February 1 - 10 (10 nights - Zihuatanejo, Guerrero MX)
In the morning we wanted to get an early start, because Randy talked to a couple of other RVers that we heading in the same direction and since we did not have any reservations, we wanted to beat them to any open spots. Randy and Martha have their spot reserved already since last year. They gave up their want to eat breakfast to hit the road early. They said they can have it next year when we told them we were sorry they missed the breakfast. They usually spend six to seven months in Mexico. We headed out at 8:00 for an easy drive to Zihuatanejo.
One RVer beat us by one half hour and got the last spot. We boondocked for two nights until February 3rd. It is a tiring morning trying to lobby for a spot. Maria, the Receptionist at Real De Palma Hotel & RV Park, speaks very little English. The man whose space I am going to take confirms that he is leaving on February 3rd, but Maria insists that the man is not leaving until February 15th according to her register book. So, I have to bring the man to confirm with her he is taking off in two days. Phew!!! It is interesting that Maria has no problem giving us a password for Wi-Fi even though we are not officially guests at the RV park. So, we hang out at the hotel swimming pool and hotel lobby to use free Internet. Cool! Randy teases us that we look like we belong on this property already.
We go to have lunch at Tamales Any Restaurant, as suggested by Maria. It is Thursday, the traditional Pozole day. All four of us have pork or chicken green Pozole. The restaurant serves white and green soup. Green soup is made from Mole pork or chicken broth. Here's what is in Pozole: hominy, pork/chicken, broth, onion, radish, avocado, lemon, jalapeņo, fresh cheese, pork rind. Yummo! It has an excellent authentic taste.
Sim and I go back to dine at Any Restaurant again the same day. We want to experience the Fiesta night. It is performed only on Thursday night from February to March. We order grilled meat patter; chicken, pork, and beef. Pork and chicken are good, but we don't like beef much. It tastes like it is aged for sometime. I think it is called cencina.
The local dancers were great and performed dances from 5 of the Mexican states including the Old Man dance from Michoacan. Sim's favorite is the dance from Jalisco.
This week is Sail Fest 2007 in Zihuatanejo. The local sailors and visiting sailors get together to raise money for the poorer school children in the area. This year they raised over $80K, which is enough to finish building a new school for the poorest of the indigenous tribe kids living in the mountains surrounding Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa.
The weather in Zihuatanejo is hot. For the first time we are running the AC in the hottest part of the day. It has been in the mid 90s every day so far. At night we get the air moving through the bedroom by closing all the other windows except for the bedroom and then close off the door to the front of the coach and put the up front exhaust fan on high. This draws the cool evening air in through the bedroom and out the top of the coach. This works great at night.
Feb 5
Gary and Lillian are our neighbor across the street and are two of the volunteers who help raise funds for the indigenous tribe kids. Gary took people to the mountains that are interested to see school the project every Wednesday. This week he loads 20 people into his open-air back seat (pickup truck). They invite us to have drinks with them at their fifth wheel. They are a kind and fun couple.
Feb 6
This evening we were at the beach to catch the sunset. An older Mexican woman came up to us with a camera and asked for help taking a picture of the sunset. I knew she was in trouble when she took the camera out of the case and held it up looking through the lens to take a picture. Sim showed her the correct way. She gave Sim a big cute smile. I checked her old Polaroid film camera and found there was no film inside, and I guessed it needed batteries as well. I thought I explained well enough and off she went. 2 minutes later she was back with new batteries. Turned out the camera needed those as well, but I had to send her off again for film. We saw her later on the beach. She had asked someone else for help. Not sure if she did not want to bother us again or she wanted someone whose Spanish was a bit better than mine. The sunset was OK, but no green flash and the old woman got her pictures. Sim said the sunset picture must mean a lot to the old woman. She might take the picture for her loved one who cannot come to the beach to enjoy the scene. I think Sim is better to stop reading the fiction books.
