After I left Palenque, I headed due north to Mex186, then zip west to Villahermosa. One hill I came down I see off in the distance a cloud of black, hovering over, no wait, on and over the roadway in the left lane (I’m in the right). As I get closer I’m able to resolve the cloud into individual birds. And the members of the flock circling the area are reminiscent of buzzards circling a carcass. And that’s what I find on the road. A fresh road kill of a 1 or 2-year-old calf. There was a dog pulling brains out of the damaged carcass and probably 50 buzzards trying to get a nip of food while another 50 or so circled around in the blue blanketed sky. Meanwhile, a tour bus has approached from the other direction and a long haul bus just behind. The buses wait and give their clients a show while I pass the macabre scene, my tires scaring up a flurry of black-feathered bodies and disembodied angry squawks. You see lots of dead meat here on the roads, which points to the general lack of fences.
Later that day, I’m outside of Villahermosa (west of it) and stop at a Pemex station for fuel. I’m used to getting out of the rig and standing there watching the fill to prevent theft. I make sure that the last fill has been zeroed out on the pump; check the price shown is normal (all the Pemex’s charge very near the same price with slight regional differences), and stand there watching so there is no funny business. While the guy is pumping a young kid runs around the front of my RV with an empty 5 gallon jug, holding it out to the service attendant, sees me, spins around and high tails it out of there. Hum, I’ve seen that happen at least 4 times now. Anyway, they fill me up, I lock my fuel door and head on out of there. It is another two days later when I calculate everything and find that instead of the 105 liters of fuel I should have gotten, and paid for, with an honest pump, I got 95 liters instead. Damn. I’m hundreds of miles away, and I can’t remember the station number either. If I’d have checked the fill at the station, I could have yelled at them and called the police as well, the station would have been shut down right then. That was the first fill I’d gotten in Mexico where the pump had been adjusted to cheat. Pemex knows about this type of problem and when they find it, they force the station owner to buy new pumps for $4800 USD, and the owner has to change all their pumps. The old pumps are locked down while they do that. Sometimes it ruins the owner. Sometimes the owner goes to jail. A few weeks back we had stopped to spend the night at the only Pemex in the vicinity along a lonely stretch of Mex186 near a small Mexican village. When we arrived there was a line of cars nearly a 1/4 mile long snaking out of the pump area. Only one pump was working, a new one, because the others had been messed with, weren’t pumping the correct amount and were locked down. The owner, I was told, had been cheating people for years. I didn’t need fuel, so I’m very glad I didn’t have to help the bastard any.
This isn’t the only roadside scam to separate you from your money, though most Mexican people are honest, some will try to take advantage of ignorant northerners. Another scam I found was overcharges at tollbooths. It seemed I was usually in a hurry to get through the tollgate and usually didn’t notice I’d been cheated until I was a few miles down the road and had had the chance to calculate what my change should be. In one day and four toll booths I was shorted nearly $10 USD. But…the next day, where the toll was small, I handed the booth operator a $20 peso bill, they are hard to miss since they are smaller then all the other bills, and have a clear window through the bill. Anyway, the guy gives me change for a $200 peso bill. So it worked out in the end, I suppose.
I’d left Palenque early enough on that morning that I hoped on making Tehuatepec or Salina Cruz on the southern coast by nightfall. That wasn’t to happen because of the 90 or so miles of shear terrorizing southbound highway. Named Mex185. First thing I found, or rather didn’t find, were any signs. I drove over 30 miles before I found a sign that told me I was on Mex185; the turn onto 185 wasn’t marked. Part of that problem was caused by the fact that the highway was being resurfaced with new blacktop. There had been lots of roadwork done and they had removed and not replaced the road signs but they had left a 24″ drop off of the right side of the road, just beyond the edge stripe. It looked, from the height and quantity of the vegetation, that it had been that way for months, without any more work done. It was a white-knuckle trip for 90 miles. Scary at times. And the new roads in Mexico are hardly better then the old roads except maybe a few less potholes. They still bounce you all over. At one point, a truck bounced a little into my lane, I swerve to miss him and whack one of the few street signs there were on my right at 45MPH, demolishing my passenger side mirror, which explodes into thousands of pieces.
Two, three hours later, I’ve had enough of this road and stop at a truckers Pemex near Matias Romero. Got there at five in the evening and scored a nice spot not to near any big trucks. This Pemex had a nice restaurant, a bunch of free Banos (bathrooms with showers) available, a couple pool tables, and a laundry. Along with a general store. Pretty nice place to stay. And safe too. Two hours later I look up from my book, look out at the parking lot in front of my RV and think, ‘Yeah, I can get the rig out of here’. Next morning at 6, I’m totally blocked in. Not a single path out. But by 7am, there have been enough rigs pull out that I can wiggle my rig forward enough, then back enough, that I can get out of the parking lot. Didn’t hit anything. It was fun driving that maze. Even had to back up around 100 feet with a broken mirror.
