un día más

One more day in Chetumal! It is raining and the laundry is not done yet. The caravan from Hell left for two days to visit Tulum and is now back, kicking more people out of their spots. It must have been wet in Tulum because the laundry lady is inundated with work. Ours will be ready tomorrow and then we will decide what to do. It has been very relaxing here but we do have to be on our way sometime!

The Caravan from Hell!

Honda Maintenance Day

The small problem I had with the Honda battery the other day reminded me to do some maintenance. This 89 Accord was my dad's car and he would be turning in his grave if he knew how badly I neglect it. He used to wash it twice a week and I wash it three or four times a year. He would never let a scratch or rock chip go unrepaired and now it has many of those. It has over 250,000 KM on it and is perfect for Mexico as another ding would never be noticed and we can park and drive it without fear of being mistaken for rich gringos.

I put new tires on it before we left Canada and since we tow it on the dolly, the rear tires get many more KMs on them than the front. I found a tire place (Llantara) today and had them rotated. Cost was $50 pesos or $4.50 CAN. Labour is badly undervalued in Mexico.

When the mechanico cleaned the battery posts the other day he showed me the engine oil was a little low so I went in search of a place to get it changed. I found a Pro 1 shop that was changing the oil in a taxi so I figured that was a pretty good recommendation and pulled in. I had my own oil (but no filter) if I needed it but the guy had everything on hand and supplied the filter and 20 - 50 oil. I bought an extra filter from him for next time and the bill came to $380 pesos ($34 CAN). This is quite a bit (for Mexico) but oil is very expensive here for some reason and multi-grade is hard to find. Everyone else seems to use straight 30 weight. As usual, there were no appointments needed and no line-ups. I waited for him to finish the cab in front of me and another guy pulled in out front while I was being worked on. No muss, no fuss no bait and switch and I was on my way. Another beautiful day in Mexico and the Honda is good for another 5000 KM. Yes dad, I will wash it.

Parigee Moon Tonight

Tonight is the largest full Moon of 2010. It is a perigee Moon and is 14% larger than other full Moons of the year. The planet beside it tonight is Mars which is also having a close encounter with Earth.

Nikon D200 using my Nikon 70 – 300 at 300 exposed using the “Moony 11 Rule”. There was a little haze tonight so even using my monopod, it is not as clear as it could be.

The New(est) Plan

Last night as we were eating at our new favorite restaurant (that Kathe recommended last year) when we saw two women reading the menu at the door and looking unsure. Norma went out to tell them the fish tacos were excellent and they came in. We chatted and discovered they were from BC and one was a friend of Roger and Connie, our friends from Duncan. One of the women and Roger grew up together in Caycuse, a logging camp on Vancouver Island! It is indeed a small world.

We have been watching the Yucatan weather on the Internet and it is the same cloudy conditions and threatening thunderstorms all the way up the coast! We are comfortable here in Chetumal and there are still things to see. Norma went over and paid for another four nights to get us past the weekend and then we will make a run for Cancun. From there we will take the passenger ferry to Isla Mujeres and spend a couple of nights in a hotel.

So this is The New Plan. Subject to change but that is the best thing about it. We are not on a schedule! Life is good!

Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Last night President Obama stepped up to the plate and called on Congress to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, an immoral policy that forces American soldiers to lie about their sexual orientation and prevents LGBT people from serving openly in the US military. It is far past time to get rid of this shameful legislation and accept the fact that “All people are created equal…”. I applaud the President for this progressive action.

If you want a glimpse of the frustration and the de-humanizing experience of having a gay partner serving in the US military under the present rules, do yourself a favour and read this post in Pam’s House Blend Blog.

Mexican Mechanics

When we headed out for Sam’s Club and dinner yesterday the Honda would not start. We pushed it over to the front of the motorhome for a jump start and when I opened the hood, I saw a mass of green corrosion over the terminals. I don't know what caused it. The battery is a year and a half old and was clean when we left home in November. It may have something to do with the high humidity down here.

Downtown we stopped at a Taller Mechanico, showed him the problem and asked him to clean it up. He cleaned the terminals and battery and coated the terminals with grease before checking the starting. He then checked all fluid levels, topped up the brake fluid, gave me the rest of the can and wiped up. Total cost? $60 pesos or about $5.40 CAN. I love Mexico!

Caravan Woes

RV caravans seem to be the bane of my existence down here. When we went to pay for an additional night yesterday we were told there was no problem with staying but we would have to move as a caravan had booked all the waterfront sites. We could not complain too much as we had only booked the site for a week and that was over. We moved over to the fence and set up the Star Choice again.

