Christmas in the Jungle

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas in a Mayan village about an hour and a half from here. Chumpon was ‘adopted’ a few years ago by people in PaaMul, and is about quite a way off the main roads. This is where we built a school library last year.
For a few years a convoy of Paamulians have brought Santa with presents for all the kids in the village. It started with the school kids but has been expanded to include the pre-school children.


Our rotund white-bearded dive shop master, John, serves as and excellent Santa much to the delight of the more than a hundred children.


Susan and our neighbor Dot, took on the new project of the preschool tots.
Through the summer and fall, Susan shopped for toys, stuffed animals and things like coloring books, for their xmas gift bags. Another woman in the park, Debbie, sewed lovely little bags with straps to hold all the treats.
The preschool teacher, Claudia, got most of her little ones to dress in red and white, and we were quite amazed how patient and well-behaved they were.




First we all had snacks and cake, then they lined up to have a go at the piñata. What a hoot. There is a special song that goes with the piñata attack, and one after another of the little ones had a whack. It resisted quite a while amidst much laughter.


Then the gift bags were given out, completing what for many of the kids might be their first Christmas memory.
It was over in a couple of hours, we were exhausted, and drove home for afternoon naps.

We are floored!

Once we pick our floor, we better be sure as it is what we will be living with.
Walls can be painted, covered with fabric, but ....
The typical floor in this part of the world is ceramic tile. We went through some drama choosing the tiles for our palapa three years ago. (After looking at many, found one we liked, ordered it, the wrong one came, went looking again in a rush, found another tile, drove to the warehouse about an hour away, brought it back in our truck, had it installed, and now are only moderately happy with it -- oh well.)


With another opportunity to choose flooring, we were trying some thinking outside the box. Several friends here have pulled carpets from their rvs and replaced them with laminate. I like laminate. I have installed it several times over many years. As laminate is made with an absorbent base, is not recommended for kitchens and bathrooms. Some of what I read on line, cautioned about its use in humid conditions like new concrete, particularly in this climate.
We looked at solid bamboo flooring, but it was pricey, and meant to be nailed to a subfloor. I couldn’t see how that would work for us.
Then one afternoon, we were in another floor design place and saw these displays of travertine. Wow! This is the stuff that is used in deluxe places like hotels, and up-scale malls, and museums.
It turns our that there is a type of travertine that is mined from a quarry near Puebla (Mx) that had some lovely subtle colors and we thought would be a nice shift from our ‘outside’ palapa area to our ‘inside’ casita.
With our two and a half rooms being only 32 sq. M (345 sq. ft), it was something we decided we could afford.


Like many other aspects of this renovation, once again we were fortunate that it has gone smoothly. They had the material in stock and could start as soon as we were ready. Two guys have been here for the last three days and this morning the floor is going to get final polishing and sealing.
Then paint, then electrical, then furniture, then...

As the dust settles

At last we brought out the brooms for a proper cleaning. It has been over a month that we have lived in this construction zone. Several times a day, I would grab a broom, shovel or rake in an effort to control the detritus.

Building out of cement involves a lot of grit and dust. Most of the materials - gravel, sand and especially cement are dusty. The same for the stucco, floor adhesive and grout which comes in bags of fine powder. Our hallway at the front entrance has been the storage place for the bags and bags of these powders.
I also created my share of dust, in my role as the electric guy. As the floor, walls and roof went up, I was in there with the diamond blade side grinder to cut all the outlets for the conduits, plugs, plug switches and lighting outlets.
I also was busy with the heavy chisel removing the old floor tiles adhesive and grout along the modified line of the hallway. Pounding a chisel was slow and brutal work, chipping away as though I was working on a rock pile. Still it seemed a bit meditative, swinging away for as long as my hands could take it, resting and going again.
Each pour of cement seemed to include a lot of chipping away where the edges and corners were not quite right. The forms (wood framework for cement pours) are heavily recycled boards of many sizes, and not always a good fit. It seems it is easier / cheaper to chip away the spillover areas than to spend money on good lumber.




Some of the last pieces our albanils installed were glass block windows in the bedroom. Once again Lucio and Gilberto mixed more emulsion of white cement and their part was nearly done.

