Campeche city Tour

Went on a 5 hour city tour today. Fascinating!. The Spanish built a 2 Km square outer wall to repel pirates etc and many bastions and wall remain as part of the city today. Went by the Seagate by the ocean and the City Gate around the other side by the market. On the central plaza there is the cathedral I sent yesterday, city Library, shops and a restoration of 1500-1600 buildings, one a Spanish Hacienda. We spent an hour in this and just amazing. the ceilings are 24' high and it's cool and every room around this square house opens to the courtyard I've shown. There is an inside and outside kitchen with the cistern out back. The furniture is beautiful, imported from Spain, France and Cuba. One custom was 2 gilt mirrors in the living room with pictures of the owners as well. Looks like Nana and Pa. Went through the Cathedral and Museum with old vestments and artifacts. There was a Mass and the music soared to the very high ceilings and was magnificant.

to Campeche

Silly start today. We added coolant, Bob couldn't get his 2 slides in (new fuse helped), Loyola changed a flat tire after 2 others did yesterday and off we went. Passed a larger fishing village with mobile carts with COCKTELES for sale. Got some pictures of the purple and white,with purple center morning glories. Imagine! We used to do anything to kill this weed and there are even yellow and blue ones - very pretty. Got into Hotel Nuatica which used to be a Club Med, much different than I'd imagined for a CM. Another caravan was in so dry camping again. It seems the Mexicans say yes and then it's different. This is right on the beach again with 9 large palapas. We had a great Margarita Party overlooking the ocean and watched the dolphins play. Doesn't get much better. 93 degrees now and 85% humidity, so stick to everything.
Picture is the local cathedral with trollies in front. The Colonial influence is everywhere.

Fun Day

Up at 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise and walk the beach. We're in a huge lagoon area behind the Gulf so nice and sheltered. During the big storm they had a few days ago, the fishermen couldn't go out and the town's water supply was cut off. I love being on the beach and the salt water smells so good. Saw a father and son casting their nets for minnows which they'll use for bait later. This is a small fishing village and 7 of us hired moped taxis (a step up, previous villages had bicycle taxis) and toured the town, a clothing store, the fishing docks for 2 hours. There are new cement row houses being put up by the government to get the poorer people out of the tin and mud shacks. Many Pelicans here. These big birds have a history of 30 million years and nearly went extinct before DDT was banned in the 70's.
Ended our day with a hamburger BBQ put on by the Fantasy staff and bonfire on the beach. We are so lucky - everyone in the group is great and a lot of fun.

Isla Aguada

It took 7 hours to drive 143 miles today. Won't talk about the roads.
There has been a terrific storm go through here before we got here. Beautiful sunshine now. Vendors beside the roads were selling fruits and even 3 - 7" turtles. Passed a military Inspection today and had to produce our papers for the Holograms put on our vehicles at the Border. These soldiers look about 14 and carry big rifles. There is one in the shack but I didn't want him to see me taking a picture. Next was the Agriculture Inspection as we passed out of Veracruz state into Tabasco. We put our frozen steaks, lunchmeat, eggs etc in an insulated bag and the washer until they come in and inspect and then we rearrange our fridges down the road. Cattle country here and brilliant flowers. We're parked right on the beach in a great RV Park - Freedom Shores. A brother (quadriplegic) and his sister and their spouses are redeveloping this into a Handicapped Hotel and RV Park with 12 rooms and restaurant. It is also a shelter with 3' thick roof and foundation. Walked on the beach, found many shells, all so different and the water is beautifully warm.

