Home for the Holidays

We flew back home from Cancun on Saturday 12/20 and will be enjoying Christmas with our 4 kids and spouses along with our 11 Grandchildren.

We will party with our friends on New Year's Eve and then fly back to Mexico on Sunday 1/4.

We will then continue our Mexican RV adventure.

If you want to see all of our pictures in a slide show format go to link displayed on left side of page labeled A 2008 Mexico Slideshow or just click the link in this post.

MecoLoco Trailer Park near Cancun, MX

We read all sorts of different reports about this campground while planning for this year’s trip, some good, some bad. I would like to report that it is run by a very friendly Mexican family with good English skills so that us Spanglish speakers can actually communicate.

The park has 100 sites with good 15 amp electric power, properly grounded, they have water and sewer connections. They can accommodate the biggest rigs and has room for your Toad. They often host Caravan tours. They are very close to Cancun and the ferry service to Isla Mujeres. There are some shady sites.

The cost is  220 pesos per day or 3300 per month. The best part is that you can leave your rig here while you fly back home for the holidays or whatever. The storage rates are 55 pesos per day or 1100 per month, and it is in a safe walled park in a relatively unpopulated area.
They have Wi-Fi service available with a daily or weekly fee. They are on a busy road with collectivos that run up and down the road every 10 minutes to the shopping areas and the bus terminal in Cancun.

For those that like to take more than a short bike ride, you can bike on paved roads past the Punta Sam ferry, past Isla Blanca (Upscale condo community with huge golf courses) with relatively light traffic.
Now the downside; If you are a beach person the park not on a beach but is across the road from the beach. Public access is not very close. You need to walk about a 1/4 mi in either direction to find a way to get to the beach which is clean except for the piles of seaweed that is typical along the Mayan coast.

There is a mangrove swamp adjacent to the park but the mosquitoes around dusk are not too bad since they fog spray the park with insecticide about once a week.

Day Trip to Isla Mujeres

 

 We drove one hour North of Acamaya Reef campground, through Cancun & Puerto Juarez to MecoLoco campground. The campground is not on the beach but is only 1-1/2 miles from the Punta Beta ferry dock, so we decided a fun day trip would be to bike down to the ferry & load our bikes on board.

The one hour ferry ride including our bikes was $6 per person each way. We loaded our bikes along with the big trucks and enjoyed the views from the top deck.

Once we reached the island, it was about a 10 mile bike ride to circumnavigate the small island. The West shore was a little hilly with some light traffic.


When we reached the end of the island near Garrafon Park the traffic disappeared and the views were spectacular along the Panoramic Highway.

There was a private residence along the drive that was built in the shape of a shell. It was really cool.
After the Panoramic Highway we ended up back in the downtown area with lots of hotels, restaurants, beautiful beaches and the typical souvenir shops.

I liked the large statue in the middle of the glorietta (Traffic Circle) of a fisherman and women (Mujeres) with child.
When we were here 23 years ago I only remember a few stores and tiny hotels. It now has 15,000 residents and would be a nice place to stay for a while.

Acamaya Reef

Only a one hour drive North of Palmul is Puerto Morelos and Acamaya Reef Campground. It is a tiny hotel and a small campground which could handle motor home less than 28' OK. There is about 10 very tight spaces. However there was only one other camper here, Vito from Wis. that we met in Bacalar.

They have a really nice beach, Wi-Fi for a steep price and clean showers and toilets. They are a little pricey at $30 per night but it is really nice but because of construction on a brand new mega hotel right next door there is a constant noise of hammers and saws going on from 7 AM to 9 PM.

There is a constant strong breeze so there are not any insects to bother us. We took a 4 mi walk each morning. The first morning we walked to town, went to the market and book store run by a couple of Canadians.

Of course Peggy had to try to keep their old Lighthouse from falling over. I guess it is the Leaning Faro of Morelos. On the second day we walked North about two miles past four huge all inclusive hotels.

I took our bikes off of our rack and found that the chains were super rusty from the salt & sand. So I cleaned and oiled them and we took a ride to town. We wandered around all the way to the ferry dock for freight to Cozumel.

