Life In Pátzcuaro

Something went wrong with my last post but are still living  large in Pátzcuaro. I have changed my password, given thanks to Jeffrey in Cape Coral for the technical advice and I think we are back for now.

A day in the life in this campgrounds pretty much a day in the life on the road. This morning after my website crashed I relaxed and washed the exterior of the van and underneath the chassis with my hose. I checked the tire pressures and boosted the rear tires a few pounds and chatted with Layne about our route planning. It's absurd: we have four months left on our Tourist card as we have to leave Mexico by June 28th and we are checking our route back to Arizona with time in hand. Pretty cool!

Yesterday we scrubbed the interior of Gannet2, one of those occasions when mats come out and our porta potty takes up its true nature as a throne in the middle of the field getting cleaned (a blue job I might note) even as the toilet compartment gets scrubbed down (another blue job) and prepared for a few more weeks of hard service. Layne cooks and washes up by her choice (pink jobs) and I take care of boring stuff like the toilet and the tires. After we spent three hours making and mending we showered in our magnificent facilities -hot water!- and had lunch.

This dusty industrial room probably does not look like the latest in high fashion shower decors to you, but the water pressure is strong and the flow is hot and the faucets are simple to use. Highly enjoyable for people on the road. Then  shaved and scrubbed and with a fresh shirt on I put Rusty in the van and we march across the field to a five star lunch.  Pork chops in a mole sauce (savory chocolate sauce pronounced mow-lay):

And of course the magnificent view:

The afternoon ended up frittered away in conversation with some neighbors who showed up. My, wasn't I surprised! Michel and Suzanne send their winters in Mexico driving down over the years in an assortment of RVs and spend summers in Québec with children and grandchildren, as you do. We had a great time exchanging travel stories with them as they have been all over the place, returning now from Chiapas, the other Mexican state (like Michoacán) that enjoys. fearsomely dangerous reputation. They laughed at the stories of danger!

Happily Michel speaks fluent English because if I have to speak French to someone from Québec I cannot easily understand their own dialect and we can only communicate in formal French. In this case Michel wanted to check out Gannet2 as he is thinking of getting used van in the US and converting it to his taste in Mexico where he knows where the right people have their workshops. He is an aircraft mechanic by trade so his technical skills are stratospheric compared to mine...people like me are lucky to have access to overtime and Custom Coach Creations in DeLand.

Their RV is a powerful four wheel drive full sized truck with a large camper on top. He was saying it is difficult to drive in the narrow streets of the cities in Mexico and as his rig is even taller than our van height issues have given him in difficulties. I hope we meet them again as I want to see what they come up with next. A really interesting couple.

They also told us of a different road out of the campground which we will check. These two roads were where we dead ended in front of the gates to the La Mesa Resort, whose gates I photographed above.

Neither one looked doable in our van and I would suggest that someone traveling in a four wheel drive vehicle with their home on the back might think twice. Its all very well to go four wheeling for fun but when everything you own is wrapped up in your ride the idea of exploring this kind of stuff is reserved not for travelers but off road enthusiasts. That's the reason I am not interested in a four wheel drive van. This isn't fun to me:

It is entirely possible to tour Mexico in large RVs and travel trailers and people do it all the time. However the larger and more complex your vehicle the less exploration is open to you. Our van was designed and built to be off grid, not to drive difficult dirt roads but to not need to be plugged in or attached to sewage dump stations everywhere. Its small enough we can park it like a car even in the small spaces of Mexican parking lots! However as you have seen from our photos the interior spaces are small and not everyone likes to put their toilet paper in a separate trash can and deal with emptying a porta potty by hand. In Mexico you never put toilet paper down the bowl unless you want to wreck the sewage system so we never put paper in our toilet. We learned that habit from traveling by sailboat where the same rule applied on our boat and we are used to a toilet paper trash can.

This campground has sophisticated facilities compared to many. It even has a thirty amp plug alongside the usual 15amp household plugs. There is a water faucet (not for drinking without filtering!) and the cap on the floor is where your sewage goes.  RV's with tanks direct their black hoses there, people like me pour out the porta potty tank there.

This big RV is a permanent fixture as far as I can tell here. Perhaps its employee housing or something. But it is proof positive you can drive whatever you own in Mexico. A big RV was never on my radar but if you want that comfort by all means come on down!

I am not fond of camper shells on pick up trucks for a variety of reasons. I don't like climbing stairs to get in, I don't like the separation of cab from living space and I dislike the lack of customizable space inside the living area. They pretty much all look the same because the space is what it is. Other people love them because they can keep the camper shell separate when they aren't using it, or they can get a four wheel drive truck and make an excellent off road package, especially with the smaller shells that fold down flat when not in use. You can also park the camper unit on its own legs and use the truck as a separate vehicle. For us the van works best but unlike a lot of travelers we don't sit still for long periods and we have no compunction about packing up a campsite for the day and driving the van around as if it were our car.

Some people tow travel trailers to Mexico, and speaking as a former truck driver towing doubles and pup trailers around San Francisco I am not fond of that idea. Half the joy of exploring is screwing up and being able to back out of a mess. With a trailer that gets quite complicated if you go badly wrong and that lack of flexibility puts me off. I can, and have backed, Gannet2 up for long distances when I got stuck and I have no fear of backing when I do screw up, which is often. Stealth camping is totally impossible with a trailer and toll roads charge more. Trailers suck up gas like its going out of style. and their big advantages, low cost, lots of space and the ability to park them and use your tow vehicle separately are advantages that do not overcome the disadvantages for me. However if you like to set up camp and tow lots of toys a travel trailer could be perfect for you.

There are no wrong answers to the question of what vehicle should I travel with? Its like any hobby or sport, you make the best use of the equipment that best pleases you. To say you wouldn't come to Mexico because your camper is unsuitable would be a shame. I can't go where four wheel drive goes but I love the comfort and easy driving of my front wheel drive gasoline powered Promaster. I love the lack of systems, no hot water, no heat, no propane in my van. I don't mind at all pouring out my porta potty, and these are all subjects that may make you shudder. Please don't let me and my preferences put you off what you want to do. My good friend Webb Chiles, a man who lives to sail and has set records on the oceans of the world says it best when he tells me vive la difference! I enjoy sailing but I absolutely love traveling in my van. I don't miss traveling by sailboat and I am more relaxed behind the wheel than I ever was navigating and piloting a boat. I'm glad for the experience cruising Central America, but this life suits me best. And that doesn't threaten Webb at all, on the contrary he takes joy in my pleasure. 

I hope that explains our choice and how we travel. I hope you find whatever hobby or sport or relaxation that suits you, at home or on the road, or snug in the bosom of your family. I have absolutely no wish to encourage you to think this is the only life for a retiree because it decidedly is not, and when it isn't for us we will live on a boat in St Petersburg and tell stories to bore our neighbors rigid, so consider yourselves warned!