Mexico 2008-9 RV Trip

2009-10 Blog Moved

2009-12-29T14:45:00.000-05:00

For 2010 we RENAMED our blog so that only the 2009-10 posts are displayed. Click this link to go to 2009-10 posts .
The 2008-9 blog will no longer be updated but will remain here for reference to last years trip details.
I also posted a Slide Show of our Fall Mexico Pictures with subtitles.

Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T16:36:00.002-05:00

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.

For 2010 we will move our blog so only the 2009-10 posts are displayed. Click this link to go to 2009-10 posts

Invaded by Mexican College Students

2009-12-16T11:13:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-13T14:02:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-09T19:29:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-08T18:03:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-07T07:25:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-06T21:41:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-06T13:27:00.001-05:00

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

2009-12-06T13:22:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-02T17:34:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-01T18:18:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-28T22:50:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-26T20:14:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-25T18:31:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-24T06:48:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-23T08:46:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-22T20:27:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-11-20T18:19:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-19T17:08:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-18T15:48:00.001-05:00

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.

La Pesca our first Night in Mexico

2009-11-18T15:00:00.001-05:00

We got a nice early start from Houston on Monday 11/16 at 5:00 AM. there was only light traffic all the way to the border. We hit very strong winds and a heavy rain storm. Luckily the winds were from the NW and we were travelling S-SE. The rain ended quickly but the wind blew hard all day and into the night. We got to the border about 11:00 AM. It took us about an hour to get searched twice and get our Visa's (MFT), we already had the 10 yr RV permit. We got some Pesos at a bank machine & some grocery shopping in Valle Hermosa. We got stopped once more for a drug dog search at the new Aduana (Customs) at MX-101 intersection. The roads in this part are excellent and have wide shoulders that slow traffic uses to assist people passing.

Our plans were to see when we got to the big Pemex truck stop whether we should stop for the night, it was only 3:00 PM, so we pushed on since we knew they had just completed widening MX-180 to Soto La Marina. Well, almost completed, the last 3 mi was under construction but no tie-up just rough driving. We then took the turn for La Pesca, a beach town on the Gulf that we have never visited. I had read Fontour the MX Gov't resort developer was going to start developing this area so we wanted to see it before it got built up with high rise hotels. We pulled into the first camping possibility Gaviota Resort. It was on the river and grassy camping area with lots of mosquitoes for 250 Pesos/nite.

We drove through the town with it dozens of mini-super, small seafood restaurants and fish markets. Peggy didn't like the looks and said let's eat-in tonight. We got to the next campground Tropicana mini-super and camp. They spoke excellent English, it was almost on the Gulf beach and had a nice camp, cabins hookups for RV's for 200 pesos/night. It was 5:00PM and long day but now we get to rest and enjoy the warm weather that just turned a little cooler. 80's-60's.

Bad Morning - I woke about 3:00 AM with a lot of Phlegm clogging my throat. The more I tried to clear it the more trouble I had. It felt like my throat had closed up. Peggy took a look and said my Epiglottis was swollen. We didn't know what to do. Not breathing was a bad option. We didn't think the town of 500 had a doctor but Peggy decided to ask the campground owner who was protected in his trailer by his two wild barking guard dogs inside the fenced-in trailer. He had fallen asleep watching TV which was blaring loudly so he couldn't hear her. She risked her life entering the fenced area and calmed the dogs so she could pound on the window to wake him. It worked, the friendly English speaking owner came to our rescue by driving us to the one doctor in town, which required the help of the police to find. He gave me a me a shot of Diprospan as he thought it could be an allergic reaction to something, he gave me some Avapena tablets to take. I can now breath fine and we went back to bed. Total cost of the emergency medical care and drugs was $45. US medical care should be so cheap.

It is an easy 2 mi walk down a really nice paved road to the beach where there are hundreds of Palapas set up for beach camping. Many places rent showers and toilets. However this is for summer and holidays so all were empty and only one nice beach restaurant was open. It looks like a good place to use our bikes as traffic is very light.

Fisherman at the Mouth of the river

Lighthouse

Entering Mexico on Monday 11/16

2009-11-15T22:26:00.000-05:00

After two 12 hour days of driving we arrived at Rich & Tracey Priem's home in Houston. Tracey prepared a great lasagna dinner. Their baby Finn is getting really big and standing on his own. I forgot to take a family picture but here is one from earlier this year.

