We're in Tampico at Chip and Lucas's apartment. It's kind of nice to not be sharing that tiny pop-up camper with the boys, and Jane is enjoying a full sized kitchen and real laundry facilities. I think she misses doing laundry.
Let's see, our last post was from Tulum, on the caribbean. We stayed one night at Cenote Azul which was a huge sinkhole from a collapsed cave filled with blue water. It was chest deep for probably the whole sinkhole (we didn't swim across the whole thing to find out), but the water was so clean and not salty (a welcome change from the ocean water). We had some European neighbors that arrived at the campsite just after us, and pitched their tent (I'm not kidding,) 10 feet from our camper even though the grassy area by the cenote was huge. I guess their personal boundaries are much smaller than ours. From there we drove to Palenque, another huge Mayan ruin. Very large, with the usual huge pyramid temples, the ones at Palenque are well preserved, especially the tops or roof combs, which are missing from most of the ruins we visited. Also, Palenque had more rooms in and on top of the temples than the other ruins we visited. To tell the truth, Jane and I are about ruined out, but the boys love climbing all the temples and seem very interested, so we went to one more ruin. They certainly are more impressive than we're used to in the Gila.
We spent two nights at the Mayabell, a bar, resaurant, rooms and camping place near the ruins. They were having an employee party the night we arrived, the (amplified) music went until 3 am. If you have a choice, taking the camping spot nearest to the bar just because it's easy to back into is maybe not such a good idea. The guy who seemed to be hacking up a lung next to us was a nice touch too. The Mayabell, and the ruins themselves, were overrun with Europeans and Canadians. It was kind of strange seeing all these white folks, none of whom were speaking English. Even the Canadians were speaking French. We heard howler monkeys which sounded very strange....not monkeylike at all.
After leaving Palenque, we put in a big day of driving to get to the town of Alvarado, on the coast. It was twilight when we got there, and we didn't want to keep driving looking for a place to camp, so we got a motel room. The next day we got to the Emerald Coast of Mexico, just north of Veracruz. When we arrived, we discovered that the alternator was no longer charging the battery on the pickup, so I had to find an auto electric shop in a neighboring town and get the alternator fixed. It was around 4:30 in the afternoon when I found the auto electric guy, and by six I was back on the road, with a new rotor in my alternator. Parts and labor, $35. Try that in the U.S.
The wind blew ferociously all that day, and the next morning the waves on the beach were huge. Anothe norther blowing through. It seems like all we have to do is think about going to the beach and the wind starts howling. The boys don't seem to even notice. The next day (yesterday), we started heading towards Tampico. We bought a really huge sack of oranges for $5 and some big tangerines and drove through the town of Poza Rica where we were immediately pulled over for "running a red light" even though the light we could see wasn't working. The cop tried to tell us to go to the "hacienda" in el centro (the big house downtown) and pay the fine. He'd keep Dean's drivers license, of course. We pretended we didn't speak much Spanish, (well Jane did, I don't have to pretend) and he finally got disgusted with us and waved us on. Not 5 minutes later another cop (all of these guys are on foot) whistled at us to pull over so we pretended to be deaf and blind and sailed right on past him and the other 2 policeman that were spaced down the block....all of whom once they heard the first cop whistle at us started whistling and waving their ticket book for us to pull over. We'd about had it with cops, so we just sailed on by. We hadn't done a thing wrong.....the cops just wanted to buy lunch with the bribe we'd have to pay them.