For the whole month we had some plastic sheets hanging between our kitchen and the work zone to create a little separation between the building area and our living area. These come down yesterday, and today the last bits of cleaning will be done. For now.

Raise High the Roof Beams, Albañils

The masons who are putting up our casita are called “albañils” in Spanish. I think the old adage which in other parts has been used to refer to Italians, Portuguese and other nationality’s tradesmen, can be used to refer to a typical Mexican, that “he is born with a trowel in his hand!”
Much of Mexico is made of cement blocks, and what isn’t made of cement is made of our other palapa materials -- wood poles and ceramic tile. Very little except doors and furniture is made of lumber. As we have travelled through Mexico it is noteworthy to go through any small region where there are buildings made of boards.


The roof of our casita will be made of cement beams and cement blocks like the rest of the exterior. The cements roofs are assembled in an ingenious method and will be very strong, I’m sure.


Once the walls are up, cement beams are laid across the span of the rooms. These beams are made in the shape of an upside down “T”. They are set to a precise distance apart into which are placed the roof blocks. The roof blocks are shaped with ledges that fit between the beams, dropping into place, side by side, forming a continuous flat interior, ready for stucco.
The roof raising was not a job for the old and weak like me, as the beams weighed about 100 lbs and the huge blocks close to 50 lbs each. It added up to a lot of brute muscle work.


Then more forms are assembled around the upper parameter, and filled with rebar and concrete. The topside is then covered with a steel mesh and covered with a couple more inches of poured concrete, making a solid roof.
When all the forms were fixed in position, my ceiling electrical conduits in place our crew was ready to mix and pour.


This got going about 3 p.m.. Once again we had the motorized cement mixer on hand, making a combination of old methods and the new. Several batches were mixed in the machine, poured into a pool on the ground, then shoveled into pails and lifted hand to hand up a ramp to the roof where it was poured and trowelled.
Dusk arrived at 5:30, and the mixing and pouring went on.
I strung up a few lights from the palapa rafters, and the five guys kept going until the pour was done. With the cleanup of tools and equipment, the guys sat down at 9 p.m. to well earned pizzas and beer.

Playing with blocks

The bricks and blocks are going up.
As soon as the floor was set, the truckloads of blocks and more cement arrived. It seemed to be going almost too fast. I had drawn my sketches where the walls, doors and windows would go, but I wasn’t getting my “mulling it over” time.
Fortunately, I still have my councillors, our neighbors, Bob & Dale to talk things through with, and clarify a few ideas. The plumbing was an early fait accompli as the drain pipes were set into the concrete poured floor.
I like to design kinetically, so when the floor was established, I came in with some boards and big felt markers to show where the walls of the dividing section -- half bath and closets would fit.


Then came the decisions for the location of the electrical plugs and switches. With a little experience from last time, I was able to incorporate the conduits into channels inside the block walls, rather than drilling through the walls and ceiling later, and thus avoid a maze of conduits along the outer walls and roof. Already I have cut 19 plug outlets running around the perimeter of the rooms (you can never have too many plugs), and several switch places, and run the wires to the location of the sub-panel.
Each couple of hours I walk through the rooms, monitoring the walls going up and marking the openings for the 8 windows and one sliding door.
Even tonight, after our workers had gone, I realized that another light and switch was required, so will be threaded in tomorrow morning before they pour the wall headers.

I am pleased to say, that my guys, Lucio and Paulito are doing a pretty good job. They put in full days from 7 am to dusk, and are easy to talk to - as well as I can with my Spanish building terms, and otherwise they talk cheerily in native Mayan.
The best news is that so far the walls seem to be going up straight.

The Machine Age

In our five years here in PaaMul and before that our travel up and down the west coast of Mexico, we have had opportunity to observe many building sites. Actually it is hard to miss them if you are traveling through a village or here in the PaaMul park, because of the tradition and practice of mixing concrete on the ground, right out front, on the road or street. First comes the piles of gravel and sand, then the bags of cement and stacks of re-bar.
Then come the workers with their short handled shovels who portion out the ingredients in a pile and adding water, start to mix it all by hand. This works fine when making mortar, which in only needed in small quantities and are transported onto the work-site in pails, but for mixing up larger batches of concrete, even if they are mixing a large batch of sand, gravel and cement, there is only so large a mix-patch you can handle with short shovels, so it takes a while, mixing and pouring over and over again and makes for lumpy, patchy surfaces.




