Category: 2011-2012 Trip

We got to Catemaco on Monday afternoon and have been relaxing ever since. Even though the free wireless internet here is a little week it works fine for us since I use and external modem with an antenna. I get a strong signal and it works well at our camper. Claude & Erika the Swiss couple, only have an standard wireless in their laptop and need to go to the pavilion for a good signal.

On Tuesday Peggy and I took a walk to town to see what has changed, it’s just across the road to the malecon. Other than the dozens of boatmen trying to get you to take a ride to the monkey island, the walk was pleasant as a good breeze comes off the lake and it is shady under the trees along the lake.

The fisherman statue picture is not from this year. Someone broke the blade off his oar so he now looks like he has a stick on his shoulder.

We made a stop at the ATM to get some more pesos which is right across from the cathedral.

We saw that there is now a very nice bakery right around the corner from the campground that has a good selection of sweet treats for breakfast.

A short rain shower hit on Wednesday morning so I did some work on the RV. All those topes took a toll on my bed support. I had to re-screw it back on the wall.

After the rain we washed the dirt and grime from the RV. While we were doing that two big motor homes from Montreal rolled in and set up on either side of us. They were the same ones we saw Sunday at Neptuno on the Emerald Coast.

We decided to walk into town tonight with Claude & Erika to eat in one of their fine restaurants,

Peggy is planning on baking her brownies again for desert for our potluck Thanksgiving dinner that Gene & Gaby prepare for their RV and Casitas guests.

Early Thursday morning we got a heavy rain but after breakfast it got sunny and was a cooler day in the high 70’s.

I rode my bike to town to find a water man to bring me 25 gal of water to fill my freshwater tank. Cost was about $7. We don’t use piped water in our tanks as it is not suitable to drink unless treated and filtered. We buy 5 gal bottles of purified water. We feel the cost to just buy good water is not that expensive.

Since the bike was out I thought I would get some exercise before eating our big dinner tonight. I looked on Google Earth and figured I could ride along the canal that comes from Lake Catemaco and find the road to Eylpantle Falls. This almost 200’ high falls was a scene in the movie Apocalypto, where the warrior jumped off.

The three mile long canal is a fairly flat scenic trail which ends at the power dam. If you go down the hill along the dam and take the first left turn onto a dirt road after a couple miles you come upon a little town and the road is paved to the town of Comoapan.

Then turn left and follow the road to Eylpantle Falls. Total one way is 8 mi. Some hills but not a bad ride.

The town is one big tourist stop with T-shirt stands and refreshment stands by the dozen.

You can view the falls from an overlook above the falls and/or you can walk down 250 steps to the river and look up at the falls. Here are my pictures of Eylpantle Falls:

Even though it was not super hot I was very hot when I returned in time for a quick shower and then our big Thanksgiving dinner supplied by our campground owners Gaby & Gene.Peggy ready for dinner and my big plate of food.

A great dinner with our camper friends at Tepetapan RV Park & Casitas.

Squeezed between the big ones. I don’t see how they get those big rigs down the Mexican highways and each of them are pulling a vehicle behind.

We look a little small but not quite as small as our Swiss friends , Erika & Claude, who left on Friday morning heading for Villahermosa and then Isla Agauda.

They have been on the road for 4 years in their Land Rover starting in South American and making their way all the way to Canada. They even stopped at Falling Waters in Ohiopyle, PA last summer.

They have a very sturdy, simple, high clearance vehicle meant for rough roads.

 

 

I decided to take another bike ride, this time to the other side of Lake Catemaco to a campground called La Jungle and a nature preserve called Nanciyaga. La Jungle, as it sounds, is very jungle like and was used as the setting for at least two movies. The Medicine Man and Apocalypto.

 

The camping is on the grassy area with lake views. No hookups are available. It is suitable for tents and small van vehicles and the cost  is 80peso/person per night.

They have a nice freeform pool with water flowing into the lake.

Several cabins are available and they have a kitchen to make food for their guests.

The problem for vehicles is actually getting down the narrow, rutted, muddy road that is nearly a mile long.