When I get to Mex200 on the southern coast, I take the toll road because they are generally better then the free roads, and I can bypass a couple big towns using the toll road. It’s a great 4-lane highway this time with very few potholes, and I get miles down the road in a short time. Fast enough that I push on to Puerto Escondido and a few miles beyond. I end the day stopping at an older RV park that has a slightly ‘north of honest’ owner that tells me he will have to charge me extra for electricity because I have a computer satellite dish and want to run the AC. Bastard didn’t tell me that the voltage was only 103 volt, and drops to 90 volt when I tried to turn on the AC so it couldn’t be used. No refunds. It was so damn hot and muggy there, with tons of biting insects, that the next morning, when I woke up a 4am with lots of welts from bugs, I just tore down and stowed the satellite setup and got back on the road by 6:30. I had tried to get some water but again the owner had played it loose with the truth…the pump ran, but it didn’t pump any of that fresh well water he talked about. Pump wasn’t a self-primer or something. I’ll never stop there again.
Later that day, I was in Acapulco. Didn’t think much of that town. Too big, too dirty. And too hard to get a decent nights sleep there at the campground. First night was a big family party for a wedding, next night was a big party for a christening. They had this huge dancehall there at the CG and an equally giant sound system. I had to wear my earplugs to get to sleep. Next morning around 1am, I woke up and pulled them out, went back to sleep, only to be wakened at 4am, by 3 songs played at the same volume they had been played at 11pm the previous night. I was told that Mexican families like to party all night when they party. And they like to make loud noises. Which explained the fireworks that went off anytime, day or night. I stayed until xmas day, leaving early in the morning to miss traffic. It was an easy trip out of town liked I’d hoped and soon I was mostly alone on Mex 200 heading northwest.
A few hours later I reach Lazaro (south of Playa Azul), the next couple of shots are of that area:
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Outside of Las Penas, about 30 miles south, is this giant steel mill by a river very near the ocean. A few nights later, at the RV Park, I saw a weird orange glow coming from this mill as several hundred tons of molten metal was poured:
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I had traveled at a leisurely pace for several hours reaching Playa Azul at around 3:30pm. At that point I had the time before nightfall to go inspect a RV campground 18 miles up the road that sounded interesting in the guide. At Flores de Las Penas. When I arrive, I find that the owner is an American who speaks excellent Spanish, which is helpful. I plug in to a 30-amp outlet, turn on the AC and blew the circuit breaker a few minutes later. Then I find out that the owner WILL be putting in 30-amp service. For now, it’s only 15 amp breakers and wiring with 30 amp outlets. Kind of a ‘fake out’. Damn. No AC.
Well, the place had its charm, so I volunteered to rewire the two 30 amp outlets that were installed but only wired up to 15 amp circuits and breakers. Next day the owner, David, and I run into town and gather up the electrical components and wire we will need to upgrade the site. When we get back I wire my site, with David’s help, for 30 amps. With sweat pouring off of my forehead into my eyes, I thankfully wash myself in the blast of air from my AC a couple of hours later. A few hours after that, I get my satellite set up and get on-line, then wander over to the cliff over the beach and watch a spectacular sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Nice.
The Canadian neighbors were nice and later that night the Church’s, authors of the famous Mexican guide, show up. The day after they leave a nice couple, Jim & Sandy, show up and stay a couple days. It was fun there and I spent a lot of time looking around the area for places to buy. I also spent lots of time with the Mexican family that act as the caretakers of the property for David. They are there every day, usually Brenda cooks for the guests, and Jesus does the grunt work. They seemed to be very nice people and I ride into town with them to shop.
The neighbor of the RV park, owner of the property I was most interested in buying, seems to be a nut though, and tends to drink alot. The first day I had Jesus ask about his property, he offered it for $18,000 USD, the next day, he wanted $100,000 USD for the same property. Wow. End of negotiations.
A couple of days later, I wired in another true 30 amp outlet and circuit breaker so now the park can handle 2 big rigs with their AC’s running. The goal is to install 4 circuits in short order. Thing is, I had to do this install with the main power circuit ‘live’, so I wore rubber gloves and stood on a wide board to avoid grounding myself. Kind of dicey doing that work. Don’t want to be electro-shocked to death.
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The following shots are of the Flores de Las Penas RV park. It’s perched on a plateu overlooking the sea:
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This shot shows that portion of the coast where the steel mill is located:
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And a few shots of the patio of the RV park. They also rent rooms in this former motel:
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This portion of the coast reminds me of southeastern Oregon. Very similar:
