Done! er, not quite...

12-19-12   Bacalar

Well, here we are, at our final destination. We're early! We decide to take advantage of the opportunity to head north and pick up a few more points, see some stuff, and camp on the beach. We camp at Xpu-Ha beach, met several fellow foriegners, went to a couple Cenotes and more Ruins. One of the ruins was the Tulum Site, it was very large and right on the coast. It was also very hot, Cara and I were kicking ourselves for not bringing some swimming gear into the park to take advantage of the white sandy beach and refreshing surf. The down side of Tulum was that it was crowded. It reminded me of disneyland, long line to get in and then people everywhere once you're in. Another site was all but abandoned, Cara and I were the only ones there aside from a bunch of Iguanas.

Old Rocks

12-18-12
After an early departure from Villerhermosa we were feeling pretty good. We were back on track for the rally time-wise, now we just needed to find a few challenges to try and pick up some points. Just down the road a bit is Palenque, a ruins site I wanted to visit even before I found out it was a rally challenge. We found our way to it, declined all the offers for guides, charms, guarding our car, washing our car, and translation services. A short walk past the entrance and we were greeted by some spectacular ruins, this was the best yet!

Our first day alone we Managed to travel around Mexico to a town called Cuernavaca. We reached the RV park shortly after dark, but not before experiencing the finest drivers Mexico had to offer. The roads had deteriorated to essentially bumpy dirt roads where a major 6 lane divided highway used to be, there was something of a traffic jam due to an accident, and the traffic was total Chaos. If you weren't willing to be assertive with your driving you'd never get anywhere, so I pushed the Donkey on through the mess. Surprisingly, we made it through unscathed, though there was alot of horn blowing and unidentifiable gestures.

After asking for directions at a Pemex, we found the RV Park. It was in what appeared to be a terrible neighborhood, but it was gated and appeared secure. And closed.

Tope Tope Tope!!!

12-15-12

We drove until almost midnight and camped on the edge of a lake in Valley de Bravo. It was pretty dang cold, I was again wearing every piece of warm clothing I had brought with me.

The next morning brought us scenic vistas and the warmth of sunshine, we were sweating before noon. Then we hit the road. The plan was to check out a Volcano (rally challenge) on our way to Oaxaca. We stopped in the mountains @ about 2pm for some taco stand goodness at 9500'. Unfortunately all the goodness was eaten up already, we were stuck with taco stand badness. If you want good tacos don't try to buy them between 1-5pm.

After some crappy tacos, I was in a bad mood. I told everyone we were traveling with that our schedules don't work very well together (we get up early and don't want to drive after sundown) and that Cara and I are gonna try Mexico Solo. Looking at the map I don't feel that our current route is feasible given the time we have. We exchange contact info and blast off, into the unknown. Thus the real adventure begins!

Butterflies!

12-14-12

We left the land of waterslides and flashlight toting mexican monsters, breaking camp and hitting the road near noon. Our challenge for the day was to visit the Monarch Butterfly reserve. Unsure of our route, we meandered our way across the countryside. We found ourselves climbing the mountain up a Tope filled road (Tope's are speed bumps. Mexican roads have them everywhere, randomly placed exactly where you wouldn't expect them). Near 10,000 feet we met the Welcome Toll Booth. It was at the entrance to El Rosario, the town that hosts the entrance to the Butterfly reserve.

The Welcome toll booth was very charismatic, it was a small hut with 10 people in it sitting around waiting for someone to show up. If someone shows up (like we did) an orchestra of activity gets set into motion. A couple people pull a rope taunt to block the entrance, with a sign attached to it declaring 'ALTO' (stop). A local approaches and greets us, welcoming us. Another local aproaches holding a book of tickets. Oh, we need to pay? Quatro pesos to welcome us? Fair enough. There was a crowd around the Welcome toll booth, I think this was a significant meeting area for the town.

 A few miles later, I have my second experience with the mexican spider monkeys.

Catching up

OK, I'm a bit behind on the blogging. With so much driving and activity with the Rally I haven't had much time, plus getting a good enough cell signal to upload any pictures has been challenging. Having said that, I don't really have any pertinent pics for this entry so maybe I''l try to find something non-related but neat in it's own way to entertain the three people who actually read these. We're actually back in the states (Texas) now and my US phone has good enough data to make this stuff work. I wrote a bunch of stuff while in Mexico and will post it starting here...

 <-- about the most universal bathroom sign I've ever seen.











12-13-12

The second day of the rally finds us still at the start, camping in Guanajuato. We had accomplished two challenges already, but at the cost of one of our vehicles.
Scott's Toyota wasn't happy, and only managed to barely limp back to the parking lot we were calling home the previous night. Scott and Eddie Diagnosed the problem, I ventured into the wilds of Guanajuato to try and find an auto parts store to supply us with a fuel pump. I brought my trusty assistant, Cara, and she was able to guide me to and from the parts store without difficulty. A fuel pump and some electrical  trickery and Scott's truck was running better than ever. We had to make another stop at the parts store on our way out of town, We finally hit the road at 3:30 pm.

Our journey took us south into Morelia on and unsucsesful chinese food hunt. We retreated out of town with our tails tucked between our legs, unable to provide ourselves with pork fried rice. It seems we're not the provideres we fancied ourselves to be. Google took us on another interesting and unnecesary scenic tour, and we were able to drive through most of the busiest and most congested streets of Morelia at 6pm.

 We met this fellow in the lobby at Migracion. We decided to leave before our number was called.







At about 7pm, I managed to miss a turn because of my unfamiliarity of road names and destinations. We spent 30 minutes figuring out that there was no easy way back onto the highway without backtracking, then we backtracked to the wrong turn. At this point we had ground our golden rule into dust. We promised ourselves we wouldn't drive after dark in Mexico. We charged on into the darkness. Near or about 11 pm we found what appeared to be an abandoned lot with a fence around it. This was where there was supposed to be a campground of some sort. We wandered around, drove down a bunch of streets, and couldn't find anything that looked like a campground. Finally we resorted to asking for directions. An admital of failure. There happened to be a guy parked right beside where we thought the campground should be sitting in his car. We asked him if he knew of any campgrounds in the area. After smashing ourselves into the language barrier for a while, he took pity upon us and led us to the entrance to the campground, some 300 yards away. Which was closed. A big set of locked doors. We found a doorbell button and pressed it a few times, then waited. Then we pushed it a few more times. Just before we gave up, we saw some flashlights bobbing around in the distance. Then the flashlights began galloping towards us. It looked like some sort of sci-fi movie from the 60's. Soon the galloping sci-fi monsters materialized into mexicans, and were very helpful and accommodating. One even spoke decent broken english, which is rare for a galloping 1960's sci-fi flashlight. We got lucky.

You can use your imagination for this one.









After getting settled Shane, Eddie and myself toured the establishment. We figured out that it was a water park, and the water was supplied via geothermal springs. It had a neverending supply of water heated in the biggest water heater in the world. The water heater was in fact, the whole world. Cool. We didn't go swimming, instead, we decided to go to bed about 2am.

No Problem.

 

12-12-12

What a cool date, but what a challenging day!

First official day of the Rally and we're supposed to meet up outside of town somewhere for a convoy into the center of town and the official beginning of the rally. Meet at the Applebees next to the Holiday Inn on the road into town. Sounds simple enough...

My sense of direction (or lack thereof) isn't helped by the confusion designed into the roads and tunnels of Guanajuato. Google Maps has been my friend for a long time in unfamiliar areas, although it sometimes takes me on what I refer to as the scenic route. Several of us leave the campsite almost on time, I plan on being last as I usually am but plug Holiday Inn into my phone just to see if they lead me on the same route as google would. Theres one on the map not far away so I figure that must be it and choose it.

The first bit of confusion is a guy at the entrance waving us all uphill because his delivery truck is blocking the route downhill that we normally take and are familiar with. The next intersection our convoy is stopped and/or turning around, seems like they're not sure where they're going. This is the way I originally came in, I'm a little familiar with it. And my gps says go this way anyways. I've got GPS, follow me! I'm now in the lead, and we make our way across town. At some point in traffic Scott winds up in the lead, no problem. A few minutes later another rally member passes everyone and stops us, directing us to another route. Gps reroutes and seems this path works also, No Problem! That person drops back and lets Scott continue to lead. A short while later we see another rally member, a local, heading a different direction. Well thats odd, I wonder where he's going? Oh well, I'm sure we'll see him at the start. We meander up some side roads, Eddie and myself are the only ones in radio communication at the time. He asks me if we're going the right way, I tell him google says so, Scott has been staying on the right track. Eventually we stop and the route takes a sharp turn up an alleyway. Everyones a bit confused at this point, this doesn't really sound like the directions we were told before departing. At this point we're down to about 4 vehicles, the others have all taken different routes.

I look at my GPS and is indicates we're only about a kilometer from the Holiday Inn. As I've experienced before, sometimes Google takes you to the back door or side street, I figure we're just going the back way so I charge ahead to figure it out, telling everyone else to chill for a minute. I quickly realize google has us on a terrible route, and the road diminishes to little more than a footpath. Cara suggests turning around, but I know we're close to our destination and urge Donkey on, we bounce along happily on an overgrown dirt track. We eventually are deposited back onto pavement but find our path hindered by low hanging christmas decorations. I climb out and remove Donkey's CB antennae to provide clearance and make our way to the end of the route.


Huh. This isn't a Holiday Inn at all. I look at my GPS and choose a random road that I hope will return us to a major road. I call for Eddie on the CB, no response...