Veracruz to Villahermosa

We also toured the Old Fort at the harbour, yesterday, which defended the city from everybody from Sir Francis Drake to the pirates of the Caribbean. Amazing structure of huge stone blocks. I saw a wagon delivering large blocks of solid ice like we used to get for our ice chest (fridge) in Crescent Beach as kids.
280 miles today took 8 hours, as there was nowhere for us to stop - 20 rigs take a lot of room.
Through flat agriculture land this morning and hilly later. It's getting more jungle like as we go along. The vegetation grows right to the pavement. Very humid now. Our chewing gum is like cooked spaghetti. I put the dehumidifier on last night for 2 hours and took 4 cups of water out. There is lots of water on the fields, must have had an incredible storm through here. Actually saw water buffaloes doing the dog paddle to get to higher ground in water up to their bellies. Saw lots of construction - the Mexican jackhammer is a man with a sledgehammer. Incredibly hardworking people with minimum tools. Note the sticks supporting the floors. The government is building condo type buildings for the workers with concrete to raise the standard of living. The average wage here is 149 pesos per day - roughly $1.50.
Arrived at our RV Park to find another caravan just left it this morning and the grass is churned to mud so we parked in the driveway of a family Swim Pool Park on 3 acres, a lovely complex. More dry camping. Certainly know how well the generator works now and are entirely comfortable.

What you hope wont happen

As our wheels hit the pavement coming out of the park, the low coolant sign came on. Stopped 8 miles down the road at the first Pemex and added 4 gallons of water. Paul, the tailgunner pulled in behind us and we needed to stop 8 miles later where we found a Quaker Oil stand and bought
Stop Leak and anti-freeze and poured that in as the leak had become a stream. Finally stopped.
Costa de Esmeralda to Veracruz. Nice trip - 115 mile took us 4 1/2 hours. The time it takes to get 20 units over the topes and through the small villages is lots. When you go off the road for a break, you sometimes drop 6 -8 " and think you're fall right over so you do this very slowly. We've seen chauca chauca trees which are also called the upside down tree because they grow as a straight stick, then the branches go out looking like the root system. Passed a Nuclear Power Plant. We're now into sugar cane country and are passing trucks loaded 12 feet high on the way to the processing plants.
We went by bus for a city tour of Veracruz. It was discovered by Cortez in the 1519 and been fought over by Spanish, French , English and pirates so there is many kinds of arcitechture, mostly colonial looking. Everything is made of marble and heavy stone construction. The early settlers brought in slaves from Africa to do all the building. We stopped first at a famous cafe house and enjoyed delicious strong coffee, served with cream and sugar.

Veracruz

Had a great time is this colonial city on the Coast. We had a guided city tour for 5 hours. First stop was downtown at a famous local coffee house which was packed. The coffee is very strong and you drink it with cream and sugar - very good. We did a little local shopping. Veracruz was discovered by Cortez in 1519 and toured the original fort which was later a prison. This defended the town from everyone from Sir Francis Drake to the pirates of the Caribbean. The early settlers imported slaves from Africa to build the town which has a very Colonial influence. We passed the shipyards, which receive containers from around the world, the railyards which ship throughout Mexico. The arcitechure must be preserved if you remodel. This building next to the coffee house, is being refinished as you can see by the difference in both sides.

Tajin Ruins

We went an hour by bus into the jungle to Panpantla where the Tajin Ruins are. Totally amazing!!
This is a World Heritage site where there is an entire Mayan ancient city of 128 structures. There is a rock wall around the entire city area and the rich and poor people lived on opposites sides outside it. All these huge rock slab monuments are for worship, as they are altars for the priests. They are solid rock. The Ball C0urt is sited north to south as it typically is. The players used shoulders, elbows, hips and knees to keep the ball in the air continuously and toss it through a rock circle high on the wall. The WINNERS were then sacrificed as this was a religious ceremony and their reward was that they were sent to a bettor place.
We watched a performance by the Papantla Flyers. Six men in native costume enter and do a chanting dance around a pole which five of them then climb. More flute playing and then four flip over backwards while the fifth turns the top of the very high pole so they are spinning and lowering themselves to the ground, upside down, taking about 10 minutes. I had to stand back about 70 feet because I don't look up well and shut my eyes as they spun. Interesting though.

