Monday, March 17, 2014

Day 69, Cuidad Victoria to Nuevo Laredo

Woke up to rain and fog. Was not dense so off we went.


GPS wanted us to us a side road to go around Montery. Unfortunately we could not find our way through the town of Allende. GPS would send us down dirt roads, and dead end streets. Finally gave up and braved Monterry.




Border crossing at the west crossing at Columbia, Nuevo Laredo. Hurrah made it.
No signs at the crossing, like what to bring in or not. Had a really nice guard who looked for the customs people, could not find them. So he took what I declared and sent us on our way. We get to the highway after customs and very few signs. The toll road forward says they will not take cash just some kind of card, so we turn left to go around. Road turns from pavement to dirt at 20 miles! Ugg. We back track to the mail town of Laredo, Texas and stay at Motel 6. Our Adventure is over we hope now that we are in the states. Hopefully, Ermila will update the blogg with their route and adventures. Carol

Day 68, Emerald Coast to Cuidad Victoria


Drove up the coast, this is a picture along the river, at Tampico, Mx. Day went very smoothly, but we had one section of pot holey road. Stayed at Hotel Hacienda Escondida in Cuidad Victoria. Very expensive at 200 pesos, with showers that had seen better days. Grassy spot, with water and electricity. Carol

Day 67, Emerald Coast relaxing


Spent this day watching the sun rise, reading and relaxing. Would have swam in the pools but alittle cool at 70 degrees. Carol

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Day 66,Lake Catemaco to Emerald Coast




Woke up to rain at Lake Catemaco, we headed out with clouds overhead. Did not get 18 miles and there was something blocking the two lane highway in a town. Waited for almost 45 minutes before traffic flowed again. Lots of topes along the road until we got to Vera Cruz and four lanes for a ways. Road good the rest of the way. Beautiful Sun Beach RV park has two swimming pools, too bad for some reason it is only 70 degrees out! We think that is cold after the 90's. If nice tomarrow may stay here another day, otherwise off to the next spot up the road. Carol

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Day 65, Catemaco


Spent a restful day at the campground not far from the lake. Walked along the malecon, and saw lots of loncheras (pongas or boats). Lots of snowy igrets, some nesting in the trees along the malacon. Very clean nice area. Another camper is from Coos Bay, Oregon! They have been coming down here several years, and have been here for 2 months. Small world. On to the Emerald Coast tomarrow.

Missed our friends this morning, got used to seeing them every day! Carol

Day 64, Mexico from Comiton to Gulf of Mexico



This is Lago de Catemaco close to the Gulf of Mexico. Today was another long day. Started at 7:30 near the Guatemalan border and worked our way across Mexico to the Gulf side. Good road all the way. At 4 Pm Jerry and I went on to this lake to camp. Got there about 6pm. We will be following the coast road up to the US. Al and Ermila choose to take the interior route up the center to Puebla near Mexico City and go north to Monterrey, then to Nuevo Laredo.
Jerry and I will leave Catemaco, on Thrusday, after a day of rest. We will go around Vera Cruz and up the emerald coast to Tuxpan, up to Cuidad Victoria, Monterrey and out at the Coumbia crossing at Nuevo Laredo. May spend an extra day on the Emerald coast. Should cross either Saturday or Monday.
Almost forgot, after we turned off the freeway leaving Al and Ermilla, we sat on the exit ramp waiting for the toll booth gate to open for almost 30 minutes. It was broke!

