped in the suburbs. We walked to the Zocalo (Central city park) and saw these two tour buses but we were doing our own walking tour today.

Our first stop was the big cathedral right on the Zocalo. It was one of the biggest church’s we had visited. There must have been at least 10 separate altars, this was their main altar.

In the center of the cathedral is the bishops pulpit, it was really ornate.

We spent some time in their big Museum (Museo Amparo), they had rooms full of artifacts from Mexico's indigenous people from the last 2200 years. It was quite a display but I did not take any pictures in the museum. The whole area was filled with beautiful colonial buildings. Here are a couple that caught my eye.

We walked through the area they called the artisans market, mostly Talavera pottery and tourist stuff. One area was all paintings. It went on for several blocks.

There were beggars as in most big cities and some who at least entertained you for a few pesos.

We didn’t see our bus but a local couple asked if we needed help and took us to where we could catch a collectivo for the same 5 peso price, right back to our campground, The weather here was in the low 70’s F and lows each night were about 50o.

Las Americas trailer park is in a great location, friendly management, clean restrooms with hot showers. But after three nights we will head to San Miguel de Allende tomorrow. Peggy is starting to get anxious to get back to the cold USA.

Visit Cholula’s Archeological Site

2010-02-23T20:35:00.001-06:00

On Tuesday we took a 20 minute walk from our campground to the center of Cholula and their archeological site. Saw this neat looking building along the way.

Cholula was an important city of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, dating back to at least the 2nd century BC. They built the Great Pyramid of Cholula which at first appears to be a natural hill surmounted by a church. Only a portion of the ruins have been excavated.

The temple-pyramid complex was built in four stages, starting from the 3rd century BC through the 9th century AD, and was dedicated to the deity Quetzalcoatl. It has a base of 1476x1476 ft)and a height of 217 ft. According to
the Guinness Book of Records, it is the largest pyramid as well as the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world, with a total volume estimated at over 4.45 million m³, even larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt which is about 2.5 million m³.

It’s a steep hike up to the church of Nuestra Senora de los Remedios (Church of Our Lady of the Remedies), which was built by the Spanish in colonial times (1594) on top of the site of a pre-Hispanic temple.

Great views of the volcanoes from on top of the pyramid. Popocatepetl on the left is the most active volcano in Mexico and last erupted in 1998.

The inside of the church is quite beautiful with lots of gold leaf, multiple alters and a beautiful dome

In the afternoon we cleaned off all the bugs we hit on our way though the large agricultural area on our way to Puebla. We plan to visit the historical city of Puebla tomorrow, there are collectivos that go from near our campground to the city.

Not ready for Prime Time

2010-02-22T18:50:00.002-06:00

See Map11

We got a nice early start from Bacalar on Sunday morning, we left with sunrise at 6 AM and drove 430 mi and stopped at 3:30 PM. The drive was fairly easy with light traffic. We went past 5 army inspection points but only got stopped once and it was very quick.

We decided to try for Rancho Hermanos Graham campground which had reputedly reopened with a new bath with hot showers and full hookups. It’s right behind a Pemex on the freeway near Aqua Dulce. We found the gate unlocked and we were signaled that the campground was in the back a good distance from the road noise.

We saw the new shower, it was nicely built with electric heater heads, only problem was there was no water. A few drips and the toilets wouldn’t flush. But they had toilet paper and towels. We looked at the campsites, no electricity and maybe a sewer drain. We found a couple of 110v, 15 amp outlets but they were ungrounded so for me to use first I would need to get out 70’ power cord and bury a ground stake. I said for overnight, it wasn’t worth the effort.

Of course they came to collect, they asked for 250 pesos, I laughed, for boondocking with no services? I offered 100 pesos but ended up paying 200 when the millions of mosquitoes hit, no time to discuss just get in the RV. Of course about 50 mosquitoes followed me in.

A little boy walked by, all excited, he says there is an alligator in the swimming pool. That’s probably the source of all the mosquitoes also.

At dusk 4 other RV’s rolled in and discovered what we had just gone through. Didn’t get a chance to talk to them as we pulled out a 7AM, after a good nights sleep with not that much road noise. But out of 10, we give the campground a 2. We heard that it’s under new ownership, so maybe they are just learning, but they were not quite ready for campers yet.

Our destination today is Las Americas campground in Cholula just outside of Puebla. It’s at 7000’ altitude with several snow covered peaks nearby. Today’s drive was all Quotas (turnpikes). Cost a lot but with light traffic we got to camp by 1:30PM even after missing the turn for Cholula which had a sign different then we expected. A few miles down the road we did a returno and easily found the turn and the campground.

La Americas campground has very nice full hookup sites with HOT showers for 250 pesos. Our first really hot shower in 7 weeks, We did a little grocery shopping, got connected to the free wireless internet to get my e-mails and post my blog. Tomorrow we hope to visit the largest Pyramid in the Americas. Pictures to follow.

A few days at Laguna Bacalar

2010-02-21T11:35:00.001-06:00

See Map10

After our long stay at Xpu-Ha it was sad to say goodbye to all the good friends we made. But we needed to start heading toward home, even though we were actually heading South.

We got an early start which got us to Laguna Bacalar at noon. The campground, Balneario Cocalitos, is nothing more than a grassy area next to the Lake of seven colors. No power, no water, no sewers but it has seat less bucket flush toilets.

