2002 Emerald Coast Mexico

We are really slow - it has taken us a month to reach the Emerald Coast of Mexico (this is the beach area just south of Poza Rica). We are parked on grass very near the beach and we can walk miles along the waterfront. The sand is dark brown but finely grained so it is very pleasant for bare feet. There is only one other nice Canadian couple from Quebec (in a VW camper) and today we had 2 busload of Mexican families from Veracruz that came to spend the day. Extremely pleasant and happy families.

We spent 2 1/2 weeks in Mc Allen, Texas where we experienced rain and more rain. Brownsville had 20" of rain in 14 days and many areas were flooded. We kept looking at the map and thinking that the rain was not too much fun but the cold weather and tornadoes were much less desirable - so we just stayed and enjoyed ourselves. We have been in Mexico for about a week and already have had one El Norte come through. The winds were very high on the beach, but the temperatures have been very pleasant.

That is enough about the weather. We just finished spending a day at the Totonac Ruins of El Tajin. It is a small area in comparison to the famous Chichen Itza and Uxmal Ruins in the Yucatan, but has a "small town" feel about it. It is beautiful and extremely well maintained.

Our trip through the States was pleasant and we missed cold weather and storms (back to weather again) The bird migration was in full swing except the waterfowl which comes later and we missed the Whooping Cranes. The water table at Cheyenne Bottoms Refuge in Kansas was very low - areas that would have lots of ducks was now almost dry. Hopefully it does not stay that way. We went on to stay at the City Park in Perryton and then drove about 20 miles to Wolf Creek Park at Fryer Lake. We drove straight south to Laredo and spent a few days at Zapata. It is a newly constructed town as the old town was at the bottom of Falcon Lake when the dam was constructed, but has reappeared as the lake is very low. Where there were boat docks and fishing piers just a few years ago there are now large mesquite trees and vegetation. The rains had come across from Hurricane "Kenna" and the water had risen a few feet. What a disaster!

While in McAllen we visited Nuevo Progresso and did all our paper work for Mexico. It was extremely easy to do there. We then would only have the 20 km check point when we officially entered the country. (That was also easy). We seemed to keep quite busy in McAllen. We had some minor things done to the truck; we visited Santa Ana (a birding disappointment); we did some bike riding and mostly walking to the Library for the Internet and shopping. We took the camper off the truck so we had wheels for driving.

Again this time we were able to co-ordinate our stay to meet with friends from Winnipeg (George and Carolyn) who were returning from Lago Catemaco, Mexico and heading home to the cold weather. We will stay along the coast here for a week or so as we seem to get "beached out" fairly quickly. We couldn't help but think of Linda and Richard as they are directly across the Gulf of Mexico from us. It would be nice to wave and say "Hello".

We started this letter Nov 20 and now it is the 29th and we are still here, but have moved to a Restauant/campground - Coco Loco's near Casita. (They have a website www.hotelcocoloco.com). We have been enjoying walking the deserted beach and riding our bikes to different locations. They have a wide shoulder on the road here so it seems quite safe. An El Norte has blown in and brought wind and rain.

We will write again when we arrive in Lago Catemaco, south of Veracruz. We are not sure when we will get there as our schedule keeps changing (I should say that we keep changing our minds)