Bananas in San Rafael

Woke to a misty rain so the jungle tour was cancelled as we wouldn't see anything, so off we went to a small village where we passed all the vendors at the roadside yesterday selling bananas, coconuts, limes and local stuff. There are 6 different types of bananas, one small one called a 2 biter. The bananas are covered in plastic on the trees to keep the rain off so they don't rot. Also saw lots of coconuts groves. The people are wonderfully helpful although they don't speak one word of English so lots of gesturing.
Bought a coconut for 10 pesos and the man whacked it with his machete on both ends until he hit the coconut meat, which he sliced off, put a baggie over the hole and drained the coconut milk into it and added a straw. Tasted like watered down coconut and then he chopped out the meat and bagged that, all with his 2 foot machete. We wandered around the town and bought a few things at the Casa Thomas Super Store including lache, 'milk', which is processed to store in the cupboard and has an expirey date of May 24, 2007.

Lawn Management

Tampico to Costa de Esmeralda. Today's trip is 141 miles. When you buy Diesel you must be sure the pump is turned back to zero before you let the attendant pump. We dry camped behind a beautiful Hotel last night with an acre of grass surrounding a pool with wonderful flowers. We had a social hour and meeting in their palapa with tiled floor and thatched roof.
At 8 a.m., Cecil, our wagonmaster says 'we go now'. Long trip through Tampico at rush hour sharing the road with donkey and cart, school children, cars and pedestrians. It's a fishing village with a population of 75,000. Through town the light is green, then flashes green which is our amber and red for stop. We finally stopped enough traffic that 2 police cars appeared and escorted us through town - took an hour. Went through our first toll booth, 410 pesos, about $4.10. The 4 toll roads and 1 bridge today coast 1580 pesos. Some of the toll roads are worse than the others. We're following the coast now and saw on floating oil rig, shipyard, fabrication shop - nothing like Bors. We pass the 'Mexican lawnmowers' on the roadside - lawn management is accomplished by herds of goats, single horse,cow or donkeys, a man with a machete and only once one with a weed eater.

Crossing the Tropic of Cancer

Cuidad Victoria to Tampico 141 miles.
Going through flat country still, beautiful agriculture or scrubby shrubs. We see herds of cows with white egrets standing beside them. Getting more tropical the farther south. You see many, many religious memorials beside the roads to honor all that have lost their lives on the highways. They drive like maniacs. There are bus spots and sleek modern buses running throughout Mexico until you reach a remote jungle region which has white tires hanging in the trees indicating a bus stop. The houses are tiny, 300 - 400 sq. ft. made of 2 " sticks, bark or concrete. We're inching over many topes, (speed bumps), going through the small towns and they are dynamite! There is no electricity here for traffic lights so these definitely slow traffic. The Yucca flowers people are selling, are 16" by 8" and are cooked and eaten like cabbage. Got into the Country Inn Hotel and RV Park at 11:30 and had a lovely relaxing day socializing around the pool (not heated) in the sunshine amidst wonderful flowers. Had social hour in the palapa and then dinner at the adjoining restaurant which was good.

Crossing the Rio Grande

Today'2 trip - Mission, Texas to C.D. (city of) Victoria. Out of the park at 8 a..m. and we 'staged' (lined up) in the turning lane until the cars were hooked up and we were off together. We crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico and saw all the small tin houses on the riverbank. We're in flat country with decent roads, even have a 6' side emergency lane. Need it because people roar past in the middle.
We're passing corn, sorhgum and field crops. Houses have rebar sticking out the top because they didn't have to pay taxes until it was finished but that changed a few years back. The fenceposts are just tree branches with barb wire strung along them. Farther on they have changed to concrete. Little wood is used because of termites as we get more into the tropics. People stand by the roadside selling shrimp, oranges, yucca flowers and are drying meat.
Speeds are from 35 - 55 miles per hour. Some roads are incredible rough.
Arrived in CD Victoria at 3 p.m. where my 'Mexican' driver asks, "Cerveza. por favor!"