I no longer have my writer, so she will have to catch up this blog later with their adventures! Carol

Day 63, Guatemala to Mexico



Long day again, reached close to 10,000 feet in elevation. Up and down across the mountains. Our brakes overheated and we ended up waiting over an hour for them to cool off. Took the route to the northern most crossing, as a travel guide said it was the one they used. Curves galore, but beautiful canyons. Not much up and down thank goodness.  Look what we found at the border town. Bad enough narrow streets but kids playing on them! We arrived about 3 in the afternoon for the border crossing. Latest we have done this, but took only 1.5 hours to get through both countries borders.
Traveled until around 5:30 or 6. Found a large town with a Walmart and spent the night there. Carol

Day 62, Guatemala, Lake Atitlan and Antigua





The upper picture is looking down on this lake, formed like Oregons Crater Lake. But in this case there is a way down to the water, and several cities down there. This is our  expensive camp site at a Hotel resort. Cost us $28/night for electricity and a long walk to get to the showers and bathrooms. The night before was about $25 for a hotel room, this was $28! Location, location, location!
Earlier in the day Jerry, Ermila, and myself went into Antigua. I wish we could have spent more time there. Very preaty colonial town. Picked up a necklace for a friend (Lynn) and did a little shopping.
Long day again. Carol

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Day 61, Crossed from El Salvador to Guatemala



Tunnels in El Salvador.  Highway Central America 2 does not post highway signs as they should and we ended up on a highway in the mountains headed toward Capitol-San Jose, El Salvador
Finally stopped and asked for directions and we had missed the turn-off at the Y which was not posted. Apparently everyone is knowledgeable of their highway except the tourist. Finally returned to the correct road. After all the frustration, we finally made it to the border crossing. El Salvador Crossing was fairly easy but going into Guatemala was hectic. Too many border crossings in such a short time can make one go bonkers.
La Carreterra Hotel and Restaurant near Chiquimulila, Guatemala where we are staying the night. The area is nice and quiet by CA Highway 2. We are all exhausted after a day of more then 2 1/2 hours at the border. Trying to cross from El Salvador to Gautemala and all the paperwork required. Just unbelievable that we still need triple copies of all these forms and originals when we were already in the system when we crossed into Guatemala in January. Go Figure? Al says all these people need a job so everyone has to be given a copy of the forms as you go through each department. Ermila

Day 60, Crossed from Honduras to El Salvador










Stayed at Touricento Ichanmicen state park, out of Zacatecoluca, El Salvador. Jorge, Adminstrator was so very accommodating. He wanted to make sure we had electricity and water for the campers. Let us know that there was security throughout the park. We were charged $3.00 per person to stay at this park. Can't complain about the price and everyone was so nice. Probably every amazed at our rigs and the fact that it's been many years since they've seen Americans at their park. We were told that a group of Germans had been staying at the park in their rigs last month. The park rangers were surprised that we hadn't shipped our rigs to Central America like all the Europeans. We let them know we were driving home after driving all the way to the Panama Canal. Actually the El Salvadorans were the friendliest and nicest people. The border crossing was the easiest we've had in Central America. Ermila

Day 59, Nicaragua crossing into Honduras

Nacaome-v


Crossing into Honduras and stayed Nacaome Valle at Hotel Sunset. We stayed at a hotel with A/C which really made for nice sleeping since it was 95 degrees outside. Decided we needed laundry done and asked housekeeping if they'd do our laundry since we had arrived late afternoon. No problem. The laundry was done by hand and not by machine. Just makes us wonder how they got everything so clean including the white clothes. It was so hot out the clothes were hung on the clothesline expecting that they would dry by the morning. Were we surprised when we heard the burst of rain in the middle of night. Did it ever rain and on our almost dry clothes. Carol was awaken and went out to try and close vents and windows on the camper. We ended up staying till mid-morning so that our wet clothes could sun dry and try and get the bedding in camper dried off. We finally started out to get to the El Salvador Border Crossing. Ermila

Day 58, Crossed from Costa Rica to Nicaragua

Stayed We drove from Border Crossing at Penas Blancas, Costa Rica and tried to drive to our little favorite truck stop where we had stayed previously. We ended up in Tipitata middle of the community and the roads got more narrow and more people shopping as we continued through the town. Finally made it to the main highway and made a Right Turn when we should've made a Left Turn. We drove up into the mountains and ended up at Calabaza, Nicaragua to our surprise it was so nice and cool. What a wonderful evening to sit outside and have a few toddies to end the evening and be able to sleep without humidity and heat. We could've stayed a few more days but had to keep moving forward to our destination. Ermila

