Saturday, November 22. Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico
So we made it! Again there are road stories, naturally. We left off in Ciudad Victoria on 'the rack', the bed with no apparent mattress. After the uncomfortable night with little noticed actual sleep, we hit the road a bit late again. After looking at the map decided to take the inland route through Ciudad Mantes, Ciudad Valles, and on to Pachuca all on varius grades of windy mountain roads, rather than drive the 'extra' 40 kM to Tampico and take the coast road. We've taken most of these roads before, and enjoyed the views and crazy curves, so south it was, Thursday morning, on Highway 85. The route was slow and curvy as expected, but relatively free of topes and problems. At a small town called Tamazunchale, we chose to leave Highway 85 to catch 'a shortcut' over to Highway 105 at Huejutla de Reyes, and save a few kM going south to Pachutla. The shortcut turned out to be badly paved, twisty, as expected, with lots of topes so it seemed maybe not such a good idea, but we were comitted by then. We made the turn at Heujutla, a bit concerned we might not make Pachuca by night, but with no other real options. Going continued slow for a couple hours, until we came to a line of cars and trucks stopped on the entry to a small town. I still don't know which one.
Eventually Liz and Sophie went to see what was the delay. It was a strike/demonstration of some sort, a couple trucks across the road at a critical point with no alternate route, and a bunch of guys having a rally. She came back with Sophie and we sat. And Sat. About 5:15 I went down to see if I could learn anything. Two cops were there from the other direction but were doing nothing. I asked what was the issue and one pointed to a sign on a sheet draped over the blocking truck. I memorized key words to translate back at the car, which came out to be something like "Our Demand: Respect for the Agreement". This didn't seem to answer my question, for all we know it's a sign they keep around for whatever occasion. In any case, a few minutes later (coincidentally, to be sure) people started running up the hill toward their vehicles and it was clear that, whatever it was, was over. At this point there are vehicles in both lanes on both sides of the roadblock so things take a while to sort out, and the net effect is that the last two hours of daylight have gone and we are in the MOFN (middle of nowhere), as night and rain start to fall, on a twisted mountain road populated with pissed-off, reckless, long-delayed drivers. It wasn't too bad being the car following a tractor-trailer rig through the (now) fog and rain in the now pitch dark on a bad curvy mountain road. But then he pulled over to sleep and I had to lead the 8 or ten drivers behind for a while. It was like playing a video game with really lousy graphics as I had to drive with less and less information until I was just hoping to glimpse one of the roadside reflectors or the (sometimes) painted stripes on the center or edges of the road to tell me which way we were currently curving. Finally I glimpsed a place to turn off, and did, leaving some other fool to lead the pack. I became the last car of a samller group, and we never saw the new leaders again, so either they made it or drive off a cliff without a trace.
Eventually we came to the largest dot on that part of the good map, Zacualtipan, and not finding any highway hotels we headed downtown. We saw a hotel sign or two, but not the actual hotels, until on the way back down to the highway spotted one, and checked in for 300 pesos, parked the car and resumed breathing. The two flights of glossy marble stairs up were wet with condensation but we didn't fall and brain ourselves on the steps and settled into a cold hotel room, happy to be alive. What a day. 12 hours in the car and about 320 miles.
Friday worked out amazingly better. We got another late-ish start but the road immediately got straighter and faster (not to mention day-lit and visible). Now that we could see more than 10 meters we noticed we were heading into and out of a deep canyon, w1th amazing views. The road got better and we were in Pachuca ahead of "schedule". We discussed various options at that point but it appeared the possibility of getting to Oaxaca that night was back on the table, and we went for it. The roads and navigation from Pachuca to Cuidad Sahagan to Apizaco to Tlaxcala all went without a hitch on progressively better highways until we were cruising down the toll highway from Puebla to Oaxaca, and arriving in time to actually see the art exhibits there. Several times recently we had managed to get there to late or on the wrong day so this was a bonus. We toured the Contemporary Art Museum, the print institute, the steets, had a drink at the zocalo (square) and dinner a few blocks away. Sophie was napping in the car till we got there and drove out of town to a roadside hotel a few miles along the way to Puerto Escondido. That made three nights (all three nights) in Mexico where we each night failed to follow the first rule of local driving...don't do it at night. Our luck held out.