Feb 7
We invite Gary and Lillian for dinner at our coach. Sim prepares Pad Thai, Tom Yum Shrimp, and fresh fruit for desert. She asked them about how spicy they can take it. She tries not to go heavy with chili. Still the soup makes Gary sweat.
Lillian told us about the house of one head guy; either General or Major of Zihuatanejo; located on La Ropa beach where we parked our RV. Last year she wandered into the front yard of the head guy's house when she saw the house wide open. The house is very beautiful so she wanted to see more. Within a wink, one guard stopped her from entering. This morning she saw it wide open again, but this time she didn't even think of going in. She saw the important looking guy in the car with three guards.
Gary and Lillian are quite informative and knowledgeable about Mexico. They have escaped from negative 30 C degrees in Canada to a plus 30 C degrees in Mexico for years.
Feb 9
We rented a Hobie Cat 16 for an hour today and went sailing in the bay. The wind was fair, but not enough to get a hull out of the water. Sim talked the vendor into an extra 15 minutes because of the light wind. We had fun, took some pictures and did not get too burned. We are leaving on Sunday February 11 for Acapulco.
Feb 10
Last day at Zihuatanejo. We went to have lunch at Leo restaurant with Mart, Randy, Billy, Linda, John, and Katie. The restaurant is hard to find, and located up on a hill on a dirt road with no attractive view. The restaurant has a word of mouth reputation and is known only by the locals. It serves only seafood, and the food is rather eclectic. We were ready to try the sea algae appetizers but it was not algae season, so we settled for barnacles and sea cucarachas. For the main course we had octopus, abalone, and shrimp. Billy and John are not big seafood eaters so they had a cheese quesadilla.
February 11 (Acapulco)
The drive to Acapulco was OK. We finally figured out why a lot of the locals were waving at us. Our coach looks like the local buses, and they were waving us down to get on. This time one couple waved at us and were ready to jump into our coach. I sent them a signal that it was not a bus. Sim said we should pick up people next time, so they would have a good story to tell their friends.
We had lunch on the go again. Rice soup with chicken and spinach. I heard some new noises that I had not heard before so I sent Sim back into the coach to find and squash them. Usually it turns out to be a couple of dishes banging together or a pot or pan that is rattling in a drawer. Sim could not find this new noise and said it appears to be coming from the roof over the bathroom. We had a chance to pull over at a wide spot in the road in a small town so I went up on the roof to see it an AC cover had come loose or what. All looked in order so I came down. Walking back to the front of the coach I saw a piece of loose rubber on the outside passenger side rear tire. A 6 inch long 1 inch square piece of tire had been slapping the inside of the wheel well for miles and miles. I cut it off with a pair of scissors and inspected the rest of the tires and could find no more damage. I think one of those deep pot holes sliced off the piece that was slapping the coach. Now I have to worry that the tire will make it until we get back in the US. They don't sell these tires in Mexico.
We made it to Acapulco, bad tire and all and found the campground via Church's directions. There are no beach front sites open so we settled in the back. We have pretty good shade back here most of the day except around 4:00 when the Sun gets low.
February 12
I decide we are going to take the bus into town today, much to the dismay of Sim. The bus runs right in front of the campground and goes right to the Central Mercado in downtown Acapulco, AND it only costs 4.5 pesos per person each way. So we catch the bus around 8:30 in the morning. What a cacophony of sounds and smells we had along the way. The is no AC so all the windows are open to the sights, smells, smoke, exhaust, dust and whatever is going on outside. There does not seem to be any official bus stops, so people just go to the road and flag down the bus. At one stretch of road he stopped every 100 feet for 4 different people.
Acapulco traffic is different than anywhere we have been so far. They love to use their car horns. I am not sure the purpose other than show their displeasure at having to wait their turn to go. The taxis are everywhere. Most are Volkswagens and they are ruthless when it comes to driving. Green lights, red lights, it makes no matter to them. They keep going until someone or something forces them to stop.