The only other camper here was Vito from Minn., USA. He met him here and in one other campground last year. He likes the quiet little camp run by a family in a little house on the property. For what they have to offer the nightly rate is a little high, 150 pesos. We saw 4 other campers drive up look it over and after hearing the price they left. We finally negotiated a price of 400 pesos for 3 nights, still too high. They seem to cater to people who come for the day to swim in the turquoise blue lake. The lake has deposits of Calcium Carbonate that gives it the blue color. As the sun and clouds move around the lake changes to several different shades of blue which I guess is why the Spanish called it the Laguna de Siete Colores, it is the second largest lagoon in Mexico.

The weather is still cool with lows around 60o F and highs in high 70’s. Friday afternoon was a little rainy but I had a nice long paddle on the lake Saturday morning. Our next destination is Cholula just outside Pueblo. It will take us at least two days to get there heading due West. There is no internet nearby so I’m not sure when I will be able to post this blog.

Fat Tuesday – Night of the dog people

2010-02-17T10:18:00.001-06:00

Dave & Roz from Ontario who are dog lovers and volunteer at the Peanut Pet Shelter invited most of the campers to a Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras party at the Luna Blue Hotel in Playa del Carmen, click for videos of the beautiful jungle like hotel lobby.

Tony Head, the owner, generously offered to cook up Jambalaya (chicken, sausage, shrimp, rice, tomatoes, celery, and spices) for everyone who would donate 50 pesos to support the pet shelter. I loved the spicy dish, Peggy felt it was too spicy for her.

Chris, the guitar player, entertained everyone in the beautiful sunken garden cenote setting with the with water splashing over the nearby waterfalls. They handed out beads to complete the Mardi Gras party. I wish we would have brought our camera but if you play the video link above, you will get some idea of what the place and the party were like.

This was actually our going away party since we are leaving tomorrow (Thursday) morning to head South to Bacalar our last stop on the Costa Maya. We really enjoyed our long stay here. It is the longest that we have ever camped in one location. I’m sure the beautiful beach and friendly RV’rs had something to do with that.

Claude, Maggie from Ontario, Me & Peggy

Ann & Jerry from Ontario

Last week our Swiss neighbors Theo & Ursula left to go to their new home they purchased on the Yucatan coast west of Progresso.

It was a fast 6 weeks and we will miss all of our new found friends back at Xpu-Ha.

Another week - We are still at Xpu-Ha

2010-02-08T12:49:00.001-06:00

The weather really got nice here, we’ve been getting lots of walks on the beautiful beach.

The 1-1/2 mi long beach is really beautiful and clean. The white sands keeps moving around, so some days it’s really wide and then when the wind is blowing hard from the East it gets much narrower. But the sand is firm and easy to walk on. We like to walk all the way to one end where a large hotel went out of business after a big hurricane, so the beach has very few people. There are old palapas that provide a nice shady resting spot.

Peggy’s Hideaway

All the campers that were here when we came last month are still here, a couple more fit into to a few spaces off to the side in the palm trees. Friday night is still pizza night when half the camp drives to their favorite little pizza place, Leo’s in Chemuyil.

We watched the Super Bowl last night on local TV in our camper. It was all in Spanish and so snowy that we could barely see the picture but we still enjoyed the exciting game. We will probably stay for one more week before we start moving South and then West, yes this gets us closer to home.

Bad News – Good News

2010-02-01T08:59:00.001-06:00

Bad news – It’s been rainy for the last 3 days
Good news - Only rains at night and a few brief afternoon showers
Bad news – It’s only in high 70’s
Good news – At least we are not back in cold Cleveland, OH
Bad news – I got a Urinary Tract Infection
Good news – You don’t need a prescription for antibiotics in MX
Bad news – It sure laid me low for a few days
Good news – It was when it was rainy and cool
Bad news – Where did the time go, it's February already
Good news – I feel like I'll be back on the beach today.

We decided to take our time when we start North this year, unlike when an emergency caused us to drive 2600 mi in 6 days (53 driving hours) to Atlanta, GA.

We are thinking of heading up near the biggest volcanoes in MX near Puebla, then taking the newest Cuota (turnpike) in MX the Arco Norte which is a very far east Mexico city bypass. We would then stop at San Miguel de Allende which is a colonial city very popular location for North American visitors. When we finish that area we will probably head to Ciudad Victoria heading back toward the East TX border crossing. Haven't worked out a schedule, will play it by ear.

Miss everybody back home but probably won’t make it back to Cleveland by March 15th.

A Visit to Playa del Carmen

2010-01-19T19:41:00.001-06:00

On Monday we decide to visit the tourist area of Playa del Carmen. This town has been growing by leaps and bounds and is only about 16 mi away by a nice four lane divided freeway.

We really lucked out on the transportation, we had intended to catch a collectivo which runs from Tulum to Playa. But when we started walking out our half mi long campground road and young couple stopped and offered us a ride to the exact place that the bus would let us off, a few blocks from 5th avenue. Fifth Avenue is the first N/S street that runs along the beach area. They made it into a pedestrian walkway. Of course there is a Senor Frog, Carlos & Charlie's and every kind of jewelry & t-shirt store you could ask for.

As we walked along someone stopped us and said I know you, we camped together at Xpu-Ha last year. When his wife Gerry stepped out of the store with their kids we recognized them, they are staying in a condo this year. They told us about a new campground that has just been completed near their condo. We will have to check it out.