Saturday started well and we were headed to Puerto. 131 over the Sierra Madre del Sur was in rougher shape than last year, but passable enough for us. We stopped for breakfast, finally, at a place in Sola De Vega, where we had been well served before, but were somewhat disappointed at the current state of cleanliness. Breakfast doesn't seem to have made us sick yet, though. We pressed on to Puerto Escondido for a mid-afternoon arrival. By now we've unloaded the non-tool stuff, moved into our poolside apartment at Derek & Christine Tompkins place, and had a nice fish dinner upstairs with them and a bit of beer and wine. all around a good start to our time in the warm winter sun here.
Showing posts with label Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trip. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2008
Port Hope to Ciudad Victoria, Tamaliupas
Wednesday, November 19, 9:00 PM, Ciudad Victoria, Mexico
That's enough to show that we made it over two-thirds of the way. There's a story or two, naturally. We went to a dinner party Saturday night, groggily finished preparations and packing on Sunday, and drove to Melville's house to spend the night with him (Liz's octogenarian dad). That was nice but after a fitful few hours of attempted sleep we got up about 4:00 AM and hit the highway by 4:30. All was fine through Toronto but we had snow falling from about Milton to London and it became quite slow. As day broke it got better and faster, and we were waiting at the Ambassador bridge by 8:00 or so. The US border staff was kind, the low fuel light was lenient and we made it to cheap US gas ($22 a tank-full!) with fumes to spare.
The route I've been complaining about from the bridge to Interstate 75 south is finally getting fixed, meaning it was more than the usual detour to find the highway but we made it, and were leaving Detroit at full speed as rush-hour traffic built in the other direction. With cruise control, good US highways, NPR radio, and cheap fuel we motivated pretty hard through Michigan and Ohio and into Kentucky as planned. Evening fell by Nashville or so but we pressed on to Memphis, and messed around a while trying to find the Memphis Airport La Quinta which is not on Airway drive. A good dinner seemed in order but was not to be; an extended search of the local commerce turned up nothing mutually acceptable (meaning Liz wouldn't eat greasy slop) so we returned defeated to the hotel and she ordered a Dominos medium pizza, which for $19 turned out to be about $25 a pound. It was soon gone and we tried again to sleep (it should be mentioned that two of us slept a lot in car (counting Sophie) but Den did all the driving, about 1020 miles on Monday. The room had highway noise and only Sophie slept well.
Our start Tuesday was about 3 hours later as we got going about 7:30 after free waffles, etc., at the hotel. Arkansas went by too slow, but uneventfully, and Texas began; the weather sunny and bright. After a fill-up, we considered an alternate non-freeway route south, but abandoned that plan after a few stoplights. On down Interstates 30, 435, 35E and 35, Texas gets progressively less interesting and just too long. We blew by the planned stop in Kyle, Texas, just past Austin, and changed our reservation to Corpus Christi where we arrived at about 8:30. We had slightly better luck at Big Red's sports bar with 50 visible TVs, a burger and such, and went back to the LA Quinta for a marginally better night's sleep. 1900+ miles from home at this point.
Corpus Cristie is only a couple hours from the far tip of Texas where we cross the Rio Grande, but we slept an additional hour, and did various commercial errands in Texas before crossing the bridge a little after noon, confident that all our paperwork was in order. Indeed we had our tourist visa papaerwork done in a few minutes and went on to get the car in. Not so fast. While my car is legally plated in Ontario through 2009, and had the plate stickers to prove it, it seems I had been negligent in that I had failed to place the matching little sticker on the ownership papers last September, and this is just TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Pleading, photos of the plate, nothing was going to change his mind. But there was an easy solution....just go back across the bridge to the Texas Vehicle department, and get a Texas temporary permit and come back with that: ten minutes, he says.