The Mercado is typical of many Mexican mercados; Fruits, vegetables, kitchen stuff, toys, and religious stuff. There is a section for meat, fish and poultry as well and of course the "food court" We were surprised to see a Beauty Salon in the mercado. Well! It happened to be time for me to have my hair cut. I went in and sat down, had my hair cut for 25 pesos. After that I wandered around the mercado while Sim had a pedicure and a French cut polish job done on her toes. Total bill 125 pesos. She rarely had her pedicure done in the U.S because of the high cost. Last time she had it for her birthday and paid $ 80 for the same package only with a fancy sounding name.
The bus ride home was just as bad as going. Sim was ready to strangle the guy sitting in front of us. He was eating an orange and he would peel a part then throw the peel into the bed of a truck parked on the side of the road. He did this with the whole orange. In addition to the orange peel, he threw an empty water bottle to the sidewalk, with no shame. The trash situation is as bad or maybe worse in Acapulco as everywhere else. But down by the tourist hotels it was cleaned up pretty well. I wonder if it is just a lack of trash collection infrastructure or a mindset by the people that throwing trash anywhere and everywhere is OK. Sim says that is the last bus she is taking in Mexico.
We ate lunch at Fonda Sary. Sary is not the name of the owner, instead her name is Amada. Amada and her daughter, Concha, engaged us in conversation as we were checking out the menu, and we were compelled to eat there. I had Chicken Mole and Sim had Seafood Soup. They liked to engage in conversation. When Concha knew Sim is Thai, she told every vendor surrounding her. Perhaps, Sim is the first Thai, who came to Acapulco, they have ever met. When we were ready to continue our site seeing, it took us another 10 minutes before they let us leave their restaurant. They asked us to take pictures of them and the restaurant. Concha called three boys (who??) and asked me to have Sim take a picture with them. We had to leave before Concha arranged ALL her neighbors to have a picture with Sim. We had a lot of fun with them. (Insert pic of Amada and Concha with Sim here)
Drive to Cuernavaca
Took the toll road all the way to Cuernavaca. Church's directions were good except for the off ramp to Tepetzingo. You need to head towards the Airport and then use the Retorno to come back towards Tepetzingo. I had a slight mishap going under the aguaduct in town. I hit the damn thing. I was too far left trying to avoid a truck and bumped the Refrigerator vent cap and the coach roof. The scrapes are fixable and we can continue with any mandatory repairs required.
Trailer Park Campestre is OK. The power is not sufficient however. I can run the Microwave, but not one AC or the water heater. Those appliances pull too many amps and the breaker trips.
Today we went into Cuernavaca centro to look around. They have a lot of old churches and interesting buildings. We liked the grounds of Jardin Borda. It was built and owned by the son of the Borda who made the town of Taxco famous for its silver. We had lunch at the restaurant on the grounds.
We had the park to ourselves the first night. Mario, the owner, says a lot of people come down from Mexico City for the weekend. Yesterday a 21 coach caravan showed up. These guys are on there way home via Texas after 45 days on the road. They did the East Coast and now they are finishing up with the interior of Mexico.
Off to see our first pyramid ruins today. First on the agenda is Xochicalco. We decided to go there in the morning and then drive south to Taxco in the afternoon. The pyramid ruins were pretty cool. We went to the museum first and looked at all the replicas first and found some interesting items, but all the explanations were in Spanish so we only got a small portion of the information available. I suggest getting an available English speaking guide to escort you through the museum and grounds. We walked up the hill to the ruins and were duly impressed by the magnitude of the city that once stood there. They enjoyed their sports as they have 3 ball fields. This is the game where they use their hips and elbows to knock a ball through a small opening in a big round stone some 12 to 15 feet up the side of a wall. The winners got to live I understand. We toured around the grounds for about 2 hours and climbed to the top of everything we could. Boy the steps are steep and tall. Those folks were in really good shape I think. They even had a sauna/steam room with an aguaduct bringing in fresh water and a fireplace where they heated up rocks then poured on water to make steam.
