One Last From Oaxaca

I wanted to post one outing we made near Oaxaca on our last day at El Rancho RV park and I’ve been busy keeping up with our movements around southern Mexico so these pictures slipped through the net. 

Duwan and Greg have been at El Rancho forever consequently they have a formidable font of knowledge about places to go and excursions to make. Their enforced stay has been caused by a broken transmission in their Ford Transit van and the shipping of the (correct) parts had kept them stationary for weeks. They are enduring the stay properly stoically by taking Spanish language courses and touring the countryside. Including with us. 

We went last Saturday to the dreamers weavers  shop where wooden carvings astound. 

Buried in a tiny village a half hour out of Oaxaca: 

We find world class art. 

The Jimenez father and sons have been collectively carving for decades and getting recognition all over the world. 

Local woods carved when green and painted in wild bright colors by Manuel Jimenez 1919-2005. He grew up in the village of Arrazola and after he traveled and learned and gained recognition he came home to the modest village where his sons continue his tradition. 

Rusty had his own feelings in the matter. 

I don’t remember why the three of them were looking so serious. Perhaps it was wondering what to do about lunch. 

We bought one small dog, Greg and Duwan went for items of clothing and Layne got earrings. The dog went above the microwave. 

Lunch postponed we then stopped by a botanical garden best described by Layne in her Facebook post on the subject:

 “Vives Verde - In 2010 a landscape architect decided to take a trash heap, clean it up and make a garden. It took him 8 years and he is constantly working on it.  He using trash to recycle into sculptures. 95% of the plants do not need watering. It’s a magical place.  He also brings clients there to get ideas for their gardens.”

Rusty assumed the position but spent the time aboard GANNET2 in air conditioning as it was a bright hot day. 

The paths were made of dirt to allow rainwater to do almost all the watering these desert plants require. The stones have a hole drilled out and get a nail put through then to keep them in place as visitors walk over them. 

Our guide explained the philosophy and showed us the plants, edible, poisonous and decorative and how they grow and reproduce. 

Freshly planted cactus gets shaded by the black netting to give it a chance to put down roots and grow. 

We stopped for lunch when we lucked upon an eatery. 

The owner showed off a plate of chilaquiles to our vegetarian friends. 

I had ribs. 

It was a great day out and I was sorry not to document it so here it is, a few Sunday pictures to illustrate Mexico. Late but not forgotten.

A Tale of Three Campgrounds

All three are listed on iOverlander and all three are within a day’s drive of each other. Half an hour outside Oaxaca is the best known, El Rancho, a massive compound with all facilities at around $14 a night and a known gathering place for overlanders. 

In Isla Aguada we spent three nights at Freedom Shores on the Gulf of Mexico at $16 a night. The worst thing here is the Mexican owners tie up their dog when the place is busy. Dan Layne and I tagged team to set her free to wander. I gave her a proper collar and we showered the gentle creature with treats but I hate how Mexicans treat their dogs sometimes. I loved the beauty but the dog thing pissed me off. 

And now we find ourselves at Yax-Ha just ten minutes north of Chetumal, and as you look at these pictures we plan to be running chores in the city, our last stop in Mexico before Central America. 

There was a Polish Mercedes expedition vehicle parked here the night we arrived. In the morning when we woke up they were gone. Now we are alone. 

With Starlink we no longer have to bother with WiFi strength at campgrounds and usually there isn’t much. Electrical output is usually 15amp household 110volt plugs however electrical surges are common and open grounds are everywhere. 

I use a simple grounding stick showed to me by another traveler and plug it into the outlet to solve all apparent problems. We use shorepower to charge our batteries only and run all our appliances off our 600 amps of lithium. Shorepower will become much more scarce as we journey south. 

Most campgrounds have sewer dumps usually at individual sites. I haven’t found it yet at Yax-Ha but we can dump out porta potty anywhere, including in toilets. In Mexico paper is put in a trash basket next to the toilet and we do the same aboard GANNET2 to reduce septic problems, as we were used to doing on our boat. To avoid chemicals we put baking soda in the toilet to control smells. Thus flushing away our waste in a Mexican toilet causes no backups blockages or destruction of septic systems. More than you wanted to know. 

Fresh east winds pile the Caribbean Sea against the sea wall. 

Fried plantains and piña coladas by the pool. 

Absurd luxury and very enjoyable. 