We went to Cade's soccer game on Saturday morning, and played with Rich's computer setup in the afternoon. For dinner we met Tracey's parents and walked to our favorite restaurant Lupe Tortillas.

We got up early Sunday morning and Rich & Dane, along with his friend John did a 23 mi. bike ride around Geo. Bush Park Reservoir. We had a nice dinner with them Sunday evening and are driving the 5 1/2 hrs to the border at Los Indios early Monday morning.

It depends on how long it takes us to cross the border through customs where we will end up on Monday night. But by Tuesday we hope to be in La Pescada, which is a beach down East of Soto La Marina.

Plan to leave on November 12th

2009-11-03T08:47:00.000-05:00

Peggy's Parathyroid surgery was successful. Hopefully her Calcium levels will now stay in the normal range. We are having our BIG 50th Wedding Anniversary party with the family on 11/7, our actual anniversary date. We are packing our RV already and if the weather is good from Cleveland to Houston we will leave on Thursday 11/12.

Mexico in less than one month

2009-10-17T15:54:00.000-04:00

We closed up our cabin.
Had a great Spring and Summer kayaking all my favorite WW rivers.
Bought by Mexico RV insurance from MexicoBob and renewed my SkyMed policy.
We got our seasonal flu shots and waiting for our H1N1 shots to arrive.
Bought the new Church Campground Guide.
Getting my new drivers license and license plate stickers next week.
Peggy goes in for some minor surgery on 10/27 and then will we get our RV out of storage to start packing.
This is our Tentative Plan and we would welcome anyone who wants to boondock with us in Mexico. Give us a shout. I just added a Shoutbox to see how it works.

So we are counting the days until we get warm again, it's been a cold Fall in the East.

Had a Great Spring & Summer

2009-08-22T16:55:00.002-04:00

Had a Great Spring & Summer back home in Westlake, Ohio and at our Cabin in Hazelton, WV.

Peggy's sister Bobbie stayed in Chicago with her daughter until Tue 8/19/09. So Peggy flew back down to Atlanta for a week to get her setup in her home again.

While Peggy was gone, I had some extra time to start planning our Mexico trip starting in November. 2009-10 Mexican Trip Planning. We will head back to the Yucatan to try to catch the things we missed when we had to leave our trip last January.

Hope to see some of our RV friends we met last year along the way. If anyone wants to travel along with us for any portions of the trip let me know what your plans might be.

Back in Atlanta - Our 2009 Trip is nearly completed

2009-03-11T17:33:00.008-04:00

We stayed at EG Simmons Park on Tampa Bay for 7 days and left early Sunday morning for Ocean Pond Campground in Osceola National Forest in Northern FL near I-10, 45 mi West of Jacksonville. The drive was just over 200 miles, so that even with some shopping stops we made it in 3 1/2 hours.

They have three different types of campsites and the electrical hookup campground was almost full. However, we got our little corner campsite where we have camped in previous years. We stayed for two nights so that we could take the 13 mi bike ride around the pond. We found that the free Hog Pen campground was really cleaned up and for people who like to dry camp, it would now be a pleasant place to camp on the lake.

We left early Tuesday morning to drive back to Peggy's sister in Atlanta. Bobbie is recovering slowly and now has to go through a series of Chemo treatments. She has decided that she should go with her daughter, to their home outside Chicago.

They will fly out on Saturday 3/14 and we will then head back home to Cleveland if the driving weather permits us. I don't like to drive in snow or heavy rain and we are not in any time constraints.

So this will be my last 2008-9 Mexico trip blog. Hopefully we can try the trip again next Fall so we can can visit the sites we missed by leaving this year.

E.G. Simmons County Park on Tampa Bay

2009-03-05T15:06:00.003-05:00

We left Lithia at 8 AM on Sunday morning for a short drive to another Hillsborough county park, E.G. Simmons Regional Park on Tampa Bay. We stayed here last year and enjoyed our stay and since they didn't take any reservations we figured that it wouldn't be hard to get a site on a drizzly cool Sunday morning. We got here after grocery shopping at 9:00 AM. We were 14th on the waiting list to get in but he said that he expected at least 20 persons to check out. You can't check-in until after 11:30 AM but at least we got a nice site that was close enough to the office to have Wi-Fi internet access.

We signed up for three days but expect to stay until the following Sunday. A cool front had come in but it was supposed to start warming and be dry though the weekend. We biked into the town of Ruskin for shopping a few times and the temperature finally got back over 80o by Thursday.

