Day 43 – Thursday, August 8, 2013

Again, we are staying in the beautiful Turicentro Auto Mariscos RV park near Palin, Guatemala. The temperatures here are pretty consistent all year; daytime highs of 28C to 30C and overnight lows of 15C to 20C. Not too shabby for this gringo. I am afraid however the temperatures will be climbing once we leave this area and head south. Tomorrow we will cross the border into El Salvador.

I started the day off with a nice fresh pot of coffee and a bagel with a perfectly poached egg and manchego cheese. Umm Umm good.

Most of our group then headed into Palin on the bus to visit an old church, an 800 year old cieba tree in the town square, and the local market.

Our bus. An adventure in itself.

The market. It is not made for tall gringos. I was hunched over the whole time under the tarps and low hanging merchandise. I bought some beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables that I cleaned with Bactericida. You can purchase Bactericida for cleaning fruits and vegetables or disinfecting.

This lady was selling partially cooked iguana. We purchased a 1 pound iguana for an appetizer but after it was grilled a bit more it just didn’t smell quite right to me so I took a pass on sampling the meat. Three brave souls in our group gave it a try. We’ll see how they are doing tomorrow, I guess.

The local church.

The town square pretty much completely shaded with an ancient cieba tree.

This little girl was dressed in the native folk wear. Her grandma was the lady selling the iguanas. About 80% of the population here is native Guatemalan.

This guy was so good looking I just had to post his picture.

Finally, these guys were doing more than their fair share of polluting the planet. No emissions regulations here – plus the windshield was totally gone. The passenger gave me a thumbs up when he saw me taking his picture as they cruised on by.

…carry on folks, all the best, the muleskinner minus his sidekick but she will be flying into San Salvador in El Salvador on August 12^th. We will have her back on the trek with her witty repartee.

Day 42 – Wednesday, August 7, 2013

We are spending the day in the Turicentro Automariscos RV park near Palin, Guatemala. Today, Victor and I hiked the Pacaya volcano. We took a bus to the road that leads up the mountain to Pacaya. We were waiting on the corner for another bus and Norm flagged down the Palin police truck for more information. We were planning on asking the police to guide us up the trail but they were not from that district and instead agreed to drive us up the mountain to San Vincente. We spoke with the policia in San Vincente and they gave us further information but would not act as a guide. So, after some instructions, Victor and I got onto another bus which took us up the mountain to San Francisco and to the Pacaya Volcano National Park Information Centre. We hired a guide and paid the park admission fee and headed up the mountain. Two locals on horseback followed us hoping these gringos would soon tire and want to hire a horse.

The trail rises 2100m to an elevation of 2500m. It was hard work for this old gringo but well worth the effort. It took us about 2.5 hours to hike up and maybe an hour or so to hike down.

Pacaya is one of three active volcanos in Guatemala and erupts every few years.

Pacaya in the distance.

In the back of a Palin, Guatemala police truck. Luckily the doors did open from the inside. J

The beginning. Victor and I looking pretty energetic at this point.

Looking across the valley at the Agua (Owaa) volcano. The small town of San Francisco in the foreground and San Vincente in the background.

Our destination looking up from the trail.

The trail of volcanic ash.

Gringo above the tree line.

Pacaya.

Our guide pulling me out of a vent hole. You could feel the heat from the escaping gasses. It was not a place you would want to spend much time.

Some of the lava formations.

The Guatemalans have built a geo-thermal plant near the base of Picaya that not only provides hot water to all the local communities’ buts also generates electricity. A very sophisticated piece of engineering I did not expect to see. You can just see the roof of the plant in the picture below with corn growing in the foreground.

And then it was the Autobus #1 back to Turicentro Automariscos RV park near Palin, Guatemala. A nice shower and spaghetti dinner provided by the Rambos, the family traveling in our group, and a nice soak in the hot pool to ease the aching leg muscles finished off the day. A really great day. Too bad my sidekick was not here to enjoy this with me but she is where she needs to be.