Well much to our surprise, two pieces of motorized equipment showed up at our build. The first was a gasoline riven thumper to tamp down the calica fill that is the base for the floor. This replaced the hand tamper and water hose technique that went on for days when we first were building the other side of our palapa floor a couple of years ago. The thumper hopped around our casita base for several hours, but it compacted very well, I think.


The bigger deal was the arrival of a motorized cement mixer. The first one any of us had seen in PaaMul and attracted a lot of attention. With a crew of four to keep the mixer going, running in and out with the wheelbarrows, and another guy “screeding” the pour, we got the whole floor done in one day. And to top it off, the floor was very level and quite smooth. The modern techniques didn’t go as far as “floating” the surface to get a finished surface such as we would have in our basements or garages up north, but at least is was quite level, and will be quite easy to lay a finished floor.
Yes these motorized tools went faster, and did a better job, but it sure was noisy for a couple of days.

The 3rd Little Piggy...

“The first little piggy built his house of straw. The second little piggy built his house of wood, and the third little piggy build his house of bricks...” Well you probably remember what happened. “The big bad wolf...etc.”

From that old fairy tale, let me take you through a brief history of Paa Mul. PM started out as tent camping on the beach, which evolved to a trailer park, which evolved to people building palapas for shade next to their trailers, which evolved to building bigger palapas and parking the rvs under them, which evolved to adding patios and outside kitchens which evolved to building part of the structure with cement blocks, and then to building mostly out of block. These are still all under the classic PM palapa.

This may be obscure minutia to most of you readers but bear with me.
Paa Mul is technically a “trailer park” and up to the recent past, all of PM palapas included rvs. Some of the older trailers have been here for 20 or more years and like trailer parks anywhere and especially here, these old trailers were not standing up well to the years of tropical weather. Some of these trailers have been modified and upgraded with stucco exteriors, more substantial floors, new doors and windows, etc. But underneath, they were still flimsy rvs.
A couple of years ago, PM palapa construction went through a phase of “faux” trailers, in which the trailer part of the building was permitted to be built on a steel beam frame, off the ground, with an old axle under the frame, and the rooms built from lumber and sheetrock. Quite complicated and expensive.
Then last winter a few palapas were being built from the ground up with all rooms of cement block. This is basic tropical construction -- very sturdy and inexpensive.
Last spring, we applied for a renovation permit from the office. For unclear reasons, they brought a halt to these cement block non-trailer structures.

Over the summer we found “new/old” trailer and brought it down to be our permanent home here. But as often is said here in Paamul, “Just wait, things will change”.
When we here arrived a couple of weeks ago, we saw that the all-block building had started again. This time our visit to the office was greeted with positive response and our all-brick casita construction is a go.
I brought out my plans, got a quote from our Mayan builder, David, and we are under way. We have moved the trailer across the road to another lot and will live there for the next month or so. The foundations have been dug and this morning as I sat in the loft and wrote this, there was a crew of 4 mixing concrete to pour the footings.




This “casita” will essentially replace the footprint of the trailer, with two rooms and a half bath adding up to approximately 12 x 34 feet and 8 feet tall. Being all cement and stucco, it will nicely compliment our existing rooms -- the kitchen, living, dining, bathroom and bodega.

In the interest of full disclosure, our Mexican home will be made of straw (the palapa roof), wood (the palapa posts and beams), but mainly of bricks (and tile). So I say, bring on the big bad wolf (hurricane), let him/her huff and puff and our home should stand.

Its Ancient History

Almost everyone who travels into Mexico will become aware of the ancient cultures that once populated this part of the world and the cities they built. Over the last decade of traveling in Mexico we have visited several of these ancient sites, and walked on stones that were laid so many centuries ago.