The last time we were near the beach in Playa was only 11 years ago, but there was nothing here. We took the ferry from Cozumel with Chuck Singer when we were heading to Belize for our sea kayak trip. I remember a dirty little town with a few parking lots.

One bad thing is that most of the beach area is closed due to construction of a sewer line or beach restoration. There were huge pipes lined up all the way down the beach. So that places with beach access were overly crowded.

We had lunch at a recommended Mexican restaurant owned by some Russians, Los Amigos on 30th & 26th St. After lunch we decided to do some grocery shopping on 30th which has three super markets. The Wal-Mart is only about 4 blocks back to the collectivo stop.

Our driver must have been in a hurry as he drove the 15 passenger van about 70 mi/hr all the way back to Xpu-Ha. Again we had good luck, another young couple offered us a ride down our half mi long campground road so that we didn’t have to haul the groceries very far.

I’ve not mentioned but I’ve been getting in about an hour of kayaking every other day to prepare to beat Chuck in the Vermilion River Race in late March. The weather has been very nice with highs about 80o and lows in high 60’s. We have not had to run our A/C at all since we have been at Xpu-Ha.

Birthday Pie

2010-01-16T14:47:00.001-06:00

Another nice day for a walk on the beach. Forecast called for warm but chance of thunderstorms. The rain never materialized. A group in the campground decided to go out for Pizza at Leos in Chemuyil, a little town about 8 mi south of our campground. We had been here last year and remembered how good the pizza was, so we decided to come along.

It turns out that Friday was my birthday so I guess I can claim this as my birthday party with Pie (Pizza) rather than cake to eat. It’s worth the drive to the cute little town. Peggy & I ordered Pizza Leo with salami, ham, pepperoni, spinach, onions, green peppers, and jalapeno peppers (on the side for me) on a thin NY style crust. We bought the Extra Grande so that I would have leftover for lunches next week.

We walked around the town and headed back to camp. Guess what it must have rained at Xpu-Ha and we had left our camper windows and vents wide open. Luckily only Peggy’s sleeping bag got wet and it was now too hot to use it anyway. It dried overnight.

We woke up on Saturday to really hot sunny weather and headed back to the beach.

Visit to Puerto Aventuras

2010-01-12T08:48:00.001-06:00

Weather was sunny and pleasantly cool so on Monday we decided to ride our bikes up to the upscale resort community of Puerto Aventuras. It is about 3 mi down the busy 4-lane divided hi-way with a nice bike lane, but Peggy still was wary of the high speed traffic whizzing by.

They have a Dolphin encounter, swim with manatees and sea lions. We didn’t try on the cool day but enjoyed watching the others enjoy the adventure.

We finished up the afternoon with a big Grouper sandwich at Gringo Dave’s, best bargain lunch at $6, which include grilled onions, french fries and shrimp on top of the Grouper.

It sure got cold in Mexico

2010-01-11T08:33:00.001-06:00

Right after we got to Xpu-Ha (spoo-ha) the weather turned. First the winds, then the an all day rain, then the cooler weather. Highs Sunday in the high 60’s with the low this morning only 51oF.

I took a bike ride yesterday to the town of Puerto Adventuras, it’s across the road from the resort. They have lots of little groceries and bakeries. It’s a nice little town. Bought some fruit & vegetables.

The highway is high speed four lane divided and it was about 3 mi away. However there is a very wide concrete shoulder to ride your bike on, so it felt safe with the collectivos and buses flying by.

We were told we can ride our bikes into the resort, so today we may head back there and take some pictures of the area as soon as it warms up a little.

Here is a picture of our little campground. The beach is right behind all the RV’s.

Xpu-Ha Beautiful Beach

2010-01-07T15:03:00.002-06:00

See Map9

We got to Xpu-Ha La Playa campground Wednesday morning. There was one campsite available it was next to where we camped last year, we snagged it. La Playa Campground caters to long term residents, the short termers go next door to Bonanza Campground. It’s on the same beautiful beach but does not have full hookups.

The weather has been cool at night, about 60oF, but warms well into the 80’s in the afternoon.

Peggy and I took a walk past the beautiful beach to see the coral beach.

There is an abandoned hotel on the left end of the beach. If it were open I’m sure 500 people would be on this beach.

Back in Mexico – Boy do I hate dogs

2010-01-04T17:00:00.001-06:00

We had a nice on-time direct flight back to Cancun. We were back to our RV by 1 PM. The weather had cooled off but compared to the snow and cold temperatures in Cleveland it was great. Highs are around 75^oF and lows around 65^oF.

In the morning Peggy & I took a bike ride to do a little grocery shopping at the Bodega Aurrera (Mexican Wal-Mart) which is only 3 mi from our campground. The weather had cleared so Peggy suggested we take a walk on the beach. Beach access is not really easy since most of the homes have blocked it off but a little private park up the street allowed us to walk through their property to get to the beach.

The last time we walked the beach in this direction some dogs barked at us from a large private residence. Today, the dogs were running loose on the beach and when they saw us, went into attack mode. Peggy stood still and they growled but did not attack her. They then came toward me and I figured if I splashed some ocean water on them they would go away. Boy was I wrong, they not only didn’t go away but they attacked. Two of them were big Pit Bulls and I ran into the water and fell on my back but one bit my leg. Peggy yelled for help and some workers an a maid came out and called their dogs back, but my leg was bleeding.