Off to Taxco we went around 11:30. We were on a free road and decided to stay on the free road to Taxco. It was an interesting drive. Lots of small towns. Lots of unmarked topes. Those things can get you killed. Your driving along at 40 mph or so and there will be a 1 foot high tope with no warning. No sign, no painted tope, nothing. Hit one of those at 10 mph and it throws us in the air a couple of feet. We made it to Taxco OK and I only asked for directions twice.
Driving to the main square in Taxco is an experience I will not soon forget. Taxco is built on the side of a big mountain. The main square is half way up the mountain. The roads are incredibly steep and narrow. The Volkswagen Taxis are every where and of course know exactly where they are going so they go fast. I had them honking at me all the time. We made it without a scratch and went to a dozen silver shops. Did not buy anything however. We saw some really nice silver pieces at many of the shops. A lot of the shops sold just Sterling though. The really nice stuff was at the shops that had the 99.99% stuff. Sim really liked a tea service at that shop. Price $8300 US.
Tomorrow we are going to Tepoztlan
Tepoztlan
We are off to Tepoztlan at 9:30 a.m. The roads are good as we take the toll roads to the turn off to Tepoztlan. After we turn off the road goes through 2 or 3 small towns until we get to Tepoztlan. As we drive into the center of town we find the road blocked for a big fiesta. We take the detour down the narrow cobblestone streets and follow the traffic. Every time we see a traffic cop we ask the way to the pyramids and get going in the right direction. Finally it looks like we are going to run out of road as the crowd on the street get larger, the streets gets narrower and looks like it is going to dead end. We park in the next lot we see and ask again for directions to the pyramids. We are in the right place as they are just ahead. Only a short 3 km walk to the pyramids but it is damn near straight up. It takes us an hour and fifteen minutes up and about forty five minutes or less to climb down. We saw all kinds of climbers in all kinds of outfits climbing; from people toting their babies to girls with open toe shoes and high heels. The pyramid at Tepoztlan is not as great or as spectacular as Xochicalco. But, the effort we put forth and the time it took to get there made us feel great for the accomplishment.
We met couple of new resisdents of Tepoztlan. Maria and her husband came to Mexico from Hawaii. They bought an acre of property and invited us to park our coach at their house if we didn't have anywhere to park. We learned from Maria that the local people like to dress up no matter what they are doing so now we understood why some people wore high heals, when climbing up the mountain.
After we came down from the pyramid, we strolled through town, had some lunch and soaked up some local culture. While we were checking out the menu at one restaurant , a local suggested a dish on the menu which he said was delicious. We often experience this friendliness from local people. Sure enough, the dish he suggested was excellent. Sim loved the town for its liveliness, festive atmosphere and simplistic lifestyle. She really enjoyed watching people strolling, giggling, teasing, and eating the street vendors food. It is her favorite town so far. The fiesta seemed to be about the children as many were dressed up in very colorful costumes. They had a long parade down the main street with horns and drums and guitars playing as they marched along.
As we passed through one town between Cuernavaca and Tepotzland there were a lot of pork rind vendors along the road. Sim said that the town must be known as the place where the best pork rind is located. They had the biggest hunks of pork rind we had ever seen. They looked like they were made from the entire pork skin. We stopped at one vender on the way back to the RV park but did not buy any rinds, just some mangoes.
Feb 18 - 21, 2007 ( 4 nights - Cholula, Puebla, Mexico)
Cholula is a small suburb of the city of Puebla, which is the capitol of the state of Puebla. We drove 107 miles today to get here. We are staying at Trailer Park Las Americas. We came in from the southeast so Church's directions were not easy to follow. I just pulled over to the side of the road as we entered town and hailed a taxi, paid him 3 bucks and followed him to the campground. The campground was a nice grassy area with good water pressure and adequate electricity. The sewer was marginal at best I discovered on the day we left as it took over an hour to dump the tanks.