The indigenous people of Mexico domesticated of corn about 9000 years ago, and went on to build large, complex societies.
Much of this Mesoamerica legacy stands in the remains of pyramids scattered through the country and down into Central America. According to one source, there are 4000 separate sites of ancient ruins, most of which have not been uncovered. These cities, each flourished for many centuries, and for various reasons, expired, and were abandoned. The jungle then grew back around them and over them, and they mostly disappeared.

We stopped at the RV Park in Cholula and walked across the city to the site of The Great Pyramid of Cholula, also known as Tlachihualtepetl. It is the largest archaeological site of a pyramid (temple) in the Americas. The pyramid stands 55 metres (180 ft) above the surrounding plain and in its final form it measured 400 by 400 metres (1,300 by 1,300 ft).





We got a very good guide, Proferio, a retired biology teacher, who spoke excellent, if deliberate English. He first took us through the museum and explained the models, and then on a hike around the site. When the Spanish arrived, they built a church on the top of the pyramid.

A couple of days later we arrived at an rv park we knew near Palenque.
The Palenque ruins date back to 100 BC to its fall around 800 AD. After its decline it was absorbed into the jungle, but has been excavated and restored and is now a famous archaeological site attracting thousands of visitors.




By 2005, the discovered area covered up to 2.5 km² (1 sq mi), but it is estimated that less than 10% of the total area of the city is explored, leaving more than a thousand structures still covered.


As we approached the coast we had an opportunity to stop along the highway near several more sites. We were at a Pemex (gas station) when the attendant spoke some English. We were considering staying there for the night, and the Pemex guy, Abram mentioned that he was soon coming off shift and could take us to visit the nearby ruins a of Kohunlich. We all, including Pippin, squeezed into Don & Pat’s van and spent a lovely afternoon hiking around another remnant of ancient life.
The site was settled by 200 BC, but most of the structures were built in the Early Classic period from about 250 to 600 AD.






Abram showed us a tree that had peeling bark, which the locals call a “tourist tree”. Yes, it is because many of the pink people from the north come down for their holidays and get sunburned.

It is somewhat mind-bending to see these old sites and hear about these ancient history. We have learned that little is clearly known about these ancient cultures. Their populations grew and subsided several times. They were scientifically advanced in many areas, and very spiritual, building great temples wherever they settled. For this they needed to cut down vast forests of trees to burn limestone to make cement which may have caused a breakdown in their water and food supply.
There are few remaining traces of their written history, as when the Spanish arrived in the 1500’s, they destroyed all that they found. Still, their descendants have survived and largely adapted and integrated to modern life. True indigenous people make up a very small proportion of Mexican population. The vast majority is comprised of Mestizoes -- people of mixed heritage. A nice blend to what there is from the old and the new, I think.

SMA / GTO/ DH

We drove a day and a half from the US border to San Miguel de Allende, one of our favorite stopover points driving through Mexico. This is our 5th visit to SMA, and a great place to take a breather and smell the fresh air.
On some trips we have spent a week or two here where we have taken intensive Spanish language classes,festivals and and once the “Day of The Dead” celebrations, as well as lots of strolling along the bustling streets and markets. If you don’t know, SMA is one of the more popular places for US and Canadian ex-pats to visit and settle. At 6000 feet, it has an “ideal” climate -- never too hot in the summer, and at this latitude, pleasantly warm in the winter. It is a haven for many artists and musicians with an active bilingual cultural life.


Each visit we scour the Artisans Market and pick up a few things for our palapa.


On Sunday we lingered in the main plaza and eavesdropped on a couple of the strolling mariachi bands.

Our regular rv place, La Siesta, is now under re-development, so we are very comfortably parked at the San Ramon Balianerio just a few kms up the road. As well as having a warm swimming pool and a hotel, it is a working farm with fields and animals on the property. It is just enough off the road to be peaceful in the evenings, and fortunately, does not have barking dogs and crowing roosters nearby, which always seem to be in the next yard in city parks.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Guanajuato and Dolores Hidalgo, two other special cities in this area.


Guanajuaoto (GTO) is a Unesco Heritage City, is set neatly in a valley of narrow winding streets, stairways and colorful buildings. It is also known for its university and cultural life.


We took the fanicular up to an overlook place for an amazing vista view. Susan suggested that it looks like looking into a bowl of brightly coloured candy.