Peggy told them they needed to get me medical care so they called someone who was in charge of caring for the home while the owners were away. She could speak English and said one of the men would take me to a hospital to get it taken care of. They picked her up along the way and stopped at a little Urgi-care type place. They cleaned the wound and said OK I’m all better. Peggy insisted that we see a doctor since she felt I should have a Tetanus shot.

So off to the big American Hospital. A nurse re-cleaned the wound and put on a big dressing. The doctor give me a Tetanus shot and a Rx for an antibiotic. This care cost the owner of the house over $400 usd. I guess medical care in a resort area is not that cheap. He said the one puncture wound was not that deep and we should clean it each day and hopefully no infection will occur.

I hate dogs.

Family Christmas in Ohio

2009-12-27T22:03:00.001-06:00

Pam, Meg, Peggy and Joan celebrating Christmas at Joan’s home.

All eleven Grandkids ready for Santa Claus.
Sierra, Erika, Devan, Jeffrey, Eve, Jett, Elena, Leah, John, Mandy & Jake

Erika and Jeff

Elena and Eve with their dolls.

Mandy, Pam and Leah

Snow finally came on December 27th, only a week and we will be back in Mexico where it’s warm.

Happy New Year

2009-12-26T10:24:00.001-06:00

Trying out my new 2010 blog. The blog contains all my posts starting with November 2009 for our RV trip to Mexico.

Note I posted a slide show that can be viewed using this link. Slideshow from Fall 2009 Mexico Trip

Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T15:36:00.000-06:00

We are back in Ohio for a family Christmas and wanted to wish all the readers of our blog a Merry Christmas. Here is a little entertainment for your pleasure.

Invaded by Mexican College Students

2009-12-16T10:13:00.000-06:00

Late afternoon on Sunday two big tour buses rolled in with 100 college students from Mexico City on some kind of one week class. It was good for MecoLoco but bad for us three campers. They began to set up their dozens of tents everywhere, including within a few feet of our campers. They seemed fairly quiet until the ones behind our camper started drinking.

By about 11 pm we got pretty tired of listening to the loud laughter, Peggy went out and seemed to quiet them down for the night, although at 2 AM, I could still hear them. I said, I’ll bet they don’t get up at 6 AM when the sun rises and we get up. Wrong, somebody got them up for their group breakfast which wasn’t even served until 9 AM. They went to Chichen-Itza for the day and one of their buses broke down so they didn’t return until 1:30 AM.

We left, while they were still in camp, to walk around the city of Cancun. When we were here 24 years ago, the city had a few stores and some residential streets where the people that worked in the new hotels that were being built in the hotel zone lived. That year there were 1500 hotel rooms, 18,000 inhabitants and 100,000 tourists. Now, there are 24,000 hotel rooms and 500,000 residents and millions of tourist visits. They now have several large malls, hospitals and thousands of small stores. It is a big metropolis. After our long walk we caught a bus and then a collectivo (mini-van) back to camp.

When we got back to our RV we found that someone had sat on our little aluminum end table and totally destroyed it. The next day we asked the students camped near us if they did it, all of a sudden they couldn’t understand English. We found their instructor who promised to pay for it, but I checked and couldn’t find any company that sells this nice light weight aluminum table any longer. Now I’ll wait to see if he actually pays for it. Cost me about $25, two years ago.

The one good thing is that their instructor made them move their tents far away from our RV. Of course they were even louder and stayed up to 4 AM but we could barely hear them.

We will print up our boarding passes today and get our small backpacks ready to fly out on Thursday at noon. We have no winter clothes with us so will will freeze when we get to the 30oF weather in Cleveland. We will have to catch a collectivo to the bus station and then an airport bus. We will leave our RV here until we return on January 3rd. Hopefully, like last year, everything will be OK.

El Día de La Virgen de Guadalupe

2009-12-13T13:02:00.000-06:00

The people in Mexico seem to like to celebrate a lot. From our first week in La Pesca where they had a big Independence Day parade to the past week driving through the Yucatan where we came across parade after parade. We saw bicyclists on the Cuota (turnpike) with large pictures of the virgin on their backs.

We went out to dinner on Friday, December 11th and drove past at least 5 different parades going down Ave Bonampak. On Saturday morning a small parade came right past our campground to the little church up the road which has ocean front property. This was all to celebrate their big holiday, Dec 12th in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day.

Here is a video showing some of the scenes that we have seen in the past week filmed by the website Yucatan Living, Virgin Video the site includes some explanation of the holiday and how they filmed it. The video is at the bottom of their page.

Our free dinner was at a pre-opening of Chili’s new restaurant at the big mall, Plaza Las Americas. The campground owner knew someone who gave him the coupons for free dinners. John & Elsie have a pickup truck, so we went out to dinner with them. The dinner was free so that they could practice with their new staff, a day before their grand opening. We got to select from 4 different menus and it was all free. They gave us a bill so we could see what it would have cost and so we could leave an appropriate tip for our young waiter, who was really trying to learn better English. Of course his English was already ten times better than my Spanish.

I didn’t have high expectations since I had eaten at a Chili’s in the states and it was so bad I couldn’t eat it. All of our meals were great. I had Salmon, Peggy a big hamburger, Elsie had a huge chicken salad and John had a huge appetizer .

