2010-2011 Trip – Page 4 – Keel-Hauler's RV Travel Stories

Last Week at Xpu-Ha

I can’t believe that the Winter is almost over. We got here on December 7th and other than the 17 nights that we spent back home for Christmas, we enjoyed every minute here. All the friendly campers and the beautiful beach and pleasant weather made the days go fast. I especially enjoyed reading about the snow, ice and cold weather back home.

People always asking me about safety in Mexico. Like the states, you don’t want to go into a bad neighborhoods at night. Unlike the states most crime is petty theft with no weapons. You read about all the deaths and shootouts here, but 95% of it is in the border towns. I would never camp in Texas near the border of Mexico. Far more likely to be robbed, shot or have your truck stolen.

Here on the Mayan Riviera everyone wants and treats tourists very well. The tourist bring the money that supports the hundreds of thousands of workers who have found their way here for jobs and housing. New small houses are being built everywhere.

How about crossing the border? We try to pick a place where there is no town at the border like Los Indios/Free Trade Bridge which is good for us Easterners. Those heading West have lots of safe options as well. Just stay away from Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa or Matamoras, big cities bring more danger.

What is the biggest problem travelling? Topes, the speed bumps that control traffic whenever you are near any population. Some are huge and could really cause vehicle damage. Gas Stations, they are full serve and many attendants try to scam unsuspecting travelers. But stay at the pump, watch that they start the pump at zero and make sure you tell them and they agree to the size of the bill that you are handing them. They will try to say you gave them a 50 peso note rather than a 500 peso note, if you let them walk away to get change. Police, I guess it’s because they are low paid and think tourists are rich, stupid and scare easily into giving them bribes. They make up infractions and then ask for huge amount of money.

Some tourists submit because they don’t want to be delayed and pay illegal bribes.

I also post this sticker on my RV, that says “No Bite”, “Don’t feed the corruption”

Below are two paragraphs written in Spanish that you could use to stop this illegal practice. If they stop you for a traffic violation. Hand them this.

AVISO A USTED OFICIAL DE POLICIAEntiendo que Usted ha pedido que me detenga debido a que posiblemente he cometido una violación de tránsito. Obedeceré sus instrucciones de acuerdo a la ley, le entregaré mi licencia para conducir y el registro de mi vehículo. Sin admitir culpa en esta situación, voluntariamente lo seguiré hacia la Comandancia de Policía en donde Usted o alguien podrá informarme acerca de los procedimientos legales a que haya lugar y si me es requerido, pagaré la multa que corresponda. Entiendo que en este caso, se me extenderá un recibo por el concepto de la multa.

(English translation)

NOTICE TO MEXICAN POLICE OFFICERS

I understand that you have stopped me for allegedly committing a traffic violation. I will obey your legal instructions by providing you with my Drivers License and vehicle registration. Without admitting guilt in this situation, I will voluntarily follow you to your local police station, where you can properly inform me of the legal procedures, and if asked, I will pay the required fine. I understand that you will issue me a receipt for these actions.

Or if they ask you to pay a fine or ask for a bribe or a gift, hand them this.

Por favor, tome nota de que:

Tengo conocimiento de que existe la Sindicatura del Ayuntamiento y que si Usted me ha pedido que le pague directamente la multa de la infracción de tránsito, le pediré que me diga su nombre y número de oficial. Es mi derecho reportar esto al a oficina del Ayuntamiento, donde una investigación oficial podría ser iniciada.

(English translation)

Please note:

I am also aware of the SINDICATURA process, and if you have asked me to pay you directly for a traffic violation fine, I will ask that you give me your name and badge number. It is my right to report this to the Mayor’s Office, where an official investigation may be undertaken.

Eating out on our last two nights at Xpu-Ha

Peggy, Claude, Mags and I headed into Playa on Thursday for haircuts, shopping and a dinner at a highly rated Mexican restaurant called El Fogon. Turns out they have three locations all along 30th street, we picked the one near Wal-Mart since that’s where we were.

The open kitchen and the menu was almost identical to the place we had visited a few times before, Los Amigos, which is also on 30th. We decided we liked Los Amigos a little better but both were very good and reasonably priced.

Alambre with Chicken & Problamo Peppers

Fajitas

On Friday we headed back to Chemuyil for our last dinner with the whole gang at Pizza Leos. Tough saying goodbye after 3 months of good times. Everyone wants to come back again next year. Saturday morning we leave early morning for Valladolid and Izamal.

Heading West to Valladolid and Izamal

See Map 7

We got a nice early start on Saturday pulling out at 6:45AM with the help of Dierck who waved us up and on to the highway. It is a steep hill out the driveway with no visibility onto a high speed divided highway.