Lithia Springs near Tampa, FL

2009-02-24T11:46:00.002-05:00

Bill Miller & Cathy Needham spent 3 days with us at Silver Lake. We hiked the trails and biked on the Withlacoochee State Trail, a 46 mi long, 12’ wide, paved bike trail.

It was cool every morning but pleasantly warm by the afternoon.

I was able to paddle my kayak a few times but the river was very low due to the drought conditions. So I just paddled a few miles upstream and downstream of our camp.

In all we spent 10 days here. Bill & Cathy needed to head back North so that they could be back in Cleveland in about a week.

Peggy & I drove a little further South to Lithia Springs County Park on the Alafia River.

We got the same campsite right on the river that we had camped at the last few times that we camped here.

This river was also very low so I just paddled downstream from our camp on the Alafia River past the springs until it became too shallow to easily paddle then paddled back upstream.

I had a nice rest in my hammock when I returned.

We went for a bike ride on Monday through FishHawk Ranch which is a housing development with over 25 miles of concrete bike trails, that weave through the community connecting parks, houses and shopping centers. We did some grocery shopping, and then headed back to camp. In all we pedaled 14 mi. on the sunny and breezy 70^o day.

We are now in Florida

2009-02-14T12:11:00.003-05:00

We left Bobbie’s house early Thursday morning and got such a good start that we decided to drive to Silver Lake which is just off I-75 North of Tampa. The weather is close to 80oF, so unless it gets colder we may stay here a while since we can hike on the good trails, bike on the Withlacoochee State Bike Trail, a 46 mi paved bike trail or paddle my kayak on Silver Lake and the Withlacoochee River. There is a library with internet within easy biking distance and a grocery.

I talked to Bill Miller & Cathy and they will be heading north in a few days and may camp with us. Not sure of any plans after that we may head further south if it gets colder here.

Still in Atlanta, GA

2009-02-06T13:52:00.002-05:00

It's been two weeks now since we took our long journey back from Mexico to Atlanta and the home of my Sister-in-Law, Bobbie. Both her daughters flew in to be with her while she was operated on. The Doctor removed a cancerous tumor from her Pancreas but the doctor said she looked cancer free and has a good chance of recovering.
She has been in the hospital for twelve days and we are still not sure when she will be released. Peggy wants to stay here until Bobbie gets back into her home. Bobbie's daughter Kim, who is a nurse, will stay with her until March. At that point a decision will have to be made; if, when and where any Chemotherapy and Radiation will take place.
When we leave we will head south to Florida. It's too cold for us in Atlanta, and I sure would rather be on the beach in Mexico. I certainly don't want to go home to Cleveland which is buried under 20" of snow.

Almost to Atlanta

2009-01-22T21:58:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday we left Trailer Park De Alba around 8 AM and made it through Tampico without taking the bypass. We went up MX-180 and stopped at a Pemex in Soto La Marina. For anyone heading to the border this road was widened and paved from Soto all the way to MX-101. This is the easiest and fastest way to get to the US border from Tampico rather than going through Ciudad Victoria.

Our Wednesday morning drive took another 4 hours from Soto to the border at Los Indios. We found a long line at US customs, in the past the most we saw was 1 or 2 cars, It took us 45 minutes which included a search of the RV for meat, fruit, eggs, and onions & potatoes. Of course they found none.

After a short shopping stop in Harlingen we drove all the way to my cousin Rich’s home in Houston. We found out that Tracey has one more week to go and they will have a new baby boy named Finn. We just stayed overnight and cleaned up to continue our journey to Atlanta. We relaxed Thursday morning and waited until the Houston traffic had died down. We left at 10:45 AM. We stopped for the night at a Wal-Mart in Picayune, MS at 5:15 PM.

On Friday we have about 450 mi left to go which should take another 8 hours. Making the entire drive about 53 hours and 2600 mi.

Back at Trailer Park De Alba

2009-01-20T08:38:00.003-05:00

We left at 7 AM from Xpu-Ha before any of our neighbors were up. After a 10 hr drive we got to Chiapas at the Pemex at the intersection of the road that goes to Palenque. We parked in the corner and it was not too noisy from the trucks going in and out.
We Left at 6 AM and found the the Cuota (Toll road) had worse pavement than the roads we traveled on Sunday. So it was a little slower going and we stopped a few times. I didn't realize how expensive the tolls were and almost ran out of peasos.

