Tampico to Rio Verde

After a quick breakfast we got off to a fairly early start this morning. We found the Tampico Bypass described in the Church’s book and made the u-turn into the Pemex station to enter the Liberamento. As I made the turn, we noticed a four or five inch dropoff from the pavement of the highway onto the gravel in front of the Pemex. I slowed down as much as I could and we made the turn with a lot of twisting of the motorhome and banging as the car dolly bottomed out (for the thousandth time this year)!

The Church’s instructions were perfect and we completed all the unmarked turns for the Bypass and soon found our way to Mex 70 headed towards San Luis Potosi. This road was not bad for the first half or so when it changed to a narrow, winding road full of potholes and washboard climbing up some pretty steep hills. The V10 got a good workout on many of these and the brakes equally so on the accompanying downhill runs. Claude had a little easier time with his Mercedes diesel. We also noticed the difference between the gas and the diesel when we stopped for gas! I took over $1000 Pesos while Claude filled up for $360! We both drove the same distance at the same speed. To be fair to the Ford though, Claude is 24 feet compared to my 31 and is not towing a car. Still……. Three times the cost…..

We arrived in Rio Verde at about four and, after many sets of questions and instructions found the local Bodega Aurrera, the Mexican Wal-Mart where we are parked for the night. Claude, whose Spanish is much better than mine, asked the manager if we could park and we were immediately granted permission. We are in the back part of the parking lot and I think it will be very quiet. We went shopping in the store and stocked up on a few things, including some nice shrimp that we fried up for dinner. It was another great day and we have covered a lot of ground in the past two days.

Tomorrow will find us in Matehuala, near the unique little Puebla of Real de Catorce. This is an old mining town where many movies were filmed and the Puebla has not changed much since it’s early days. It will be fun to explore. Perhaps there will even be Internet available tomorrow…

Emerald Coast to Tampico

We left the De Alba about ten and headed North. The road was nothing to write home about but all in all was not too bad. It was better than I expected after hearing some of the stories. We made it to Tampico about three in the afternoon and found the Restaurante Pedro Alpino recommended in the Church’s guide. We had planned on eating in the attached restaurant but when we arrived everything was closed. There was a caretaker who collected $50 Pesos each from us to dry camp behind the restaurant. We were alone so we found room for the two rigs on a level spot.

After a beer or two, Danielle and Claude offered to make pasta for dinner! Well, I have had a craving for pasta for weeks so I was certainly not going to turn it down. It was delicious! We finished dinner off with a piece of carrot cake that I had bought at the Italian Coffee Company the night before and a cup of Veracruz coffee, which is, in my opinion, the best coffee in the world! We made friends with a pup who lives on the grounds and asked him to watch over us until morning. He must have because we slept very soundly until morning.

Here is the view beside our camping spot:

Translation

I burned out a brake light bulb on the motorhome the other day and we stopped at a Ford dealer where I hoped to replace it. Claude was following me so we both went up to the store where an employee was outside taking a break. I showed him the burned out bulb and asked him if they had a parts department. He started speaking rapid Spanish that I did not have a hope of following. I asked him again in a bit simpler manner and got the same response. This time Claude understood and started walking away with me following. As we walked back to the motorhomes he told me what the guy had said. The only problem was, he translated the whole conversation into French! I let him go on for a bit and nudged him. He looked at me and I said, “Claude, you are speaking French! The Spanish was just as easy for me to understand”. We had a good laugh and he told me in English that it was a holiday and the Parts Department was closed. It must be nice to be tri-lingual! I have no excuses!

Birthday Party

Tonight we all got invited to a birthday party for the handicapped daughter of the owners of the de Alba RV park here on the Emerald Coast. It was a great party, attended by everyone. The food was prepared by the restaurant staff and was plentiful and delicious! It was a great evening finished off with a little of my precious Single Malt. Tomorrow is moving day but not too early!

The Party

Steve and Claude enjoying a cigar

Veracruz To The Emerald Coast

Last night our friends Ken and John pulled in to the El Rey RV Park. They told us about their latest adventure involving a mysteriously pushed in door on their car while they were towing it and a dump truck driver who claimed they had hit him and torn his bumper off. Considering the truck bumper was about three feet off the ground and their damage was about a foot high, not even the cops gave them much attention. When faced with having the dump truck impounded along with Ken and John’s motorhome pending an investigation, the truck driver backed down and admitted he may have made a mistake. Ken still has no idea what happened to his car but they knew it was not caused by the dump truck. There was simply too much damage to the dump truck.

When we said our goodbyes to Ken and John and pulled out this morning I was not sure I could back out of my spot easily. I had parked close to the beach on some soft sand and when the motorhome was washed, the rig sank down a little. I started it up, tried to move ahead a little and then gave it some gas in reverse. It came right out! I don’t know what I would have done if it had not. Call AAA?

