Day 25, Rio Dulce, Guatemala

This is the main road through town, lots of pedestrians, trucks, at Rio Duice. We were constantly trying to avoid hitting people with our jacks on our camper or trucks/taxis in the other lane. Finally got through town and immeditely crossed the river Rio Duice which connects Lago de Itzabal and El Golfete. Carol

Day 25, Poptun to Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Yes, this is a logging Truck! We only saw this one sitting by the road. Lots of cattle trucks and cattle country. Very tough meat. Beautiful day today, no rain. Rained all day yesterday. Found a place to park at the yacht club/Mar Marina.Carol
  The Mar Marina Yacht Club is owned by Marlene of Los Angeles who runs a very upscale marina. We truly enjoyed our stay and all the amenities that were offered at this location. Ermila

Day 24, Stayed put at Poptun, Ixobel

Spent the day updating the blog in the morning, and wandering around the beautiful resort. Ate dinner the evening before at the restaurant, plato tipico "plate of the day". Of which there were three, chili reannos, chicken, or spaggetti. Drank Pina Colotas and Cubra Libras! Ate breakfast out too. Finally a break from paper plates and dishes. Excellent food and lots of friendly guests and fellow travelers. Meet a couple and their daughter from Portland, Oregon. Wonderful people. Swiss couple followed us down from Tikal and camped with us in front of the Resort. Grass was too muddy. Carol
  The Finca (Rancho) Ixobel is beautiful with pond for swimming and a river for fishing. They also offer horseback riding.

Day 23, El Remate to Finca de Ixobel, Guatemala

We left El Remate campsite to Santa Elena. Did a little grocery shopping at the mall which had store that was comparable to Wal Mart. Al decided that oil light on truck was blinking. We found the Bridgestone Tire & Truck Maintenance and had oil changed. Jerry and Carol went onto Flores, Guatemala which is an island connected by a bridge or you can take a boat (water taxi) across the lake to that community. They walked across the bridge and visited the area. We left the area of Santa Elena toward community of Ixobel at around 11 a.m. The crew at Bridgestone told Al & Ermila at the Finca de Ixobel and showed them the web site. We drove south toward Poptun and decided to drive onto Finca de Ixobel. It's situated 2 km from the highway on a dirt road. What a beautiful oasis. It is surrounded by beautiful grounds and macaws and various birds. We arrived and it almost looked vacant and very quiet. Thought we would be the only ones here except later in the afternoon through the evening there were many arrivals. Couldn't believe all the people who were arriving by different modes of transportation. Most of the visitors were from Europe or other parts of Latin America. Met a very nice couple with their daughter Ryli from Oregon. Lyn and Ryan who had been here at this location 17 years ago. One of the other visitors were the same people from Switzerland who had been camped with us at El Remate Municipal Park. We all seem to have the same travel plans. Be sure and return to Day 16 so you can read all the updates. We've had very limited internet and electricity so unable to post aside from being very tired! Ermila

Day 22, Turkeys at Tikal

Tikal Mayan Ruins - the grand-daddy of the ruins- and a lot of wild life which was like being at the zoo. The coatimundis were so cute but were told by our driver Matias who had to drive us to the ruins that you don't want to feed these animals. If they like something you've given them, they'll hunt you down until they can find you and scratch and bite until they get the same treat again. Decided not to feed any of the animals which is highly advised. We saw a spider monkey, and heard the howler monkeys. The ruins were quite interesting and after touring arrived to Central Plaza which is shown on all the news articles and advertisements. Couldn't understand why the army and federal police were all gathered in the area. The Guatemala Secretary of Ministry had arrived and his entourage was him which was quite interesting. After we left this area, we went to lunch at the park and enjoyed our visit with our driver. We had calculated that we had walked 5 miles then realized why our legs were so tired. Ermila