In Guanajuato has a unique traffic system where virtually all traffic is diverted to underground tunnels, sort of a subway system, except for vehicles. They are dimly lit, narrow, and usually just one lane next to parked cars. We had a little help from a tourist guide who hopped on the back of the truck, calling out directions, “a la derecha” (right) “derecho” (straight), and “esquierda” (left) and led us to a parking garage near the plaza centro. At the parking garage, Don got out to guide me through the forward and back turning to get us around the tight turns and ramps up to the only available spot on the 5th level. Tunnel driving and parking garages -- just part of the adventure!


We drove back through Delores Hidalgo, which is the centre for the ceramic industry in Mexico. There are dozens of factories and warehouses with huge displays of their products. Once again we found a few items to add colourful Mexican winter home.

No Warranty -- No Recall!

The gypsy life of living in a “caravan” has now reached five years full time, 80,000 kms, and still going strong...


It was summer, 2006, when we packed up our house in North Vancouver, put a few remaining household possessions and keepsakes into storage and took to the road with our truck and 5th wheel. After that winter in Mexico, we came up to Ontario to visit our kids, and have made Ontario our regular summer home.


Our trusty 06 Chevy Silverado diesel passed a significant mark this summer, as it crossed 160,000 kms (100,000 miles). It has been very reliable, having only needed oil changes and tires. So a couple of weeks ago, I treated her to all new fluids, as in: tranny, differentials, rad, brakes, etc. One of the cooling hoses had a small leak and was replaced, and we should be good to go for many more years. This is our second GM truck, (our first was a 99 GMC 1/2 ton) and I am a great believer in the quality and durability of domestic trucks, especially the GM’s.

As for our Cardinal 5th wheel trailer home, it has served us well. We have adapted to living in 250 sq. ft. A couple of months ago, I was reading an article in the travel section of the Toronto Star where the reporter was bemoaning his experience rv-ing across Canada with his family (which included two teen-agers). I wrote him a letter suggesting that he was missing a few points. I said in part: “Space is relative. We have lived in all sizes of houses, with all kinds of family members. All you need is a little willingness, and, you can accommodate living space to almost any size.
“We have rv-ed, full time, all over North America for 5 years. Just today, sitting under our awning, reading and watching the birds, I asked my wife when she was thinking we'd be moving back to a house. "Not for a while I hope", I was happy to hear.”

This summer I went through a small ledger which I keep a record of our various trips. Driving from Ontario to the Texas/Mexico border is over 3000 kms. On our trips north through the US, we have usually meandered a bit, going along the Gulf Coast states and up the Atlantic. We have been to New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, and Washington each a couple of times. Our longest drive through the US has been 4600 kms.
Once we cross the border into Mexico, it takes at least 2800 kms to reach our beach home in Paamul. In these five years we have been around much of Mexico - up and down the Pacific coast, the interior, and along the east Gulf coast.
With five years of the north-south, and some trips around Canada, I added up the distances that the Cardinal trailer had traveled and was surprised it added up to 80,000 kms. That is twice around the circumference of the earth! I think that is unusual milage for travel trailers.
So we have decided to give our Cardinal some rest. We have “winterized” it for the first time and put it in storage for our return to Canada in the spring.
We found a second 5th wheel trailer, and now taking it down to Paamul to be installed in our palapa. It is a Prowler, about the same size, a little older but in good shape. So we moved “house” transferring our goods, sorting what we will want to bring that will remain in Mexico and what gets left behind for our summers in Canada. Well, actually, our summer and winter stuff is much the same, shorts and t-shirts with a few pair of jeans and a fleece or two. Which sandals and running shoes are we leaving behind and which go? Tough choices!

I suppose we will continue to drive -- it is a beautiful continent, and there is more we want to explore, but it will be more relaxing to travel without the 12,000 lbs on the hitch. We might put a small camper on the back of the truck, but eventually we will start flying down.
Who knows what the future holds?

As I am finishing this report, we are in Austin Texas, about ready to cross into Mexico. We have met up with Susan’s brother and wife, from BC, and will be showing them our route and our favorite stops along the way. We try to follow the dictum of “Life in the slow lane -- it is not about the destination, but the journey.”