We did a 16 mi round trip bike ride on Friday out along Isla Blanca to a little tent campground with small cabins and a restaurant called Captain Morgan’s. They have a great beach where you could walk for miles and never see another person. Peggy was very tired from the heat and her first long bike ride. On Sunday we did half the ride and she sprinted though with no problems. It is cool in the morning but by the time you get back it gets pretty hot. If fact, when we got back we turned on our A/C since at 9AM it was already 90oF.

We took an afternoon beach walk. I’ll try to take some more pictures tomorrow.

Cancun – MecoLoco

2009-12-09T18:29:00.001-06:00

See Map9

We got to MecoLoco campground early Tuesday. We camped next to our friends John & Elsie who we met along the way last year.

We will stay here until we fly home on Thursday 12/17. When we return from our holiday, we plan to stay here until 1/08/10, this way we can get their low monthly rate. John will keep and eye on our camper while we’re gone.

Mariano, the campground owner, keeps the place very clean. He just rewired many of the campsites so they have 30 amp service but still only a 20 amp plugs. The power is good enough to run your A/C.

I did a little vegetable shopping on my bike today. A nice stand with low prices is in Puerto Juarez about 2-1/2 mi away.

There is a problem with beach access, the homes across the street completely blocked anyway to get to the beach so you need to walk 1/4 mi up to the little Catholic Church which has beach front property. Peggy and I walked up there and down the beach for about a mile walk today.

Last year we did some nice bike rides out on Isla Blanca which is a new condo complex just past the Punta Sam ferry to Isla Mujeres.

Loltun Cave – Near Merida

2009-12-08T17:03:00.000-06:00

Monday morning we broke camp at Uxmal and headed along the Puuc Route to Loltun Cave. It is the largest cave in the Yucatan. The road signs were good as well as the road until we got near the cave. I think there is another route without all the big chuckholes by going a little further on a better road.

They do their tours once an hour and you are required to have a guide that they say to tip at the end of the tour. The entrance fee was very reasonable and AFTER you pay a English speaking guide wandered up and said his fee is 600 pesos which is almost $50 for a 1-1/2 hour tour. There was another couple who didn’t think the fee was unreasonable so I did not have the opportunity to negotiate a better price. The guide said, if more people were here the price would stay the same, but whether you have 1 or 20 the group MUST still tip him 600 pesos.

Actually the tour was quite good. It is a very large multi-passage cave and the lighting was OK except that most of the time it shined in our eyes making walking the rough terrain a little hard. Along the way this dog started to follow us and kept jumping at my heels. At one point, for no apparent reason, the dog runs up behind Peggy and jumps up on her almost knocking her over. I pushed the dog down, he yelped and ran away. A woman on the tour with us then came and scolded me for abusing the dog. She could care less that Peggy was scratched and almost knocked down. A real animal lover, just doesn’t care much for people. I kept hoping the dog would come back and bite her to see if she might change her animal activist ways. We saw Ancient paintings that they probably redo every few years.

After the tour we decided to drive up toward Valladolid to see some cenotes(caves full of water) and tour the city. The short road back to the MX-180 was OK, but slow through all the small towns. So when we got to Piste (Location of Chichen Itza) we decide to stop at the Stardust Inn RV park. What a joke. It used to have power, water, sewers and bathrooms with hot showers. Now, nothing works but it is a nice level grassy field and cost 80 pesos to dry camp.

We were getting tired of the bad roads and saw all the churches, ruins, caves and busy little towns that we cared to, so when we awoke in the morning we drove over to the 4-lane Cuote (turnpike) and happily paid the $20 toll and head all the way to Cancun and MecoLoco RV park. We stopped to fill our water tanks with bottled water and get fuel. We made it there in 3 hours and it was a very easy drive.

We intend to pay for a month. However we will leave our RV for 18 days when we fly back home for the holidays. We did this last year and our friends John & Elsie, camped right next to us, again agreed to keep an eye on our camper. MecoLoco now has free Wi-Fi so I’m catching up on all my website updates

Uxmal – Mayan Ruins & Show

2009-12-07T06:25:00.001-06:00

See Map8

Our last visit here was 23 years ago. We remembered that we enjoyed the ruins and the Sound and Light show in the evening. So if you don’t like driving in the dark, the best thing to do is just dry camp in their RV parking lot. We got here early after our bike ride in Merida and checked out the restaurant menu next door and got the password for their free Wi-Fi signal.

I tried to join their band of merry men.

After I caught up on my E-mails and blog we took a tour of the ruins. They didn’t seem as large as we remembered them but Uxmal was the first Mayan ruin that we had ever seen and since then we have visited Chichen-Itza, Palenque, Copan and Tikal all of which are larger. It was a warm day, sunny and 85oF, but there was a nice breeze. We took our time and rested in the windy shade quite often. There was hardly anyone here, we felt we had the place to ourselves.

I climbed up to the top of The Great Pyramid to get this aerial view. We went back to the camper cleaned up and headed across the parking lot to dinner. Peg had a nice big fish while I had pasta with shrimp. Usually I get the fish and she gets the shrimp.
During dinner several tour buses came rolling in, so when we got back to the ruins we met a large crowd waiting for the sound and light show which promptly starts at 7PM. Too bad we don’t understand Spanish as the story being told was in Spanish. Something about the Mayans needing water and praying to their raingod Choc. The sound of the lightening and rain was quite realistic. Tough to take pictures in the dark but here is my try.