Just before Vera Cruz we missed the cuota turn to Cardel and went around in circles until we got back on track. Found a bank machine in Cardel to get more pesos and got to Trailer Park de Alba around 4:30 PM.

They haven't improved the electric yet but Mike said they were working on it.

Hit the road this morning at 8 AM.

Big Change in Plans

2009-01-18T07:03:00.001-05:00

Our Mexican trip has come to a close. We just found out that Peggy’s sister in Atlanta is in the hospital with a serious illness and Peggy needs to get back there to help out. We had a great time. We especially loved the beach at Xpu-Ha and all the campers who made us feel very welcome. We had a cocktail hour every afternoon and enjoyed trading travel stories.

The trip was very relaxing and we enjoyed all the new campgrounds we went to this year. We have never taken the RV to the Yucatan before although we have been here a couple of times on trips where we flew in.

We hope the trip back though Mexico goes well, I’ll report on places we camped or problems we ran into.

South along the Mayan Riviera

2009-01-15T08:51:00.002-05:00

We did some serious stocking up at the new Sam’s Club in Cancun. We then went to take a look at a beach camping spot just North of Playa Del Carmen at a location called Punta Beta. There was supposed to be camping at Los Pinos restaurant on the beach. As we drove in next to the big Coca Cola distributer we saw that the road was in much better shape then we had read. We then saw about a hundred new condos as we neared the ocean. We spotted a sign for the Los Pinos at the entrance to the condo parking lot, the guards said yes there was a restaurant but the road was down their wide sidewalk and it wasn’t good for our RV but but a new construction road could get us there but was presently blocked by a big dump truck. I decided to walk down to Los Pinos and take a look. It is jammed between the new construction and the beach and they really had no room for even a small RV. The nice wide beach there looked great however, but this is what has been happening all over Mexico. You find a great spot and someone builds a new hotel or condo and eliminates the camping.

So we turned around and headed about 10 miles North to Puerto Morelos to Acamaya Reef where we stayed last month. There were three RV’s there and all the construction noise from the new hotel was still going on. I negotiated a little lower camping price of $25 instead of $30. I found out that the guy next to me was paying $35 but had a big fifth wheel camper. I guess they charge by camper size. We paid for two nights to see if we could take the noise and had a nice beach walk. Just as we returned it started to rain and it really came down, raining all night long and all the next day, which wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

The French speaking campground owner and his wife invited the other three campers who also happened to speak French to an early pot-luck dinner. Since we had made friends with two of the couples, they invited us to join them. Peggy quickly whipped up a nice cake in our microwave convection oven. We had a nice time, the other campers brought some vegetable and cheese appetizers and the owners furnished the main course of pot roast and potatoes along with beverages. We had a good time but the rain dampened our spirits and we decided that we had enough of this campground.

We puzzled over where to go next,; head to the big city of Merida or stay on the coast. We decided we didn’t want to leave the beautiful turquoise water of the Caribbean yet. So we left early Wed morning to go back to Xpu-Ha another place that we stayed last month. It was full when we left but we held out hope that maybe we could find a way to fit back in. We got there early all and the other campers greeted us and showed us that the same place we had camped was available since someone had just left a few days ago. The big surprise was that they had totally rewired the electric power, installing 2 nice 30 amp grounded receptacles for each camp site. Of course the power was not working so we just plugged into our neighbors extra outlet. Maybe we can find out why they don’t work, they sure look good. I hung up my hammock and signed up for their slow Wi-Fi.

Map & Plans

And I Feel Like I Gotta Travel On

2009-01-11T08:26:00.003-05:00

"We played around and stayed around this old town too long" the words of an old song, so now it's time for "On the Road Again". We have been back at MecoLoco Trailer Park for a whole week. The time flew by and we really didn't do all that much.
We rode our bikes a lot since there is a nice 4 mile section of paved highway with little or no traffic heading past Punta Sam down Isla Blanca. The only thing we ever see on the road, except for the beautiful scenery of flowers and a world class golf course, are other bikers and a driving school taking new drivers down the road. The little used road starts about two miles from the campground and makes a nice early morning ride, since temperatures get up into the high 80's every day. The rest of the time we are either getting in a lot of book reading or sitting in the shade on the beach. I also found that I could ride 2 1/2 miles in the other direction using gravel roads with no cars and a short stretch down a city street to a Bodega Aurrera grocery store which I think is owned by Wal-Mart.
But we think it's time to move along. We are tired of listen to the barking dogs here each night. We plan to go South back though Cancun and shop at Sam's club then either boondock at Punta Beta just North of Playa Del Carmen or go back to Acamaya Reef Campground which was right on a really nice beach. Then who knows, it depends on when we get bored again, but we do have Merida in our itinerary. It’s been 23 years since we were there and I think it has grown into a large city.