Travelling in Texas

I 10 finally opened Thur. at 10 a.m. and away we went. Left the West and the cactus and moving into Central Texas with grasses, pecan, oak and sumac trees with goat and sheep ranches. Went through Laredo, very colonial Spanish and cowboy influence. The house were small but some even had columns on the porches. The cemeteries were filled with bright colored flowers, even deep purple. Slept at a gas station overnight and arrived at Mission to join our Caravan. What a reception - the Canadian couple that were stuck in the snowstorm 2 days. Rushed off to the Border to get our Visas and a hologram put on the MHome. Now we can't sell it until we return to the Border and the Mexicans have to take it off or they assume we've sold it in Mexico. Our tires just got thumped to make sure we're awake. There are 20 in the group and we're off at 8 a.m.

Trapped in Texas

Well, woke to 23 degrees today and frozen waterlines. Ron says this is cause for divorce, taking him away from a sunny 80 in Palm Springs into this. We are 172 miles from San Antonio and I 10 is still closed for 250 miles. If you are caught on it, you get a citation - ticket. We have about 500 miles to get to Mission, where we leave for our Mexican Caravan Saturday. We hope to get out of here Thursday.
The farmers aren't worried because the cotton crop is in and as long as the cows get food and water they'll be fine.
There are trucks everywhere, even stuck on the road shoulders. Saw 1 trying to pull the other out of the frozen snow and all that was pulled off was his back bumper. Apparently he'll need a wrecker and in this 'inclement weather' the charge is $1200.00. This is the parking lot of the Super 8 Motel, filled with trucks beside the sign saying No Truck Parking and lined up down the road. We're in their RV Park across the road. Fortunately Ron got the sattelite working even though we're getting far away from Canada, and enjoyed the Canucks game last night. Time for reading and sewing today.

Delay in Texas

Surprise today. Woke to 25 degrees and headed east at 8:20.
There was a skiff of powdery snow on the side of the road. Got 43 miles to Sonora and by then it was heavier and icing over. Starting to look ugly. We found that I 10 East was closed, so we had to backtrack to the campground and here we are for the day and just 1 night, we hope.
The truck stop is full, the hotel rooms are sold out, the town has opened the community hall to stranded travellers, and about 70 big rigs are parked in the motel parking lot. There is a huge storm going through the middle of Texas and we're smack in the middle of it. No wheels turning around here today. Here we are stopped behind the stop sign.

Texas

Our RV Park gave us a buy one, get one free coupon for breakfast at the Petro TA Truck Plaza. I made my own small waffle, which was shaped like Texas and also enjoyed some hot pepper soup - had a hint of chilies in it. It's Martin Luther King Day here, honoring him for his work to achieve racial equality. We're close to the Rio Grande, with Mexico on the other side, and there's Border Patrol vehicles every few miles. We're heading straight East in I10 into the middle of Texas. West Texas is flat now . What used to be a rich hunting ground of buffalo, wild turkeys and waterfowl for the American Indians, and ranchland after the Civil War, has had most water springs deferred to irrigation and is now prairie grass, yucca and greasedwood. Very dry and arrid. By noon, we are following the Texas Mountain Trail. We're going past flat topped hills, mesas, that look like they were all levelled off. Saw some windmills like they have in Palm Springs. These generate enough electricity for 30,000 home using 107 wind turbines. It's the Southwest Mesa Wind Project, one of the world's largest and most productive wind power projects. Cold, even saw frost on the cactus.
We got to Ozona, about 350 miles into Texas to overnight.