It's a bit sad to be heading back from our big adventure. We're already thinking of the many unfinished things we left behind in the rush to leave that will be waiting for us back home. But the closer we get to the US, the more Dean complains about the strange Mexican ways.....the lack of toilet seats is a main topic of conversation. Why can they spend big money building things like visitor centers and museums at the ruins, beautifully designed and impressive public buildings, but they can't spring for toilet seats on the toilets? It's a big day when you find a toilet that actually has a toilet seat and it's pretty much a miracle if it has a toilet seat AND toilet paper. Another gripe are the billions of speed bumps we've driven over. Almost 300 one day. Just when you think you're heading out of town, there's always one more. . . and often one more after that. On the other hand, they probably save a lot of pedestrians. There are way more pedestrians, bicyclists, and motor scooters here of course, and seemingly every Mexican except the ones who drive annoyingly slow are 15 minutes late for the most important appointment of their lives, and have to get there RIGHT NOW. The truck and bus drivers are downright scary. If they didn't have speed bumps, no one would be safe from those guys. And lots and lots of military checkpoints. At the last one we had 2 guys climbing in and digging through our camper shell and trailer (the trailer was shut down so he had to crawl on his hands and knees)for over 10 minutes. We of course have wet underwear and t shirts strewn about in the camper shell that we washed that morning. Usually the soldiers take one look in our camper shell and close it,not wanting to even touch anything in it. You always feel kind of nervous even though you're not hiding anything (that's Jane writing, it makes me mad because I see the M-16's and humvees and know that it's my tax dollars at work). But that's just part of the Latin American experience.
We're going to take the boys to the beach today and then celebrate Joe's birthday with Lucas tonight. Jane's been baking cakes and such all morning (when she wasn't doing laundry). Then tomorrow we'll head for the border.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Mayan Riviera
I don´t know why we didn´t update the blog or check e-mail during the four days we spent on the beach in Belize. Just too relaxed, I guess.
Now we´re back in Mexico,we´ve been camping on the beach just south of Tulum for the last three days.
We left Copan and made an uneventful crossing back into Guatemala. The guy with the undeveloped hot springs that are for sale wasn´t home, so we didn´t get to see them. Ever since that first crossing into Guatemala all our crossings have been easy, half hour to forty five minute affairs. We drove across Guatemala nearly to the coast and spent the night nearly under the north end of the bridge across the Rio Dulce - on the water, lots of sailboats anchored everywhere. The Rio Duce here is more like a big lake. It´s a well used mooring spot with a navigable channel running to the sea, in Belize the guide who took us snorkeling said in hurricane season he crews on sail boats that are being moved there for safekeeping. Anyway we spent the night there in the parking lot of a place named "Bruno´s," a restaurant/bar/rooms/dockspace sailor hangout kind of place. The boys loved walking the docks and looking at the sailboats. There was a lot of talk about pirates. We were in a very tight spot amongst trees and parked cars in the middle of a small parking lot. A strange but memorable campsite. In the morning Ike and I were walking the docks watching the river come alive - kids going to school, men going to work, all by boat, from (mostly) motor powered fibreglass to one old guy with a bundle of greens paddling an old dugout canoe.
We got an early start and drove north to Tikal. We´ve kind of gyped Guatemala on this trip. It´s been a country we just drove across a couple of times on our way to someplace else. It is a very mountainous country, with lots of people - most of them short, Mayan looking people - walking and bicycling everywhere. Except for the Peten in the north, which is not mountainous and not too heavily popuated. There are little restaurants everywhere. Eating in them is amazingly cheap. Anyway, it´s a great place and I´d like to come back and spend more time someday.
Tikal was spectacular. We climbed to the top of nearly every temple they would let us climb, which was a lot of them. We saw two little red deer, howler monkees, turkeys, gangs of coatamundi and some very colorful birds we con´t know the names of. We got an early (for us) start and spent until mid-afternoon at the ruins, seeing most but not all of them - they´re huge - you could easily spend two days there. But we felt like we´d seen the highlights, and we were bushed from climbing to the tops of all those pyramids. The tallest ones are accessed by climbing incredibly steep stairs made of some dense mahogany like wood that would not have been allowed in a U.S. National Park. You get to the top and look across the jungle to see the tops of other temples poking up above the jungle canopy, just like the pictures in National Geographic.
We had camped the night before on a big lawn just outside the park. After seeing Tikal we packed up the camper in record time and drove to the border with Belize, a little over an hour away We had the easiest border crossing yet, and of course, they speak English in Belize! It was bizarre after weeks of strugglin along in Spanish speaking countries, to be still in a foreign country but able to easily communicate with everyone. The roadsigns are in english, on the radio they´re speaking english, the currency is the dollar, it´s very strange. There´s huge development on the coast. The stores in Belize are better stocked than Guatemala and Honduras, but everything but the orange juice and rum is expensive. Gas is just under five dollars a gallon,and they sell it by the gallon. And fish and produce are sold by the pound. We spent our first night in Belize in an actual RV park just ten miles from the border, where there were actual RV´ers from the US, Canada and Germany. We saw several Europeans in Belize in their little VW or Toyota based euro camper mobiles that they had apparently shipped there. Anyway, Belize is different in many ways from the rest of Latin America, not the least of which is the laid back caribbean vibe.