As it turns out this caravan is the same one we had the problem with last year in Isla de Aguada when they forced the owner to kick us out of our prime site. The leader, a French Canadian woman with a bad attitude, threatened to take back her deposit and move on if he did not clear all the waterfront sites for her and her twenty RVs. The owner made us and two others an offer we could not refuse involving free nights and free meals in the restaurant.

Anyway, talking to a couple of members of this latest caravan only reinforces my opinion of them. Most of the people do not know where they are going and have very little idea of where they have been but are simply engaged in a boring game of “Follow the Leader”. They have paid thousands of dollars for an 85 days “tour” of Mexico. All they get for their money is overnight parking which may be in a playground with no hook-ups just as easily as in a regular RV park. They have no say in the schedule and simply shut up and follow the rig in front, usually at ridiculously slow speeds. I bet the Mexican truckers and bus drivers just love to get behind twenty RVs moving along at thirty KM under the speed limit! Oops, there is something going on. I have to leave!

Well there was just another incident! The caravan parked yesterday before they dumped. Today they evidently drew numbers to determine the order in which they would move to the dump site to dump. Another RV from Texas (Turtle-Toad from RV.net) was waiting to leave so he just drove over to the dump. This started a great argument between him and the caravan member who considered it to be his turn to dump. He was reminded that they were not the the only people in the park and as they were not leaving today there was no rush. There was a lot of arm waving and loud voices so I went over to see if Mike needed reinforcements but he had the caravan guy backed down by then. Don’t mess with Texas!

This all reminds me of the time I talked to another caravan member in Merida last year. I asked him what he thought of Mexico so far and he said, “All I have seen of Mexico is the back end of #6. I am #7”. I asked another member what highway they had come down on and he had no idea, he just follows the guy in front and listens to the walkie talkie. This is “seeing” Mexico? No thanks.

Plans Are Made To Be Changed

We awoke to rain this morning. We only have ourselves to blame after having the rig washed yesterday but in any case, it is raining. At least it was raining when we decided to delay our departure for a day and Norma went over with $300 pesos for another night. It has stopped now and it actually looks like the sun might be coming out!

No problem, we are ahead of schedule and another day in the new hamaca with my book will not hurt. Tonight we will head back to our new favorite restaurant for more $16 peso fish tacos, and maybe try a camerone cocktail with them.

I did not sleep well last night in any case as I developed a severe toothache! I have a huge gold bridge back there and had fears of needing a root canal on one of the anchor teeth. I overdosed on extra strength Tylenol and finally got to sleep and when I woke up - no toothache! It may have simply been nuralgia and that may be the end of it. If it was a physical problem with the tooth, I would not have expected it to leave on it's own. We have given up our high cost / low benefit dental plan in Canada so I hope whatever has to be done will show itself here in Mexico where a competent dentist can be found and I will not have to mortgage the house to pay him.

The bad news is the owner just came over to tell us our space, and all the waterfront spaces, is reserved for tonight by a caravan and we will have to move to the other side of the park. Once again we are being pushed around by a caravan! We will do it because we desperately need to dump anyway and the owner offered us a free night for our inconvenience. I just hope I can find the satellite signal again. It is much easier to lay around a watch TV when we actually have TV...

Well, three hours later and we have dumped, have a StarChoice signal and have a WIFI signal. We may have to stay another night to recover...

We Leave Tomorrow!

Tomorrow we leave Chetumal and head up the Caribbean Coast towards Cancun where the weather is supposed to be great. We are going to attempt to avoid the over-Gringoized Paa Mul RV park and look into another park at Xpu-Ha ("Shpoo-Ha"). I got a comment from John yesterday telling me this park was full but we will go in for a look anyway. We might get lucky.

In any case, there is no WIFI there so it may be a couple of days before you hear from me. Keep watching as I will post when I can.

Tonight we went downtown for a final Chetumal meal of fish tacos. Delicious!

New Hamaca

We found a hamaca (hammock) salesman on the street near the market. He had a few samples on a fridge dolly and his asking prices were reasonable, much better than the $85 USA asked in Majahual a few days ago. We wanted a larger one than he had displayed and in a darker colour. Claudia insisted I buy a more “masculine” colour. The Mayan salesman took us to his storage area where he had hundreds of hammocks stacked against the wall. We picked out a brown, synthetic fibre “matrimonial” size and asked the price. The salesman pulled out a calculator and entered $485 pesos. We countered with a ridiculously low $250 and we settled on $350. A very good deal for a good quality product at far less than half what they demanded for a smaller, inferior product the other day! Cruise ship passengers beware, you are not getting a fair price. The colour on this one even matches the brown on the motorhome. Life is Good!

I love dealing and bargaining with the Mayan People! They always have a big, infectious smile on their face and they never take offense at a low bid. They always get their bottom line price while making sure you walk away feeling you got the best possible deal. Everyone wins! I love the Mayan People!