Yeah, right. It was half an hour just getting across the bridge and back through US customs. My Texas receipt ($25) was stamped 2:30 pm and my shiny new Mexican car permit came through 20 minutes later (400 pesos, about US$30). But whatever, we're good to go, if hours late. We navigated Matamoros OK and were looking at the "Ciudad Victoria 300 KM" sign, past the paperwork checkpoint in another half hour. The road (101) to Victoria is mostly smooth, fast, and tope-free (speed bumps). With a few minor annoyances drive was fine, as the sun finally got out of my eyes and some nice streaks of magenta crossed the SW sky. It got darker than we would choose to see from a car in Mexico but we got here and found this sleazy and basic 200 peso highway hotel, and a servicable restaurant at the corner. After we got inside we both recognized it from an earlier trip and it was again decent, with a Bistek Ranchero, a Pollo dinner, and two beer for 200 pesos with tip. With the US dollar up to 13 pesos, it was easily a better deal than Dominos or Big Red's.
The car, overloaded as it is, has been cruising along just fine, with the recently replaces junkyard motor and distributer. We got 30 MPG or so the first couple tanks, increasing to 37 or so the last one. The only problem so far is that the left headlight connector needs a nudge to get going, which is a bit inconvenient as night falls on a no-shoulder Mexican highway. I might even have to fix it. Somehow. The trunk is stuffed full, the back seat is filled maybe 20 inches deep (makes a nice platform for Sophie), and a small cartop-carrier bag is mounted on the trunk with camp chairs, snorkel gear, and beach toys. Someone unzipped it a few inches last night but was apparently unimpressed with the contents, as nothing was taken. Tonight I backed in to the garage provided here so it should be safe. It's a reasonable good strategy to drive a few thousand dollars of computers and electronics and tools and personal stuff around Mexico in a 13-year old economy car; nobody thinks much to mess with it. It puzzles me that some people think they are more secure in an expensive new SUV, when it's plainly the opposite. Who would you choose to kidnap or rob?
Enough for now. Having wasted the extra hours in Matamoros, we had to divert from the coast road to come to C.Vic. today as we would not have made it the extra distance to Tampico. Now we need to decide whether to go the long way to Tampico or stay inland on crazy curvy mountain roads toward Pachuca, around Mexico City, and on to Oaxaca. That's probably what we'll do. After dinner I bought the only beer available a the highway store, a 940 mL Corona. The laptop battery has outlasted the beer so it's time to climb on the rack (no joke-you can feel the springs through the sheets) and see if I can sleep better in the third country in four nights. Four if you count Texas.
That's enough to show that we made it over two-thirds of the way. There's a story or two, naturally. We went to a dinner party Saturday night, groggily finished preparations and packing on Sunday, and drove to Melville's house to spend the night with him (Liz's octogenarian dad). That was nice but after a fitful few hours of attempted sleep we got up about 4:00 AM and hit the highway by 4:30. All was fine through Toronto but we had snow falling from about Milton to London and it became quite slow. As day broke it got better and faster, and we were waiting at the Ambassador bridge by 8:00 or so. The US border staff was kind, the low fuel light was lenient and we made it to cheap US gas ($22 a tank-full!) with fumes to spare.
The route I've been complaining about from the bridge to Interstate 75 south is finally getting fixed, meaning it was more than the usual detour to find the highway but we made it, and were leaving Detroit at full speed as rush-hour traffic built in the other direction. With cruise control, good US highways, NPR radio, and cheap fuel we motivated pretty hard through Michigan and Ohio and into Kentucky as planned. Evening fell by Nashville or so but we pressed on to Memphis, and messed around a while trying to find the Memphis Airport La Quinta which is not on Airway drive. A good dinner seemed in order but was not to be; an extended search of the local commerce turned up nothing mutually acceptable (meaning Liz wouldn't eat greasy slop) so we returned defeated to the hotel and she ordered a Dominos medium pizza, which for $19 turned out to be about $25 a pound. It was soon gone and we tried again to sleep (it should be mentioned that two of us slept a lot in car (counting Sophie) but Den did all the driving, about 1020 miles on Monday. The room had highway noise and only Sophie slept well.