Map - Xpu-Ha to Cancun

Palmul

We snagged a small RV site near the beach & showers early in the morning then headed to Playa Del Carmen to do laundry, grocery shop and buy some propane (Really Butane, since that's all they sell in Mexico). The Butane run was a real boondoggle. We found the really nice laundry in the Chedraui supermarket. While Peggy was washing I followed the girls directions for Butane, just across the street she said.

Well we are on a 4 lane divided highway with 2 lane lateral roads and you could not go across, so I headed to next main intersection. However there is no U-turn allowed, so I managed to finally head in the correct direction and saw a place that had gas bottles in front. I went around in another circle to get there. They informed me that they don't fill bottles here, I must head 5 miles west. The road turned to gravel, I passed the prison and found a huge Gas depot. However, they only fill bottles not RV tanks. They said go back to the city it's across from the store that Peggy was at. I finally found it and then had to drive out of town to find another place to make a U-turn. When I got back, Peggy was just finishing up. What a way to spend the morning. After shopping, we had go around in circles a few more times and found our way back to Palmul.

 It's $30/night and most of the people have permanent palapas built over their rigs. For pictures and a description of these palapas there is a great Blog by Glen from Ontario. We met him and he gave us the tour of his new palapa. It was very impressive but I'm not sure I would ever buy into something as elaborate as this. Many are for sale, depending on the condition and site location they seem to run from $69K to $150K usd, in addition there is a $6 k/yr rental fee plus which includes the utilities.

They have a swimming pool, a large restaurant and a dive operation plus many activities. There is not much of a sand beach for our morning walks but it looks like there is some nice coral for snorkeling.
I can't see us spending an extended stay here so we may stay for two nights and then see what Acamaya Reef Resort & campground at Puerto Morelos looks like.

Xpu-Ha, MX

We got an early 6 AM start from Xcalak. with 90 miles of good road back to the main highway, MX-307. MX-307 alternates from a very good four lane divided highway to two narrow lanes through miles of construction but the traffic was light and we got to Tulum before lunch time. We filled up on drinking water and gasoline and took a look at the camping possibilities near the Mayan ruins. The white sand beach and turquoise water looked great including all the young women in bikinis. However, the camping for an RV looked bad with all the soft sand and lack of room, so we passed and drove a little more North to an area called Xpu-Ha.



There are two campgrounds here; La Playa and Bonanza. La Playa was full but had one very tight campsite that we could squeeze our small RV into. Most of the people stay here all winter and were very friendly. They said that the Bonanza campground had no sewers and water but a little electricity and was only $8/nt vs. $15/nt at La Playa . We decided to stay with the friendly campers.

The electric hookup here looks like an accident waiting to happen. I had to run my own ground wire, the voltage varies from 100-135 volts, depending on whether your neighbor runs his A/C or not and I don’t think they have any fuses or circuit breakers.

The beach here is also beautiful white sand which was great for morning beach walks. It is about 1-1/2 mi. long and has one small all-inclusive resort and a couple of resorts that were out of business. The two camps have scuba diving, kite boarding, kayak, ski-doo rentals and a few gift shops and a restaurant. I think they bring cruise ship passengers here to spend the day as we are only 17 mi south of Playa Del Carmen.

We left on Saturday morning to shop at Playa Del Carmen and camp at Palmul. Next we will go to Puerto Morelos.

Map - Xcalak toward Cancun

Last Day At Xcalak

We had a great week at Xcalak, went out to eat twice at the Leaky Palapa a really nice restaurant just a short walk from our camping spot. Of course Peggy got Lobster both nights while I stuck with the fresh fish catch, very well prepared.

We got two nights and two mornings of rain but the temperatures were always in the mid 70’sF. The rain and salty air may have caused our refrigerator to stop working one morning. I fooled around with electrical connections to the circuit board gave it a few bangs and it all started working again. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn’t stop again. I caught it before anything got too warm.
We did a little bit of walking, rode our bikes a few times and I went kayaking a few times. The beaches here have mangroves here and there so that long beach walks are not possible. We would like to stay here longer but it is a private home and the caretaker tells us that the owners are arriving on Monday and would like the beach to themselves without our RV in front of their place.

We also have Wi-Fi here which is really nice for staying in touch. I’m not sure exactly where we are going next but probably somewhere near Tulum. We need to take on some more bottled water since my 40 gal tank looks like it’s near empty. I’m sure we will see some water trucks along the way when we get to the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto on the main road to Cancun.