We headed north looking for the Veracruz Bypass as going through downtown Veracruz is not an option. We finally saw a turnoff going to where we wanted to go and although it was not the turnoff we were looking for, we took it anyway as we feared we were getting too close to town. It worked out fine and after a long drive around the city we ended up on Mex 180 heading for the Emerald Coast. It was another typical Mexican secondary road, narrow, potholed and winding. We made slow going until we found a nice little fish restaurant in a small town we passed through. We stopped and had camerone cocteils and pescado fridos (shrimp cocktails and whole fried fish). Everything was delicious and we soon pulled into the El Alba RV Park recommended this morning by Ken. It is on the ocean, has a pool and is very reasonable at $170 pesos a night. The ocean here is an emerald green and warm (26 Celsius last night). It may be a little too rough for swimming but seeing we have the pool, who cares. As we pulled in, I was recognized by Steve, one of my Blog readers! Here is Steve's Blog. We had a great time meeting Steve and Danielle over a beer before I finished off the evening watching the Canucks loose to Phoenix. Even this was not enough to ruin another perfect day and here on Mexico’s Emerald Coast, Life Is Good!

Laundry Woes

We have always had good luck having our laundry done here in Mexico. They take it in the morning and return it in the afternoon, spotless, folded and in plastic bags. The cost is always less than we used to pay in laundromats in the USA. It was one of these laundry services that returned $200 pesos she found in my pocket. Today we got ripped off. We asked Eric, the Mexican worker at the RV park here if there was a laundry service and he said there was but there was a problem. He phoned someone who spoke English who told us the laundry man’s truck was broken down but that Eric would take the laundry to them this morning and pick it up for us tonight.  Sure enough he was here to pick up the laundry at 9:00 am.

Tonight he returned our three bags of clean laundry with the bill. We were charged $390 pesos ($38 CAN) for what they said was 21 kilos of laundry! There is no way there was forty-five pounds of laundry unless they weighed it wet. It was not Eric’s fault, he was just the delivery guy. Our argument was with the laundry and nobody there speaks English. Going by what we have paid previously, probably $200 - $250 pesos would be the most they should have charged. It is not worth driving back to the previous town to argue over $150 - $200 pesos. We would probably lose the argument anyway and end up even more frustrated and disappointed. We will just write it off as a bad experience and will not let it cloud our otherwise very positive opinions of Mexican people. We will just be more careful next time. It was not only us as Claude and Danielle were charged $200 pesos for one bag.

The advantage of dropping the laundry off yourself is obvious. They weigh it and charge you when you drop it off. If the price is outrageous, you simply walk away. Letting them do the washing before you know the price leaves you open to overcharging. Lesson learned.

We felt bad because we did not tip Eric who used his own car to deliver the laundry. We were so upset that we counted out the exact amount and no more. Maybe the laundry paid him or maybe they didn’t. They could certainly afford to! I will have to give him a few pesos when we leave. As I said, it was not his fault.

Red Snapper Veracruzana

I have been waiting for months to get a meal of authentic Red Snapper Veracruzana. Today I got my wish and it was delicious! We drove into Veracruz and found a nice restaurant on the Centro. Claude, Danielle and I ordered the Red Snapper Veracruzana and Norma had camerones.We had a table right on the Centro and watched the action as we ate. It was a wonderful day!

Patiently waiting for our food

The waiter delivers

Red Snapper Veracruzana!

Claude celebrates the meal with a cigar

The Perfect Shoes

Claude and Danielle have a wedding to attend as soon as they get back to Montreal. Danielle has been looking for the "Perfect Shoes" for a while now and Claude and I have been exercising great patience while Danielle with her sidekick Norma have been scouting out many shoe stores for the perfect pair. Today they met with success! Zocalo Street in Veracruz has two solid blocks of shoe stores so if you cannot find a pair there then you probably cannot find a pair at all. Danielle was very pleased with her purchase and both her and Claude were very pleased with the price of only $285 pesos. Shoes of this quality would cost a couple of hundred in Canada. Danielle and Norma decided they will go well with the “Perfect Dress” she found in Catemaco a few days ago!

The search

Success at last!

The Fort

Veracruz has been attacked more times than anywhere else in the Americas. The list is long and includes England, Spain, France, the USA and pirates (several times). Here is one of the forts built to defend the city.

And here is the fort on the harbour:

Veracruz

It was a beautiful day in Veracruz today. Last year when we were here it was so humid the sweat was dripping off my chin and soaking my shirt! Not nice at all. This year is much better with lower humidity and cooler temperature. Here are some shots I took walking around town:

Lighthouse Island

Naval Academy

The old lighthouse

Diving for tourists coins