The
Mexico Adventure....
Saturday, March 25, 2005
Tonight we are tucked into a "campground" in Magdelena de Kino
in Sonora, Mexico. It's actually just the parking lot next to the
Motel Kino - but we have an electrical hookup and a bathroom with a
sink, toilet and shower.
We left San Diego yesterday morning and drove to Phoenix,
stopping along the way at the Painted Rock Petroglyph site just a bit
northwest of Gila Bend, Arizona. The petroglyphs were recommended
by Theo who we were on our way to visit. We took a quick look
around and then spent about an hour doing a video for our applicaton to
the PBS "Texas Ranch House" show. That's an entire story in
itself.
We got to Phoenix (Chandler really for those of you who know
Phoenix) and were served a great dinner and spent the rest of the night
talking with Theo and Larry. I know Theo from Spectragraphics and
though we go for months without communicating, we do make a point to
see each other at least once a year and we can pick up where we left
off without a hitch.
In the morning we got a bit of a late start, but it was worth
the time spent visiting - we drove to Tucson and then to Nogales where
we planned our next move. We would cross the border into Mexico
here, but we thought we were running too late to make it to one of the
places that was down along the coast of the Gulf of California.
We also found ourselves a bit nervous about crossing over. I
don't really know why, but as soon as we got to Nogales, AZ and could
see Mexico on the other side, we realized were were about not to be in
Oz anymore. We considered spending the night in Nogales and
heading across in the morning, but it being Easter Sunday had us
wondering if services would be available for getting the paperwork we
needed done. A check of our books and maps revealed that there
were a couple of places to camp just about an hour south of the border
and we decided to just go for it.
I was happy that we did, because I imagine that we'd just have
been anxious for the rest of the day and evening sitting in Nogales
thinking about what it would be like. It's funny because we do
these things that are a bit of a challenge for us in order to expand
our comfort zone. I know when it really is expanding our comfort
zone when I feel nervous about it. Actually crossing
the border was a bit anticlimatic as you don't do anything until about
21 Km south of the actual border. Then you get your tourist cards
and register your vehicle and perhaps get searched. Everything
went smoothly (and we were not searched) and we headed south.
We passed through a very green valley that had horse and cattle
ranches and a couple of nurseries (plants). It was nice - and
then we soon came to Magelena and easily found the campground we were
looking for. A trip out to the grocery store and a stop at a
small cafe for tacos de mariscos (shrimp tacos) and now we're sitting
in the camper - working on the log and reading.
When we first pulled in and set up, there was flamenco guitar
music coming from a truck on the other side of the parking lot.
And just a few minutes ago while I was typing this, we heard the
clip-clop of hooves on the street. Gus is contently
snoozing next to me and all is peaceful in our world. I think
it's going to be an early night for us, but we are starting to feel
more comfortable.
March 27, 2005 - Easter Sunday
For some reason I didn't sleep very well, and both Bill and I
had weird dreams. Bill dreamed of earth being attacked by space
aliens and I dreamt that someone was breaking into our camper. I
kept hearing what I thought were footsteps outside our camper, but it
was really the tree branches being blown by the wind and scraping
across the top.
Anyway, all was well and it was just my imagination getting the
best of me. We got up and hit the road heading for Guaymas,
but when it was clear we were going to be there by noon, we decided to
go a bit further and decided on a place called Los Alamos. This
little town is a bit inland and it feels and looks much like the east
part of San Diego county. The one difference is that among the
scrub that covers the hills are many catus.
On the way here we had several firsts, our first experience
buying gas. All gas stations are Pemex (the country's oil
company) and the price is the same (with the exception of a bit of a
difference in different states due to taxes). They have
attendants that pump your gas and take your money. We had read
that you need to stay aware as sometimes the attendants try to cheat
you, but we didn't have a problem at all. Diesel gas here is 5.2
pesos/liter.
Which makes it about $2/gal - better than in California. (About
2.50/gal) I also got money at an ATM, which was just like
at home, except all in spanish.
We are now sitting outside the camper as the sun goes down
behind the hills at Rancho Acosta. This is a campground on the
far side of town and it also has a few hotel rooms and a swimming
pool. Just behind here appears to be a plant nursery with some
tables of flowers and another structure filled with hanging
ferns. There is also a corral with about 20 head of cattle in it.
When we pulled in, Gus had an instant friend, a dog that appears
to be the camp dog couldn't wait for him to get out. They hung
out for a bit and then when it became apparent that there wasn't any
food associated with Gus, the other dog left. We also had a visit
from 3 children who live here. They came by asking if they could
pet Gus (so we think) and they told us that their dog's name is
Paris. Gus is very happy to be out of the truck, even if he has
to stay on a leash. He seems to be enjoying the new smells and
sounds of this country. Time to make some dinner, it's almost
7pm and the sun is down and it's getting dark.
March 28, 2005 - Centro
Recreativo Las Cascabeles - Culiacan, Mexico
This morning we awoke to the sounds of roosters crowing at
Rancho Acosta in Los Alamos, Sonora. It had been a peaceful
night, we fell asleep to the sounds of singing in a nearby house or was
it just the dead partying in the graveyard across the street??? It was
the perfect tempurature for sleeping with the windows open and the
fresh air coming in. This place would be nice to stay at and do
nothing for a few days.