Xcalak, MX

I'm happy that I did a little research this past summer and found out that Paula Preston, caretaker at a private home Ceilo y Sol, said that we may be able to camp here. It's close to town, just across the bridge from the Leaky Palapa restaurant which is run by two Canadian women and is so popular that we had to make reservations for dinner on Thursday evening.

The little fishing village of Xcalak (Ish-ca-lac) has only has about 300 full time residents and many small hotels North of town on the potholed sandy beach road. We took a 3 mi walk up the road on Tue morning before it got too hot. There are a few nice small hotels and two dive operations plus a lot of private homes mostly owned by North American expatriates. Ivan from Ontario is building a new home and he hired an artist from Chiapas to carve Mayan designs into his porch columns. The artist did great work as seen from the photograph. We met him on our bike ride, he had just flown in for a week to see their progress.

On Wed morning we rode our bikes South of town and it was mostly a jungle preserve with no houses or views of the ocean. The temperature was in the high 70's but it was so windy that it was too cold to sit in the shade. We read books most of the day and stayed out of the wind. It's interesting that even with the high winds there is very little surf since the reef off shore knocks down all the waves. It is very quiet here also, the waves are but a dull off-shore roar. A vegetable truck stopped by today so we could replenish are fresh veggy supply. This place is 90 mi from the main road so it is surprising that anything gets delivered here. There is electrical power but the lines only go about 1/2 mi North of town. The small hotels all have solar or wind power and generators.


If your looking for an undiscovered little place in Mexico this could be it. There is a lot of real estate & ocean front lots available. The local real estate company donated funds to fix up the school. The biggest excitement in town this week is that they dropped off a large bulldozer that is supposed to start repairing the beach road from Xcalak to Mahahual. The main road to Xcalak is smooth asphalt with wide lanes but the beach road as it now stands is more like a series of huge craters. It made us laugh when some places created small topes from rope. The road is much worse than going over a large rope.

 On Thursday we got out for an early 10 mi bike ride on the bumpy beach road going North. There is another settlement and small hotels about 5 mi North of town but with the bad road it could take 20 minutes by car to get there. There really are no campgrounds but there are lots of small areas to boondock. We like the place that we are camping since it is so close to town and we are the only people other than the caretakers. However, we need to move out on Sunday morning. We don't need to get up to near the Cancun airport until about 2 weeks from now, So we are looking for other places we want to try camping between here and Cancun.

Bacalar & Xcalak

After four days at Isla Aquada we decided to get an early start for Chetumal. We left 6:30 AM on Sunday morning and had good roads and light traffic all the way. We got to town around noon and saw a Propane/Butane place. We were down to 1/4 tank and needed more before heading to the coast. Believe or not he said none would flow into the tank. In Mexico they use Butane instead of Propane. So we left, found a bank machine and nice big grocery and a Pemex for gasoline.

Well as careful as I am, they scammed me at the Pemex. He stopped filling twice and re-zeroed the pump. He had trouble adding the two numbers together and walked away with my money as I waited for change. He walked back and said I didn't give him enough. I knew I did but I had no way to prove it. No matter how much I protested he refused to let me go without more money. I lost 200 pesos, about $15. It broke my heart but I learned a good lesson. Don't get distracted by the other employees talking with you. Never take your eyes off the total and if he stops just pay and move on to a more honest place. He hadn't even come close to filling my tank.

We found a nice place to camp in Bacalar right on a large lake. There was a small camper from Minnesota camped there. I was planning on staying a few days but kept worrying about getting more Butane. I thought that the problem may have been that my tank was warm and Propane has a much higher vapor pressure than Butane. If his pump didn't put out enough pressure it wouldn't open my tank valve. But since it is cool in the morning we went back to the gas place.. We got there about 8 AM it filled it right up, maybe I was right. Now that I have mostly Butane it shouldn't have the problem.

We debated should we head back to the campground in Bacalar or continue on to Xcalak. It was early and we were anxious to get there so we headed for the coast just North of Belize's Ambergris Cay on a beautiful coral reef. We decided to drive into Majahual first to take a look at the hurricane damage from 15 months ago. The town was primarily a Cruise Boat stop with a pier big enough to hold 3 large ships and all the amenities in town to keep the boat people happy for an afternoon. It was wiped out totally including the vegetation. They were slowly rebuilding the place. The dock was supposed to reopen in November.