On the way to Cholula we saw the beautiful and active volcano called Popocatepetl. Next to Popo as it is called is his sister Izta. She is not active at the moment. Sim tried to take pictures of them, but trees and buildings kept getting in the way. We got to Cholula at 1 pm, so we decided to drive to downtown. The locals were celebrating something. We stopped to watch some Native Indians dancing. They had a sign up asking people not to take pictures and one tourist ignored the sign and started snapping away. We had no idea if the no pictures were for religious reasons or what but one of the Indian dancers approached the tourist and spoke to him for a long while until he ended up handing over some pesos and all was well. Sim hoped that he learned his lession and would show more respect to the people and their culture in the future.
February 19
Besides, tiles and pottery, Puebla is known for it's cusine. It's Mole Poblano and Chile Nagoda are famous throughout the country. Sim already picked the dish she wanted for lunch before we were heading for downtown Puebla for siteseeing. Like many other cities, it was not easy to find parking in Puebla. We walked to see as many historical churchs and buildings as our strength allowed. There were so many things to see and so many shops to shop. Sim ordered Chicken breast Mole Poblano, and I ordered the Special of the Day which I knew was some kind of beef, but not exactly sure which part. Sim's order turned out to be breast of an entire chicken (really huge) in mole sauce. Sim kept one half of the chicken breast and gave the other half to me. My main course arrived and after the first bite I still was not sure what it was. Sim told me that it was liver after she tried it. It turned out that I had ordered liver and onions. And it wasn't half bad. Sim enjoyed lunch, although she didn't like her dish much because it was a bit sweet for her. She did however really like the waitress and the services. Unlike her I liked her dish very much, the sweeter the better, yummo.
After lunch we headed over to Cholula to see the church that they built on top of the pyramid. Like other pyramids, we climbed up tall and steep steps. We burned all of the calories we consumed at lunch. You would not know that this was a pyramid if someone did not tell you. There is not much left of it. It looked like the church was built on a mountain instead of pyramid. On top of the pyramid we could see the entire town of Cholula. At any angle we turned we could see four or five churches. It is said that there are about 365 churches in Cholula, a lot of churches for a town of 50,000. We went down to the bottom of the pyramid and toured the underground tunnels said to be built as gateways to the underworld for the Aztecs. The tunnels were pretty amazing and went up, down, left, and right. It was had to imagine spending months and years digging out the tunnels using the primitive hand tools used by the workers at the time.
February 20
I was a bit aprehensive about the next part of our trip because the road was going through part of Mexico City and the No Hoy Circula zone. That means people cannot drive their cars on certain days depending on their plate numbers. We went to survey the route we were taking in the morning. We tried to find the road three times before we finally found it.
We headed back to Puebla for lunch and before we got there Sim already knew what she wanted for lunch. She ordered Chile Nagoda, and I ordered Chicken Mole Poblano. I enjoyed my dish, but the Chile Nagoda was too sweet for Sim. Our Puebla trip would not be complete if we didn't try some of their famous sweets. We bought three different desserts but our favorite was the coconut wrapped in an entire lime peel. We liked it not only for its excellent taste, but also its unique look; the contrast of green color of lime peel and the white color of coconut. Our bad, we don't remember what it is called.
February 21
Our original plan was to visit only the Mexican west coast and only for a month. But we traveled over and beyond our plan, so we ran into trouble with our credit card that expired while south of the border. In addition, our cell phone did not work down here as well. We had to make calls to the US to take some action to get more cash so we emailed Bee to buy us some Skype time so we could make calls using the Internet. Thanks to Bee and technology we got the cash we needed to continue our trip.
