January 8 to March 15, 2003
Irene mentioned the other day that we had spent a total of 1700 nights in our Kodiak camper. It sounds like a lot but it’s really only 4.7534 years.
We drove from Villahermosa to Palenque having decided that we would spend Christmas and New Years near the ruins of Palenque. “The ancient Mayan city with its superb jungle setting and exquisite architecture and decoration is one of the marvels of Mexico.” (page 894 Lonely Planet of Mexico). Mayabel had not changed a lot since the last time we were there in 1994. A cozy campground with a section of thatched roof palapas with hammocks for backpackers and spaces for RV’s some with hookups under the high jungle trees. An inviting swimming pool and a cozy small restaurant with almost nightly entertainment by very talented musicians. Guitars, drums and singing. The crowd was very international. People from every part of the Globe. Most stopped for 2 or 3 days. We stayed for 3 weeks. Great memories of the Howler monkeys growling like wild tigers, nice walks up to the Ruins and into the countryside, shopping trips to the village travelling by Colectivo and a 3 day trip by boat and bus into Guatemala to visit the “Manhattan of the Mayas”, Tikal. Temple number four has been called the Chrysler Building.
During the rainy Christmas days we had busloads of mostly inexperienced tenters from Mexico City, braving the weather despite of wet sleeping bags and many smoky campfires.
From Palenque to San Cristobal de las Casas is about 250 km. The bus takes 8 hours. It took us 2 day stopping Misol Ha, the magnificent waterfall. Water rushes over rocks surrounded by jungle trees straight down about 35 meters (100’) . The spray is so strong it hits spectators about 60-80 meters away. We walked down a steep trail with whet stone steps underneath and behind the falls. Quite an experience! Some people stood right next to the roaring water to have their picture taken.
Agua Azul was our next stop and overnight. These waterfalls are spread out over a distance of about 500 meters (1500’). Several cascades separated by rocks and vegetation finally join in a river with little islands. Ideal for swimming or kayaking. Simple kiosks and restaurants line the shore. Everything goes quiet at 6 pm. We overnighted right in front of the flowing waters and had a great sleep. A couple from Switzerland in a unique Nissan conversion camper and an American couple in a truck camper were parked along side us.
Palenque is almost at sea level, warm and humid, while our next destination San Cristobal is almost 2100 meters (7000’), dry, sunny and cold at night. A very scenic old town, native indios in colorful dress, interesting churches and buildings and in the hotbed of the Zapatista movement and the center of the Uprising of ‘94.
We carried on after 2 days. The road is over mountain ranges well over 2600 meters (8500’). Driving is slow and “curva peligrosa” (dangerous curves) signs are very frequent and “freno con motor” (break with motor) signs are on a great many downhills. This is a rollercoaster ride until you are almost at sea level.
It took us 2 days to get to our next destination of Oaxaca. A large old city, over 1500 meters (5000’) high. On the way we actually overnighted at a military checkpoint near a small village, quite safe and reasonably quiet. We had missed our campground about 50 km earlier.
Oaxaca is a BIG city in a valley surrounded by 7-8,000’ mountains one of which is crowned by Monte Alban, the ancient Zapotec Capital, first occupied 500 BC. Many pyramid type ruins have been restored. Oaxaca has a beautiful historic center with many old churches and magnificent buildings.
We found a beautiful campsite up the hill in San Felipe through our friend David, whom we met in Palenque. The San Felipe del Agua Trailer Park where David has his Motorhome is on the edge of a maguey field. Douglas French, the American owner, has lived in Mexico for 30 years and he produces one of the finest Mescal liquors in the country. We bought some that he poured out of a large 25 liter container into our own bottles, delicious to sip straight or mixed with Squirt, lime and ice.
During our 3 plus weeks stay we visited many interesting places and hiked the local hills above San Felipe, some treed and others partly covered with corn fields quite steep and dry. No rain is expected until May.