Sunday Bike Ride in Merida

2009-12-06T20:41:00.000-06:00

A few years ago they started a tradition of closing off the streets through the center of town and out the grand boulevard of Paseo De Montejo on Sundays from 8AM to 12:30PM. Read these two stories; http://www.yucatanliving.com/events/bicycles-in-merida.htm and http://yucatantoday.com/en/topics/bicycle-route , click for a Route Map. It sounded like a fun thing to do. So we planned the trip so we would be in Merida on a Saturday night and broke camp about 7:30AM to drive our RV and bikes to a side street at the most northern part of the route. We started and rode by the beautiful old mansions on the boulevard.

Exactly at 8AM all the streets are blocked and volunteers are at every intersection motioning when to go or stop. The route was very easy to follow and people were jogging, walking and riding. They were almost all local residents.

The entire round trip is only 7 mi. but you can shop along the way, especially at all the craft stands in the central Zocala. It was a much more pleasant way to see the city, especially after spending Saturday being crushed by the thousands of shoppers at the central market.

We were back to the RV and on our way by 9:30AM, there was still not much traffic and it was an easy ride on Circuito Colonias to make our way out the SW part of the city to head for the large Mayan ruin of Uxmal. We plan to tour, go out to dinner and see the sound and light show at the ruins. Camping is only 120 pesos, which is only 70 pesos more than just for parking for the day. The 111 peso/person entry fee covers both day tour and the show, Dinner at the Lodge at Uxmal was good. and they allowed me to use their wireless internet which I can reach at my campsite.

Two Days in Merida

2009-12-06T12:27:00.000-06:00

We caught a bus on Saturday morning to go down to the old central city. They had carriage tours available but we opted for the free 9:30 AM, 2 hour walking tour around the buildings surrounding the Zocala.

The knowledgeable guide could speak fluent English and Spanish. He had to repeat in both languages for us, a Japanese couple, a women from Guadalajara and three young women from Europe.

We learned about how the Spaniards crushed the Mayans and tried to erase their cultural history.

We took a tour here 23 years ago on our first trip to Mexico. This is the first time we had a chance to return to the city. It has grown and the shopping seems to have deteriorated into hundreds of stores selling mostly trashy items probably imported from China. The last time all the men wore Guaybera shirts and the women wore Huipile dresses. This time everyone just wore normal casual clothes. The last time the big three items everyone was selling was Shirts, Hammocks and Panama Hats. Now we barely saw a store selling them.

It was Christmas time and they blared carols everywhere and had all the decorations up. I’m not sure what these guys were up to but the looked cute so I took their picture.

On Sunday they close the main road through the old town and people can ride their bikes for about 4 mi past all the old mansions built by the rich Sisal producers in the early part of the 20th century. This is where all the rope came from before synthetic materials replaced the natural fibers.

We hope to break camp early Sunday, find a place to park our RV and ride our bikes around the town. I’ll try to post this from one of the many Internet cafes.

We then plan to drive South to the large Mayan ruin of Uxmal and camp in their parking lot and go to the evening sound and light show.

The Worst Road in All of Mexico

2009-12-06T12:22:00.001-06:00

See Map7

We laid out a good plan for Thursday. Get to Campeche early, find a place to park the RV, tour the old city within the walls of the pentagon shaped fort. Then head along the coast road toward Becal where they make the Panama Hats and head to Celestun where they have flocks of pink flamingos and camp over night in the tour boat parking lot.
We found the Visitor center in Campeche with a huge empty parking lot just before 8 AM when it opened. The friendly tourist person gave us the info we needed. We took in the sites and made our way back to the RV about 10 AM. We found that the parking lot was not only full but they were parking in the middle, behind all of the cars. How the heck will we get out I thought, there were cars behind me and alongside of me. Peggy noticed that the curb was low so that we could pull on to the grass and then squeeze out. We were on our way. The coast road was fast and smooth, the road to Becal was even better, we got there about 11AM. I thought we could find a place making hats but all we found was narrow streets, oh well lets move on.
The signs said take this nice road toward Merida but I have two GPS programs that said take this shorter road that goes more directly to Celestun and save 40 miles. How could they lead me wrong. There were a few very slow towns with lots of Tope’s (speed bumps) but no traffic, things were going well, but a little slow but it was forty miles shorter. It only took me 30 min to get through the 10 mi of small towns, not too bad.
Then the road turned to SHIT. The road narrowed to the width of my RV, sure hope we don’t meet any other cars, we still had 20 mi to go to hit the main road. The pot holes became craters, the craters eliminated any pavement but we pushed on not wanting to take the 30 min to go back and the extra 40 mi of road because maybe it will get better, It got worse. For my kayaking friends, the road to Rockville by the Big Sandy would be smooth in comparison. I glad the RV has a lot of clearance, because some of the holes were 6” deep. We finally made it meeting only one small truck and a few motorcycles along the way. It took 2 hours to go only 20 mi, don’t take any Mexican short cuts.
Even with all of this we made it to Celestun by 2PM. They said we could camp in their lot and we agreed to take a boat tour until he quoted me a $100 price for a two hour tour for the two of us. I only had 500 pesos on me at the time, about $40. A boatman agreed to that price and only cut out 30 min from the tour by going faster.
He was great, he could speak English and was very knowledgeable of the birds and mangroves. It was well worth the boat trip but not the shortcut drive to get here. Stay on the wide roads. Here is a You-Tube video about Celestun that I saw on Francois and Emily's Blog. We met them in La Pesca, and camped wih them on the Emerald Coast and at Catemaco.

