On the Road Again

Thanks for all your messages of support. Mohita is back in action and ready to go. Harry says she's more powerful and quieter, so things look good to go for Zacatecas. We'll be heading out tomorrow towards Guadalajara. There's a really nice RV park just south of there that we heard about from our friends Allison and Ches who we met in Alamos. Apparently it has pools and thermal baths there so we'll stay there tomorrow night.

Maggie saw a veterinarian today, a young woman who actually came here to where we're staying and prescribed a special shampoo for allergic skin reactions. She had her first bath this afternoon and seems a bit more comfortable already.

So we're back in Mohita and getting ready to be on the road again. Hooray!

Still in Tepic

Yesterday morning Miguel drove in with the mechanic, who quickly confirmed the need for a new head gasket and assured us that the work couldn't be done here in the trailer park.  So Harry and the mechanic headed off to the garage  leaving me in a deck chair with the dogs (in an x-pen), the mattresses from Mohita (which had been sprayed with flea product), some dirty laundry, a bottle of water, a can of juice and one leash, a novel, and my trusty computer.  Five hours later Harry returned with the news that the work couldn't be done by the end of the day. Replacing a head gasket (and a radiator as well) is a big, big job, and at this point I can only hope that they can manage to put it all back together so that the vehicle will be driveable.  As to how long that will take, who can say?

We were lucky enough to find that the owner of this place has an empty studio apartment that he kindly offered to us for the night. It has no furniture but fortunately we had the cushions, the deck chairs and the (by now clean) laundry with which to create our little nest.  We were even able to watch “Grey's Anatomy” on the computer, and with a bottle of wine we had all the comforts of home.

Tepic is really quite a pretty little city at an altitude of about 3,000 feet.  It's cool at night and hot in the daytime, and it has lovely clear air.  Harry saw some sweet little houses on his way back from the mechanic's yesterday.  So if it came down to it, I guess we could just stay here and become expats in Mexico.  Even the little place we're staying in now is pretty nice, with Mexican yellow walls, a functioning bathroom, a kitchen (needing only a stove) and a cool laundry area at the back.  After living in less than 90 square feet in Mohita, this feels like a mansion. 

Today we discovered that Maggie's chewing and scratching has created a couple of suppurating sores on her back.  The pills that the vet gave her in Mazatlan haven't worked that well.  Poor little thing, she's really miserable, but at least she is able to rest in the coolness of this room today.  Once we get Mohita back we'll be searching for a veterinarian here and also a place to buy a couple of new tires before we get going again.   

Our southward motion keeps getting stalled time after time—so we've decided to listen to the messages and head back north. Depending on how “fixed” Mohita is, we will decide whether to head north via Zacatecas and Chihuahua into New Mexico or to retrace our steps through Mazatlan and Guaymas.  We're still hoping to make it to Zacatecas (even though our friend Armando won't be able to make our rendezvous) as it would be nice to see a different part of Mexico on the way back.  Harry has gone over to the garage this afternoon to see how the work is going.  We'll keep you posted.

Both horrible and wonderful

Well we had another “adventure” with Mohita today. It seems when things look the bleakest that something wonderful is about to happen. This morning we left Mazatlan heading south to Tepic feeling fine. We'd changed the oil, gassed her up and felt ready to go. It's about 300 km to Tepic and up into the mountains. About halfway there Mohita started making a kind of rattling noise. At first we thought it was perhaps pinging and knocking from low octane gas but it continued to get worse as we drove. Then Mohita started to overheat—something she's never done before. About 30 km outside of Tepic we pulled over and found that our coolant was boiling! We decided to wait for a while for the engine to cool down and then we discovered that we also had a flat tire. It was the same tire we had repaired in Navojoa and this time it was really flat. So—there we were stuck on the side of the road again.

What to do? Well, in Mexico you can sometimes just wait and help will arrive and that is what happened today. In about 15 minutes a pickup truck pulled up with "Angeles Verdes" written on the side, driven by a man in a uniform. We were rescued by “Los Angeles Verdes” and a lovely man named Miguel. On the toll roads in Mexico and on some of the other roads traveled by tourists, the Mexican government provides emergency road assistance. Trucks patrol up and down the highways carrying gas, water, basic tools to assist travelers in trouble.

Miguel helped us cool down the engine and change the tire and diagnosed a possible need for a new head gasket. After a lunch of sandwiches and orange juice provided by Joanna, he followed us into Tepic to make sure that we would make it. Then he led us to the one and only RV park in town. We found the address in our “Mexican Camping” book but it didn't sound too great; we weren't even sure it would be open. After following Miguel through some very dingy streets we came out on another highway and entered a gate that looked like it was going into a construction site. But in behind the gate is a pearl of an RV park. There are about a dozen spots situated around a big green grassy field with hookups and clean bathrooms with hot water showers, and the icing on the cake—free wifi. We're close to mechanics, stores and even a Pemex gas station. So the horrible afternoon turned into another amazing experience of the kindness of people in this country.

Miguel even offered to see if he could get a mechanic to come here to the RV park to do the work. He'll be coming by tomorrow at nine in the morning to let us know. Talk about going over and above what's required! Miguel is a very sweet man who is studying English and planning to study law.