In the morning I exchanged "Buenos Dias'" with one of the
workers there and we talked for awhile. He in Espanol, me in my
"Me Tarzan, You Jane" style of Spanish. I think he understood
most of what I said - (all 6 words) and I understood about 1/2 of what
he said. But, regardless, it was a conversation and it was
especially neat to talk with this nice man. I later took a walk
around the nursery and saw Hector again, and he shared his breakfast of
tacos papas with Bill and I. Hector told us that the plants they
grow there are sold in the US (or at least El Centro). I had my camara
with me and asked if I could take his picture and after I did, I showed
him the digital image. He smiled and said "Mi Photographia en
California!" I wonder what he would think if he knew it
would appear on the internet?
We drove into town (about 1/2 mile) and walked around the main
square and mercado - and got breakfast in a small cafe. Then we
were back on the road heading south. We soon passed over the
state border, leaving Sonora and entering Sinaloa. The
views changed from the hilly, scrub and catus covered hills to a much
flatter agricultural area. We saw corn, avocados, soybeans and
some other type of grain being grown as well as cattle and goats.
It it common to see horses tied up in the ditches alongside the road so
they can graze on the grass that grows there. We've also seen
small herds of cattle in the same places, being tended to by men or
boys on horsback or bicycles..
We had thought we'd try to make it all the way to Mazalan, but
it became apparent that we weren't going to make it before dark, so we
stopped at Culiacan. This town is on of the larger that we'd
seen, and supports of the surrounding agricultural community. We
stopped at a bank and a large supermarket. We found that prices
for food seemed much lower here than in Magdelana, which was closer to
the border. After picking up some groceries we headed to a
recreational area at a lake just outside of town to camp.
When we arrived, there was a terrific party going on. They
had recorded music being played on a loud-speaker and also a live
band. The recorded music played continuously, but could only be
heard when the band didn't drown it out. It seemed as if the kids
playing the recorded music had a favorite song - ONE favorite song -
that they played over and over again. It's chorus went like
this: "Cama Cama Caminar, Mi Caminar, Mi Caminar" over and over
again...and we now have that song embedded in our brain. It's the
Mexican equivalent of "It's a small world".
Thankfully, the party ended around 6:30 pm. After everyone packed
up and left we found ourselves all alone, the only campers once
again. (However, we were behind a locked fence - so it really
wasn't scary) Since this campsite was next to a lake, we fell
asleep to lots of different bird noises (and one annoying mechanical
sound - maybe the pump for the swimming pool?)
March 29, 2005 - Mazatlan
We awoke to bird sounds - lots of different bird sounds - it's
very tropical here. We took a walk around, visited the 2 horses
that are kept here and packed up and headed to Mazatlan.
We rolled in pretty early as the drive (even on the free road)
only takes a few hours. We decided to camp here and are now set
up at the Rosa Mar RV park. Our campsite isn't one of the best,
but we're still only about 50 feet from the beach. (for
$15/night) It should be quiet, although it looks like there is a
Mexican Motorcycle club also staying here. It's neat to see their
Harleys come driving in. (And the park manager running out to
tell them to be quiet and slow down.) ;-)
We had a great lunch of Cuban food at a restaurant just down the
street - the only Cuban/Mexican restaurant in town. This evening
we walked into old Mazatlan - quite a hike from our RV park - about 4
miles or so - but we really enjoyed the walk after driving so much the
last few days. We visited the mercado and had a wonderful
dinner at an outdoor cafe. For dessert we had ice cream - I
had what I thought would be Chocolate Chip - but turned out to be
something that tasted like Egg Nog - with chocolate chips in it.
Bill had Vanilla with Caramel. We checked our email
at an internet cafe - very quickly since it was closing - Never knew it
before, but the Mexican keyboard is slightly different.
Letters are in the same place, but the special characters are not
always where you'd expect them. For example, a / (slash) is
shift-7! And to get a @, I had to press a special Alt key at the
same time as the 2 key. No updates tonight since we didn't
have time to type - but this was by far the least expensive internet
cafe I've ever been to. It cost us 3 pesos for our 16 minutes
online. That's about 27 cents in US currancy.
After our culinary and information adventure, we took the bus
back to our RV park. It wasn't too hard to catch the right bus
and it was well worth the 16 pesos it cost for both of us to not have
to walk back 4 miles at night. ;-)
I'm hoping that the motorcycle clubs aren't big on staying up
late, but I think I'm going to hear Harley's racing up and down the
main drag for a while tonight. Hmmm, I meant to bring
those earplugs with me - but I think I left them at home.
Oh well.
I don't know where we'll end up tomorrow, each day is a new
adventure. Mazatlan is a nice beach town, but I prefer the
less touristy places. They are more of a challenge,
language-wise, because not many folks speak English - but the
conversations are more rewarding. :-)
March 30, 2005 - Sayulita
Trailer Park, Sayulita, Nayarit.