David invited us on a 3 day - 2 night trip in his Nissan SUV to Tuxtepec along Highway 175. We left early AM and in short order we were in the clouds again. Very steep and mountainous, over 2 high passes, finally ending in San Jose Chiltepec, on the Atlantic side of the Sierra where we spent the night at the best hotel in town. Double with bath, with hot shower, for 90 Mex Pesos ($12 Can). This town is almost at sea level. The villages along this route are friendly and do not see many tourists. On to Tuxtepec the next day for sight seeing and bird watching at various spots recommended in Irene’s birding books. Overnight at the Hotel Valle, at Valle Nacional, and then back to Oaxaca over the steep, winding mountain road which reached 10,000’ (3,200 m) at the summits, where it was terribly cold and windy.
On the last day of our stay in Oaxaca, we noticed a caravan of 18 RV’s jammed together in a small parking lot downtown. There were large expensive buses, 5th wheels, campers and trailers, with large national flags plastered on them and no Mexican flag visible. How fortunate we thought not having to travel with a group like that. The next day our destination was about 1/3 of the way to Cuernavaca at Balneario Atonaltzin at Tamazulapan. A small Mexican thermal spring resort with camping spots. We often stay at places like this and we are usually the only camper spending the night. We made our way through this town then down a very dusty road and came to the gate to buy our ticket. Low and behold the whole camping area was occupied by this caravan. We snaked our way through this mess of RV’s to a nice spot on the other end in the shade of a tree. We said Hello to a few people and exchange names. After parking and starting our fridge we went out to stroll around the back area outside the gates.
We returned about 2 hours later and to our surprise we found about 25 or more of this group making themselves comfortable right smack alongside our camper. Chairs lined up leaning on our truck. We could not even open the truck door to take our shoes off. Afternoon meeting with Games and Snacks. There went our quiet afternoon. They insisted we join. Some food followed by silly games. The group had arrived an hour before us, no one seemed to have either gone to look at the scenery nor enjoyed a swim. A woman showed off a large crocheted flag about the size of a door and told the ooooing crowd that her Grandmother had made it for her to take on the trip so that she always remembered what country she came from. This she repeated about 3 times. The games lasted about an hour, we left before they started. Irene went for a walk and she was seething mad and I prepared dinner. The screaming, loud laughing and trumpet blowing quit when they finally took their chairs and went back to their own vehicles. We declined the invitation to join them for Margaritas. Then we started smelling the typical exhaust fumes of generators. These people could not stop for one night without electricity without firing up a generator. One of their units was a Prevost that sells for about One Million US with a bank of batteries and yet they had to use generators. The stink was so bad that we had to move to the extreme end of the property to lessen the smell and the noise that finally quieted down a few hours later. We were the first ones to leave in morning because we did not want to get caught up with this group. We found out that morning that they were also going to Cuernavaca. There is only one campground in that city so we opted for an alternate plan as we had previously spent time in that city. There was NO way we would spend another night in the same campground with this Caravan group
At this point we were at about 6,000’. We bypassed Cuernavaca and just before Tepoztlan we joined a 6 lane highway that winds its way up and up steep and sometimes rocky mountains what seems to lead to the sky. This is the road to Mexico City about 50 km away. At about 8,000’ it appeared that we finally reached the peak when we realized that we were about halfway. We saw buses, 18 wheelers and cars way higher like toys winding their way. We finally made our exit at Tres Marais at about 10,500’. To put this altitude into perspective, Roger’s Pass in the Canadian Rockies is 4,350’. Very few passes in Colorado and California are over 5,000’.
The road to Toluca winds its way through part of the Zampoala pine forest. We stopped at the small alpine Lake Zampoala, which is surrounded by meadows and high treed forest. We stayed overnight by the Park Office, morning temperature was -3.5’C.
Through Toluca the next morning took us 2 hours to drive through this awful polluted rats nest of a City.
South side of Lake Chapalla for three days, then Villa Corona for three nights at a quiet thermal bath called El Tula. We were the only overnight guests. The owner filled a private hot pool for us to soak in. We swam in the large pool with a lake just in front of us.
Now we are in La Laguna Sta. Maria del Oro, 30 km east of Tepic. We will stay here for about 2 weeks. We plan to stay at Alamos, Sonora until the middle of March and then proceed via Arizona back to Canada.
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