We didn´t have any plans for Belize, so we went to the beach. Jane had talked to one of the women at the RV park, and she recommended a town called Placencia, at the end of a peninsula in the southern part of the country. We went there, and we liked it so well, and the road in was so washboarded and slow, we stayed for four days, or basically our whole time in Belize.
The town of Placencia is at the end of this little spit of sand with a road down the middle and houses and businesses on each side. On the seaward side there is also a sidewalk that led from where we were camped at "Campin on da Beach" on the north end of town, to the south end which stopped at a little dock and the inlet to the lagoon. The boys and I went out in a little inflatable boat, and Ike caught a fish immediately, Max and Joe soon followed suit. Papa didn´t get a bite. Then Max caught another fish when he and Jane went fishing from shore, so we got our first self-procured fish dinner from the ocean.
We went out in a motor boat with a guide snorkeling one morning, saw live coral, many bizarro and brightly colored fish, lobster (out of season, unfortunately) an island with a lighhouse, the whole caribbean thing. Our guide, a young guy, showed us how to open a coconut with no tools, a feat we have not duplicated. Although we can manage with a machete. We were camped on a real nice beach, the ocean out there all blue and warm, but after four days we moved on.
We drove up to Corazal, in northern Belize and spent one night there, then crossed into Mexico just west of the city of Chetumal. We´d heard good things about Tulum, so we drove three or four hours north to get there, bought some groceries, beer and ice, then headed south on the beach road out of town, paid a dubious fee to get into a "biospere reserve" full of land for sale signs, and found a near perfect campsite on the beach - actually across the soccer field from the beach. Miles of powdery white sand beaches that we had almost to ourselves. Coconuts everywhere, free for the plucking.
Way back in Guatemala, at Lake Atitlan, we told the boys they could buy something to bring home with them. We looked at woven things, Joe bought a carved and painted wooden mask, but I needed something from the hardware store, and when Max and Ike saw the machete display, they decided that was what they wanted to buy. Then later, in Honduras, Joe was feeling left out, so I bought him one too. Now they´re coming in handy, we´ve been drinking coconut water and snacking on the meat every day.
But all good things must come to an end. We spent three days camped there, swimming and taking long beach walks, but too soon we have to leave the ocean and start making our way home. We´re changing money and buying supplies in Tulum this morning, then this afternoon we start across the Yucatan, slowly making our way back to the U.S.
Now we´re back in Mexico,we´ve been camping on the beach just south of Tulum for the last three days.
We left Copan and made an uneventful crossing back into Guatemala. The guy with the undeveloped hot springs that are for sale wasn´t home, so we didn´t get to see them. Ever since that first crossing into Guatemala all our crossings have been easy, half hour to forty five minute affairs. We drove across Guatemala nearly to the coast and spent the night nearly under the north end of the bridge across the Rio Dulce - on the water, lots of sailboats anchored everywhere. The Rio Duce here is more like a big lake. It´s a well used mooring spot with a navigable channel running to the sea, in Belize the guide who took us snorkeling said in hurricane season he crews on sail boats that are being moved there for safekeeping. Anyway we spent the night there in the parking lot of a place named "Bruno´s," a restaurant/bar/rooms/dockspace sailor hangout kind of place. The boys loved walking the docks and looking at the sailboats. There was a lot of talk about pirates. We were in a very tight spot amongst trees and parked cars in the middle of a small parking lot. A strange but memorable campsite. In the morning Ike and I were walking the docks watching the river come alive - kids going to school, men going to work, all by boat, from (mostly) motor powered fibreglass to one old guy with a bundle of greens paddling an old dugout canoe.
We got an early start and drove north to Tikal. We´ve kind of gyped Guatemala on this trip. It´s been a country we just drove across a couple of times on our way to someplace else. It is a very mountainous country, with lots of people - most of them short, Mayan looking people - walking and bicycling everywhere. Except for the Peten in the north, which is not mountainous and not too heavily popuated. There are little restaurants everywhere. Eating in them is amazingly cheap. Anyway, it´s a great place and I´d like to come back and spend more time someday.