We only drove about 250 miles today, but it took us all
day. After leaving Mazatlan, we headed south toward Puerta
Vallarta - and the road we took goes inland and winds around in the
hills, there is a fair amount of truck traffic on it and it goes
through several small towns, so the going is just slow. It's not
boring though, the locals have a very creative interpretation of
traffic laws - passing whenever they feel it's ok (double yellow line
be damned) and many of you know the concept of the "California Stop" -
rolling through a stop sign...Mexican drivers seem to take that to the
next level. It seems strange when we obey all the rules - but it
is the safe thing to do in order to be safe and avoid conversations
with the local police.
The view changes yet again, there is still agriculture, LOTS of
avocado groves, mango trees and in addition we saw quite a bit of
tobacco, bannanas and some agave fields too. There were also
chicken (for eggs) ranches and a few herds of cattle. But the
land that had not been cultivated started looking rather
jungle-ish. As the road swings back to the coastline, the
principle tree becomes the palm.
We considered staying in San Blas - but everything we read said
it has lots of biting insects and since I am already sporting about
30-40 bites on my legs, the possibility of adding to that number did
not appeal to me. So we traveled south and ended up in a small
town called Sayulita. We are camped right next to the beach once
again. This town is quite small, and seems to have a large
population of ex-pats. The actual town is a mixture of
tourist-appealing shops and restaurants and local
businesses. We had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall (almost
literally) taco stand. We had a chicken taco, a pork taco and a
pell-something which was like a hurache, but round and with melted
cheese and meat and lettuce on it. Our dinner was about $4 and
served on plates that were enclosed in plastic bags. (Maybe I
should try that at home, sure saves on washing the dishes.) We
sat there watching people and dogs and even a few horses walk by. Yes,
the horses were just strolling through - maybe they'd gotten
loose? After dinner, we walked around town a bit and
looked a display for real estate - they had houses that they were
advertising for 3-4 hundred thousand US dollars. Maybe it doesn't
seem so bad to someone in some of the US's housing markets, but seems a
bit overpriced for a place with no building codes and infrastructure.
After strolling around we came back and grabbed Gus and went and
laid on the beach and just looked up at the stars and talked. I
don't know if we've ever done that in San Diego- and why??? Too
cold? Too hazy? Too busy? Those seem like stupid excuses now.
One little town that we went through on the way here was
Zacualpan, which although we only drove through it seemed nice - it
wasn't touristy (because it wasn't at the beach) it was just a nice
little agricultural town with a pretty church in the center of town.
I go through times each day when I am enjoying the culture - and
times when I really value the cleanliness of the US. This happens
mostly when I use a mexican bathroom. Why are 99% of them dirty,
leaking, and/or in some state of disrepair? And what is it with
the trash? There are signs up everywhere asking people to keep
the roads clean, not to throw trash - and yet you see people just
tossing it out of their cars - young adults too - you'd think they'd
care about their envirionment more. Geezzzzzzz!
March 31, 2005 - Another day
at Sayulita...
We got up and seriously considered heading south today - after
all Sayulita seemed to be a little town that has been "discovered" and
is more a town for ex-pats than for natives, but after messing around
with a few things on the camper, it got a bit late, and we got lazy and
the beach is really quite nice - so we decided to stay for another day.
We took a swim - the water is pretty nice. And watched as
pelicans dove into the water to catch fish. We napped and read
and hung out and relaxed. This place is a favorite of surfers,
but those who were here hadn't had any good waves for most of the week.
We finished up the day by spurging a bit on dinner - at "El
Thai", a restaurant run by some americans - with a very small menu -
but very good food. They will keep it open until around May, then
it gets too hot and they plan to close up and head to Alaska for a few
months.
April 1, 2005 - La Playa
Trailer Park, Melaque, Jalisco
We headed south to Puerta Vallarta where we stopped at a bank,
had breakfast and filled the gas tank. We were going to stop at the
Walmart - out of curiosity - but we couldn't figure out how to make a
left turn off the street we were on to get there. Oh Well. :-)
Arriving in Puerta Vallarta brought us into the state of Jalisco
and into the Central time zone. After leaving Puerta Vallarta,
the road heads a bit inland and climbs up into and over some
mountains. The trees start out as jungle-ly type trees and soon
you start seeing pine trees. Driving through the pine forests
smelled wonderful and reminded us both of being in the Sierra
Nevada. The mountain range we drove through is called the Sierra
Madre.
We headed toward Barre de Navidad, but there are no campgrounds
there (at least non in the book we're using) so we stopped short at the
small town of Melaque. Barre de Navidad is just another 5 Km down
the road. La Playa trailer park is packed to the
gills with native vacationers - and there's not very many trailers here
- mostly tents and an amazing collection of tarps strung from coconut
palm to whatever else you can hook them too. It's a big party -
lots of families here on vacation. Kids playing in the surf and
adults enjoying laying on the beach under big umbrellas. We
sat out and just watched the world go by and thought about walking down
the beach to Barre de Navidad.
There was a guy in a boat powered by an outboard motor that
towed a big long yellow inflatable tube behind it. When we saw
it, we jokingly called it "the bananna". He drove by with a loud
speaker saying "blablabla bla bla bla bla BANANNA bla bla" (ok, it
wasn't bla bla, but that's what it sounded like to us.) to entice
people to get on - and he did get quite a few to ride "the
bananna" It had room for about 6-8 people to ride on it. We
thought that perhaps we should see if we could get him to take us to
Barre de Navidad on it.