February 22 - 23 ( 2 nights - Teotihuacan, Edo de Mexico, Mexico)
We read Church's book about going through Mexico City and heard from other Rvers that a drive even close to Mexico City was not advisable so we decided to take a wide berth around the city. We headed north and east and found the roads fairly good. We came into the city of San Juan Teotihuacan from the north and found the campground just fine. It was a nice grassy lot with plenty of room to maneuver around. We drove 121 miles today.
We experienced our first and only loss of property in Mexico here in this campground. One of our camp chairs walked off in the middle of the night. The guy in the really nice 1976 completely restored GMC RV also lost two chairs the same night. The story in the campground is that the son of the owner is an alcoholic, and it may have been him or his friends that were the culprits. I will say again that the Mexican people are the most honest, helpful, friendly and compassionate people I have ever met.
February 23
We head off to the pyramids which are just up the road a few kilometers. As we drive in a man is handing out free maps to the area, and oh by the way please stop and eat at 'Letys No. 2" and get a free cocktail. Tell them Jorge sent you.
We park and head for the pyramids. The museum is not open yet so we stroll through the ruins and go climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. You get a really nice view of the entire city complex from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. We walked back down and we were heading over to the Pyramid of the Moon when I got really dizzy and had to get closer to the ground. I found some shade and drank water until I felt better. I told Sim I didn't need medical attention when she asked. She tried to hide her worry by making general conversation and smiling. At the same time she kept her eyes on the old First Aid truck that was staged next to the Pyramid of the Sun. She finally walked there (she told me "just in case") and knocked on the door. No one answered. While we were walking back over to the museum, I mentioned to Sim that my left arm hurt. That was a big mistake. It made Sim worry even more. I went into the museum and found a spot to sit. Sim used her negotiating skills with the museum staff to allow her to bring me a prohibitted bottle of water in to me. While I was sitting and drinking plenty of water, I saw Sim talking to some tourists. She told me afterward that she tried to get information about a nearby hospital, "just in case". I felt much better in about 30 minutes. I think it was just the altitude and de-hydration. You kind of forget that you are at 6500 feet most anywhere in the interior of Mexico. Plus who thought about drinking water when there were so many fine beers in Mexico.
February 24 - 25, 2007 (2 nights - Queretaro, Mexico)
Today we are heading to Queretaro and we need to go towards Mexico City or go 100 miles north out of our way. I spent about an hour with the park owner getting very explicit directions to the "new" road that heads north away from the city. But first I need to navigate some city streets. The maps of Mexico make it look so simple but the reality is the sign system is sorely lacking, non-existent or simply wrong. It is always exciting while driving when you see the "green signs" ahead. They will at least give you a clue of what cites are in what direction. This helps most of the time. We find the right roads and are soon heading north on the new road and have passed through part of Mexico City without incident, being stopped by the police or harassed in any way. We drove 144 miles today.
Church's directions are good to the campground but it has a new name. The Azteca Parador is now the Juriqulla Inn. We park without incident except for a few tree branches that I have to cut to keep them from scratching up the coach. Sim gets in the drivers seat of the Jeep and drives from the street into the campground. After a few times she gets pretty good, and she is now officially the tow car driver in the campground. Since we got to the campground sooner than expected we had time to go to town and walk around for a few hours. More churches, old buildings and nice town squares.
Sim did a really good job with the food stores. We have very few left in refrigerator. She cooked up all the vegetables, eggs, and meat that would not be allowed back in the US.
February 25
Today we go into town. More old churches and buildings. They have a cool old aqueduct running through the city and some nice squares and parks. We toured an old convent and saw how the nuns lived hundreds of years ago. They had a tough hard life with few comforts. On the way to see the aqueduct, we spotted a couple of boys dressed the same, but they were not twins, sitting on a bench and drinking soda in front of a chicken bar-b-q vendor. While I was interested in the chicken bar-b-q process, Sim was busy making conversation with the boys. I heard Sim keep saying "Si" to the boys, but, you know, she didn't understand what the boys said. She had fun doing "Cheers with them. After we were done our half day city tour, we debated about where we should eat. I could not pass up my thoughts of the chicken bar-b-q. We walked back there and learned that it was a to go place, not a sit down one. We told the owner that we wanted to eat here at the bench, if it was o.k. with him. We had chicken bar-b-q, chiles, and tortillas for a total cost of $5.50.