We camped overnight in the Visitor Center parking lot in Celestun. We ran into another camper from Quebec that we have seen at two other camps. We are hitting about the same sites that they are along the way. On Friday morning we did a short 2 hour drive to Merida. We pulled into the large Rainbow RV Campground. There was only one other camper there. We walked to a large upscale Mall and Department store next to the campground and then walked down the 4-lane road to another mall with a big grocery store. We stocked up on food and some alcohol. Our load was heavy and we waited for a bus back to camp but got impatient and just took a short cab ride.

We will stay here two nights but there is no internet available at the campground, if I post this it's from some place in Merida on Saturday.

Club Nautico outside of Campeche

2009-12-02T16:34:00.001-06:00

See Map6

Only a short 2hr-15min drive to Club Nautico from Isla Aguada. The roads were great and there was very little traffic. We thought we might stay for two days and take a Collectivo (Minivan bus) into town on Thursday but we didn’t really care for the place even though it was one of the fanciest campgrounds we have seen. They even have 50 amp service so you could run your A/C which was needed since there was no shade and it was over 90oF.
They have a weak free Wi-Fi signal that I could reach if I sat under a tree near our camper.

The place is really an athletic club with a pool, tennis courts, weight room and game room but in the winter it is like a ghost town with a few RV’rs making use on the place at 350 pesos per night. There is no beach here for any long walks, so unless we change our mind again we will drive into Campeche about 8 mi away in the morning and try to find someplace to park near the old city that is surrounded by walls. We would then head over to Celestun to see the Pink Flamingoes.

Isla Aguada – No Internet

2009-12-01T17:18:00.001-06:00

See Map5

It was a 320 mi - 8 1/2 hour drive from Catemaco to Isla Aguada from Catemaco. Some like to break it up into a two day drive and stop overnight in Villahermosa, like our new friends from British Columbia did. They stayed in a very noisy Wal-Mart parking lot. They left on Saturday at noon and we left Sunday at 6:40 AM. They arrived a few hours before we did.

Freedom Shores RV Park promised Wi-Fi just like last year and just like last year I couldn’t find any internet service anywhere in town. The next day we did a beach walk and on Tuesday Peggy and I took a bike ride around the town. Our friends invited us to happy hour at their RV’s next to us. Lot’s of fun discussing the roads and police in Mexico.

Finally found a small internet place that caters to the local school children, it opens from 5pm – 9pm. Wed morning we leave for a Club Nautica campground outside of Campeche.

Last Day in Catemaco

2009-11-28T21:50:00.000-06:00

Boy does time fly. It seems like we just got here and a week has flown by. We have to get moving so that we can be in Cancun in two weeks. We fly home for the Christmas holidays. So we are going to pull out of here early Sunday morning to head for Isla de Aguada.
It finally got sunny and warm on Saturday. Thursday and Friday were cool with off and on rain. Sunnyvz who stays in a Casita here year around, suggested that we take our kayaks out on the lake. She would paddle her new inflatable kayak with Bev who has the Casita next door.

Bev put our kayaks in the back of her minivan and we drove to the lakeshore about 1/2 mi away. We paddled from town and enjoyed all the birds and views from the lake.
If the whole picture is not visible, double click to bring up a bigger picture. The town on the shores of Catemaco Lake.

Thangsgiving at Tepetapan

2009-11-26T19:14:00.000-06:00

It was another dreary drizzly day in Catemaco but our spirits brightened considerably when the campground owner, Gene, invited us to enjoy his big Thanksgiving dinner with all his guests.

I guess each year Gene cooks up a couple of turkeys with all the trimmings to share with his friends and guests.

Everyone brought their own wine and drinks and had a great time making friends with Canadians and Mexicans celebrating the US Holiday.

A great party, great food and great new friends.

Catemaco – The crowd just left

2009-11-25T17:31:00.000-06:00

We pulled into Tepetapan RV Park about 1 PM, greeted by Gene the campground owner. The sites along the wall were almost full, really unusual for this early in the season. He indicated that some were leaving tomorrow and we could then have the nice patio site above the river. Well, actually 5 campers left all heading in different directions. One couple, I forgot their names, were heading all the way to Honduras to Trujillo. This is where Christopher Columbus landed in 1503, the only time he actually landed in America.

So all there was left was another RV and us. We met Sunny, a gal who lives year around in one of the Casitas (Cabins). She and her friend Beth both have a couple of kayaks and said maybe we could paddle together on Friday.

Peggy and I took a walk to town down the Malecon (Walkway along the lake) to see if much was changed since we were here last year. It was a dreary dark day so there weren't many boatman trying to interest us in a boat trip to see the monkeys on the islands.

The power in the campground is 137 Volts so my EMS will not let me have any power. Also the site I moved to had the polarity reversed on the power plug but I have a polarity switcher I made myself for just such an occasion. Peggy wanted to bake some Brownies in our convection microwave so I came up with a plan. I plugged our waffle iron into a second outlet on the power plug and it reduced the line voltage to 131V, Voila the EMS turned on the power to the RV and she made some wonderful brownies to go with our big Pork dinner tonight and for tomorrow’s turkey dinner. We brought leftover turkey, gravy and dressing with us to celebrate Thanksgiving in Mexico.