Tikal was spectacular. We climbed to the top of nearly every temple they would let us climb, which was a lot of them. We saw two little red deer, howler monkees, turkeys, gangs of coatamundi and some very colorful birds we con´t know the names of. We got an early (for us) start and spent until mid-afternoon at the ruins, seeing most but not all of them - they´re huge - you could easily spend two days there. But we felt like we´d seen the highlights, and we were bushed from climbing to the tops of all those pyramids. The tallest ones are accessed by climbing incredibly steep stairs made of some dense mahogany like wood that would not have been allowed in a U.S. National Park. You get to the top and look across the jungle to see the tops of other temples poking up above the jungle canopy, just like the pictures in National Geographic.
We had camped the night before on a big lawn just outside the park. After seeing Tikal we packed up the camper in record time and drove to the border with Belize, a little over an hour away We had the easiest border crossing yet, and of course, they speak English in Belize! It was bizarre after weeks of strugglin along in Spanish speaking countries, to be still in a foreign country but able to easily communicate with everyone. The roadsigns are in english, on the radio they´re speaking english, the currency is the dollar, it´s very strange. There´s huge development on the coast. The stores in Belize are better stocked than Guatemala and Honduras, but everything but the orange juice and rum is expensive. Gas is just under five dollars a gallon,and they sell it by the gallon. And fish and produce are sold by the pound. We spent our first night in Belize in an actual RV park just ten miles from the border, where there were actual RV´ers from the US, Canada and Germany. We saw several Europeans in Belize in their little VW or Toyota based euro camper mobiles that they had apparently shipped there. Anyway, Belize is different in many ways from the rest of Latin America, not the least of which is the laid back caribbean vibe.
We didn´t have any plans for Belize, so we went to the beach. Jane had talked to one of the women at the RV park, and she recommended a town called Placencia, at the end of a peninsula in the southern part of the country. We went there, and we liked it so well, and the road in was so washboarded and slow, we stayed for four days, or basically our whole time in Belize.
The town of Placencia is at the end of this little spit of sand with a road down the middle and houses and businesses on each side. On the seaward side there is also a sidewalk that led from where we were camped at "Campin on da Beach" on the north end of town, to the south end which stopped at a little dock and the inlet to the lagoon. The boys and I went out in a little inflatable boat, and Ike caught a fish immediately, Max and Joe soon followed suit. Papa didn´t get a bite. Then Max caught another fish when he and Jane went fishing from shore, so we got our first self-procured fish dinner from the ocean.
We went out in a motor boat with a guide snorkeling one morning, saw live coral, many bizarro and brightly colored fish, lobster (out of season, unfortunately) an island with a lighhouse, the whole caribbean thing. Our guide, a young guy, showed us how to open a coconut with no tools, a feat we have not duplicated. Although we can manage with a machete. We were camped on a real nice beach, the ocean out there all blue and warm, but after four days we moved on.
We drove up to Corazal, in northern Belize and spent one night there, then crossed into Mexico just west of the city of Chetumal. We´d heard good things about Tulum, so we drove three or four hours north to get there, bought some groceries, beer and ice, then headed south on the beach road out of town, paid a dubious fee to get into a "biospere reserve" full of land for sale signs, and found a near perfect campsite on the beach - actually across the soccer field from the beach. Miles of powdery white sand beaches that we had almost to ourselves. Coconuts everywhere, free for the plucking.
Way back in Guatemala, at Lake Atitlan, we told the boys they could buy something to bring home with them. We looked at woven things, Joe bought a carved and painted wooden mask, but I needed something from the hardware store, and when Max and Ike saw the machete display, they decided that was what they wanted to buy. Then later, in Honduras, Joe was feeling left out, so I bought him one too. Now they´re coming in handy, we´ve been drinking coconut water and snacking on the meat every day.