Day 57, Dominical to Canas, Costa Rica-Tenorio Adventures

Monday, March 3, 2014

Day 56, border crossing into Costa Rica

Crossed the border from Panama to Costa Rica today. Got propane/butane from the distributer. Turns out very few places fill bottles for motorhomes/campers. Two locations we could find in Panama and one in Costa Rica. All others are trade the bottles. So we got propane and headed for the border. Took maybe 30 minutes and we were out of Panama. Costa Rica took longer, but again that was because of Molly. She was our only expense, and cost $15 to get her back into Costa Rica. Our car permits went fast as our permits were just re opened. We now are back at Dominical, Costa Rica. Tomorrow we will get Jerrys pickup oil changed and head for Canas, Costa Rica. No internet for a few days. Should cross into Nicaragua day after that. Carol
Everybody is happy to see us return to some of our usual camping spots. One thing for sure has been trying to find campgrounds and some places will allow to stay but we have to dry camp. Seems most tourist are backpackers traveling on public transportation. People are amazed that we are self-contained and actually can live in our small abode. Although, at times, we just don't seem to have enough room for 2 people. Ermila

Day 55, Left Panama City to Las Lajas

We got up early Sunday to leave Panama City. Carnaval was still going on in parts of the city. Preaty quiet where we were in Balboa. We decided to make a break for it before those who left the city came back or went back to work. Carnaval is serious stuff in Panama, no school until Thrusday. Carnaval officially ends Wednsday at noon.
Unfortunately, the chairs and table we left out, to make people think we were there, were not there that morning. One of the chairs and a small table were gone. The next day Al notices his license plate is gone too! Guide books warn this happens.
Drove to the beach at Las Lajas, passed preparations for a Sunday night celebration. Beach was packed. We had been there the Sunday before, and the camping area was full of day use, but they emptied out at sundown. Today there were wall to wall people on the beach and some people in tents. Worked out that we got spots as some of the people left. Carol
  We haven't had a problem crossing Central America Border without a vehicle license plate. Only problem we think we'll have is when we get to US Border. Tried notifying A-DOT by e-mail and was told they'd get back to me in 7 to 10 days. What the heck, we have time before we get to US Border. Ermila

Day 54, Panama Canal Tour

Wow what a long day. Left at 6:30 from our campers, and returned at 9 PM! A couple from Australia said they started dreaming of the canal 7 years ago and started planning 9 months ago! I thought I would cry when we actual stepped upon the deck of the ship at 7:15am. It was a very
emotional moment. Met a lot of nice people. countries. 
Above is the Panama's Bridge of the Americas across the canal. One of the ships which will share our  first two locks is ahead of us.


This above is our ship before we sailed out of port. The sun was just rising over the Pacific ocean! Weird, but Panama canal goes north/south, so the bay can show the sun rising over the Pacific.

This is the other ship that entered with us. We were both behind the large ship, and this one pulled up along side of us. This ship was from Balboa, California. This is on Al's wish list of boats. The crew had been traveling and fishing on the Pacific and were on their way to San Marteen in the Carribe. Nice way to travel as long as you don't have bad weather.


This is the ship that was going under the bridge, and now is in the locks ahead of us, waiting for us to get into position so the lock doors can close and fill it with water. An water elevator. Look how close it is to the sides, it was this way on both sides. They are in the process of building aditional locks to  acomadate larger ships.We did this 3 times to get through the first locks coming from Panama city on the Pacific Ocean. The next set a short distance away, across a small lake, with locks again to raise us up to lake level of around 200 feet. I did not realize it before, but this September the canal will be 100 years old. Wow!
After cruising many miles across the lake (whole distance from sea to sea only about 50 miles), we went into the locks at the carribean that lowered us to sea level. Then we had a sunset  cruise into the city of Colon. Which after the railroad tour, Jerry refuses ever to see again. This time we were in the safety of our bus, and were ushered through Colon in the dark. One road was blocked by the Carnaval so we detoured and head back to Panama City. Took about an hour back. Carol