After I took a quick swim and a solar shower, we wandered around
town looking for dinner and finally found a beachside restaurant and
the 3 of us sat down for dinner. (OK, Gus just laid there and
thought about eating.) The waiters asked if Gus was "bravo" which
translates roughly as fierce, but we said no. They still didn't
seem like they wanted to come very close - but I think they thought Gus
was pretty good by the end of the dinner. I think the little boy
we saw while walking around had a better idea of Gus' personality - he
called him a "puerco" (pig).
April 2, 2005 - Playa Azul,
Michocan
We headed into Barre de Navidad this morning just for a look
around. It seems a bit nicer than Melaque, but it has no
campgrounds, only hotel rooms. We got back on the road and hit a
grocery store and the Pemex in a larger town down the road a bit.
The rest of the day was spent driving - on a small and fairly windy
road that hugged the coast most of the time. The views of the
coast were beautiful, a blue blue sea that came ashore on some long
flat sandy beaches part of the time, and crashed into rocky cliffs
otherwise. Just inland from the coast were more farms - lots of
bannanas, mangos, coconuts and something we thought might be
papayas. We saw our first iguanas (two that ran across the
road in front of the truck) and a boa-constrictor (It didn't make it
across the road...).
We stopped in a town at the local Bodega (a grocery store) and
reprovisioned. This store had a wide variety of things - it
seemed to be the local equivalent of a Walmart/Kmart type store.
Everything from hardware to clothes to groceries. They had
a cheese counter with about 6 women standing behind it. They were
rocking out to the music that was playing through a loud speaker next
to it, they were laughing and dancing. They were very helpful
with picking cheese though, if only I could have understood what they
were telling me. Not being used to this level of customer service
while I was shopping for groceries, I did not expect them to ask what I
wanted to use this cheese for (that's more like shopping at REI) :-) I
ended up understanding that a couple of types of cheese were for
quesadillas (melting?) and other types (chedder and gouda) were for
eating. We ended up with the chedder and one type of quesadilla
cheese that I had gotten before that I knew we liked the taste of -
even if we didn't want to use it for quesadillas.
We passed through the state of Colima and into Michocan.
It's become hotter and more humid as we've come south. No suprise
there. We arrived in Playa Azul around 4 this afternoon and
easily found the only campground in town. It's basically just
parking in a fenced-in lot of the Play Azul Hotel. It does have
electricity and water and it seems pretty safe. And they have
multiple swimming pools (even though the beach is 1/2 block away)
I think the pools are popular because there is a strong undertow
at times that makes swimming at the beach less than
desirable. We took a quick dip to cool off - and I had to
test out my newly purchased bathing suit - I wanted to fit in a bit
better down here - and I had to replace the suit I left in
Florida. It was a total risk, I just picked it off the rack in
the grocery store, but it worked out well. Of course, that's
trusting Bill's assement of how it fits, because I have yet to see
myself in a full-length mirror with it on. (Bill always says my
haircuts look "cute", including the latest self-inflicted trim using
the scissors on my swiss army knife because I couldn't stand my hair in
my face any longer, so I'm not sure if I really trust his kind
words or not.) Oh well, I doubt it'll make much difference in the long
run if I look like a doofus - so what the heck.
We settled in, I had a shower (complaining all the time because,
well, it's just a mexican bathroom...) and we made dinner and
ate. Bill seems to be experiencing some digestive system
discomforts...we hope it doesn't get anymore serious than just feeling
a bit queasy at times. Time will tell...
April 3, 2005 - Pie de la
Cuesta, Guerrero
This was a long day of driving, more winding roads and more
little towns, little herds of goats, pigs by the road - I was in a
funk. Just culture shock and being a bit tired of doing the same
thing day after day. Maybe it's just lack of exercise too.
We stopped at Zhuetanajo so Bill could check out the beach -
since he was here as a kid. I chose to just stay in the car and
as he says "pout". I just was full enough of beaches, and Mexico
in general. I want him to see the things that he saw and really
enjoyed as a kid - but I also want to do something besides just drive
from place to place. Anyway, he saw what he wanted and we decided
to keep driving toward Acapulco.
We finally got stopped on the way to Acapulco at a miltary
inspection. You know, the kids in green fatiques with machine
guns. They were interested in seeing what was in the bumper
box. This is the latest addition to the camper that Bill
made. It's a diamond plate box that is supposed to in the bed of
a truck, but Bill's used it as a storage box/bumper. It has a
cute little fold up step on it and it works really well. Bill is
completely enthralled with his latest improvement. And I
have to agree, that it does work very well.
Pie de la Cuesta is a beach just north of Acapulco. We
stopped at a trailer park that was formally a KOA that sits right on
the beach. There was another car from the US there, a couple who
lives in Arizona, but has been coming to Mexico for a long time and
actually has a boat in Vallarta. Their boat name is the Sealark -
just wanted to make sure I wrote it down because they said they
actually remembered Tom, Lee and Kate when they were in Vallarta on
their way.
They were helpful (if a bit opinionated) in giving us
information about roads and places that we haven't visited yet.
Although they were more beach people - because the guy didn't
understand why we'd want to go to the inland part of Mexico. They
had been in this campground for about a week - and had adopted a little
stray dog. She was a very sweet brindle colored girl and they
called her Chica-shadow.
At the end of the evening it was only this couple and ourselves
in the campground. Every campsite by the beach has it's own
little pool that you can fill with water, it felt wonderful to get
un-sticky. We enjoyed a nice quiet evening - Bill is getting over
his bout of turista. It was hot and humid - but nice to chill
out.
April 4, 2005 - Acapulco,
Guerrero
This chapter should be called The Menacing Mangos and Gang of cats.
We woke up and first thought we'd stay another day and night,
and would try to take the bus in to town...but then found a trailer
park in the heart of town and decided to drive there. Bill's
doing great driving around town...we took a somewhat scenic tour of
Acapulco, but did find the trailer park. It was behind a hotel
that is on the main road next to the beach - it was shady, fenced and
had a guard so it was perfect. We got settled and took our
clothes to a laundaria - self-serve launderemats are rare in Mexico,
you usually take your clothes to an auto-laundaria where they take them
and do them for you. We dropped off a couple of loads and were
told they would be finished at 7 pm that evening.
It was HOT and sticky, so we returned to the trailer park,
checked on Gus and then ventured out again to find an internet
cafe. Along the way we were approached by Arturo, who "wanted to
practice his english" and by the way, let me take you to my Mom's shop
in the local artisan's market. We tried to escape by telling him
that we would possibly visit his mother's shop later, but we were going
to an internet cafe...that just gave him the opportunity to be our
guide to the internet cafe. Once there, we figured he wouldn't
wait around while we took our time answering our email...but he did
(guess he enjoyed the air conditioning as much as we did) so afterwards
we were off to his mom's shop in the market. One pair of earrings
and a straw hat (and a tip for Arturo) we were on our way back to the
trailer park.
We hung out for a while in the shade just relaxing until the
mangos started to attack. Most of the trees in this park were
mango trees and the mangos were ripe. One hit Bill in the leg and
another narrowly missed his head. Gus would lie on the ground and
just get relaxed when splat! another one would fall and he'd jump up
and look around for the attacker. Bill and Gus finally got tired
of it and went for a walk on the beach and I retreated into our camper
to read and work on the log. I kept hearing something hitting the
roof - it didn't seem as loud as the mangos, but I didn't think much
about it. When Bill and Gus returned from checking out the beach,
they could see about 5 cats on top of the roof! I looked up to
see a little grey tabbie face staring in at me through the
vent. The cats of the trailer park became our constant
companions, and we had at least 5 or 6 cats laying around the ajoining
spaces for the rest of the time we were there. (Which infuriated
Bill and Gus)
Off once again to retrieve our laundry (all nicely washed and
folded in a bag) and then we grabbed a taxi to go to La Quebrada.
La Quebrada is where the cliff divers do their thing. Bill had
seen them before, and I went mostly because, heck, when else would I
have the chance to see guys dive off cliffs in Acapulco? The taxi
ride was quite nice (in comparison to others I've taken - it was quite
calm - those little VW bugs zip around in traffic quite well.
We arrived and made our way down to the viewing area. 4
divers soon appeared in the water and proceeded to climb up the rock
wall to their respective diving platforms. They do dive from
pretty far up, but the more entertaining show was watching a couple of
boys try to outwit their Mom and Dad and sit further up the rock wall
on our side than their parents wanted them to be. Boys will be
Boys....
We returned to our trailer park and proceeded to spend the
HOTTEST night I have ever tried to sleep in. It was in the 90's
with high humidity and no breeze. I think the little walled area
we were in, just kept the heat contained...it was pretty bad. Sometime
during that night we decided that we would head north, not south to get
away from the heat....
April 5, 2005 - IMSS
vacation park
We headed north toward Cuernavaca with the intention of staying
at one particular park close in to the city. However, after
driving around for quite a while, getting lost because you could no
longer get to the place using the instructions in the book because
there is some major freeway construction going on - we finally found
the place - and it had moved - and the guard there did not know where
it had moved to. Fortunately, there are several camping
facilities in the area and we picked one east of town that had been the
sight of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. They had the
swimming/diving and I think track and field competition
here. After the olympics, the site became the
property of the the Mexican Social Security department and has been
turned into a vacation area. There are several large swimming
pools, hotels and a water park. It is quite nice.
There wasn't really a place to park RV's - or maybe there is but
we couldn't find it. But we did find the camping area and
although it's a walk-in area and they wouldn't let us drive the truck
into it, they did let us park in the parking lot which was right next
to a little stream- so we didn't mind at all.
On the way here, Bill started hearing a strange sound from the
truck and thinks there might be a problem with the turbo charger - so
the plan now is to skip Oaxaca and start heading back toward home -
after finding out the locations of all the Ford dealers along the
way. Hopefully, we just got a bit of bad gas, but the idea
of the truck breaking down is not a good one!