But all good things must come to an end. We spent three days camped there, swimming and taking long beach walks, but too soon we have to leave the ocean and start making our way home. We´re changing money and buying supplies in Tulum this morning, then this afternoon we start across the Yucatan, slowly making our way back to the U.S.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Back in Copan February 11
Things went well with the broken trailer, we took the old springs in to the shop, and the next day picked up a new set that bolted right on to the trailer with just a little persuasion necessary. We also got in a little river trip on the Rio Cangrejal, just long enough to justify hauling a raft all the way down here. Then it was back to Tela to pick up my new glasses, and back to the D and D brewery near Lake Yojoa for dinner and a few brews. Bob, the owner of D and D, has a friend in Copan who owns a piece of land in Guatemala with some hot springs on it. Bob urged us to hook up with his friend and go check it out, being hot springs people ourselves. Unfortunately, Bobs friend isn't home today, and I don't think we're going to get to check out the hotsprings.
The night before last we stayed at an old United Fruit Company resort on Lago De Yojoa, very nice grounds with little wooden cottages and a pool. And pine trees. It's such a surprise to see pine trees in the tropics. Yesterday was a stressful day of driving for me, first I had to pay a $25 mordida for not wearing my seat belt, then we had a blowout of one of the rear tires on the truck. We spent last night camping at the same place we stayed when we met Jen and George and the girls here in Copan two weeks ago.
We got word from Loretta that the Gila has had the biggest flood in 25 years. Our place is OK, but I guess some of the neighbors had some damage.
Today we're off to Guatemala, we're heading toward Rio Dulce, in the eastern part of the country. We're still debating whether we want to visit Tikal, which will be a bit of a drive, but everyone says it's possibly the most impressive Mayan ruin.
The night before last we stayed at an old United Fruit Company resort on Lago De Yojoa, very nice grounds with little wooden cottages and a pool. And pine trees. It's such a surprise to see pine trees in the tropics. Yesterday was a stressful day of driving for me, first I had to pay a $25 mordida for not wearing my seat belt, then we had a blowout of one of the rear tires on the truck. We spent last night camping at the same place we stayed when we met Jen and George and the girls here in Copan two weeks ago.
We got word from Loretta that the Gila has had the biggest flood in 25 years. Our place is OK, but I guess some of the neighbors had some damage.
Today we're off to Guatemala, we're heading toward Rio Dulce, in the eastern part of the country. We're still debating whether we want to visit Tikal, which will be a bit of a drive, but everyone says it's possibly the most impressive Mayan ruin.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Busted flat in La Ceiba February 7th
Since our last entry, we spent a couple of nights at the Finca El Eden, a farm, restaurant and hotel owned by a German named Berti. It was near the Pico Bonito National Park. Very nice place, right on a river with some great swimming holes. Then we drove on through pineapple country to La Ceiba, where we found our first American style grocery store in weeks. There we noticed that our trailer was . . . crooked. We drove up a very bumpy road to the Omega river outfitters lodge on the Cangrejal River. On further investigation, we discovered that the leaf springs on one side of the trailer were broken, so this morning I took them off, and took them to the auto suspension guy in La Ceiba, he said he would make some new ones, and we can pick them up tomorrow. I don´t quite believe it will be that easy, but I´m keeping my fingers crossed. There are these jungle companies that do zipline canopy tours over the jungle. It´s a series of cables strung above the trees that you zip down on and end up back where you started. We want to do that, but probably won´t because it costs a lot for 5 people.
We hope to float the river while we´re here, there are some American guides working for the outfitter who have been helpful.
We left the kids alone at the beach, so we´d better go see if they are still there.
We hope to float the river while we´re here, there are some American guides working for the outfitter who have been helpful.
We left the kids alone at the beach, so we´d better go see if they are still there.
Monday, February 4, 2008
still in honduras feb. 4
I just wrote a bunch on the blog, and then the computer lost it somehow.......the computers are in spanish, so I can´t navigate around too well.......so here goes again.....