Our start Tuesday was about 3 hours later as we got going about 7:30 after free waffles, etc., at the hotel. Arkansas went by too slow, but uneventfully, and Texas began; the weather sunny and bright. After a fill-up, we considered an alternate non-freeway route south, but abandoned that plan after a few stoplights. On down Interstates 30, 435, 35E and 35, Texas gets progressively less interesting and just too long. We blew by the planned stop in Kyle, Texas, just past Austin, and changed our reservation to Corpus Christi where we arrived at about 8:30. We had slightly better luck at Big Red's sports bar with 50 visible TVs, a burger and such, and went back to the LA Quinta for a marginally better night's sleep. 1900+ miles from home at this point.
Corpus Cristie is only a couple hours from the far tip of Texas where we cross the Rio Grande, but we slept an additional hour, and did various commercial errands in Texas before crossing the bridge a little after noon, confident that all our paperwork was in order. Indeed we had our tourist visa papaerwork done in a few minutes and went on to get the car in. Not so fast. While my car is legally plated in Ontario through 2009, and had the plate stickers to prove it, it seems I had been negligent in that I had failed to place the matching little sticker on the ownership papers last September, and this is just TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Pleading, photos of the plate, nothing was going to change his mind. But there was an easy solution....just go back across the bridge to the Texas Vehicle department, and get a Texas temporary permit and come back with that: ten minutes, he says.
Yeah, right. It was half an hour just getting across the bridge and back through US customs. My Texas receipt ($25) was stamped 2:30 pm and my shiny new Mexican car permit came through 20 minutes later (400 pesos, about US$30). But whatever, we're good to go, if hours late. We navigated Matamoros OK and were looking at the "Ciudad Victoria 300 KM" sign, past the paperwork checkpoint in another half hour. The road (101) to Victoria is mostly smooth, fast, and tope-free (speed bumps). With a few minor annoyances drive was fine, as the sun finally got out of my eyes and some nice streaks of magenta crossed the SW sky. It got darker than we would choose to see from a car in Mexico but we got here and found this sleazy and basic 200 peso highway hotel, and a servicable restaurant at the corner. After we got inside we both recognized it from an earlier trip and it was again decent, with a Bistek Ranchero, a Pollo dinner, and two beer for 200 pesos with tip. With the US dollar up to 13 pesos, it was easily a better deal than Dominos or Big Red's.
The car, overloaded as it is, has been cruising along just fine, with the recently replaces junkyard motor and distributer. We got 30 MPG or so the first couple tanks, increasing to 37 or so the last one. The only problem so far is that the left headlight connector needs a nudge to get going, which is a bit inconvenient as night falls on a no-shoulder Mexican highway. I might even have to fix it. Somehow. The trunk is stuffed full, the back seat is filled maybe 20 inches deep (makes a nice platform for Sophie), and a small cartop-carrier bag is mounted on the trunk with camp chairs, snorkel gear, and beach toys. Someone unzipped it a few inches last night but was apparently unimpressed with the contents, as nothing was taken. Tonight I backed in to the garage provided here so it should be safe. It's a reasonable good strategy to drive a few thousand dollars of computers and electronics and tools and personal stuff around Mexico in a 13-year old economy car; nobody thinks much to mess with it. It puzzles me that some people think they are more secure in an expensive new SUV, when it's plainly the opposite. Who would you choose to kidnap or rob?
Enough for now. Having wasted the extra hours in Matamoros, we had to divert from the coast road to come to C.Vic. today as we would not have made it the extra distance to Tampico. Now we need to decide whether to go the long way to Tampico or stay inland on crazy curvy mountain roads toward Pachuca, around Mexico City, and on to Oaxaca. That's probably what we'll do. After dinner I bought the only beer available a the highway store, a 940 mL Corona. The laptop battery has outlasted the beer so it's time to climb on the rack (no joke-you can feel the springs through the sheets) and see if I can sleep better in the third country in four nights. Four if you count Texas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)