Day 21, trying to camp at Tikal, Guatemala

This is a day of break-down in communication with the personnel at Tikal. We arrived at Tikal about 1:30 pm. We were told that if we purchase our ticket for Tikal that early we would have to buy another one the next day. Wait till 3:30 pm and that ticket is good for sunset tour and next full day. We agreed as we had all these vendors wanting to be our guides and sell us maps. We parked at the restaurant had a few cold drinks and waited, waited till the clock struck 3:30 pm. Oh Boy we can get into the park. As we approach the guard stated do you have any pets (mascotas) and of course we had Ms. Molly, oops no way could we get her into the park. We thought we could camp at the campground but Ms Molly couldn't go into the ruins as we had read in one of our books. Now we know that pets are not longer allowed to any of the ruins in any country. We found our place for the evening which was the very small Municipal Park in El Remate and we had to dry camp. Although they had excellent showers (cold water as usual) and bathrooms, so we couldn't complain. It was $8 a night and the people in the area were very nice. It seems like the animals have full roam of this community. There was a horse who would wonder around and eat grass and more small pigs then dogs like 2:1 and of course roosters (Al's favorite) which crowed at 5:30 a.m. at least more reasonable then Orange Walk. We were there for 2 days. The 2nd day we were surround by other campers who were curious when they saw us camped and decided they would do the same thing. One couple from Switzerland and the other was driving a vehicle from Vermont but the couple were from Australia which we are still trying to figure out how he got the SUV across Belize and Guatemala Borders.

Day 20-21, San Igancio, Belize to El Remate, Guatemala

As we are approaching the Belize - Guatemala Border we saw the ferry crossing for vehicles to the Mennonite Community in Belize and decided we were overweight to try and get out vehicles on this ferry to do any sightseeing. Arrived to the border and it took us 1hr 45 minutes to get through the border which we thought was super fast for us since we had read it might take anywhere from 2 - 3 hours to cross for all the paperwork. We were early. Decided if we had arrived an hour later as we left there was a bus full of tourist. Whew.. beat all those tourist trying to cross the border to Tikal. The agents at Guatemala were very nice and informative. No complaints! Ermila

Day 19, Orange Walk to San Ignacio, Belize

Large tree at Guanacaste National Park. On this day we also went to the Belize Zoo which was an excellent place to see all the native wild animals that migrate in Belize Jungle. It actually reminded us of the movie Jurassic Park. The macaws were just beautiful. The Jaguar - Ocelots and spotted small spotted cat and Pumas.  We also saw a huge crocodile and we wouldn't want to get too close to it. We celebrated Jerry's Birthday at Hodes Restaurant and stayed at the River Walk RV Park and Hotel which was excellent. The owners wife did laundry for us and the clothes were super clean when she finished. This park was not mentioned in our book. We had tried Midas Hotel/RV Park but they had no RV Park so that was a misprint in our book. Anyone traveling to San Ignacio, Belize we highly recommend this park. Super friendly owners with nice guests. Ermila

Day 18, Lamanai Ruins River Visit

Lost all my pictures of the ruins. Though there were not alot of pictures. We took a river boat trip up to the ruins, and it rained costantly all the way up the river. We were soaking wet even though we had plastic ponchos on. It did let up as we walked around the ruins. Had a great lunch of fried chicken, rice, potato salid and coleslaw. Great day anyway. Carol
We had 14 people on the boat which included our Guide Ignacio "Nacho" who was quite informative. We had quite a diverse group in our boat quite international. A couple from Hungry, England, gentlemen from France, Denmark, and then guys from Nashville, TN, Botanist from Harrisburg, PA and us. We enjoyed the conversations and everyone spoke English besides their own first language. Our tour guide gave us all quite an education on Maya Ruins. We also saw crocodile, howler monkey not as much as we could have seen because of the rain. We were exhausted when we returned to our little abodes. Then arose the next morning to continue our adventure. Ermila

Day 17, Chetumal to Orange Walk, Belize

Road into our camping site, Victors Camping at Orange Walk, Belize. Evidently has been raining in Belize for several weeks. Carol
Arrived to Victor's Restaurant-RV Park. No Restaurant and RV Park was not as explained in the Mexican Camping Book. We actually parked in their front yard because it was so very muddy. We had to connect to their electricity with our very long extension chord. Thank You Al. The restroom was actually one of the rooms they rent out which is part of their home. The worst problem were the roosters. They crowed starting at 2:30 a.m. Ermila got up at 3 a.m. trying to chase it away from the RV Camper and then the dog started barking because the rooster was alarmed and the crowing & barking got worse. Sad to say we didn't get very good night's rest. This is part of the adventure - we have to learn to adapt to the circustances. Ermila