So off we went on the beautiful 50 miles of smooth paved road to the little sleepy town of Xcalak. There are a lot of North American expatriates here. We had the name of a gal who was house sitting a small home and living in her trailer. She said the owners were coming in a week but we could stay as long as we leave before they arrive. It is a paradise. We are right on a white sand beach beneath some tall coconut trees, with enough sun to get plenty of power for my solar panels. No hookups but a nice bath & shower.


Map - Bacalar to Xcalak

Isla Aguada

Wednesday got an early 6:45AM start for our next campground, Freedom Shores, on Isla Aguada. Several other campers are leaving today for the same location. The drive took us a little longer than we planned, we arrived about 3 PM. We stopped before the border with the State of Campeche to hide some of our illegal food, eggs, pork, chicken and fruit. It seems like the two states don't like each other's food. They found no contraband items in our RV. The traffic in Ciudad del Carmen, an island that we had to pass through, was bad. The only three campers here were the ones we had met at Catemaco.

The campsites are right on a nice beach facing the bay next to the toll bridge that we had to cross. They also have a few hotel rooms and a restaurant. Their season doesn't get going for a few more weeks and they hope to have wireless internet at that time.

You can walk the deserted, shell covered beach for a miles without seeing anyone.

The campsites have large concrete pads & patios. Electrical power is good but not high enough amperage to run an A/C which is really not needed with the nice shade and good breeze. Our neigbor blew his breaker when he tried.
it.

Thanksgiving Day was 80o and sunny. We took our morning beach walk and lounged around getting some book reading in. Many of the small town's streets are paved and the taxi system uses motorcycles pulling rickshaws.On Friday we took a bike ride all over town and looked for the one internet place that was supposed to open from 10am-2pm. At 10:15 it still wasn't open. I heard it was supposed to reopen at 6 PM. At 6:30 it still was not open.

The weather has been just perfect, the place is quiet, so we decided to stay two more days and leave on Sunday morning for Bacalar. One couple left on Friday and the other two on Saturday, so unless someone comes today we will have the place to ourselves.

Map - Isla Aguada to Bacalar

Catemaco

Monday morning we got an early 7AM start. Lots of road construction but the roads were better than two years ago when we went this way. Stopped at the Soriana grocery in San Andres Tuxtla and then drove through Catemaco to get to the Playa Azul Resort. We have camped here before using a cottage as our bathroom and shower. However, they said no more camping. I liked the place since it right on the lake and an easy paddle with my kayak to the islands with monkeys.



So we drove back and got a campsite at Tepetapan RV Park. We got there about 2 PM. It is a nice place, but we have no water access and the electical voltage is a little high here also.


They are working on their pool so it is not in service yet. Gene the manager is really friendly and makes you feel very welcome.

On Tuesday morning we took a long walk around town, checking out the Mercado, Cathedral and Malecon. It drizzled a little as we got back but quickly stopped. It's in the low 70's today but expected to warm later in the week.


After talking with most of the campers. We found out that they were all heading to Isla Aguada next. It sounds like a nice place so we thought we would check it out and head there tomorrow and we would skip Palenque since Isla Aguada is on the coast Northeast of Villahermosa while Palenque is Southeast. It should make the drive to Bacalar a little shorter also.

Map-Catemaco to Isla Aguada

Trailer Park de Alba

Our first day was cool and cloudy but it cleared later in the day. We had a few nighttime showers. In the morning we took a long beach walk. I was surprised that there was very little debris on the beach. The waves were big and churned up a lot of sand so that the ocean looked murky. After our walk I decided to wash all the dirt from the RV that I picked up in our short two hour ride from the last campground. It now looks new again.

Our camp is very quiet with only a few campers staying here. The one family moved out on Sunday morning. They have a huge fifth wheel toy hauler and are travelling with their 5 kids. They are on their way to Belize for the winter.

We have beautiful blue skys this morning, so we are off on our morning beach walk. We walked for about 1 1/2 hrs and saw only about 10 people on the beach. Temps are in the low 70's at 8 AM.

The campground must have only one 15 amp circuit for all the campers. I installed a electrical protection system which monitors voltage and turns off the power if it above 132 volts or below 104 volts. The camp has about 134v, when no one is using the power. This morning when I turned on my 750 watt waffle iron, the voltage dropped from 124v to 106v. If you want to run your microwave you need to run your generator. Other than that we really like the camp. Mike the manager is from the USA and we have an ocean front lot.