The Rambos asked me to give away a bunch of inflatable pool toys to the local kids enjoying the pools and waterslides. They asked me to give them away so their 3 year old son would not want to keep them himself. It was like Christmas for the kids. The toys were a big hit.

…over and out from Guatemala, the muleskinner minus his sidekick. Take care all.

Day 41 – Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Today we left Tapachula, MX and headed into Guatemala. We hit the border about 15 km south of Tapachula at 7:30 AM. We exited Mexico without too many issues and entered the no-man’s land between Mexico and Guatemala. At 7:30 AM the place was already humming along. Street vendors, money exchangers, hawkers, and people with nothing better to do filled the streets. It ended up taking us four hours to get all the various paperwork out of the way and get the outside of the vehicles sprayed with some herbicide or insecticide – not really sure which – but I kept the windows closed and the A/C off because the guy spraying was all suited up and wearing a mask. I guess they usually want to spray inside the vehicle and RV but Norm, our guide, had persuaded them not to.

We had most of the street blocked and people trying to tell us where we should be parked. Eventually, the police made us move into an off street parking area with more entertainment. Used Toyota trucks are extremely popular. They drive them from the US and sell them in this lot. There was also quite an auction of old microwaves, old blenders, irons, and clothing. There was even one little old guy carrying a refrigerator on his back using a head strap. There were also quite a few young boys with homemade shoe shine kits trying to convince me to polish my sandals I think.

Sunrise approaching the border with the Guatemala mountains in the background.

The intermediate zone of chaos.

The auction zone in the off street parking area.

Toyota truck land.

A load of fresh bananas on a Toyota.

One of the buses heading down the highway. Note the 3 guys hanging out the door.

The opposite of our friend’s Kakwa Stone operation in Grande Prairie. J This old lady, along with many others, sits alongside the highway and crushes rock with a small hammer and sorts them into various sizes for sale. It is really quite amazing what people will do to make a living. It makes you appreciate what we sometimes take for granted in our Canadian lives.

We stopped for lunch at a Pollo Campero. It is a chain of fast food table service restaurants serving extra crispy fried chicken. It seems to be very popular and even had free wifi. Norm and Victor really liked it. I thought it was OK but I won’t need to eat there again for a while. I think I would like to get back to trying some better local cuisine.

Tonight we are staying in a very nice RV park close to an active volcano. The sky is glowing red behind the park as I sit here and type up this blog report. The temperatures here are more moderate as we are much higher. It is a very comfortable 24C. The park has a natural hot spring. I enjoyed a Jacuzzi with the natural fed water at 44C and then a real shower. The men’s showers are outdoors. Good thing the park is empty and it was dark. The ladies showers are more discreet. I understand they get curtains and indoor showers.

…over and out for today, the muleskinner minus his sidekick. My thoughts are with the Ontario Holmes family.

Day 40 – Monday, August 5, 2013

Today was spent in the city of Tapachula, MX without my trusty sidekick. It was a productive day. The city has many of the big name stores including Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Home Depot. We started the day out on the beach in Puerto Madero, MX. After a leisurely start to the day we all drove the 25 or so kilometers into Tapachula. We set up our base in the very large mall parking lot and had brunch at Toks. It is a chain restaurant similar to those in Canada.

I picked up a few things at Home Depot to fix my water filter system plumbing. I think I have what I need now to get it working without leaks. I got a haircut for 90 pesos and I’m looking fine, if I don’t say so myself. I then picked up a few groceries a Sam’s Club for the road. Finally, after much searching and gesturing, I was put in touch with a cell phone company network engineer who can unlock my cell phone. Victor and I hopped in a taxi and headed downtown at lightning speed with Mario – yes, Mario, but not with the last name Andretti. He just thought that’s who he was. J Having the cell phone unlocked means we will be able to use much cheaper SIM cards from various countries we will travel through. The process has started and will take 1 to 3 days to complete. We hope it is successful. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I could not find any wifi hotspots today however and cannot seem to get a data cell phone connection so this post will be delayed until we reach another wifi hotspot.

