Ready to move on from Tapachula

Karen had another rough night of diarea, so we went to the hospital. The doctor put her on intravenous antibiotics and saline. She was in the hospital from 10:00 am until about 8:00 pm. She is feeling much better and is not losing fluid anymore. 

A very nice man who works at the Holiday Inn helped us today on his day off. Socrates came with us to interpret between us and the doctor. He drove us to the hospital and also drove me around for prescriptions. I really hope that we can pay his kindness back some day. He said he wanted to come to Canada some day, so whenever he and his family want to, they are welcome to stay with us as long as they want. 

I can not say enough about the generosity and kindred spirit of Mexicans.   They remind me so much of Canadians. Everyone likes to help out. It is so comforting knowing that there are good people out in the world. Without great people like Socrates, today would have been much tougher. Thank you!!!

Here are some pictures of Karen's day. 

The Hospital / Clinic

Karen's bed / room (with her own bathroom)

The doctor and nurses who helped us today. 

Keep your fingers crossed for us so we can continue our journey tomorrow. 

Stew. 

Still in Tapachula

Karen is still sick, so we went to a doctor today and he gave her good medicine.  We hung out today so that Karen could recuperate properly.  We are playing it by ear and will see how she feels tomorrow and then hopefully will head South through Guatemala.

We are all feeling like being done travelling and so might just power through the last 1,700 km over the next week.  With the rain forecasted for the next week we will do what we can, but normally we can cover between 300 and 500 km per day. There are lots we want to see especially in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, but we might just head through it and come back once we get settled and once the weather gets better.

Sorry, no photos again.  Soon.

Stew.

One more day in Tapachula

Sooo, we started out towards Guatemala after a lazy morning. Karen was feeling a little under the weather (bad tummy).  The only problem was when we got to the border we needed our temporary vehicle import permit canceled out. I thought that would be at the border crossing. Wrong.

So, there we were traveling back road about an hour and a half to get to where we needed to cancel the permit. I was so frustrated because we got different answers from different people about where to go for it. The Information we got when we first got the temporary import permit was wrong, out of date and really really tough to read. We asked 4 or 5 different people where it was and got 5 different answers all dozens of kilometres apart. We finally went through a customs stop and asked them. They were the only ones who really knew. 

By the time we found the place, did our paper work and got back on the road, we were hot tired and pissed off.  So we checked back in the Holiday Inn in Tapachula.   We got our laundry done because some of our wet clothes were starting to stink and grow mould. It's great to have clean clothes again. Pd. now everything is packed in garbage bags to keep dry. 

We will see how the night goes, Karen's tummy is acting up again. We should make the crossing tomorrow and make it at least to Antigua depending on weather. 

Wish us good luck. 

Stew. 

Almost at Guatemala

We are about 5 hours from the Guatemala border this morning. We will see what time we get there and might cross today or tomorrow. 

Yesterday we again got caught in a long line of truckers. This time we heard it was sugar cane producers striking and blockading the road. We again road through the middle of the trucks or on the shoulder to get to our turn off. 

At noonish we pulled over at a small food stand. They made everything from scratch and it tasted awesome. The tortillas were made by hand and served hot. They also made tomales for us which tasted like sweet corn bread. Yum!

Octabio and his family were so nice. We talked for quite a while and they even offered to take us in for the night. We will definitely take them up on it when we come back through. 

A family stopped to look at the bikes because their son is crazy for them. He sure looked thrilled when he got to climb on the bike and we turned it on for him. They just don't seem to have bikes like ours down here. Some sport touring but mostly small dirt bikes. 

Orizaba

Had mucho waiting in lines day today. We started North West of a Mexico City and took toll roads East all day. 

Firstly there was bridge construction that had traffic backed up for 3 km and going at a crawl. We did some Mexican motor biking on the shoulder to get ahead ( very common for bikes here, it is expected). A little freaky for our Canadian sensibilities , but kind of cool all the same. 

Secondly there was a 4 km backup with traffic down to one lane. The culprit? Mexico policiá check stop. Although we didn't see anyone stopped and the policiá were just standing by their cars talking. 

The last line up took the cake though. We got stuck in a line up that was not moving at all. We waited for a while and then did more Mexican biking on the shoulder (both sides) in between trucks and cars. This went on for 8 km and we finally pulled off for gas and a hotel because we were spent. The line was mostly truckers and the hold up was for load inspection (at least that is what we got from a few conversations). Karen was freaked right out doing this for 2-1/2 hours, but Jada and I were cool with it. Many people waved us on through. Others simply nodded when we said our Gracias or Buenos Dias. 

So then we pulled into Orizaba, a fairly big industrial town, looking for a hotel. Our first stop was really nice, but they wanted $300 CDN for the night. They said we needed 2 rooms instead of just one. So on we went to another hotel and got a nice room with 2 beds for about $50 CDN. Much better!

However, the room is right on the main drag and the traffic is still strong writing this. Anyways, time for bed. It looks like another rainy day tomorrow.  Yay!!

Jilotepec

We started the day in San Juan Cosala and hit the toll highway toward Mexico City. We are bypassing the city, but need to go close to it. All was good this morning. We even had subway for lunch. We did hit some pretty big bugs along the way though. 

Soggy, cold and weary when we pulled into Jilotepec this evening.  

We missed the rain for most of the day, but the last 2 hours got us soaked.  Everything is wet!  We even got hailed on for a few minutes.  Yikes! Add to that the fact that apple maps got us lost multiple times today. Time for navigation rant.

