And now the end is near..........

This is going to be like waiting for a bus ? When you eventually get one half a dozen will come along at once. I had meant to finish a blog before we left Chelem but time just disappeared on me as usual. So here we are in day 2 of our trip and  this evening was the first time we have been able to find internet for any length of time. As a result, here are several buses at once. Including the one I should have caught  before I left. Phew, glad I said that succinctly?




And now the end is near....and so I face the final curtain (My Way,Frank Sinatra )




What can I say  we are on he move once again be on the road to pastures new.


Regrets I've had a few......but then again too few to mention.




Regrets that we came to the Yucatan ?  Too few to mention yes of course but I am sure that I will be regaling you with more than a few amusing stories in the days to come. But first I need to say we will be leaving the Yucatan with an overflowing bucket full of wonderful memories. Some good, some not so good.  Not that we Dodwells are prone to elaborating on the truth but  you can rest assured that we will do are best to keep the stories  interesting.




Yes, there were times I'm sure you knew that we bit off more than we could chew.




On reflection I guess that's exactly what we did do. We drove an R.V towing a car all the way from Canada to the Yucatan.... never having ever set foot inside an r.v let alone towing a car to boot.


Had we ever been to the Yucatan before ?....... no, But then again when we emigrated to Canada 11 years ago and we hadn't been there either.


And nothing changes. We are heading back to New Brunswick.... and guess what. We haven't ever been there either.


Now some would see this as folly on our part. A lack of understanding, sense or foolishness in some way and............. they might possibly be right but we will do it our way.... anyway.


However, the one thing I do wish is that our follies would have started earlier in our lives. Look at how much more we could have experienced and how many more memories we could have gained.


I've loved I've laughed and cried.
To think I did all that and I say not in a shy way,
Oh no not me. I did it my way.




I certainly have laughed and cried. We have had a lot of fun with a lot of wonderful people that I am proud to call my friends and I am not shy to say that we really will miss you all.

So on to the journey..................







Day 1 ........ What a day!

Its started off rather well . We were up at the crack and on the road by 7 o ‘ clock. We haven't actually been in  the motor home since our journey down three years ago ( apart from taking it into the mechanic for a post travelling service that is ) and I think at the  end of that journey I said  that I didn’t ever want to set foot in it again. I think I used much stronger words than in reality but you get the point. Anyway I'm rambling, read on...

 We hit the periferico around Merida and things were going just dandy. Well kind off! The air conditioner doesn’t work but that’s fine we’re good  ‘ copers ‘….. we’ll cope? The fridge doesn’t work ( we did try to get it fixed but !! ) So no cold drinks for us. No problem we’re ‘copers ’? Oh and the fuel gauge doesn’t work. Mmm ? , a little frustrating to say the least but yeah  you’ve guessed  it ….we’ll cope. So there we were all jolly hockey sticks and plodding along . Things are noisier than I remember but that’s fine. Barney the cat is just loving his motor home again and Hannah the beach dog is doing admirable considering it’s her all new to her.

A new image of the saying "Cool Cat"

He is just so laid back. Barney not the driver!

Hannah just taking it all in her stride

So  everything is just hunky dorey . But you know this is going to change right? Right!

As we approached the turning to Campeche we discovered that our brakes had failed! We actually had no brakes. Litterally , we had no brakes.!  As luck would have it we were right outside a large Pemex ( gas/petrol station ) so were able to pull in and park next to all the early morning trucks. Now as you can imagine all is not as calm at this point as  I would lead you to believe but rather than sharing some of the , shall we say  ' interesting conversation' that ensued I will leave you to fill in the missing dialogue for  yourselves.

Suffice to say that after the initial shock and much venting , practicality does surface and we realised that we were in actual fact not that far away from our mechanic in Merida  And one phone call to Eduardo and he was with us within 20 mins. Apparently our brake caliper pistons had seized up ( which I'm sure means something to someone)  and they would have to take them back to Merida to fix and would be back  soon  and we all know what a Mexican ‘ soon’ is  don’t we ?

Breakdown at the Pemex

 Eight hours later we were on our way again.Yes 8 hours baking in a Pemex parking area doing nothing.