Once on their grounds, it is a nice place where you could launch your kayak to paddle over to see the monkeys on the island.

 

Nanciyaga’s road is suitable for tourist busses. It is supposed to be a nature preserve but all I saw were lots of cages for birds and animals, and a tourist gift shop and refreshment stand. I was not too impressed.

My total bike ride was only 13 mi but I had a couple of steep hills to do. The camp fees at Tepetapan are the same as last year 200p/night with full hookups and 30 amp service. But If you don’t have an Energy Management System to prevent high and low voltage from entering your rig I would run your refrigerator on Propane (LPG), or you could blow a circuit board in your refer.

We plan to leave here on Saturday morning and drive past Villahermosa to at least as far as the Palenque junction. We have been to Palenque in the past so we will skip those Mayan ruins this year.

See Map 5

See Map 5

We left Catemaco 6:30 AM on Saturday morning, The road to Acayucan had two bridges being replaced but the drive was fine. When we reached the cuota where we expected better roads, it was pot-hole city. one lane was under construction in several places, so it was not as fast as usual. When you get near Chiapas  the road really turns to shit but with our early start we reached the Pemex at the Palenque turn where we usually stay by 1:30 PM. But since there was so much construction going on around the Pemex we decided to push on to a Pemex about an hour & 45 min down the road, It was 3:15PM but that was enough driving for one day. This Pemex is on south side and not near any cities. Many trucks stop here also. They had us stay right next to the right side of the building out of the way of the trucks. It was a noisy place but we got plenty of sleep so we able to get on the road at 6 AM. From here on the road was great, we made very good time at got to Blue Bay Campground at Mahahual by noon.

See Map 6

The place looked really different than last year. They have a new entrance road into the restaurant which was good. But the whole place is under construction. They are erecting a dozen little 8’ x 8’ cabins which contain a bed. There is still room to park 3 RV’s here and maybe by February they will have a new campground ready. They still have no hookups but for us with solar power that should not be a problem. The problem may be the construction noise. So we paid for only one night and we will see how it goes.

We are parked right next to the malecon (beach sidewalk), but take a look at what the construction looks like which is right next to us.

There is another small camper here from Montreal, they have been here for a week and were out touring today.

We took a walk down the malecon and saw that they built a new Senor Frogs right next to the Blue Bay. It looks like several places have disappeared and a few new hotels, restaurants and gift shops have sprung up.

Just about the time we were ready to eat dinner. In pulls a huge class A camper who manages to squeeze between our two small campers. The spouse is from Chagrin Falls, OH but now living in Guadalajara.  We had a nice evening telling stories and enjoying the warm evening.

We took a couple of bike rides to the little town and cruise ship docks. Did a little grocery shopping also. Two big ships were in port today but not many people find their way to this end of the beach near the lighthouse. So even though the two ships had 4000 passengers all we saw here was about 20 people. The campground is nice quiet place with nice bathrooms and showers and only cost 100 pesos per night.

When the construction of all the little water bed rooms are done maybe things will be a little quieter in camp. The owner says she is going to rent the little rooms for $25/night.

The day was sunny but cool, we took a bike ride down the bumpy beach road for about 6 miles, lots of little houses, hotels and dive shops are along the way.

Peggy found a skinny friend in one of the stores. It was amazing to see all the stores and trinket stands come to life when the boat people are in town. From the cruise schedule it looks like the locals only have to work 3 or 4 days a week. Yesterday hardly a soul was around. This morning the place was jumping, with everyone getting ready to sell their wares.

So we will pull out early Wednesday morning and head to Xpu-Ha. We need to fill up with LPG so we have enough for the rest of the winter. We may stop at a Super Che or Soriana to pick up some more food.

See Map 7

We expect to be there by early afternoon since it is only about 150 mi of 4 lane divided highway.

Our drive from Mahahual was smooth. We drove 4 mi east of Felipe Carrillo Puerto to find propane so we will have a full tank when we get to Xpu-Ha.When we got back on MX307, we found the just opened a new vehicle LPG fill station about a 1 mi north on MX307.