We left San Juan Cosala this morning and right off the bat our navigation software (apple maps) missed the turn North.  I stopped and had to do a u-turn on the street.  Then it told me too late to turn right.  Another u-turn.  Then when we were to turn left, it told me too late again, another u-turn. Then not left turn for that road, so another u-turn and then across 2 lanes to make the right turn that I should have made in this first place.  Finally got on the road apple wanted us to and it turned into a gravel road (more like a goat path). Ok another u-turn.  Checking the map, there was another way, so,off we headed and actually hit the right turn this time.  On the major highway, great no more missed directions.

At Atlacomulco we had to get off the highway to another highway.  Followed the apple maps directions, didn't miss a turn and still had to make a u-turn.  Missed the next turn because it looked like  a dirt road, 2 more u-turns.  Found the right road (according to apple) and followed it to a very small town where there were 2 cows walking across Main Street with ropes tied around their necks.  The road thinned out to cobble stones and then dirt.  Another u-turn.  We stopped at a small store as the rain started coming down really hard.  The people were very nice, but spoke not a lick of English. We managed to get directions to Jilotepec with the comment to stop for mas preguntas there (more questions).  Very nice people!

That was the end of using apples automated navigation directions.  Just maps and common sense from here on in.  At one point I was cursing constantly and almost threw my phone in the bush. 

Found a very nice hotel in Jilotepec for $50 CDN. The restaurant was excellent and supper totaled $60 CDN for 4 great meals and 4 drinks.  The people here have been so helpful, nice and talkative.  We just spent about 20 minutes talking to Aurturo and Joel. They did not speak any English, but we managed to talk about travel, motorbikes, Canada, Guatemala and Jilotepec.  It was our best conversation in Spanish so far.  In fact, today no one we met spoke any English except for one lady who knew less English than the Spanish I know.  Thanks Lonely Planet offline translated, you really helped us today!

We will see what the weather holds tomorrow.

Good night all.

Stew.

2 spa days at hotel Balneario in San Juan Cosala

We spent a couple days waiting for better weather in a little spa hotel on the lake South of Guadalajara. The scenery is gorgeous and the people are really friendly here.

Last night we walked up the mountain about 20 minutes to a high end restaurant for some good food and awesome scenery.  Well what we were told was great food.  Mine was good, but everyone else's was not that great.  Too fancy maybe.  The icing on the cake was Brandon's food.  I though we were ordering pizza with cheese and tomato sauce.  Brandon was so stoked for pizza.  When it got here it looked like this.

And this is what Brandon looked like right as he received it!

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So Karen switched with him and she ate it.  She said it was ok (Not as good as her Mahi Mahi would have been).

The view and ambiance were worth the price and the walk for.

The walk back we couldn't help but notice that all the homes in the area were walled and gated with razor wire and broken glass on the tops of the walls.  Kind of freaky considering it is in a gated area already.  Some of the homes were very nice though.

The next day we spent the whole time in the pool and had a blast.

The further South we go, the less and less english is being spoken.  In Mazatlan lots of people spoke english, but not so much here.  Normally cab drivers are safe bets, but again not here.   So when we took a cab to the marina in Chapala to walk around the little shops for the afternoon, it was a little dicey if we were actually going there until we arrived.  Nice little area with lots of people milling about.  We had some lunch at a nice restaurant where Brandon got food adventurous again and had frogs legs.  Chewy chicken is how they tasted.

We walked around the marina where they had some cool areas.

At the end of the day, we took a cab from the marina to Wal-Mart for shoes, stopped for Pizza at dominoes and then also stopped by a roadside fruit stand for berries that Karen has been craving.  A very Mexican day with sprinkles of Canada as well.

Tomorrow we head South for the Coast.  Lets hope that the weather holds up!

Stew.

South of Guadalajara at Chapala

Finally got out of Mazatlan today and made it Just South of Guadalajara on a huge lake at a place called San Juan Cosalia.

So now we know the difference between toll roads and free roads in Mexico.  The toll roads are way better but it is a pain in the butt stopping every half hour for another $20 worth of tolls.  Even the toll roads have their issues though, with lots of pot holes, sharp curves and Topes (man made bumps to slow you down).  I still have not really figured out the speed limits.  In most areas the speed limits don't seem to matter to anyone, policía included. We go what we are comfortable with and get passed quite a bit, but I would rather be slow and get there than speed blindly just to keep up.

We stopped for lunch at a road side bus stop and restaurant.  The food was pretty good (well ok, only I thought so) and the ambiance was terrific (sarcasm intended).

From there we took off toward Guadalajara (Mexico's 2nd largest city).  The scenery changed from desert to jungle almost as soon as we left Mazatlan.  It is very pretty in this part of Mexico.  We also got fairly wet in a short period of time.  The clouds ahead looked like rain but only pockets of it.  We stopped to discuss it and Karen put on rain pants.  Jada and I decided to risk getting wet.  We should have listened to Karen.  We were only in rain for about 10 minutes, but it was enough to soak our jeans.  But after 1/2 hour out of the rain, I was dry again.  Although Karen hit a huge puddle that soaked her totally (even into her face mask!), so even though she tried to stay dry, it did not really work.  It was also great to travel when it was not so hot (it was around 25C).

Last night we walked to find a restaurant that was open and couldn't in this sleepy little lake town.  So we should get an award for best parents tonight (we bought chips, beer and pop for supper. Yum!).  Karen and I went on my bike into the town about 1/2 km down the road and we were surprised by how  families were out walking around.  It really felt like a cool community.

Well, time to hit the 5 pools, 6 water slides and 12 hot pools at this resort.  It is in an area with hot springs like Banff, just not as costly or as fancy.

Hasta Luego,

Stew.

The route yesterday.