 We got on our way  somewhere around 4 o’clock. Our original plan was to have been to make Villa Hermosa  but instead we ended up in a Passion Pit in Campeche.

Oh and to add insult to injury we were stopped by the police not  5 min after setting off again to be told that we were committing an infraction by towing a car behind our motor home. We have travelled many miles in Mexico towing a car so we know that wasn’t true. He was definitely fishing for a bribe, but by this time we were not in the best of moods and we soon sent him away with a flea in his ear. Three years ago we probably would have succumbed but not these days and definitely not after the day we’d just had.

Bye, Bye Yucatan.

It was a long hot day. I felt like a wrung out dirty dish rag especially remember we have no air con. It doesn’t help that in these old motor homes the engine sits back into the cab so the heat just gets you from inside and out. Even my rubber flip flops were unbearably hot and I spent most of the journey to Campeche with my feet out of the quarter light. Yes that’s how old the motor home is , it has quarter lights.!

But you know what? We are in fine spirits…… this however could all change on day two. Good karma , good karma, good karma!

Day 2.... Cops and stops.....

By the way.....the Passion Pit we stayed in last night? I thought I should explain to the un initiated is what they call a Love Hotel. They are very popular here in Mexico and the room are sold for upwards of an hour. Ours was advertised at a  4 hourly rate (or over night as in our case) They are one room with an attached garage where you can essentially hide your car from prying eyes. Judge who would use them for yourselves if you haven't already guessed.

A lot of North Americans ( and us ) use them as they are cheap and usually will allow you to take your dog and in our case cat as well into the room with you. The room was thought provoking too. Anything that could have been screwed down was screwed down including the ash tray ( beggars can't be choosers I guess) There was a wall T.V. that had maybe 5 channels..... 4 of which were porn ( oh yip de dee) There was also a large mirror and a wall air con unit ( yeah ) which we couldn't find the remote for. We asked the guy at the gate about it and we understood that he controlled it and we couldn't have it on. Mmmm. However at midnight when we were so hot we couldn't stand it any longer ( we were having trouble sleeping before you get any other ideas ) we asked again and he arrived with a remote control and turned it on for us then promptly left with the remote. The mind boggles.

We were on the road again bright and early. Our plans were by now shot so as my favourite G.P S voice says.....Recalculating,Recalculating!? We are now a day behind the original schedule and wont be able to make it up but hey what does it matter were not on a deadline. Just want to be out of this flipping country a.s.a.p.

Some of the country side today has been stunning. Having done this part of the journey before I had forgotten just how striking it was. Some of the beach stretches from Champoton to Cuidad del Carmen are breathtaking.

Champoton

Beach side houses

Across the bridge

It is also very green and lush.We actually went through rain storm. The first 'real' rain for almost six months. It cooled the air wonderfully...... for all of oh let me see now........ maybe half an hour then we were back to that gleeful all inclusive sweaty heat.

I digress...... again. Todays little interesting diversion was the amount of police  and military stops. Under normal circumstances we haven't had much bother and they just wave you on by but today was going to be different I could tell. Probably had something to do with the fact that at every check point they pulled us over. Not once not twice but a total of eight times today and each stop is close to 20 min each time.

The police want to see all the paperwork for both vehicles plus a driving liscense. plus all the usual mundane questions...... where are you from, where are you going are you on vacation and so on . Half the time they don't understand the paperwork  but make quite a song and dance about checking it all anyway.

The military are quite different they are only interested in looking around. They come inside open all the cupboards and drawers.Obviously looking for something quite different than the police as they never ask for the paperwork. They are more interested in the motor home itself.How old is it and how much did it cost.

One long line up.

However at one military stop they created such a backlog of traffic it took us an hour to get through plus the 20 min it took them to check us out. Having said all that both the police and military were very respectful , polite and friendly. I wander if I will still be saying this by the end of the week?

We are now in Hotel Express in Minatitlan, mainly because they have internet and I can finish this ... it is now 1.30 pm and I'm not done yet. But heaven knows when we will get internet again so I need to get done .

By they way the walls are so thin I don't even need to use my imagination to know what the man next door was up to....... oh please he needs to get a room  at a Passion Pit me thinks. Now he's snoring.... strewth!!

Another day tomorrow....Onwards and Upwards!