Day 16, Palenque to Chetumal, Quintana Roo

Fairly straight road, some potholes, but not bad. Saw this cowboy along the highway. The whole area looked to be either jungle or pastures with cattle.  Carol
Arrived to Chetumal after some traveling through the city. We located our campsite for the evening. Yax-Ha Hotel and RV Campground. The owner was very accommodating. It was a very nice area with plenty of grass and a beautiful swimming pool but a little too cold for us. Seems that everyone takes cold showers in this part of the country. The water felt really nice since it's been humid. Met a couple from France with their children traveling from France through Quebec to Panama City in a small RV. Meeting more people from Europe and Canada.

Day15, Palenque, Chiapas

The Palenque Maya Ruins. Look at these giant pyramids. That's Ermila standing the the foot of the first step. We decided it was way too far up to climb and then have to return on our butts because the steps are so narrow that you're almost looking straight down. No thank you, too much of a challenge for us at our age!

Day 14, On to Palenque

After leaving San Cristobal, Chiapas, we needed propane and headed right to the propane station except after much discussion because the station only sold vehicle propane.  We decided to ask about where to buy their product & here is the instructions given. We had to pay the attendant the amount we thought we would need to fill our tanks. We had to make sure we filled our tanks that day because the receipt was only good for that day. We drove 12 miles to the propane gas plant on our way to Palenque and had our receipt. The staff was very nice and filled our tanks. They were very curious because they hadn’t seen RV Campers.  They had many questions for us. They were so accommodating that they even filled our camper water tanks. By then it was 10 a.m. before we were actually on the road. It was a long day with curvy roads and in the pines.  Some very interesting communities with many Native People in these smaller communities, and most of them on the road walking.  We were well received.   What the heck! friends and neighbors, will somebody contact the Mayor of Puertecitos and inquire as to when we will get electricity to our homes? They all seem to have electric, but laundry is still done along the road or stream. We arrived safely at Palenque 5:30 pm.

Day 13, San Cristobal, 7000ft elevation

Day 12, Looking for Santa Teresa/Tehuantepec camp site

Santa Teresa

Day 11, Puerto Escondido Campsite

Day 11, Coyuca Hurricane damage

Day 10, Acapulco sunset

Today was a nice day of driving. We left Zihuantanejo and a delightful drive to Acapulco. The 2 lane road was paved except it took us 6 hours to drive 150 miles. There are many dips or topes  in the road as you drive through small villages. It's amazing that all these little villages have electric power with lights and yet Puertecitos has no electricity to date.  As we approached the community of Coyuco, there was a traffic jam in the middle of town. This is one of the communities that was devasted by the Hurricane that hit this area in August 2013. The people are all very friendly except the traffic wasn't moving very fast. In fact it was so crowded that you could've stopped to have lunch and then got back into your vehicle and been on your way! It took us 6 hours to go 160 miles today. To think we complained about driving on the road to Gonzaga when it was rough.  We are now situated at Pie de la Cuesta - Foot of the Coastline. It's very nice and it's much cooler climate than what we've experienced these past few days. As the days progress, the Country of Mexico gets more interesting. The people have all been very nice and grateful that we, Americans, are here visiting. Surprising as we arrive to these different campgrounds the tourist staying here always are amazed...What Americans are here visiting Mexico? It's good to see your return. We have met a couple of people here at the Acapulco Trailer RV Park who are from Germany and Switzerland and Canada. The people from Europe fly here and stay through late April and then return home. They maintain their rigs here at the park. Jolley Tamale Lady

Day 7 Slow Go.....continued

Day 7 We landed at Red Snapper RV Park. at La Perula, Jalisco. It was very hot and humid when we arrived. The RV campground is owned by an American. The other campgrounds are now owned by Canadians. There were many Canadians in that community and have continued to be all through San Blas, Nayarit - Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Michocan and Guerrero. They travel to Southern Mexico in the winter. The owner of the Red Snapper RV Park stated that many Canadians are investing and buying RV Parks in La Perula. They prefer these beaches in Southern Mexico to the Baja California area.
Ermila

Day 8 La Ticla continued..