Map - Emerald Coast to Catemaco

First Two days in Mexico

We left the Wal-Mart in Harlingen at 6 AM and got to the Los Indios border crossing and flew right through. No red light this time. We decided since we were unsure of whether the construction was complete on the direct route to Tampico through Soto La Marina, we chose the longer route through the outskirts of Ciudad Victoria. The pavement was good the entire way, we encountered no Tope's since Valle Hermosa, which is full of them. However it seemed more hilly but we found that they had completed a new section which bypasses Gonzalez & Manuel near the intersection of MX180 & MX80. However we missed the new bypass on the East side of CV which would have saved even more time. This got us to our planned campground, Country Express Hotel, at 1 PM. We thought that it was a little too early to stop for the night and once before we had made it all the way to Cerro Azul and the Condado Auto Hotel & RV park, so we pressed on.

Mexico Day 1 Map & Plans

The roads just outside of Tampico on the truck bypass route are terrible, full of large chuck holes. Then further on, we got into some road construction and heavy truck traffic which slowed us even more. But we got to the hotel by 4:45 PM just before sunset and had the grassy campsite all to ourselves.
On the first 330 mi we averaged 50 mph and the second leg of 130 mi, we only averaged 35 mph.

Friday morning we decided to sleep in and have a short 105 mi drive to the Emerald Coast. Well we should have left 5 minutes earlier. We left in a light on-off drizzle and on a winding hilly road the traffic stopped going in our direction. Then it stopped in both directions. I walked past the five cars in front of me and saw that a semi with a double trailer had slid off the road and partially down an embankment and a tow truck was trying to pull all of it back onto the road, blocking all the lanes. After an hour the traffic really backed up and a big semi following a police car passed everyone up and they then used that truck to also pull on the doble remolque. I couldn't believe it, but they not only pulled it back on the road but it drove away to the nearest truck repair. We no sooner got out of that traffic jam but hit another snag. Another truck going in the opposite direction crashed into a bridge railing and was totally destroyed.

Mexico Day 2 Map
We still got to Trailer Park de Alba at 11:15 AM. We have stayed down the road at Quinta Alicia in the past but saw this place on our beach walk 2 years ago and it looked better. We got a site next to the swimming pool overlooking the beach and have fast wireless internet service. It's early in the season so there are only about five other campers here. It looked like it was going to rain but the sun came out and we had a nice relaxing afternoon.

In Harlingen, TX

We left Priem's at 6 AM and got to the Los Indius border crossing just before noon. We crossed into Mexico, paid our $7 toll and got the Mexican red, this means they do a search. It took 10 minutes, most of the time he kept looking at the space where our bulletin board was loacted. He was sure there was a hidden compartment behind there even when I showed him that there is no space. We got our $21/ea FM-T's and made a U-turn back to the states. In this direction the toll was only $4. The last time crossing here we found out that the Bancjerito does not open until 9 AM, even though the border crossing opens at 6 AM. So this will permit us to get on the road earlier in the morning.
We stopped for lunch at our favorite TX Bar-B-Q place, Longhorn Cattle Company. Great Pinto bean soup and smoked beef brisket, we had enough left over for tonight's supper.We are now overnighting in the Super Wal-Mart lot in Harlingen and hope to get an early start tomorrow.

Mexico Day 1 Map & Plans

Three Days In Houston

We got to Houston late Saturday afternoon and spent the last three days with Rich, Tracey, Cade and Dane Priem. Rich is my second cousin but we have been close since we both took up kayaking 35 years ago. So whenever we pass by Houston we like to spend some time catching up with their growing family.

Tracey is expecting another boy in early January.I did some biking with Rich and the boys, we all went to a new park in downtown Houston on Sunday, Discovery Green Conservancy.

Peggy did some antique shopping with Tracey's mother. I helped Rich install a new wine cooler and fixed a few electrical outlets. They are in the middle of an upstairs repainting, so thing are a little hectic.

We want to get an early start on Wed morning to get to the border town of Harlingen, TX early enough for us to get out FMT so we can cross the border over to Mexico on Thursday morning. Then our Mexican adventure begins.