Our camping spot for tonight – the parking area of a large mall.

…on to Guatemala tomorrow, take care, the mule skinner without his sidekick

Day 39 – Sunday, August 4, 2013

We left our Pemex campsite near Matais Romero at 5:30 AM to beat the dangerous high wind area across the isthmus of Mexico to the Pacific side. As luck would have it, we experienced little to no wind. There are thousands of wind turbines through this area that we could see against the early morning sunrise. Today’s travel was mostly through the beautiful Sierra Madres mountains to our destination of Tapachula, MX.

Near our morning coffee break stop around 7:30 AM.

For some reason, these turkey vultures like to sit with their wings spread wide open. We’re not sure why but it is kind of weird to see them.

More scenery along the way.

We made a thermos of coffee in the morning and enjoyed our yogurt and granola bars travelling along at a leisurely pace.

Who knew a smouldering garbage dump could be so beautiful?

People going about their daily lives as we travelled through many small towns along the way all the while with a mindful eye for the ever present topes.

We turned in our vehicle paperwork and got our refund at the customs office. Then we were off to the Tapachula Airport to drop Julie off in plenty of time for her flight to Mexico City and then on to Toronto. They even upgraded her to first class for the flight to Mexico City. She will never want to fly economy again… Oh Oh! The rest of the group continued on to the little beach town of Puerto Madero, MX just outside Tapachula. We found a terrific campsite right on the beach near the lighthouse. This is a real treat after staying in Pemex station parking lots. We have the sun, the surf, the sea air, and the ocean breeze. This is hard to beat.

…and it included a beautiful sunset over the Pacific.

…over and out for today, the muleskinner and his flying sidekick. (you will be missing her witty commentary for a week or so as I travel along solo) Who will make fun of me so I don’t feel lonely?

Day 38 – Saturday, August 3, 2013

We had a short drive today of approximately 150 km to another Pemex location near the town of Matais Romero in the southern state of Oaxaca. We arrived early and had some lunch in the local restaurant. We dropped off our laundry at a laundry service. It cost 160 pesos to wash, dry, and fold all of our laundry. That’s about $14.00. I prepped the RV for the winds we expect crossing the isthmus of Mexico tomorrow on our way to the airport at Tapachula. Duct taped the awning, checked the roof and vent covers, taped the refrigerator vents, and checked all the trucks fluids and tires. Julie notes “Wally Wally kept a close eye on Brad as he hung over the roof of the RV doing the taping, giving lots of good advice like “Don’t fall off Mr. Brad. If you’re going to fall just put your head the other way and don’t fall. If you fall on your steps call me and I’ll help you.”

Julie communicated with family and did some preparation for the week ahead. Dinner was at the same restaurant. We took advantage of the free showers. That’s two days in a row with real showers, not just our “navy” RV showers.

Julie is doing quite well and appreciates all of the support we are receiving. Julie notes “Yes tears are still flowing as folks have been sharing their remembrances and that is a good thing. Thank you for sharing.”

We passed an unfulfilled dream of some sort of bridge structure and many more topes, some marked as you see and some not. Even some tope signs without topes.

We passed by a couple of old school transports; an ox and cart with driver. Julie notes “Believe it or not there is another big ox hiding in the long grass. (See how I didn’t make a reference to the big ox sitting beside me?) Even the ox carts have to slow for the tope sign seen on the right of this picture.”

Our not so appealing campsite but it is a safe location with onsite federal police and all the services a traveller needs; fuel, restaurant, showers, convenience store, and a playground for Wally Wally Bing Bang.