Retorno de Mexico

2009-01-07T19:17:00.005-05:00

We had a early direct flight back to Cancun on Sunday. We used the public transportation low cost way to go to and from the airport to our campground, MecoLoco, in Puerto Juarez. International flights arrive at terminal 3, so we took a free, every 20 min, shuttle bus to terminal 2 from where the airport buses leave. There are First Class ADO buses to Playa del Carmen and Cancun City. They leave every 30 min to Cancun and cost 40 pesos. You then just walk across the street to catch a Collectivo van to Punta Sam which passes by about every 10 minutes, it costs only 4-1/2 pesos. We were back in camp by 11:15 AM, everything was fine in our RV. The refrigerator was still running fine. We were disconnected from the power while we were gone but our solar panels keep the batteries fully charged.

Monday, we went back into town to stock up on fresh food at a big Soriano in a nearby mall. We took a beach walk and just read our books. On Tuesday we decided to get an early start and took a bike ride to the end of the road on Isla Blanca. It was warm but breezy and Peggy pooped out coming back from our 19 mile ride. I reminded her that "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger". She informed me that her new found strength will be used today for sitting in the shade on the beach reading a book.

The campground has 100 sites that probably only will comfortably fit 50 RV campers, but we seldom have more than 15, most of which choose to spend the entire winter here. We are camping across from two friends that we met first at Catemaco. Rudy from Switzerland and his wife Regina from Paraguay decided to buy new bicycles and take some of the rides that we took. They eventually plan to tour USA, Alaska, Canada, Central and South America. This is just a shakedown cruise for the used RV they purchased in Texas.

John & Elsie from Wisconsin have been wintering in Mexico for over 20 years and even though they are both are over 80 years old they are quite active with John riding his bike every day and Elsie walking all around the city of Cancun.

Home for the Holidays

2008-12-25T14:24:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-19T14:47:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-18T16:11:00.008-05:00

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

2008-12-16T12:51:00.013-05:00

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

2008-12-14T11:21:00.008-05:00

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 $6k/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

2008-12-13T11:57:00.007-05:00

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

2008-12-07T20:52:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-04T14:23:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-01T18:18:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-30T16:04:00.007-05:00

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

2008-11-25T14:22:00.009-05:00

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

2008-11-23T12:01:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-21T16:24:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-19T17:32:00.006-05:00

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

2008-11-18T20:39:00.006-05:00

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.

Hitting the road Early Friday

2008-11-12T21:50:00.001-05:00

We are dreaming of those Mexican Sunsets.

We got a light dusting of snow yesterday but today was sunny. We got all our leaves raked up in our yard and the RV is packed and ready to go. We will finish packing on Thursday and leave early on Friday morning. It's a 650 mi drive to Jackson, TN but I think we can make it by sundown. After we stay overnight in the Sam's Club lot we will head for Houston.

Packing for the trip

2008-11-03T08:27:00.001-05:00

Starting to pack. This is the first year we are planning to leave before the first of the year. We want to get out of Cleveland before the snow falls.

It was a beautiful Fall at our cabin in WV.

2008 Mexico Trip Plans

2008-11-01T14:26:00.000-04:00

2008-9 Mexico RV trip

View map of our Mexico Map Route & Links

11/15 - Cleveland to Houston, visit Rich Priem

11/20 - Enter Mexico - Puente Libre near Harlingen - 1 nite Travel Day 1 Map & Plans

- Tampico - 1 nite Travel Day 2 Map & Plans

- Emerald Coast - 2 nites Travel Day 3 Map & Plans

- Catemaco - 4 nites Travel Day 4 Map & Plans

- Palenque - 3 nites Travel Day 5 Map & Plans

- Bacalar - 3 nites Travel Day 6 Map & Plans

12/04 - Xcalak Costa Maya Map & Plans

- Xpu-Ha

- Paa Mul

- Puerto Morelos

- Leave RV for two weeks

12/20 - 1/4 - Fly home for the Holidays

Head back south to Paa Mul, Xpu-Ha, Tulum, Xcalak, then to Merida, Progreso & Campeche Map & Plans

no detailed plans after that

3/15 back in USA