April 6, 2005 - El Pardiso de
Los Acampadores trailer park, south of Cuernavaca
We got up and decided to visit a pyramid that we
passed on the way into the trailer park last night. It's located
above the town of Tepoztlan. The pyramid was build to honor
Tepoztcatl, the Aztec god of the harvest and
fertility. To get to the pyramid, you hike about 3 miles up
a pretty steep trail and then climb a couple of ladders at the
top. I was suprised at the number of families with small children
and women in high heels that were attempting it. (Of course, I
never saw them at the top) It was a great hike, and when we
arrived at the top there was a little herd of coatimundis. These
animals are a bit of a cross between a racoon and monkey -with a little
bit of a pig nose thrown in. These guys were very used to begging
for food and even climbing up to see what might be in your pack if you
happened to look sympathetic. The view from the top
was pretty good, even though it was rather hazy. I think this is
the season when farmers burn their fields, so that creates alot of
smoke in the air.
After our hike we headed into Cuernavaca where after finding a
place to park in the shade, we headed off in search of an internet cafe
so Bill could look up contact information for Ford dealers. The
truck had been absolutely fine all morning, so we are optimistic that
we just got a bit of bad gas. We stopped and had lunch at
an italian restaurant - we'd been craving pizza and this place was
wonderful. It was great to just be sitting down and out of the
rat race for a bit.
We continued walking to the main square and found a large
internet cafe where we could be online for 50 cents an hour.
After collecting the information we needed, we headed off to another
local campground. This one is out in the country and the owner
speaks pretty good english. We were one of 2 or 3 folks
camped there - so it was quiet. I layed around in the swimming
pool and cooled off - very welcome after our day of hiking and it felt
great since the temperature had gotten into the 100's that day.
April 7, 2005 - Valle del
Bravo.
We spent the morning exploring the Xochicalco ruins - a very
large site about 25 miles south of Cuernavaca. This site has been
very important to many of the cultures and had been the site where
leaders from Zapotec, Mayan and the Gulf Coast peoples met and
correlated their respective calendars in around 650
AD. The ruins have been partially excavated and
rebuilt and there is a nice museum with some artifacts in it there
also.
After the ruins we headed toward Toluca, and we stopped on the
way to check out a geocache. Yes, they have them in other
countries too. We found the site, but unfortunately, it seemed
that the cache is no longer there. It was next to a nice looking
church and on the way from Metepec (where the cache was) to Toluca we
found a Walmart. We salivated at all the groceries and stocked up
for dinner. While we were inside shopping, it started to
rain - the first we'd seen in weeks. It only lasted about 5
minutes though.
We headed off to a place called Valle de Bravo - This is a
resort area by a large lake that is in a valley surrounded by pine
forests. It was a lovely drive through landscape that I never
expected to be in Mexico. It was again more like the
Sierra. We had a bit of a hard time finding our camping spot, as
it was just in a open lot next to the lake that is normally used for
storing RV's and boats and it also has a dock. But...no sign to
the place from the main road. After driving back and forth a
couple of times, and asking some folks we found it and parked out there
- once again the only campers. We had the company of the owners
4 dogs though. We were only allowed to stay one night though,
since they were having a triathlon the next day. After the heat
of the last few days, it was nice to be sleeping in a cool spot.
April 8, 2005 - Nevado de
Toluca, National Park
We headed back to Toluca in order to go to the Friday
market which is supposed to be the day when people come from all over
to sell their handicrafts. We headed into town, found the
market and parked - only to be told we couldn't park there - that we
would be towed. Don't know why, didn't see any "No Parking"
signs. And there were other folks parked there - but we set off
to find other parking. We drove in circles, got caught in a huge
traffic jam of buses that had come to town, bringing people to the
market. We finally decided that shopping was not that important
and gave up.
After a stop for lunch/dinner food, we headed off toward
Nevado de Toluca, the 14K foot extinct volcano that is just outside
town. You can drive to the top (in the crater) and stay at a few
different places along the way. We drove up along a sometimes
kinda skinny dirt road and had lunch at the top. We decided to
stay at the lower campground (around 12K) since we figured it would be
better to sleep at, due to the altitude. We settled
in, and found that the bathrooms there were, although fairly clean, had
no running water. They had a large 55 gallon drum of water and a
bucket to use to pour water into the toilet in order to flush
them. Well, at least the men's side had the bucket - the
women's side bucket was missing - so those toilets hadn't been flushed
in awhile. I decided to take a hike and commune with
nature.
We spent a cozy night - I think it got down into the 40's - our
coolest time yet in Mexico.
April 9, 2005 - San Miguel de
Allende, Lago Dorado campground.
Got up early, as something I ate was not agreeing with me and
required a walk to the woods. Shortly after 7 am, a group of 3
trucks showed up and started to set up camp - or so we thought...
One group got out and went down into a nearby creekbed and hauled up
some 4-by-4's that were about 6 ft long and proceeded to set them in
the ground and then unfold a monster sized tarp and construct a
shelter. They added walls and then unloaded tables and chairs and
cases of soft drinks. The other two trucks (who had brought their
own 4-by-4's) created similar shelters - all to the beat of mexican
music from one of the trucks. We sat watching and drinking our
morning tea/coffee and wondered why the folks in the US don't seem to
have as good of a knack for working with tarps when our neighbors to
the north and south seem to be pros at it. We thought they must
be preparing for a big party weekend, but when we left and saw the
other side of the shelters we realized that they weren't necessarily
there to camp, but to supply food for the campers and other folks that
came up to the volcano.