Sunset

…onward folks, peace, the muleskinner and his sidekick

Day 37 – Friday, August 2, 2013

Today we got an early start and were on the road by 6:30 AM, as scheduled. We were heading for our overnight stop of Mata Verde.

We got to witness a beautiful sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.

Shortly thereafter, we had a text message from Julie’s brother letting us know that Julie’s mom had passed away. Vera had fought a long hard battle with cancer and her suffering is now over.

A note from Quentin puts it this way;

“Our sweet lady has gone to be with her hubby. She will be missed so much. The two of them have left such a large hole in our lives. I guess it is our job to fill it and patch it with love, memories and life with the loved ones we can still hug. Mom followed dad’s example of getting some good sleep these past few days. She fought hard for so long. I think we all got to soak up a few more of those precious smiles, we can’t ask for any more than that.” Quentin Holmes

We will miss you Vera. No one could ask for a better mother-in-law.

We continued our travels with the group. We travelled 400 km today to a PEMEX station and camped beside the federal policia detachment. Their police vehicle was right next to our camper. The national army carrying their semi-automatic rifles also stopped by and through sign language mostly, asked to borrow my water hose? So am I now an official military supplier of choice? Is this a sole source contract? We’ll see, I guess.

We made arrangements to fly Julie to Toronto on Sunday, August 4^th from Tapachula, MX. She catches a flight from Tapachula, MX at 5:45 PM and after a layover in Mexico City of about 4 hours, she will arrive in Toronto, ON at 5:35 AM the next morning. Our tentative plan will be to have Julie rejoin the trek a week or so after that. We are thinking we will be near San Salvador in El Salvador and Julie can rejoin us there.

…all our thoughts are with family during this time but we also hope to keep posting as much as possible throughout the trip, …the saddened muleskinner and his sidekick

Julie notes “There have been many tears across Mexico today. Even Mother Nature was saddened and gave us our first rain during this part of the trip. By coincidence, yesterday I had the following conversation with the wise Wally Wally Bang Bang. I will leave you with that.”

“We were talking about age and Wally says ‘My birthday is Jan. 21^st.’ I told him that that was the same day as my mom’s birthday. He looked around and said ‘Where is your mom?’ I told him she lived far away up in Canada. Wally asked ‘Do you miss her?’ And I said ‘Yes, sometimes you might see me cry because I miss her a lot.’ Wally says earnestly ‘You don’t need to cry Miss Julie. You have Mr. Brad to give you hugs and make you feel better. That is what my mom does to me.”

“I am still crying but I know I have Mr. Brad and a wonderful family that are crying along with me and even though we are not traditionally huggers, we are getting pretty good at it. Miss you Mom! You and dad behave up there on your first day in heaven together.”

Day 36 – Thursday, August 1, 2013

We spent another day in Tecolutla, MX. Most of the group went on a tour to the neighbouring town to tour a vanilla processing plant. They have a storefront in Zamora and the new processing plant just outside the town. We sampled some very smooth vanilla liqueur and of course I bought a bottle. Julie and I spent another relaxing afternoon at the beach.

For breakfast, we walked downtown to an air conditioned café for coffee and food and free wifi. The local entertainment was there performing for tips and we snapped this shot of Julie with the youngest costumed member of the group. For some reason he wouldn’t stand too close to Julie and I had to gently coax him over with a push on the shoulder. Julie notes “Can’t say I blame him. This was ‘day before a real shower’ day or to put it bluntly ‘5 days of gringo stink build up’.

Our guide showing us the growing operation for the vanilla plant tour.

I gladly accepted the offering.

The final sizing and grading operation done with great care and attention. Julie notes “After the tour you are invited to try some ice cream and more shots of liqueur at their on-site shop. We couldn’t say no to that on a hot day. Best vanilla ice cream ever! And tequila ice cream! A whole new way to get your daily dose of tequila.”

Some downtown Tecolutla street scenes.

