2002 La Laguna to Guanajuato

We are into our final month in Mexico and we plan to cross into the USA on March 22 as that is the weekend before Easter Holy Week. In Mexico it is called Semana Santa and it is a huge travel and fiesta time. We usually plan to be off the roads during the Holiday as it is too busy and too much chance of accident.

Since our last news letter we have spent our time at La Laguna Sta Maria del Oro. The truck checked out just fine in Tepic so we continued on our way. We have spent many days at La Laguna, but now we are not too sure if we will return. The owner has hired a U.S. fellow to be his manager and he was the one creating all the noise. He played his boom-box at all hours and became quite threatening at times if he was asked to turn it down among other things. It was not the most pleasant time although we certainly made other times pleasant for ourselves by going on hikes, birding, biking or enjoying our visits with friends. In the afternoon we were often asked over for cappucino at Ben Wassink's. We always enjoy our visits and travels with Ben.

We had 3 days of steady rain at La Laguna, which can happen in February. The ground was very dry so the rain was welcome.

We (Ben also joined us in his VW campervan) have moved on to another place we have visited a few times - La Noria just west of Tepic in the pine, oak and cactus forests. The forest here has been untouched and the trees are most impressive. The needles of these pines are about 7" and when backlit by the sun it is just gorgeous. The nights here are cool and the days quite warm. We are at about 5,000' and within sight of the ocean at San Blas. The 9km road up the mountain has become very rutted and difficult to drive. The last rain did a number on the road and the grades had become rivers. We drove it exceedingly slow and tried to avoid some of the deep grooves. If the road does not improve it may become to difficult to drive. It is very peaceful here especially without the rap music from our previous place. We have been hiking every morning and some days we do not go great distances as there are things to see. We have gone further some days and then gotten a lift from a passing vehicle back up the hill. We have seen some interesting birds including the Red-headed Tanager, Red-faced Warbler, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, Arizona Woodpecker, Grey-crowned Woodpecker and many migrant species.

We have been listening to Puerto Vallarta radio and among the classical music they played was Marriage of Figaro with Elizabeth Schwartzkopf and George London with the Vienna State Opera.

Since writing the above it is now Feb 27 and we have moved on to the State of Guanajuato. Well it finally happened we had a tire blow out as we were coming into the city of Guanajuato. We were on a narrow 2 lane busy highway when it happened, but luck was we were only travelling about 30kph and we were able to find a place to pull off. Three fellows came walking by and started to help us when the "Green Angels" appeared. The Green Angels are a government agency that patrols the highways of Mexico helping drivers and in particular tourists that are stranded. The spare tire had to be brought up to pressure of 80 lbs as it had gone down to 65. (It had been checked a couple of months ago). The Green Angels took it into town to have it reinflated and returned to our vehicle and finished the job. Our next problem was to try and buy a new tire as the old one was almost shredded. Radial tires of the size LT235 R16 80 are very difficult to find as they use conventional tube tires. At the time of writing we are waiting for a phone call from Goodyear to tell us that one has arrived. We checked with three companies yesterday and none had any in stock.

We are enjoying ourselves in this beautiful capital city so we are not suffering and we have lots of time. This morning we went to a rehearsal of the Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1, and later just wandered the town and had delicious lamb tortas at the Market. Since this is an University city there is an Internet service on almost every block and they charge about 12 pecos per hour which is about $2 Can per hour.