We headed toward San Miguel de Allende, but first we had to get
through Toluca. With our previous experiences with driving
through Toluca under our belt and a carefully planned route in mind we
took on the challenge once again, and of course we got immediately lost
once again. Bill's quite the expert at navigating the small
streets in our larger-than-normal vehicle. He's able to get right
in there and get around the bus that suddenly stops in front of you and
has developed the assertive driving technique that sometimes prevents
taxis from pulling out in front of you. However, getting lost
isn't always bad. Often times you see things that you wouldn't
necessarily see - for example this morning we watched as a
funeral procession marched down the street in front of us. It was
quite sad, as they carried a tiny little casket into the graveyard.
We did, despite my map-reading skills, make it out of town and
on to the toll road and made great time to our destination. San
Miguel de Allende seems to be one of the nicest towns we've been to yet
- coming into town from above the view is of old colonial buildings
painted wonderful shades of browns, oranges and yellows with splashes
of purple from the Jacarana trees that are in full bloom.
We had a trailer park that was also a ballenario (swimming
resort) picked out of the guide book, but when we arrived we were told
that there was no camping there and that the authors of the guidebook
had included that hotel without the owners permission. He seemed
rather annoyed about it too. So, we headed off to another and are
now sitting in the shade, enjoying the breeze and planning our further
journey.
We've both decided that we've had enough of Mexico - we're still
having fun and still have some things on our list of things to see, but
we're going to head back a few days early - which will give us a bit of
a break before we're off to China.
We headed into town this evening, walking about 2 miles from the
trailer park to a main road into town - we figured we could either get
a taxi at the hotel that was on the corner or possibly get a bus into
town. When we got to the main road, there was a bus stop across the
street with a young boy (about 10 or so) sitting at it. So, we
crossed the street and asked him if we could get a bus into "el
centro". He said yes, and we also were able to find out that the
bus would be there in about 15 minutes. As we sat there he looked
at us with these sad eyes and said he didn't have any money for the
bus. So we asked him how much the bus cost and he said 5
pesos. So, suckers that we are we gave him the 5 pesos.
Then he proceeded to ask Bill how much his watch cost and that Bill
should give it to him as a gift. At this point our sucker-ship
ended. Once the bus came, we all got on board, paying the 4 peso
fair, and a little ways down the road the boy waved out the window to 2
of his friends who were walking into town - I didn't understand what he
shouted out the window to them, but the tone sounded a bit like
"Hey, I got a bus ride" Too bad we didn't know about the other
kids, we would have given them money to ride the bus too.
When we got to the city center, we found the main square, filled
with lots of people out enjoying the musicians and street performers
and then hunted down a spanish/mexican restaurant that we picked out of
the Lonely Planet Guide. We had a wonderful dinner, (a real
Ceasar Salad, enchiladas verdes, pallea and a pitcher of Sangria that
was about twice the size of Pearl's "small" Sangria in Rio de Janerio
so many years ago.)
April 10, 2005 San Jose Tajo
trailer park in Guadalajara
This morning we headed out toward Guadalajara stopping on the
way in Guanajuato to see "Las Momias". There is a museum in
Guanajuato that has mummified bodies on display. It's so dry
there that bodies that are buried mummify in about 6 years. The
graveyard there is so small that they have to take out some of the old
bodies out in order to put in new. So, if you're buried there and
your relatives don't keep paying the rent...out you come. If your
body looks cool, they'll put it in the museum, otherwise it get
cremated.
Guanajuato is a cool little town with little skinny cobblestone
streets. It would be a great place to visit if you didn't have to
drive around it. We managed, after a bit of getting lost to get
to the museum and pulled into what we thought was the parking
lot. It actually was the lot next to it, but the guys there said
it was free parking (yeah right) and they'd wash the truck for about
$5.00. So, since the truck was really dirty we said yes. We
left Gus in the car to keep an eye on things and headed up to the
museum. Since we were hungry, we decided to have breakfast before
going in and found a place across the street and looking down on the
parking lot. We watched them wash the truck as we ate and saw
that there were a few kids that were trying to get into the truck -
with Gus doing his best guard dog barking. Then they proceeded to
try and open every other thing they could on the camper and started to
drain our water from our tank. At that point Bill paid them a
visit and scolded them. After that we decided that only I
would go into the museum - since Bill had been before and he'd stay out
and keep an eye on things. One of the most cheekiest kids told
Bill that he owed him 10 pesos (~$1) to park there. Bill gave the
money to the guy in charge...nothing bad happened - but that sorta took
the fun out of the town for us. That was the worst thing that
happened though - so all in all we did just fine.
We headed out to Guadalajara, and after a bit of getting lost,
we found our trailer park and made ourselves at home. There were
a few other americans camped there and they were very
friendly. We decided we'd stay for a few days and explore
the town since we could easily leave Gus in the camper in a secure and
shady place and take the bus into town. After getting settled, we
walked a mile or so to the Walmart which just happened to have an
Applebee's next door. We went in and had some real American
Food. I had a salad and Bill had a wonderful hamburger.
