Art Aboard

Rachel wrote and asked me to post some pictures of our artwork aboard GANNET2. Visitors sometimes express surprise that we stick souvenirs of our travels in the walls of our monsters home but we like to brighten things up. This collection of found objects and buttons we picked up in Franklin Tennessee when Gary and Barbara took us on an outing to the Carnton House before saying goodbye in January. 

This picture below is on our fridge and gains significance as we prepare to launch towards Panama. It was us with Emma and Debs on Miki G our 34 foot Gemini Catamaran just before  the Panama Canal in 1999 as we prepared to transit to the Caribbean Sea. 

Paula from Ireland gave us this fridge magnet before we left Key West. Ever since I discovered one grandparent was Irish I have tried to come to terms with my Celtic ancestry. I was quite happy being English. But one cannot reject any appeal to luck under our circumstances! 

We covered up a failed hook placement by sticking some small rocks over the hole and creating art. All our souvenirs have to be small to fit in our van life. 

The sunflowers we bought in Quebec City in a market in 2016. Sunflowers are Laynes favorite and she says that was the first piece of art we bought for our future van. We planned ahead. 

We seem to end up collecting bits and pieces that resemble creatures of the sea and I don’t quite remember where they all came from. 

We bought this painting below in Dubrovnik in Croatia when we drove around the Balkans for a second time in 2007 and we wanted a small souvenir to take home. 

This year we went to Monument Valley Arizona and got this:

This mask we bought at Monte Alban, the archeological digs outside Oaxaca:  

This was us getting married in Santa Cruz in 1994 in a friend’s expansive back yard. It was a sunny summer in California that year. 

Layne went to Turkey with some girlfriends a few years ago, well before Covid and brought back some oval charms which are supposed to ward off the evil eye. The sousaphone player she bought in New Orleans to remind me of my youthful musical efforts. 

We bought the painting below as a reminder of our pleasure in the desert southwest. We happened upon a street fair in Mesilla, New Mexico and liked the art. In front of it we bought the tall wood statue in a museum in Alamos last year in Sonora State, next to it the day of the dead statue and next to that one of our more recent pieces a wheelbarrow from the mining town of Real Del Monte. 

The paper towel holder we like as it’s not like the regular holders and I like the cheeky sombrero art. We found it in Tzintzuntzan on the shore of Lake Pátzcuaro last year. 

Layne finds odd spots for various pieces and when she goes by looking she always asks for the smallest examples. We live in a Casa Rodante - a moving home. 

We don’t have anything much from Key West now I’m looking and I find that disappointing. I do have my going away police medal stuck above my desk. It reminds me where the money comes from to live this life on the road. 

The latest was the black clay mask in San Bartolo Coyotepec.  Small of course but beautifully detailed. 

All this stuff travels around with us. Last years’ haul is stored on our storage locker in Miami for now. 

Decoration in our van makes it a home. Cheers. 

Adding art is an ongoing process and I forgot a few. 

Layne’s favorite turtle above has never moved in 70,000 miles. Below we bought a basket to hold our Berkey water filter and it’s worked perfectly. We thought it would break and we bought a spare expecting the worst. So far so good and the spare basket is stashed under the bed. 

A piece of weaving art purchased from a family owned weaving shop near the Oaxaca cathedral. 

And two views of the pyramid preferred by Trish. Also used to hold papers and permits and stuff. 



Note the nice clean art -free area at my end of the bed. I’m holding out against dust catchers. 

Barra De Potosí, Guerrero

Layne has fond memories of Zihuatanejo, the city of women I'm told in the Indio language of the area. However her nostalgia dates back to law school, and she has no proven history with water bombs at Hastings School of Law I should note. Back in those distant days of the Pleistocene Era Layne and friends would come repeatedly to Zihuatanejo on vacation. "Rather," I said. "In the manner of people who return to Key West year after year for the same vacation experience?" She glared at me as she prides herself on being an explorer of different places each vacation. Finding ourselves unexpectedly close to Zihuatanejo we were going to look for a place to stop for a week.

I am including here some road pictures taken by me with my Panasonic Lumix LX100, my pocket camera which I keep in automatic mode at my elbow while I drive to snag pictures as we as we go. I haven't edited them or cropped them, they are direct from the camera to show you what one main road looks like on a typical drive. Obviously there are miles of nothing much, greenery, stretches of  no shoulders, a few guard rails and so forth between pueblos, miles of little of interest to photograph.  Then every now and again the main road, and even the toll roads pass through pueblos (villages) full of life. In the picture below you see the sign on the right and you can hear Layne shouting "Taupe!" to remind me to slow the eff down. In the middle of the road at the second tope (speed bump) is a guy selling bread rolls (which we had just bought from a señora standing in the road). He stands where the traffic is forced to slow and holds out his plastic bag. A buck fifty (30 pesos ) for four. We gave our seller two twenties and left the change. Fifty cents to brighten her day a bit.

Some gringos on travel forums complain about over tipping setting a bad precedent but when I dropped a five dollar bill in a beggar's cup outside Walmart I took on faith he really does have to use a wheelchair. His lack of one leg was a pretty good hint. Yeah, I over tipped him but so what? Gouging gringos in the nicest possible way is a way to make ends meet in Mexico and I'm okay with that. I can afford to pay more and leave some extra money for people and put out some dog food for street dogs. I can't save the planet but I can do something that is more than nothing. Others don't have to, and I hold no expectations, just as Mexicans and their dogs hope but don't expect. You’d be surprised how generous North Americans are when they make a connection to a place, with scholarships, animal rescue, and civic projects galore.

 We knew Guerrero is a wealthy state when we saw street signs like this below, never before seen in Michoacán.  The white collectivo van is about to deploy the magic third lane by edging onto the well marked shoulder. I did the same as I saw the cars lining up to pass. I enjoy driving Mexico.

Check out the next few pictures to see what a hive of activity a pedestrian overpass might be. I always thought a bridge like this might be useful over North Roosevelt Boulevard instead of the traffic lights but clearly I am no urban planner. They use ramps not steps to allow pedestrians and wheelchairs and bicycles to cross. Which isn't to say people actually use the bridge!

The bridge also serves as a bus stop for the Nissan and Toyota minivans that act as collectivos between cities (as mentioned above). A collectivo is a minivan that serves a fixed route and picks up and drops off passengers as they go. It's cheap and reliable  and absolutely universal by any name in less developed countries (tuk-tuk or guagua for instance. Google knows!). You'll see them hovering around bridges like buffalo at a water hole. Note the tope below...were you braking for it?

North Americans will squawk a lot about armed police in Mexico, military, sailors or Guardia Nacional and people who watch too much television talk a great deal about corruption and bribes and if they only know one word of Spanish it will be the word for bribe. What once may have been is not any longer but it's impossible to change people's minds. Mexico has a tremendous problem with drug cartels, organizations that shoot each other up and are now so loaded with cash they are struggling to launder themselves into legitimacy. In between all this the Mexican government armed by the US is trying to keep the peace. If you've ever been to Los Angeles and not worried about the Crips versus the Bloods having a turf war you can do the same in Mexico. Its true the price of limes has shot up as well as avocados owing to the cartels buying up farmland, or blackmailing farmers and wrecking price balance, but for those of us trading with US dollars the price increases on our vacation shopping are insignificant. Small restaurants are hurting and limes to squeeze on your food are getting fewer and smaller and less juicy. Please don't use Mexican cocaine and create demand for the cartels. Thank you. Do your bit.

People take great joy in crushing the hopes of others in so many walks of life it shouldn't surprise me when I see mischievous lies repeating themselves about travel in Mexico. It can be dangerous and shit does happen. Real shit, armed robberies by punks, not cartels who ignore tourists who stick to the roads and their vacations. Police do their jobs and I always suspect attitude tickets when I hear people bitching about corruption and on the spot fines. There may be some efforts to extort a few bucks from an inattentive driver and I read lots about it in Baja where I suspect a lot of visitors come with attitude to "their corner" of Mexico. Frankly I'd pay twenty bucks to get on with my life if I made a stupid driving decision. On the mainland I've seen nothing but courtesy and kindness from Mexicans in uniform and civilians. I never saw any corruption in my years at Key West PD but I saw a lot of attitude tickets. It's a worldwide phenomenon. Imagine how many attitude tickets the average server would give to the public if they could! 

Next Monday we are renting our AirBnb apartment in Zihuatanejo for a week as there aren't any decent options for camping that we like. We checked out the address and found a business nearby to park the overly tall Gannet2 next to the apartment house. There is an arch over the entrance that will prevent us getting the van inside but in Mexico there is always a solution to any given problem. I asked Eric at the car cleaner and he said no problem, see you Monday. Of course things may change by then so I count on nothing for sure! More on all that in due course. We drove through Zihuatanejo and headed for Barra de Potosi and a campground rumored to exist on iOverlander.

Twenty minutes south of Zihuatanejo we found this place run by Señora Ana who rents out her house and an apartment and has room for a couple of smaller RVs though she prefers to rent the camping space to one vehicle at a time she says. We are the vehicle this week. It seems her rates are high as she charges twenty five bucks a night or 400 US dollars a month. A couple of sets of Canadian campers have been put off by the prices, thank God, and we rich Americans are alone in her garden. We have WiFi so I'm typing this not on my iPhone but on my MacBook for a pleasant change as it helps reduce the spelling mistakes and syntactical nonsense that seeps into long phone messages. We also have a cold shower, a toilet with toilet paper and a beach which though small does allow some swimming on days with no wind.

We have landed on our feet though I have to point out our heavy camper did decided to sink us into the sand quite unexpectedly as we backed into the camping area. Thank God we backed in else we'd have had to call a tow truck to get us out eventually. As it was... (drum roll please)...we winched ourselves out! How d'you like them apples?

I tried the orange Go Treads but when the van reached the end of the tread the front wheels broke through the crust of hard sand and the back tires sank in and we stopped. So I deployed the winch as well and tried driving out while pulling with the winch. Mixed success as we went further but still got stuck...I gave no signs of my inner desperation to my wife.

