May to August, 2008
After
returning from Christmas holidays in Hawaii, Robert & I hoped to travel
some more, and after talking with some old friends of his from Belize,
we embarked on the monumental task of towing the Airstream south of the
border! (The
reason we have very few photos from the first half of our journey is that
our computer was stolen in Ciudad del Carmen, and with it all of our picture
files.)
We spent several months in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi &
Texas preparing for our journey and visiting friends and family, and on May 9th we crossed the border at
Los Indios, not far from Brownsville TX, but
much
quicker than fighting the crowds at Matamoras.
Our first
stop, 230 miles later at the Country Contessa Express Hotel, was not much
more than a rest-stop, but it was a guarded parking lot where we could
rest in safety, and in the morning we continued south 200 miles to Nautla,
to a
Trailer Park De Alba, managed by Mike Burke from New England. We
were also fortunate to meet his friend Mike Gear, who gave us valuable driving
and
camping
advice and helped to calm us down after all the crazy Mexican speed bumps,
aka "topes". If you have not experienced driving in Mexico, they use
speed bumps instead of stop signs or traffic lights to slow motorists,
often with no warning. Some topes are small, well-marked, and
benign, but others are truly dangerous, like hopping an invisible curb at
45 mph, and can cause severe damage to truck axels and trailer hitches.
So early on
in our travels we discovered the wisdom of driving slowly and taking more
time to rest and recover between trips. After spending 5 days with
Mike and Mike, we continued 188 miles to the lovely area of Lago Catemaco
and
Hotel Tepetepan. The RV parking is a grassy park next to the
hotel pool, and we were in RV-luxury here with water and sewer hookups,
washing machine, wi-fi, and enough electricity to run our A/C! And
we were the only people there, other than Gene, the manager from Chicago!
Nice guy and nice park.
Our next stop was supposed to be an RV park on the outskirts of the big
city of Villa Hermosa, but the manager
had
already closed the park and turned off the electricity for the low season.
But what we did find was a WalMart
parking lot! So after a
few hours of sleep, we got back on the road and drove to
beautiful Isla Aguada, and Freedom
Shores RV Park. Once again, we had the whole park to ourselves
--- even the
owner was
gone for the low-season ---and saw no other US tourists for the 2 weeks we
were there. But the seafood was great, and the staff treated us very
well.
From
Isla Aguada we traveled ENE to Merida, and then on to the Mayan ruins at
Chichen Itza. We parked out in front of the
Piramide Inn, and met some fun
travelers who we joined on a tour of the
ruins. One night we had a good rain storm, and our campsite became a
lake, but the next few days were clear, our lake dried up, and we moved on
with no worries.
Our
next destination was Xpu-Ha, but we had to stop in
Cancun first
to rest! We did have a good bike ride on the dirt roads on the way
to Isla Blanca, and we got to do some shopping at Walmart, Home Depot and
Sam's Club there, but we were
happy to move on from Cancun after a few nights.
Xpu-Ha is
not a well-marked area, and we actually stayed next-door to the campground
we were hoping to find, until Robert explored the neighborhood and found a
little
slice of paradise! Full hookups, a gorgeous stretch of beach, and
great neighbors, all
for $15/night! We have
arrived! Robert really enjoyed the fresh-water springs, or "cenotes"
that we found, including
one big bathtub that fed loads of fresh water right into the ocean.
Jeanie enjoyed feeding the resident iguanas, who would come out of their
hiding places every morning and fight for our papaya and mango skins,
hibiscus flowers and banana
peels!
Our neighbors Wendy & Gary were from Colorado, and we really enjoyed
getting to know them in
this peaceful place.
We stayed in
Xpu-Ha for 5 weeks, and from there we took
a
side trip to the Mayan ruins at Coba, where we climbed to the top of a
pyramid, and walked around some very well-kept ruins
for
several hours.
Since we'd borrowed a
book called "The Lost World of Quintana Roo", this area really came alive
for us. We also managed
to do a bike-ride to Akumal, plus several biking-day-trips to
the interesting
resort-city of Puerto
Aventuras. We got to see a sea-turtle
lay her eggs in the sand, snorkel in the Carribean for several
hours a day,
and best of all, we
found a wonderful
church
just up the
road at
Paamul, led
by a
great couple, Doug and Darla Millar. We joined
Gary, Wendy and their friends from Colorado on a
day-trip out to the
island of Isla Mujeres,
where we bicycled around the
island, and did more
snorkeling!
We even hunkered down in Xpu-Ha during tropical storm Dolly, which sped by
us on its way to becoming a hurricane off the coast of Brownsville on July
22nd.
We
finally left Xpu-Ha in August, and from there traveled south to Chetumal.
We pulled into Laguna Milagros
(Miracles Lagoon), a beautiful lakefront
park and
restaurant,
and we thought, "This would be a great site for a campground, let's stay
here!" The manager actually agreed with us, and even allowed Robert
to modify his electrical wiring
so we could
hook up our
electric line! Luis liked Robert's work so much, he let him fix the
wiring in his bar, too. Now he can open the fridge without getting
shocked!! Luis also let us stay an extra night for free in exchange
for his help.

From
Laguna Milagros we headed west to Palenque and more Mayan ruins.
Mike Gear had spoken very highly of the area and its beauty, and we were
not disappointed. We stayed within the
National Park grounds at a sweet place called Maya Bell, which had nice
facilities,
a large
swimming pool, beautiful gardens and birds, several other travelers, and
easy access
to the
ruins. We joined a group tour of the Palenque ruins,
which
was quite
informative, and spent a day touring the
temples and water system. There is
a beautiful system of
waterfalls and
walkways that flow through the grounds and cut through the jungle,
keeping it quite cool in the shade. The well-maintained
water system was probably one of the best things about Palenque compared
with other ruins
we'd visited. It's also
at
a much higher elevation, and the surrounding area is undeveloped, which
gives you the feeling of being transported back to a forgotten time.
On August 7
we packed up and left Maya Bell and Palenque, and drove
north, towards the US border. We stopped to rest at a few of our
favorite
places --- Lago Catemaco and Nautla --- and then took an inland route back
to Los Indios, staying for 2 nights in Ciudad Victoria,
at the Victoria RV Park. We crossed the border at noon on August
13th, and drove 432 miles to Victoria TX. We made it back to our
friends in Onalaska TX safely,
and were glad to be back on US roads!!
~ Robert &
Jeanie
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