Stormy weather...

For all the years we have been rving, we have been aware that when Mother Nature gets rowdy, it is often the trailer parks which suffer the worst damage. Hey, that is where we live!
Our place on the beach in Mexico is in an area that hurricanes sometimes visit. When a hurricane is forming it is tracked for days. The last hurricanes in the Yucatan were in 2005, when one battered Cancun, 80 km to the north, and another made land near Chetumal about three hours drive to the south of us. There were some storm surges that affected Paamul, a few of the older, smaller palapas were damaged and some roof repair was required. Hurricanes which form over the ocean are followed for days, and their paths are forecast with enough time for people to batten down the hatches and get in a vehicle and generally avoid them.

However, tornadoes (twisters) are different. I’m no expert on the whole meteorological thing, but from what I see, twisters happen here and there as storms pass over wide inland areas where people live and rvers like us travel. Tornadoes form quickly and within minutes are creating havoc, with their paths having little predicable pattern. However, they are usually small in dimension and (we cross our fingers) they won’t find us.
When we left Texas a week ago as there was some heavy weather in the forecast. As we drove through Arkansas, we heard that there were storms behind us. When we stopped in Nashville we had a few nervous days as it rained hard for periods but the worst passed to the north and the south of us. Then as we headed further east in bright sunshine, we heard the news reports of the massive destruction that has raged through wide swaths of the US southeast.


The next morning we drove from Tennessee into Virginia and we saw first-hand some of the destruction. The news showed pictures of whole flattened neighborhoods and a death toll reaching 340! Ayee!

Sometimes I think we’re the Blessed Irish...
“May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields...”

Notes from the Road North

Packing up our winter home is never easy. Each year we have added more stuff to our palapa that needs to be dealt with. Our last week in Paamul was also very hot and humid, so I suggested to Susan that we take it in little bites -- work an hour, then escape to the A/C of the trailer, work another hour, and go for a swim, etc. The swims were particularly refreshing and energizing.

Still we got things together, on schedule and Wed. morning were hitching up the truck. Then a setback. Well, 3 actually, as in bad luck comes in threes...
The first started a couple of days earlier as I was servicing the two batteries that run the 12 volt circuits in the trailer. One of them was way down in water, and when I added more, got all hot and stinky. These are special deep-cycle batteries that work hard for us 12 months a year. The first set I had to replace after two years. I replaced them premium ones and they have now worked for nearly 4 years. So with one battery out, I bypassed it and we are now working on the one left. With less reserve power, it will restrict the time we are able to be dry-camping.
The front of the trailer rests on two jacks that raise and lower it to fit on to the truck hitch. The jacks are driven by a low-geared 12 volt electric motor that always seems to be straining hard to lift its weight. The two jacks are connected by a drive shaft and that morning, one of the jacks decided that it had had enough and snapped off its connecting pin. The one jack still worked, so I brought out our little bottle hydraulic jack, and between the two were able to raise up the front enough to get it hitched.
And the third; well, the bedroom slide is acting wobbly. I help it go in and out, but that too will have to be fixed when we get to an RV service depot NOB.

With consideration to all the fatigue and delay of the pack-up, we drove just 4 hours down the road to a lovely park in Chetumal, where we overlooked the sea and a brisk warm breeze blowing from it.
On many of our trips up and down Mexico, we have overnighted in Pemex (the Mexican national fuel company) truck stops. They are usually free, though sometimes you tip the night watchman, they are always noisy, as they are right on the roadways, with transport trucks coming and going. and usually hot and sticky, because we only have one little 12 volt fan.
This time I set a schedule that would take us from RV Park to RV Park.
So the second night, we made our first visit to a park in Villahermosa. It was handy, just a couple blocks off the highway, much quieter, and much cooler with all our electric fans going.

The next day I got overoptimistic. Going west down Hwy. 150, there is a long stretch of expensive toll road that has always been in very poor shape. Last fall, as we drove down with Joe & Marilyn, he showed us the alternate “Libre” (free) road that runs sort of parallel but through farms, villages and towns. It is a much prettier drive, but slower.