Guanajuato and the Mexican Spider Monkey

 Camping was good, we stayed up too late and slept in, broke camp and hit the road about noon. Theres alot of toll roads in mexico, we spent $50-70 american. The free roads are often in sad shape.

Just outsode of Guadalajara we pulled into a rest stop and I was assulted by a kid about 5 years old before I even got outof the vehicle. He climbed up the side of the Donkey like a mexican spider monkey and before I knew what was happening he had the door open and was practically in my lap. He was chatting away in something not english, the only thing I could make out was an occasional 'Senor'. I shoo'd him away so his mom could wave a washcloth at me, which she did after babbling at me in her language.

We've been able to move much quicker on the mainland thanks to the toll road. We probably spent $50 on tolls the first day, but saved 2-3 hours by doing so. Much faster and better condition than Baja, but I would have opted for the free route if we weren't in a hurry. Not because it's faster, but because the toll roads skip everything, like an interstate in the US.

We found a street named Alaska. Had to take a picture.












While Stopped to take a picture of a streetsign, we noticed a taco stand and got lunch. While eating lunch, I noticed a key making stand. I needed a spare key so I tried to talk to the kid working it. Neither one of us could understand each other and we eventually decided he didn't have a blank that would match the Donkey. While failing to get a key made, I noticed a cool little sculpture and took another picture.









Our first day on the mainland we left Mazatlan, passed thru a couple Policia and Militaria checkpoints and made our way to Tequila! They have a town called Tequila! How cool is that? We actually stayed in a town called Etzatlan, a little south of Tequila. They were having some sort of festival, with lots of fireworks. It was pretty neat, we wandered around and watched some dancers, and also got to see lots of street vendors. To dark for decent pictures but I did get a one of the church.


It's sunday morning now, and we're within striking distance of Guanauato.

Leap and the net will appear...

A quote from a fellow traveler, the Dangerz. http://www.thedangerz.com  I felt it particular fitting for the past two days. As I mentioned in my last entry, we were faced with being in Mexico Illegally based upon what migracion and some semi-permanant residents (fellow americans) said. The US embassy wasn't helpful at all, and Migracion simply laughed at us. Faced with an impending deadline we tried to book tickets back to Tijuana to repair our mistake, halfway through the process online it timed out and the tickets dissapeared. Eddie called to attempt making reservations over the phone and was told he couldn't make reservations less than 6 hours prior to the flight. Huh. Theres less than an hour before the next flight (only tw o per day, unless you want to route through Mexico city, adding 14 hours to your travel time and an additional $400 each) so we ask the campground own er if we can leave our vehicles with her for a day. Sure. A fellow american wintering down here gives us a ride to the airport, we're winging it!

Whoops!

It seems that tourists permits are no longer available in La Paz. The border checkpoint at Guerro Negro told us they no longer issue them, and we needed to go back to the international border or on to La Paz to get one. Migracion (INM) in La Paz said we have to return to Tijuana to get them. What? Thats ridiculous. We're here trying to do the right thing and you won't let us? We better get out of Migracion before they arrest and deport us!

Sigh.  I'm writting this on my phone, onboard a flight to Tijuana. In the morning we plan on somehow getting valid papers and jumping on a return flight to La Paz.

On a brighter note,

 We left Rancho Santga Inez early and stopped at the first restaurant we saw. Abierto (open) 24 hours was apparently the name as that was the only markings I noticed out side, aside from the mandatory Tecate sign which indicates the presence of beer, and presumably food. We all had a good breakfast of huevos and chorizo with beans and tortillas.

No Caption Necessary.

No Caption Necessary.










We broke camp early and were on the road about the same time the sun was peeking over the mountains to our East. Just north of Ensenada we encountered our first Militaria Checkpoint. From everything I've read this should be uneventful, but we were nervous nonetheless. I stopped at a Mexican with a M16 and said 'Hola'. He replied 'Buenas Dias blah babbledy bla bla'. I gave my standard reply, 'no habla espanol'. He copied my reply back to me, nodded and walked to the back of the van. He returned momentarily and said 'adios'. We smiled, threw out a 'Gracias' and pulled out. Easy.

12-1-12, twenty days until the end.

Crossed into Mexico today at Tijuana, was extremely uneventful. The Mexican Border Guard wanted to see the Donkey's engine (to confirm it wasn't powered by enslaved mexicans, I assume) so I unpacked the cargo area and showed her. She was surprised that it was in the back, and a little confused until I showed her. We still have quite a bit of stuff living back there so it was a bit of a chore. After checking a few other areas for enslaved mexicans (our fridge and a footlocker in the back) she seemed satisfied and let us go. We happily motored out of the border area and were instantly deposited into TJ. It was so effortless, in fact, that we failed to get our tourist visas. Apparently we were standing right next to where we needed to get them, but couldn't figure it out due to our Norte Americanoism. I made that up. We're currently working on the assumption that playing dumb might keep us out of trouble until we can get the correct paperwork.