we´re still in honduras and enjoying it alot. We left the Copan ruins and headed towards Lago de Yojoa....a bit east and north of the ruins, i think. I had read in a guidebook that there was a beer brewing gringo that had a B&B near the lake so we decided to go check it out. When we got there, Bob said he didn´t really have room for us and tried to send us on our way down the road. So we just stood there looking pathetic and he finally said maybe we could squeeze into the parking lot if he moved his truck. So, we squeezed. We even had to unhook from the trailer and maneuver it by hand to get it in. We ended up staying 3 nights. Bob had a pool, toucans, and was a really good guitar player. He cut off a wine bottle for me and made a slide so I could learn how to play slide guitar. His beer was really good.....but he ran out due to a delay in his shipment. Dean rode with him when his supplies came in and Bob brewed right when he got home. He brewed 2 - 15 gallon batches. He said his beer would be ready to drink in 5 days. While we were there, we went to a large waterfall where we swam in the river just above the falls. They warned not to get too close to the edge or you´d plummet to your death. We also rented a lancha for half a day and paddled out on the lake and fished (but didn´t catch). The people here are really nice....none of the machismo like in Mexico. And they don´t drive as crazy either. We finally left Bob´s and headed toward the Carribean. We couldn´t find a place to camp, so we ended up camping for 2 nights in a parking lot next to the tourist police....pretty grim. Kind of the low point of camping places. No bathroom...we had to buy licuados (fruit smoothies )just to use the bathroom of a restaurant. We decided to see if we could upgrade,so we went to the Botanical gardens and they said we could camp there for $5. Major improvement. Big grassy fields under palm trees. We swam in the swimming holes of the river and wandered the gardens. We´re now back in Tela shopping for enough food to get us by for a few days, which is no easy task. The boys are always hungry, and the stores don´t reallyhave that much food. You have to go to a bunch of stores and market stalls to get what you need. Dean is off getting haircuts for him and the boys.....I guess they´re getting the flat tops hé´s been talking about for years. I can hardly wait to see Dean in his 30 year old army glasses (he lost his other glasses the day we left and had to bring his old ones), with the weird brown skate shoes he bought and a flat top. I´ll be sure to take lots of pictures for everyone to enjoy...
Well, I guess I´m off to get my flat top......I told Dean that if he got one, I´d get one. I´ll see if I can send this post without losing it. More later.......
we´re still in honduras and enjoying it alot. We left the Copan ruins and headed towards Lago de Yojoa....a bit east and north of the ruins, i think. I had read in a guidebook that there was a beer brewing gringo that had a B&B near the lake so we decided to go check it out. When we got there, Bob said he didn´t really have room for us and tried to send us on our way down the road. So we just stood there looking pathetic and he finally said maybe we could squeeze into the parking lot if he moved his truck. So, we squeezed. We even had to unhook from the trailer and maneuver it by hand to get it in. We ended up staying 3 nights. Bob had a pool, toucans, and was a really good guitar player. He cut off a wine bottle for me and made a slide so I could learn how to play slide guitar. His beer was really good.....but he ran out due to a delay in his shipment. Dean rode with him when his supplies came in and Bob brewed right when he got home. He brewed 2 - 15 gallon batches. He said his beer would be ready to drink in 5 days. While we were there, we went to a large waterfall where we swam in the river just above the falls. They warned not to get too close to the edge or you´d plummet to your death. We also rented a lancha for half a day and paddled out on the lake and fished (but didn´t catch). The people here are really nice....none of the machismo like in Mexico. And they don´t drive as crazy either. We finally left Bob´s and headed toward the Carribean. We couldn´t find a place to camp, so we ended up camping for 2 nights in a parking lot next to the tourist police....pretty grim. Kind of the low point of camping places. No bathroom...we had to buy licuados (fruit smoothies )just to use the bathroom of a restaurant. We decided to see if we could upgrade,so we went to the Botanical gardens and they said we could camp there for $5. Major improvement. Big grassy fields under palm trees. We swam in the swimming holes of the river and wandered the gardens. We´re now back in Tela shopping for enough food to get us by for a few days, which is no easy task. The boys are always hungry, and the stores don´t reallyhave that much food. You have to go to a bunch of stores and market stalls to get what you need. Dean is off getting haircuts for him and the boys.....I guess they´re getting the flat tops hé´s been talking about for years. I can hardly wait to see Dean in his 30 year old army glasses (he lost his other glasses the day we left and had to bring his old ones), with the weird brown skate shoes he bought and a flat top. I´ll be sure to take lots of pictures for everyone to enjoy...
Well, I guess I´m off to get my flat top......I told Dean that if he got one, I´d get one. I´ll see if I can send this post without losing it. More later.......
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