This restaurant had only been open a couple of weeks, and all the
dishes on the menu had english names - but descriptions in
spanish. Just what you'd expect for an ethnic restaurant.
It was cool to eat where American food was considered "ethnic"
food.
April 11, 2005, San Jose Tajo
trailer park in Guadalajara
Today we figured out the bus system and made it into
downtown. We had a wonderful lunch in an outdoor cafe that looked
out on one of the town squares. I ordered what I thought would be
a chicken dish with a sauce on it - and got a sort of tomato-based soup
with chunks of chicken and cheese in it. It was served with
guacamole and it came in a 3-legged bowl that was carved out of
volcanic rock. It was really HOT (tempurature-wise) and it was
delicious! The dish was called Pollo Molcajete and I thought
Molcajete was the type of sauce...but since coming home, I've found out
that Molcajete is actually the the bowl that it was served
in. For the cooks in the audience, See this link for more
information: http://www.mexgrocer.com/9117.html
Anyway, after lunch we went to the big market in town and
shopped for a bunch of cool stuff. Bill's memory of the market
was a bit different than how it is now. There are many booths
that sell dvd's and sneakers - but we did find some that sold some
traditional goods that we had been looking for. It was fun and
frustrating to bargin for things, but we ended up leaving there with
quite a bit of stuff.
We returned to the trailer park and ended up talking to our
neighbors Bill and Linda who were originally from Colorado, but had
been in Mexico for quite some time. They had just made an offer
on a house in a place outside of Guadalajara and were waiting to hear
if they had gotten it. They had 3 dogs of their own and had
adopted "Sterling" a little terrier with a big personality and were
trying to find him a home. It was really great to talk with
them and find out things about Mexico that we had wondered, but didn't
know how to ask anyone - and wouldn't have been able to understand the
answers in spanish anyway.
April 12, 2005 San Jose Tajo
trailer park in Guadalajara.
Today's destination was a small town outside of Guadalajara for
more shopping. We had to take 3 buses to get there (instead of
the 2 it took to get downtown). We got downtown and decided to
stop in one of the large churches before we caught the bus out to
Tonala. We happened to walk into a church where they were
celebrating a mass and giving communion. They had a nun singing
during this and she had a wonderful voice. We just sat in the
back and watched and listened - the sound filling and reverberating off
the walls. It was very moving.
After that spiritual experience, we headed off to Tonala and did
more shopping, picking up more gifts. This town has ceramic and
glassware. We got off the main road where most of the shops are
and went into the center of town to the square. While we were walking
around here, Bill saw this man sitting by the side of the square and
went over and gave him a few pesos. Only problem is this guy
wasn't begging - he just had an empty cup in his hand - I think he'd
been eating ice cream. Bill didn't realize it until he walked
away - but the guy didn't complain. :-)
April 13, 2005 - Parque
Acuatico Chimulco
We headed off to a water park/Hot springs place in hope of
getting some soaking in. They do have a water park and pools with
warm water in them - but unfortunately the pools close at 6pm and they
didn't have enough RV'ers to fill the special pool in the
evening. So, we didn't end up getting our soak after all.
But we vegged out and prepared for the drive home.
April 14, 2005 - Hotel de Los
Tres Rios, Culiacan
We had a long day of driving, stopping only in Tequila, to get -
well, what else, some tequila. We got a no-name local brand that
was quite a bit cheaper than the name-brand stuff - but it's very
smooth!
Crossing through lots of agricultural land with mountains in the
distance we made it to Culiacan and headed to the other trailer park in
town - Having already experienced the Fiesta trailer park. All we
can figure is that Culiacan is the place to party because this hotel
had a big party in progress around the swimming pool with a loud
band...fortunately they only went until 8pm. We escaped to
a restaurant for dinner and had our final stop at the local
Walmart. One thing I will miss is the large assortment of
pastries they have. You get a tray and walk around picking out
what you want from rows and rows of shelves of items. Then you
take your tray to the counter and they wrap and mark a price on what
you've picked out.
April 15, 2005 - Tucson,
Arizona
We headed north hoping we'd be able to cross the border, but
having a plan to camp just in case it got too late to make it across
before it got dark. We were stopped twice and searched. Gus
was a totally calm dog during that - but I think he scared the guys
just by being there. One of the guys was asking me if Gus bites,
but I didn't understand the word he was using for bite - and thought he
was just saying that he was calm. So I nodded my head and replied
"Yes, he's a good dog" I didn't figure out what he was asking
until I looked it up in the dictionary once we were back on the
road.
We made it to the border just as the sun was getting ready to
set and made it through US customs with very little problem. They
took a bag of dog food, but nothing else. Funny thing, they
didn't even look at our passports or Gus' health certificate. I
guess we just looked very American.
April 24, 2005 - San Diego
We've been home for a week and tomorrow we head off for
China. After Mexico, the US seems so very affluent and more than
a bit wasteful. I wonder how I'll feel after 4 weeks in
China...Got to get this posted...so long for now.