Julie notes “Our taco stand. The second night we ventured out on our own for supper again. With much gesturing and partial words we ordered the taco combination plate. We are still trying to figure out what the different meats were but we know for sure one was tripe. Which is not a fish. Just so you know.”

“Also in the foreground is a stand on a tricycle that can be pedaled to destinations. We saw so many interesting ways that the locals utilized this type of large 3 wheeler without the sales cart on top, very clever and resourceful; we saw whole families (as many as you can pedal) babes in arms, grandma needing a ride to the market, avocados delivered downtown, cement to the construction site, tortilla pick up, racing your brother up the street, laundry cart, just going for a ride, or my favourite, taking your 3 beagles for a ‘walk’. Never had my camera out quick enough when the boys drove by with their beagles riding in luxury.”

The local tortilla shop owner and her new Chihuahua. Julie notes “We were amazed at this little tortilla business. They start up at 5ish in the am and shut down in the late evening. The squeal of the squeaky conveyer belt was our clue that the tortillas were heading through the oven. The corn tortillas are bundled in 1 kilo packages and there is a steady stream of customers, from little kids on bikes picking up a stack of breakfast tortillas for mom to the restaurant delivery man on his scooter with the blue cooler balanced across the handle bars, picking up big orders for the local restaurants. They are always eaten fresh that day. We were parked across from her shop and enjoyed watching the comings and goings and faces became familiar.”

All kinds of vendors and entertainment wanders up and down the 2 km beach area. This trumpet and drum band that set up right behind our rented table was particularly painful to my sensitive ears. J All the rest were actually quite good. It was the close proximity of a trumpet and snare drum that was a little grating. Julie notes “We paid him to move on. Just kidding. Actually Brad jumped up and started dancing and they left very quickly, yelling ‘loco gringo!'”

…over and out from Tecolutla, MX – the muleskinner and his sidekick

Julie notes “For those of you keeping a wild life tally of what we have seen, you can add the ‘Exotic Whooooot, Whooooot’ bird to the list. (Common name the Great-Tailed Grackle or Quiscalus Mexicanus) This bird becomes less exotic the earlier in the morning that you hear it. We also were serenaded at all hours by an invisible rooster.”

Day 35 – Wednesday, July 25, 2013

We spent the day in Tecolutla, MX. A small lively Mexican town on the Gulf of Mexico coast. The town is not too touristy yet and I think we may be the only gringos here. We took a boat tour of the Mangroves this morning with a local guide. In the afternoon, Julie and I headed to the beautiful expansive beach. We enjoyed some local fare and I was in the water a few times. Julie did get her feet wet and that was enough for her. The cool water and the sea breeze and our rented table and umbrella made it very comfortable.

Leaving the docks about 8:30 AM with our guide.

Pelicans on their roost.

An iguana. We also saw many birds, crabs, a crocodile, termite nests, and spiders. Julie notes “I subtly started singing the song ‘I don’t like spiders and snakes …’ but Brad and Jim Stafford thinks that’s what it takes I guess. It was a very interesting tour and there were no complaints about the cool river breeze that’s for sure.”

Julie notes “Back over to your side of the boat buddy. We don’t want to be on the crocs lunch menu.”

They named something after Julie. We’re just not sure what! Julie notes “I still need that haircut. This might be THE place!”

Kites on the beach.

A street scene around the town square. It is a busy place, especially after sundown when all the locals come out for the evening. We enjoyed some great tacos at one of the many eateries.

The happy bus drives around playing music and touring people around the town.

…over and out folks, the muleskinner and his sidekick “freshly showered, navy style” as Julie notes “with just the first layer of sweat clinging to me.”

“And one ‘Wally, Wally Bing Bang’ story before I sign off. He asks me if I had any ant bites and I play along and say ‘Yes.’ He asks me where so I show him a freckle on my leg. He has a good look and says ‘Well I’m sorry to hear that. Don’t worry. It should heal quite quickly.’ Made me giggle.”