La Ticla was a pleasant area but very humid when we arrived. Lots of Young Adult Surfers who love the water. The staff was very nice and it is a very secured area. Russ & Debbie, owners of Iron Horse Farms from Michigan were camped in their motorhome. We enjoyed a very nice visit with them and it was great to share our travel plans with them. They also told us about the travels they've had not only in Mexico but in Africa. Later we went to the restaurant and had the best Red Snapper Dinner. It was delicious and the fish were a good size. What a nice way to end the day which started out with such a rough morning!
Ermila

Day 8 Rough Morning Continued....

Prior to leaving Puertecitos, Baja Calif, Al kept saying Ermila you have too much stuff and we're way overweight with this camper and truck. Then we had our little mishap on the exit ramp which had a low steel metal sign stating anything above this height cannot pass through here. A very nice gentleman waved us through and said yes you can make it. Well, that was what he thought because he didn't see that we had an A/C unit mounted to the top of the camper. We drove a few feet to the turn around and got off the road. Al and Jerry climbed to top of camper and knew that we would be less an a/c unit. I'm thinking okay Al we are now 50 lbs lighter then when we left. That was a fast way of getting rid of 50 lbs. You should've have seen Al and Jerry counting to 3 as they hoisted the a/c unit and threw it over the top and it hit the ground just as a Federal Police was driving by and he stopped. I had been picking up debris and piling off to the side. He got out of his car and started taking pictures. I told him I was getting ready to bag the junked A/C unit. He said "Don't Lie to me. I know you were just going to leave it in that area of the ground where it's piled up right now." Honest we were not going to leave it there. He continued to stand there and watch us. He said to me, I've been here long enough and I need to write a report. I should be giving you a citation." I'm thinking you're going to give me a ticket for Attempted Littering! This guy needs to take a trip to Puertecitos if he wants to see litter. Al flagged down a guy with small truck and he took all our debris and he was very helpful. The Federal Police stayed and then before we could leave a Municipal Police showed up but Federal Police told him he had everything under control. Before we left the officer told me that we should not litter here in Mexico because we certainly wouldn't do it in USA. He shook my hand and we left for the community so we could cover up the hole in the roof of camper. What an adventure and we were really happy that we weren't given that citation for Attempted Littering! Ermila

Day 9,Beatiful Zhuatanejo

Day 9, Zhuatanejo Real or Not?

Day 8, Camping at La Ticla

Day 8, Rough morning

WEll, today we need to go to the repair store. We took a cutoff to Americano near Teacoman. There was a low sign accross the road. We were two cars ahead of Al and Ermila, and we realized to late it was too low. Some helpful pedistrian, motioned Al on like he could fit. No way! So much for that air conditioner. Jerry and Al removed the pieces, by then a not so helpful Federaly arrived to make sure we were not littering. After much discussion and giving the air conditioner away to a passing motorist, he let us leave. We then proceeded to the nearist town to fix the gapping hole. Thus the repair project. The store owner used his screw gun, with Jerry directing, to screw plywood over the hole with calking. They were so helpful and would not take any money. Its always an adventure. We are now south of Tecopan, at El Tipo. Carol

Day 7, Slow going

Had a slow day, averaged 25 mph. Good thing we left 1 week early. Al got to close to shrubs today, lost the right clearance light on his camper. Preaty beach at the park at La perla.

Day 8, Americano near Tecoman, Repair Project

Day 6, Spanish Fort San Blas

Day 5, Arrived at San Blas

Las Glorias Community 01/10/2014

Arrived to Celestino Gasca Community Area to Punta San Miguel RV Park. This was an adventure trying to get to the beach to our next location. We exit a dirt road off Interstate Highway 15D. We drove through running roosters along the dirt road. They seem to control their terrority. The roosters were very pretty and had never seen so many in 1 place and no chickens. Guess the chickens have to stay in their coops while the roosters run around. The dirt road took us under the railroad bridge in a jungle mass of bushes but the road was clear. Eventually arrived to our location which was 2 miles. This drive was nice with many interesting features surrounding the neighborhood.