We took the fairly new road out of Tulum through Coba. It was smooth, wide and had no traffic all the way to Valladolid, it took us about two hours. We skipped stopping at the Cenote Suytun Campground and headed through Valladolid right to the prison. They make the most beautiful hammocks that we have seen anywhere. They are expensive, about $55. You could fit the whole family in there.

We were planning of spending the day in Valladolid but maybe we are getting anxious to get back to the USA. We pushed on since it was only a 2 hr drive to Izamal. Ralph & Patti, two campers we met at Xpu-Ha, told us that there is a new campground a few blocks from town at an old Hacienda called Hotel Santo Domingo. He did say the turn in their gate was tight for large rigs. But I figured my small rig could make it. It was unbelievably tight up a large bump, after much maneuvering we made it in with no more that a inch to spare. The camp is small in a goat pasture. The electricity is only 10 amp with no ground.

After setting up we walked to the Magical town. It’s one of 38 towns in MX proclaimed to have a special ambience. It’s a pretty little town with the large church built on an old Mayan pyramid in the 1500’s. The bishop there destroyed all the Mayan books but years later repented and tried to rewrite them as he remembered them.

Pope John Paul actually came here on his Mexico trip to make amends for the churches actions.

The Convent is next to a large Zocalo with awaiting tourist carriages. A second Pyramid can be seen a few blocks away.

We walked part way up in the 90oF heat but didn’t think it would be a very good idea to attempt to climb to the very top.

So we walked back to view the church with its large gold altar and the convent museum.

Couldn’t resist taking this picture of a cute little boy running by all by himself with no one in pursuit.

We sort of got lost walking back to camp so we probably walked a mile out of our way before finding Calle 31 which took us back to camp. In this heat I estimated we must have walked 5 mi all around the pretty little yellow city. Either they got a really good buy on this paint color or it’s a popular paint color, as all the buildings near the town are painted with the same color.

Overnight at the big Pemex near the Palenque turn.

See Map 8a

We woke up to a lot of rain so we hung around until about 8:30AM when the rain stopped. Then we attempted our exit from the campground with the narrow gate while going over a big hill.

The first thing I did was to knock over one of his concrete campsite markers. I couldn’t see it, the owner was waiting at the gate and Peggy was looking elsewhere. I’ll have a little fiberglass repair now when we get home, but it’s minor underneath the passenger side running board.

So we got out OK, and unless he does some work on his electrical outlets and narrow gate, that’s the last time for us. We saw another hotel on Calle 39, Eco-Hotel Green River, on the way out of town that had a wider gate but I’m not sure what the camping arrangements are.

The traffic was light all day, the roads were dry and in good condition. One military inspection stop, more curiosity than inspection.

We got here at 4:15PM and hope to leave by 6:00AM on Monday morning headed to North of Vera Cruz.

Back to the Emerald Coast – Neptuno

See Map 8b The Pemex station was a little noisy but we still had a good sleep. We wake up early so after a good breakfast we were on the road at 6AM. We wanted an early start since we were going to cover about 450 mi. I estimated it would take 10-1/2 hours. We were stopped by only one Military and no police stops. The roads were pretty good until North of Vera Cruz. But the last 50 mi miles was slow and bumpy. We made good time all day as the traffic was light and there was no tie ups in Villahermosa. We pulled into Neptuno Campground North of Casitas at 4PM. There is only one other couple here. Things were slow at the Northern campgrounds this winter. They had nice hot water in their showers to get rid of all our travel dirt.

Peggy put together a great one dish meal of chicken, problamo peppers, onion and tomatoes in a pasta with herb sauce. No cocktail hour, we left our friends at Xpu-Ha. If we get a good sleep we will try to make it to Soto La Marina. But there is no rush so we get where we get. Hopefully we can avoid the crooked police in Tampico.

Back Home

After our short visit to my cousin in Houston, we hit the road early on Sunday morning. We watch the weather forecast along the way and try not to drive in snow or rain storms. We like to be back home after the snow is gone and the temperatures are going to be above freezing.

We decided to take an extra day to drive home. We took it nice and slow up the Natchez Trace from Jackson, MS to Nashville, TN. Temperatures were still in high 70’s and dry. After spending the night south of Nashville things cooled to the 40’s and rain was forecast to be following us North.

We had a little rain here and there and when we stopped in Louisville for the night, temperatures were still in the 40’s. We got another early start and we beat the rain back to Cleveland. Temperatures were still in the 40’s and we found some snow on the ground at home.

By Wednesday it warmed to 50’s with rain so that all the snow disappeared. On St. Patrick’s Day it warmed to 68oF and sunny. We got the RV cleaned up and ready to store.

This will be our last blog until next year when we are thinking of heading back to Mexico again. We drove over 7000 mi this year, so fuel and vehicle depreciation was by far our biggest expense.