We have paid a $150 deposit to the Overland Embassy in Panama City, a company that helps travelers ship their vehicles to Colombia. Our projected date for a 45-foot High Cube container is sometime in June

Yucatan Peninsula

Until we noticed the waves crashing on the beach we weren’t going to leave Freedom Shores but the wind was honking enough that swimming was out for the day. We packed up and by 9:30 we were on the road with a six hour journey ahead of us. 

It was a nice enough campground but the Agricultural Agency in Belize approved Rusty’s application to visit. iOverlander shows a vet in Chetumal who knows what papers to prepare for a pet to cross the border into Belize so we set off. 

The Yucatan Peninsula is no longer Aztec country. Like Chiapas the three states in the Yucatan are rooted in Mayan culture which puts them in the Guatemalan culture. Indeed when Spain was being pushed out of the Americas Guatemala claimed the four Mexican States, Chiapas, Campeche,Yucatan and Quintana Roo but Mexico muscled them back. 

This is very southern Mexico and the poverty is apparent. Vehicles  are older and there are more motorcycles and fewer cars. Roadside structures are less houses and more shacks. The countryside looks startlingly like south Florida with sugarcane, palms and humid heavy air. 

Our plan was to skip the peninsula and get on with leaving Mexico and thus getting on with going south. There’s lots to see in the three states on the peninsula but it’s heating up here and a visit in December would probably be more enjoyable. After South America then. 

Highway 186 is not a terrible road. There are some topes, speed bumps, in the villages and there are stretches with potholes and torn up surfaces but we held a steady fifty miles per hour much of the day. They also seem to be planning some heavy duty construction possibly making it a four lane highway. 

And it was time for lunch. We flashed past the restaurant but the brilliant front wheel drive got us u-turned easily. 

We ordered fried fish and I set up the Starlink to see how quickly I could pull it together. We had no cell signal along this highway so this was a good place for a test.  No problem.

Rusty did his thing and got a piece of fish when he woke up. He loves tuna from the can but he won’t turn his nose up at fried snapper.

It was a great fish and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Layne fell into a carb coma after we got back on the road.

The scenery didn’t vary much and the last three hours dragged a bit.

Finally we crossed into our last state, and like the Baja states up north Quintana Roo is a slightly odd place where foreign vehicles require no paperwork. Why? I haven’t a clue. We’ll be handing in our temporary  import permit when we go to Belize. When we are back in Florida we’ll reclassify our van as an RV and then Mexico will issue us a ten year permit reducing our paperwork to almost nothing every time we visit Mexico. Ease of travel in Mexico astounds me as I grew up in heavily regulated Europe before the union smoothed border crossings out. 

Andres Quintana Roo was one more leader in Mexico’s independence war in 1810 and in 1902 President Porfirio Diaz carved a territory out of the states of Yucatan and Campeche to honor his memory. In 1974 it became a state with Chetumal as its capital. 

Quintana Roo survives and thrives on tourism so you’ve heard of Cozumel and Cancun at the eastern end of the state. But down here the state capital sits across the river from Belize, former British Honduras. 

We saw the signs to “Belice” as we drove into Chetumal but we have some chores to do before we cross. First Rusty needs his vet papers to go along with his import permit and Latin America generally doesn’t recognize the three year rabies shot. So he’ll get a one year here which will cover many countries over the next twelve months. Then he gets a certificate of good health which lasts as long as it lasts, and at every border we’ll have to check pet requirements. After the vet we want to do a wheel alignment considering all the crap roads we’ve driven and that will be cheaper here than expensive Belize. Our Michelin Agilis tires still look excellent after 30,000 hard miles. 

Layne wants a last trip to Walmart even though we can’t export fruits and vegetables meat or fish. We’re planning on spending a couple of weeks in Belize a country 180 miles long and 75 miles wide with five highways so having staple foods onboard will be helpful until we get to Guatemala where there is a Walmart in the capital. Some things only Walmart sells and we aren’t on vacation: this is our daily life. 

Meanwhile iOverlander found us this resort north of Chetumal for about $19 a night with fresh breezes, a pool, electricity and a clear north sky for our Starlink. 

If the east wind dies down we could even swim in the Caribbean Sea. 

It’s humid and a bit buggy at dusk but not with mosquitoes just harmless annoying flying insects. We are definitely back in the tropics and glad for our rooftop air conditioning. 

The place is called Yax-Ha which means “clean water” in Mayan. I hope it is.