We stopped for groceries at the new Super Che in Tulum, just 1 km east toward beach. It’s well marked. A nice well stocked store. We said hello to everyone and setup camp before noon with a good ocean view.

Our first walk down the beach. Nothing has changed much on the south end of the beach. The day was a little cool, temperature in the  high 70’s. Went down to 57oF at night, almost got out our sleeping bags again.

Tacho put up a new sign this year. I guess nobody knew what his old sign meant. I’m sure it will generate a little more business for him.

It was cool last night but it really got hot quickly. We took a walk down the North end of the beach and saw no changes at all. Take a look at my wide angle shot below.

By 10 AM is was already in the high 80’s. But just after noon a little wind picked up and by 3 PM is was back into the mid 70’s but partly cloudy.

I decided to get my kayak down and get a little exercise. I paddled into the next bay and back for about 45 min without a break. This will start to get me back in shape after all the driving and inactivity.

If it’s not too hot on Friday I may take a quick bike ride up to the Chedraui by Puerto Adventuras and pick up a few things as well as hit an ATM machine. Did this first thing Friday morning, 8 mi round trip. Did it all in 1 hour, incl. ATM & groceries on my bike.

The weather here so far has been very nice. Nights have been cool, in the low 60’s, but it warms to the 80’s very quickly and then has been cooling off in the afternoon. We haven’t done much other than take our 3 mi walk every morning along the beautiful white sand beach.

There is only one large hotel on the beach the Catalonia Royal Tulum. It looks like they have had a good occupancy rate, mostly French Canadians. The other small hotels have had a few couples, so the beach is relatively empty of people. Here is my blog from last year with pictures of the places to stay along the beach. Xpu-Ha Jan, 2011 Blog

We are anxiously waiting for our Canadian friends, Claude & Mags to arrive, they may be here late today or tomorrow. It turns out that Ann & Gerry are stuck at the border. They bought a different motorhome this year but never cancelled their last two 10 yr. vehicle permits.. You can’t have more than one in your name. So they are trying to get paperwork completed that will show that they sold their old RV’s and cancel those permits. If they can get this done, we hope to see them when we return on January 1st.

Right now there is only room for a couple of more campers in the main campground but several others with small rigs could park up on the beach next to Chalio’s place. This year Dierck is collecting money for camping and getting everybody into their campsites. The rates are the same as last year. 250p/night, 1600p/week and 5000p/month all with full hookups. The power here has been 120 volts and steady all day. The exchange rate is better this year about 13.7 p/$, which makes the monthly rate only about $375.

We saw the funniest photo shoot on the beach this morning. A young woman in a wedding dress laid down in the water while the photog. shot pictures of her rolling around in the surf. Must have been her wetting pictures.

We tried out my Skype this morning with video on a call back home. Worked great. So if anyone wants to call us, my Skype ID is keelhauler9, The Telcel service is fast but it drops calls about every 5 minutes, so we can’t stay on-line.

Here is where we are on Google Earth La Playa

Sunday night near dark Claude & Mags rolled in and temporarily parked in the parking lot until they could pull into the spot next to us in the morning.

We got set up facing each other so that we would have a nice shady place for our evening cocktail hour.

Gerry & Ann are still stuck in TX trying to get their vehicle permit from last year cancelled so they can get a new one.

We have heard from Pat & Mike from CO, it sounds like as soon as they dig themselves out of the snow and cold they will be on their way. I hope to see them here in early January.

Wednesday was a nice cool day with on and off drizzle. I thought it was a good day to get a little exercise in my kayak. I first paddled over to the Cenote near Puerto Adventuras where lots of people were snorkeling. It wasn’t too hot so I decided to paddle all the way over to Puerto’s central beach. But I decided not to stop at all since it was getting past lunch time and I still had an hour to paddle to get back to Xpu-Ha. I was gone 2-1/2 hrs. and had covered about 7 mi.  The past few days had bigger waves and rougher seas which makes it harder to go long distances, today was perfect; Cool and Flat.

A week from Thursday we plan to take a vacation from our vacation. We will fly out of Cancun to be home with our family & friends for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. We will be back on January 1.