I knew it would be slower, but how much slower, we soon found out. There were just two narrow lanes, filled all kinds of traffic, from transport trucks to old farm vehicles. And there seemed to be more villages than I remembered, each with their many topes (speed bumps) to ease our big trailer over. Then a couple of hours into the route, the traffic came to a complete stop. A few vehicles would go through, and then stop again. Eventually we were at the front. I walked up to see what was going on. It was a protest by local people about injustices. There were plenty of signs and cel phones. “Codeci Demands Justice” and “We Demand the Liberation of Cuauhtemoc”

There were perhaps fifty people milling around. The police came and left, and came back and left again. Assurances that it would be just a while longer dragged on. Fortunately, we had our diesel truck that could idle forever, and we had our books. Four hours later, they pulled back the barricade and the huge lineups started moving. By this time we were well out of range of our destination, and so found a truck stop and settled in as best we could. The afternoon temp had risen to nearly 100F and it barely cooled at night.


The next day we got into the highlands (over 7000 ft.) to Cholula, and settled in to a tidy RV park surrounded by blooming Jacaranda trees -- with Susan’s favorite beautiful purple blossoms. Cholula a suburb of Puebla, and we rested and did some sight seeing.
Puebla is a planned city begun in the 16th century to be the stop-over between Mexico City and Veracruz. Work started with the main plaza and the government buildings and the huge cathedral around the square.

About a block away was the oldest house in Puebla, the “Castle del Dean” which was finished in 1580. Quite different from the frontier cities to the north.

Puebla is the birthplace of Mole Poblano, the unique sauce that I wrote about last month. We got on the local transit bus and it took us racing to Puebla Centro where we walked around and then started asking about where we could get a good Mole for lunch. We ended up at a hotel off the centro, where we had a five course lunch for under 10 dollars. I soaked up all the mole sauce with tortillas. Yum.

From Cholula, we had a short drive to Queretero another city we have long wanted to check out, but with the trailer tethered to the truck, we stayed in the rev park. The next day, we spent our last Mexican night in Matahuela. That park at the Las Palmas Hotel, was another good addition to our travel possibilities. It has a large clean pool that was just the thing after a hot afternoon drive. It also has great wifi, and checking the rv.net forum, I found there was another couple in an rev park a couple of hours north of us who were inquiring about different crossing to the US.

As many of my readers will know, there has been a lot of reports about the trouble and violence in some of the border areas. The general consensus is now to avoid our old route through the congested east side. I responded that we were returning north right up Hwy. 57 (the way we came down last fall) and would be happy to hook up and lead the way. We left Matahuela early and joined up with Randall & Pam a couple of hours later, and had a very easy trip up to the frontier and breezed through the border, getting to US customs by 5 pm.

We love Mexico. We love the Mexican people we meet. WE love the friends that we have made who share our winters. However, some aspects of Mexico’s casual nature and random bureaucracy can be frustrating.
The roads and highways are getting better every year, but navigating the signage and the routing can be challenging and tiring.
Crossing into the US, being given a thorough cavity search (the truck and trailer cavities) by surly US border officials, it was still some relief to be back in the land of English; the land of wide roads and good highway signs; the land of GPS;and the land of 30 amp electric.
Our first night in Texas was spent at the border town of Eagle Pass, inn the RV parking area of a casino. What a culture shock. I have never seen the appeal of casinos, even Las Vegas, but for convenience, we wandered through the casino to the overpriced and overcooked buffet restaurant. To get there we had to go through the maze of the slot machines, through crowds of glassy eyed people in front of blinking lights and ringing bells. It seemed so gloomy, so commercial, so inauthentic, and so unsocial. Of course the casino offered no wifi (the outside world shall not enter the gambling den) and now on our second night out of Mexico, we are at a park just outside of San Antonio, near where we will be getting our trailer serviced, and while they advertise wifi, it is almost non-functional. Hmnn, after enjoying good internet all our trip through Mexico, we feel a little cut off from the big wide world.

Our six months in Mexico are over for another year, and now we have a few weeks to wander through the US. Each trip we see some neat places and meet some good people. WE will never see it all, but we will enjoy the journey.