On our way to Catemaco

2009-11-24T05:48:00.001-06:00

See Map4

We decided that the weather was a little dreary and we had taken our beach walk. I rode my bike to pick up some cash from a ATM machine (Cajera Automatica) at a Pemex a couple of miles away. We washed all the road grime from the RV and are ready to be on the road by 7AM. This should put us in Catemaco after lunch.

We will stop at the hotel Playa Azul to see if they still have camping spots but will probably end up at Villas Tepetepan where we stayed last year.

Attempted Bite in Tampico

2009-11-23T07:46:00.001-06:00

See Map3

I forgot to really tell yesterday's travel story. Traffic was really light until we passed Altimira coming into Tampico. I was in the passing lane of a 4-lane divided highway but going around the speed limit. Lots of trucks were in the right lane when a policeman waved me over. He started speeking rapidly in Spanish, of course, and the gist of what I caught was that I'm supposed to travel in the right lane. He asked for my driver's license and began to ask where are we going, and don't we have any money. I told him Cancun and nothing else. He inferred the ticket would be costly and mar my driving record but I just said OK give me a ticket. I then handed him a copy of this logo. He talked some more and handed both back and said stay in the right lane, adios.

We decided to take the Tampico bypass so I wouldn't get stopped again by driving through the city. The bypass was improved slightly but it was still a bumpy long way to go. MX-180 south of Tampico was much improve, not a lot of chuck holes but a wavy pavement. Traffic was really heavy until we got off the Alamo bypass then it was light again. Without the traffic cop stop it would have taken exactly 9 hours as we planned.

Back on the Emerald Coast

2009-11-22T19:27:00.000-06:00

On Saturday we took another bike ride around town and to the beach. Even though it was a cool weekend there were a few Mexican families tenting on the beach. We took a look at the new International Airport that Fontour is building to bring more tourists to the area. There goes the beautiful place we just discovered. Here is a picture of their new terminal.

We decided to hit the road early Sunday morning at 6 AM, so we could make it to our favorite campground on the Emerald Coast Trailer Park de Alba. It's a long driving day because of the bad roads. We pulled in at 3:15PM.

On our way right after we bought fruit at a roadsie stand, we passed two big camping rigs who had stayed at the other campground in La Pesca and took two days to do the drive. Two nice couples and Ron has a satellite rig with Wi-Fi. He generously allowed me to connect which is why I can post this blog tonight. They just started a blog http://ronandkat.blogspot.com/ which I will follow to see if we end up in the same place at some other points of the trip since they are heading about the same way. I copied their picture of the fruit stand.

We also found that Emily and Francois had got here yesterday. After a few weekend Mexican families left our group are the only ones here in the campground.

Revolution Day? Weather warming.

2009-11-20T17:19:00.000-06:00

I ride into town this morning to see if I could see a water truck to bring be about 20 gallons of purified water. I found the streets of the little town of La Pesca blocked with the start of a big parade, featuring Red Cross, Army, boys and girls dressed like the army soldiers with toy guns all getting ready to march in the big parade. They say there are 500 persons that live in this town. 250 of them must have been in the parade with the rest watching. I think it was in celebration of another revolutionary event in Mexico.

I did find the water truck who agreed to drive down to our campground and fill my water tank. The day was very windy but temps climbed into the mid 80’s. Sun was hot but the breeze was cool. Our young friends from Quebec got a late start and need to make stops so they didn’t think they would get much beyond Tampico on Friday night.

We took advantage of the hot weather to take a cool shower, they have a hot water tank but never turn it on. We plan to go into town and try one of the little restaurants a few doors down from the internet place. So if this is posted that’s what we did.

Enjoying the warm weather in La Pesca

2009-11-19T16:08:00.000-06:00

The Norther that started on Monday with all the wind has gone away. The cold front cooled the highs to the high 70’s and lows in the low 60’s and left a lot of cloudy skies in the area.

A young couple from Quebec arrived last night. They are on a longer adventure in their VW van, all the way to Panama. One problem, they have no detailed maps and didn’t have a campground guide but Francoise and Emily had determination and luck.

I brought my old Mexico Campground Guide by Church and gave them a good price. I was able to provide them with detailed maps of the states of Mexico as PDF files so they could find their way to the Mayan ruins and the Belize border.

The cooler weather makes it enjoyable to bicycle. Peggy and I biked back to the beach and explored from the mouth of the river to the Turtle conservation area and walk on the isolated shell laden beach. Our little 7 mi bike ride was a good start to get Peggy going on her new bike again.

We are getting in some book reading but I’m going back to the Internet place to send this on Thursday afternoon our fourth day in Mexico.

The campground is quiet and the owner is very friendly. I don’t know when we will move on to our next destination Trailer Park de Alba on the Emerald Coast North of Vera Cruz.

Our Third Day in La Pesca

2009-11-18T14:48:00.000-06:00

We are really enjoying the warm weather. Yesterday we hiked about 4 miles to the beach and back. This morning we walked into town to the weekly market to buy some Problamo Peppers and other vegetables.

We invited the campground owner to having dinner with us tonight for helping me out early Tuesday morning.

I stopped by to show the doctor that I was OK and found the only Internet place in town where I am now writing from. Cute Little Cabins here at Tropicana Resort

I hung my hammock under the palapa by the pool. I think we will skip our next planned stop “Barra del Tordo” and stay here for a while.