Leaving Guaymas heading for Las Glorias 01/09/2014

Drove through small community between Guaymas and Cuidad Obregon the 4 lane highway through traffic becomes 2 lane b/c semi-truck drivers going north to Hermosillo are on strike. They're blocking the road. Apparently the Governor of Sonora, Hermosillo is capital of the state has diverted water from farming/ranchers in the southern part of this state. The truckers have banned together in solidarity. Bet those merchants in Hermosillo are desperate to get their products. Everyone was quite nice with us. We had no problems. Continued to drive through 2 lane highway road after leaving Los Mochis through agricultural fields planted with corn and others with sugar cane even passed a penitentiary not very inviting and would hate to be in that place. Finally arrived in Las Glorias at Mr. Moro Motel/RV Park. Just a very quaint, quiet area. We were the only people staying. Busy time of year for them is spring and summer. We had dinner at the restaurant and very delicious. Lots of shrimp on the plates they didn't skimp. The staff were excellent people and treated us as royalty.

Day3,Sunrise at Las Glorias north of Mazatlan

We pulled out of Casa Blanca Hotel/RV this morning after an interesting night. It was a noisy night surrounded by revelers, debauchery, and fun loving people who like to drink and laught till wee hours of the morning. The hotel attendants were all very nice including the guests except for the person who locked himself in the outdoor bathroom by the gazebo. He was yelling so loud that he woke many of us who were sleeping in our campers. He finally knocked the door lock off the hinges and let himself out. Probably if he would've have just turned the door knob in the correct direction the door would've opened! It doesn't help when you've been drinking so much you can't let yourself out of the bathroom that you locked on your way into do your thing! To all of you who have been in Hermosillo and tried driving on that outer loop; we were able to get on the Periferico Outer Loop without incident and confusion and no one got lost. Third time is the charm. Then got south on Mexico Highway 15 toward Guaymas...got hungry so we stopped for lunch at one of the truck stops. Notice Pemex Stations in this area charge for restroom facility use. It's cost around 5 pesos but at least they're very clean and your visit includes toilet paper, yahoo. The way it works you pay an attendent and they allow you by opening the gated door to pass. Since Jerry's attire resembles a semi-truck driver they let him use the bathroom facilities for free. The women had to pay!! Tomorrow more fun in the sun.

Tuesday, take off Day

Off to a rough start, went to put the blocks away on Rogers camper, and there was dog food everywhere! Some mouse had eatten holes in 4 different bags of dog food that were in the pickup bed. We don't know whether the little guy is still Hitch Hiking with us! Then the handheld radio would not charge, but worked that out.
 Ermila made the mistake of calling her home for messages once we reached San Luis RC Sonora. Worst thing! Bank called to say that Al's debit card had been compromised during Christmas Holiday and new bank card was at their home. Al said no way was he crossing the border at San Luis to get his ****!!! card that the bank wanted him to use because the old one was was cancelled. They would've been in the border crossing line for a couple of hours and would've had to give up all their meat, fruits and booze. Finally got everything resolved by phone and started off after a wasted hour.
We were then arriving in Sonyota at 3 pm, and there go the blue/red lights behind Jerry and Carol. Sure enough, he had radar and said we were doing 68 km (40mph) in a 25mph zone. But none of us in either car saw signs. Of course, he said he could reduce the fine from 1200 pesos (100 dollars) to 600 pesos. He took 500 pesos, and off we went again.
  Got out of Sonoyta and got to San Emeterio 17 miles south of Sonoyta which is Inspection check station. Everything is fine except Al & Ermila were secondary. They wanted to check their RV Camper but then notice that Ermila had been speaking on a marine portable radio and that threw up red flags. Immigration officer wanted to know why they were using that type of radio. She tried to explain to them that we were traveling as a group and that was the means of communication. The cell phones don't work in this area. He inspected their RV Camper and said everything was fine and then returned to the truck and wanted to inspect the radio. Although, they both spoke in Spanish he finally said to Ermila that all the people traveling with contraband and drug cartels use those radios for communication. She assured him that we were not doing anything illegal and just enjoying Mexico and communicating with their traveling companions.
  At 5:15 pm we arrived at Caborca had dinner and are staying at the Casa Blanca Hotel with RV Hookups. It's nice area except it borders Mexico Highway 2 and lots of traffic. A very eventful first day.
 

Here we are the evening before and ready to go!