A Large Roadrunner

We woke to 22 degrees outside this morning but watched the sunrise and waited to warm up after running 2 heaters all night. We drove east through Arizona until we entered New Mexico at 10 a.m. Flat land as far as the eye can see, rimmed away in the distance with foothills, of which many are shaped like little pyramids. Saw 5 cows once and the pale yellow grassland and sand goes forever.
New Mexico is know for ancient pueblos, the dwellings carved in rock cliffs the early American Indians lived in, adobe architecture, red rock cliffs and ristas, the colorful strings of sun dried Chile peppers draped over doorways to ward off evil, welcome visitors and alert guests to the fiery food served there. We crossed the Continental Divide, and the Rio Grande River which was wide and shallow with sand bars. Saw this roadrunner sculpture, which was about 20 feet high, at a rest stop before
Las Cruces, the only significant town we went through. It means there was a little forest of crosses marking the graves of a caravan ambushed by Mescalero Apaches and became a major supply point in the 1840's for mining and the forts that protected the trade routes to Sante Fe and points west. Entered Texas by 2 p.m., went through El Paso which stretched 24 miles and stopped at the Mission RV Park for the night.

Arizona

Woke up to 21 outside and 48 inside despite having a heater running all night long. We are wondering if we are going in the wrong direction after our sun and swimming weather for the past 2 months.
Anyway, off we went with sunshine, into the flat land of Arizona. The road is straight as far as the eye can see, surrounding by foothills, (they call them mountains) interesting names - Dome Rock, New Water, Eagle Tail, Bighorn and Gila Bend Mountains. I can just image the Indians or people coming across the country by covered wagon seeing these things and naming the area.
Went through Phoenix which looked modern and Tuscan, looked 40 - 50 years old and not renovated.
East California and west Arizona have Ocotillo cactus, which look like a bunch of dried
sticks 6 feet tall, but become green and have red flowers on the tips in bloom. Next 100 miles we saw Saguaro cactus which grow 30 - 40, even 50 feet,and can live for more than 200 years. Here they are with their 'human like' shape. They only grow in 3 places: southern Arizona, in California along the Colorado River and in the Sonora state of Mexico. It's blossom, the state flower, appears in May and June. Native American Indians used the fruit for food and used it for beverages also.
Arrived in Benson, 20 miles east of Tuscan and parked at our AOR park for the night.

Driving in a Sand Storm

Amazing weather. We left Desert Hot Springs Friday, Jan 12 at 49 degrees, in sun but very cold and new snow on the mountains, down quite low. It was even snowing in Banning west of here.We're headed east on I10 to Texas for our Mexico trip. We left California, crossed the Colorado River into Arizona and fueled up at Ehrenberg Flying J Plaza, $178.00. Sounds high but our 'hotel' bills are nothing. Very windy - Ron was really hanging onto the steering wheel. An hour later, we got into a hail storm with zero visibility for 15 miinutes and it built some 'snow' up on the windshield. An hour later it was dry and bingo! we were enveloped in a sandstorm - visibility down to 100 feet. If you look very closely at the picture, you can barely see the headlights of the oncoming car and 18 wheeler behind the 1st one in the left lane. Could not even see a horizon, amazing! Got to Quartzsite at 3:45 their time and parked it.

Dinner at Pak Inn

Bocci and shopping were the choices today and we all went off to the
Pak Inn for a Chinese Buffet of 110 items. All delicious and something for everyone.

The Giraffe

Virginia and Irv from Langley, and Chuck and Karen from Kamloops arrived Sunday. We had 8 Sirloin hamburgers at the Clubhouse that we'd won in pool and bocci tournaments.
Monday, the ladies went off and toured through Palm Springs, stopped at Ruby's for a look. This is a hamburger diner straight out of the 60's, all done in black, red and white with curved booths and counters. We had lunch at the Elephant Bar, a great place with bamboo, palm fronds, statues of elephants and monkeys and amazing pictures of animals in the wild.
Next stop was the Living Desert, a wild animal park. We toured the Butterfly Exhibit, another of Gini's favorites and then watched the giraffes. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of the baby born last Aug., but here's his mom. They were being shy and didn't come over to where we were but they were so nice to see.

Bocci Ball

Ron and Mike play bocci ball every Tuesday and Thursday. CJ and Joan joined in while they were here. Here's Ron and Frank who runs it. Winners get a free Sirloin hamburger at the Sunday night BBQ.