This evening we are preparing to fumigate Mohita. It seems that in spite of the veterinary preventives, we have ourselves an infestation of fleas. Maggie is suffering greatly and pulls out great chunks of fur trying to scratch her allergic spots. This afternoon Joanna found a live flea on her leg as well, so we are pulling out the big guns and using Mexican insecticide. We'll do that tomorrow morning and then head out for a long, long walk.

With luck we'll be able to get Mohita fixed up enough to make it to Zacatecas by Friday. The alternative (limping back to Mazatlan and north again) is unthinkable at this point. This photo is taken through our rear window and it shows a huge banana blossom hanging down. We're shaded by banana and fig trees here and it should work well to stay for a day or two and fix what ails us.

Iguanas in the Laundry Room

Camping in Mexico is not the same as camping back home. In addition to the excitement of a different language and culture, there are the adventures of encounters with the natural world. This morning I met one of the resident iguanas in the laundry room. Harry had been telling me about them but I hadn't run into them until now. Coming around the corner I almost stepped on it—a biggish brown and green one who lives in a hole with her children. She was as startled as I was, but held her ground. Earlier this morning two hummingbirds flew into the motorhome and fluttered around trying to escape. One found its way out but I had to actually capture the other in my hands and carry it to the door and release it.

Because we're doing our own cooking, we have had to develop protocols with water, food and dishwashing that are different from at home. Our drinking water is delivered in the big five-gallon jugs that you see everywhere in Mexico. We keep ours on the floor and have fitted it with a little hand pump. The vegetables, which we buy at the mercado or from the vegetable truck, we soak in an iodine solution and air dry them before use. For dishwashing we use the regular tap water and a hot water rinse. After a few days of washing dishes it occurred to us that we were rinsing our plates and cutlery with regular water, so we've taken to putting a little splash of bleach in the rinse water. It must be doing the trick as neither of us has experienced any tummy rumbles. Sometimes Harry overdoes it with the bleach and the morning tea ends up tasting like swimming pool water. Yuck. Could be we'll end up getting sick from the bleach and not the water!

San Fernando RV park is emptying out this week, as most of the snowbirds who have been hanging out here since November are now heading back home. A surprising number here are from BC, and others are from Alberta and Quebec. Of over sixty spots only three are occupied by Americans. In any case, the exodus had begun. This morning three big rigs towing cars pulled out. By the end of the weekend I think that it will be half empty here. However, we won't stay around to see, as we're heading south tomorrow towards Guadalajara. Our plan is to spend a few days exploring this area and then go north to Zacatecas. There we'll meet up with Armando, a young Mexican man who stayed with us a few years ago when he was studying English in Victoria.

Mexican Wall Art

Whenever we're out wandering around we take the camera with us. Joanna especially snaps photos wherever we go. In Alamos she focused on doors and dogs, but since we've been in Mazatlan she's begun to record Mexican walls.

Most of the buildings here (like elsewhere in the country) are built with bricks and then plastered over and painted. The ruins and the older buildings that haven't recently been painted show layers of paint colours that look like abstract paintings. These were the first ones to draw her attention. Also, in Mazatlan, there are lots of walls with spray paintings, ads and graffiti that look like art. The third group are adjacent buildings with contrasting colours. Here are just a few from the collection.

El Quelite, el Shrimp Bucket, and a Visit to a Veterinarian

We spent a couple of pleasant days with Mark and Linette exploring this area. On Tuesday we drove Mohita north to a sweet little town called El Quelite. It's not very big—only a couple of streets wide, but lined with colourful casitas and friendly people. This area is home to real Mexican cowboys, cock-fighting, baseball, and an ancient game called ulama. We learned that it's kind of like soccer but using only the hips. At El Quelite we enjoyed a typical Mexican lunch in a pleasant courtyard and Joanna began a series of Mexican wall photographs. (More about that later).

Last night we had dinner at El Shrimp Bucket, a Mazatlan institution. Joanna remembers this from her first trip down here in 1974 with her first husband, Doug. The shrimp platter (shrimp prepared six different ways with three different sauces) was fresh as can be and very, very good. Here's a photo of the four of us there having an excellent time.

This afternoon our visitors returned to Victoria on the plane and Harry and I took the bus downtown to find some help for Maggie, who has developed a flea allergy. There are fleas in the grass in the RV park, and being a sensitive girl she has reacted to a bite or two with a bout of scratching. We noticed a sign saying “veterinarian farmacia” so we tracked it down and had a consultation (in Spanish) with a very professional veterinarian. He prescribed six days of antihistamine tablets and baths with “jabon avena” also known as oatmeal soap. I gave Mags a bath just now and it seemed to help her a lot. These kinds of adventures are what make our trip memorable.

A Day at Stone Island

We've been having fun with Mark and Linette doing some tourist things. Yesterday we took one of the little pangas that cross the harbour to Stone Island (actually a peninsula) just across from the old part of Mazatlan. There's a long sandy beach with coconut trees and palapas that offer shade, hammocks, chaises and whatever refreshment you'd like. A pleasant place to while away the morning and early afternoon. Later we walked through part of the old town and ended up having lunch at a place that overlooks the malecon and the big waves, then took the bus home. Today we're planning to drive up to El Quelite, a little town to the north, which was recommended to us by someone who lives here and made a comment on this blog. What an amazing thing the internet is!