February 26, 2007 (1 night - Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico)
A long drive today, by our standards and for Mexican roads, of 332 miles to Cd. Victoria. The roads were really bad along a 20 mile stretch as we headed east about 100 miles north of Queretaro. But when we hit 101 North the road was fine. We only stayed here one night parked at the back of a hotel. The electricity was not on but water and sewer were available.
We headed off for town to find the central square. After following the usual "Centro" signs for an hour, I gave in and asked for help. A local Mexican tried to give me directions, but I still could not get it right. I started to follow him, and he finally took us there. We walked around some and looked at, you guessed it, more churches. By this time we are burned out on churches and old buildings. We ate at a local hotel, and being the only people in the restaurant, had good service and attention.
February 27 - 28, 2007 (2 nights - Riviera, Texas, USA)
Today we are crossing the border back into the USA. We choose to cross at Matamoros / Brownsville for a couple of reasons. One, it is the shortest route out of Mexico from the interior, and Church say the crossing at the International Bridge is easy because there is ample parking for big rigs to turn in their tourist cards and vehicle permits. We drive to the border and make the retorno just before the last toll booth as instructed. There is no sign of parking, or the Banjercito which is where the permits must be returned. Now I need to turn around again. Making a U-Turn in a 40' motorhome towing a Jeep takes some planning and doing it in a busy Mexican town while hundreds of cars are heading for the border is challenging. We finally decide that we will cross to the US, unhook the Jeep, drive back into Mexico, drop off the visas and permits and cross again, pick up the Coach and take off.
OK, we are heading for the border. The is a line of trucks in the right lane and the left lane is for cars. I get in the left lane. I guess because of security or something, they have the concrete barriers separating the lanes. I am slowly driving down between the concrete barriers trying desperately not to hit one on either side, and I don't see the truck that is way over to my right, and we kiss mirrors at about 20 mph. He honks at me, but I keep on going as there are 50 cars behind me. I get to the Mexican gate, and of course I am in the wrong lane. One of the border officers comes out and stops traffic to allow me to get into the correct lane.
Finally we are at the border. Yes we are American citizens, yes we have some fruits and vegetables, yes we will pull over to the secondary inspection lane. A total of 4 agents came on and we had to give up a couple of mangoes and the geranium plant that Randy and Martha gave us. They missed seeing the orchid. They also reminded us that we had to pay a Texas State Tax on the half a bottle of Tequila we had.
We were on our way after paying the $1.00 tax on the Tequila. Found a Burger King to park the Motorhome at and took the Jeep back into Mexico at another crossing just up the road that we were told had a Banjercito office. Everything went smoothly except that the re-crossing process took another 1.5 hours.
We continued our drive to Seawind RV park in Riviera and arrived in the late afternoon. Seawind is a really nice park with lots of amenities including a Recreation Room including pool and ping pong tables. Sim and I played a couple of games.
MEXICO SUMMARY
We travelled over 2,700 miles in Mexico. The roads were generally good when you used the tolls roads. The free roads were passable if you went slow. The tolls are expensive for a Class A motorhome and a tow. We spent about $500 in tolls for the entire trip, but this of course varies depending on your setup and the routes you take. We visited over 20 cities in 17 of the Mexican states.
The food was all good. Enough said. We bought bottled water everywhere and it was cheap. $1.40 for a five gallon bottle. We used the water at all the campgrounds for dishes, showers and brushing our teeth without any problems. Your experience may vary.
The Mexican people were wonderful everywhere we went. We would not hesitate to go back at anytime.
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