In the photo above I am clutching the metal shackle and dangling the yellow rope shackle which I actually didn't need. Just in case you were wondering. I was wondering when I first saw it. I didn't get fancy. I ran the rope around a palm trunk and used the metal shackle to secure it. Then I sat in the driver's seat and used the remote control to tension the winch. I put the van in first gear, locked the front wheel drive to create an electronic "locked differential" with the ESC button and we flopped around digging into the sand while being dragged by the winch. That's not good I thought too myself continuing to smile as I worked on the puzzle.

Running the winch with the van in neutral produced a satisfactory tug but then the winch paused and tugged again and paused and tugged which was working but not well. So I revved the engine in neutral which increased amperage and gave a  a very nice steady pull without the van driving at all. Out we came and suddenly Gannet2 was sitting atop the sand. We were free. Amazing!

Rusty was useless during the entire process, not even as a cheerleader but now that we are settled and the tools of sand removal are put away he is a happy camper, sleeping in the shade, walking twice a day and sleeping outside at night until we feel obliged to call him in. He loves being outdoors.

We plan to be here till Sunday so expect to see more pictures in the days ahead. I have to say I enjoy the solitude and the restaurant across the street more than we even enjoyed Barra de Nexpa and the surfer camp. No one to water bomb us here! No dogs to bother Rusty and he is very respectful of Ana's rooster and two cats. Peace and harmony; just the way I like it. But first a little clean up!

My super duper folding shovel came into play. More fun than answering 911 but this whole episode smacked of work.

We ended up backing up a little after I smoothed out the extensive divots...gouges really.

You have to keep tension on the winch rope as you wind it back up to prevent the rope from riding over itself. I have the remote control in my left hand:

We backed up a little to get more shade but the campground is all ours.

Our small beach with a lovely sunset view.

La Manzanillera, Michoacán

I like driving Highway 200, but not everyone is enthusiastic about the curves and the drop offs and absence of shoulders and guardrails. Fortunately for them there is a shrine roadside where they can leave a votive candle to help them on their way.

Not without cause perhaps!

Rusty enjoyed the view.

It is not easy to get pictures of the winding torment of the highway as the turns come fast and dropping off the edge of the road is easy. Layne was not in the mood for photography as she is not fond of sitting on the edge but I found the drive exhilarating even in my five ton tank. This was a straight stretch, and I can only imagine how it looks in summer when rainy season releases all the leaves in their greenery: 

Topes of course, just to keep you on your toes! 

We met up with Ron at a junction as he rejoined the main road. He said it looked like they had a big plan down by the beach but the sign appeared to over promise. There was nothing visible he said, in the way of campgrounds.  

As we stood and talked Rusty made another friend. Several other dogs appeared and he, feeling surrounded, made a prudent withdrawal to his bed on our bed. 

I crossed the highway looking for a view and found this: 

Ron remarked how pleasant it was to see someone with all the time in the world to amble with her family down the road. No frenzy, no rush. 

Layne wanted to muck about pretending to cook at a stove that wouldn’t have been out of place in a Roman city. Indeed I have see similar cooking ranges at Pompeii:

Enough tomfoolery and time to get back on the road. We lost touch with Ron at this point when we turned off to explore and he went on ahead. I am not fond of the idea of caravanning with other travelers as if glued together. We knew we were heading to Maruata but when something came up we had no phone to let him know our change of plans. I’m sure he understood because we travel separately. We called it buddy boating when sailing.  

This is what came up when we turned down a side road:

We wandered off the highway the first time in search of eggs and milk and maybe orange juice. We found them down another of the cobbled strip roads. Long life milk for my tea, and I still have a few Yorkshire Gold teabags…and eggs for Layne who took her six egg holder into the store much to the amusement of the store keeper who sold the eggs by weight, not number! We prefer to buy eggs in small stores as they don’t refrigerate them and thus they last longer. They also taste rich and delicious. 

After we had looked for Ron hoping he had stopped at the surfer hang out at Bucerias we returned to “our” beach. Ten bucks a night for a toilet with seat, a cold shower which is not so cold around here and a shaded parking spot with the entire post holiday campground to ourselves…we settled in. 

Unhappily this is not a swimming beach. If it were we’d never have left and you’d not be reading this as there is no WiFi or cell reception at La Manzanillera. 

The sand is so fine and silky you sink into it rather than walk on it. It is strangely difficult to traverse. 

We took a walk up the road to a hotel but there is no restaurant so we fell back on our own resources. Which isn’t a problem as we came prepared. Zucchini pasta for lunch? See the Chef at Caffe Gannet! 

Rusty missed the grass from Hotel Gonzalez but he liked the gravel parking area here. He is weird in that way. He used to enjoy sleeping in the sun on pea rock on Cudjoe Key when we gave him every other option.  

Our spot:

Seen from the palapas: 

The campground owner doubling as school bus for his two kids:

No lifeguard on duty! No one else on the beach!!  We limited ourselves to wading, sinking deep into soft sand and nearly getting knocked over. 

Taking a nap it looks like this: