Puerto Arrista to Lake Atitlan - 239 miles

Well, we finally left Mexico for Guatemala. After spending the night in a Sam's Club parking lot in the border town of Tapachula, we spent the morning shopping and crossed the border at noon. Tapachula is one of the best border towns I have known. There are plenty of shops besides Sam's Club (WalMart, Home Depot, Auto Zone and a very upscale mall), so we made a final forage before heading for Guatemala. The crossing went very smoothly. Leaving Mexico we kept our vehicle permit, got our exit stamps, paid a toll of about 3 dollars and we were headed across a bridge to the Guatemalan border. We exchanged our pesos for quetzales and was directed to the first of 3 stops. This was for spraying our tires ($5.00) and processing Winston. They reviewed his USDA permit and about 5 other documents. I provided copies of everything which makes them happy. The more paperwork and copies they have the more legitimate they think it is! Winston was legal to enter Guatemala, now it was our turn. Immigration was simply handing over our passports, no paperwork to fill out and no fees. Because there is a standing agreement between what is known as the CA4 (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) you are only processed once at immigration for all 4 countries. We were given the standard 90 days to pass through the 4 countries and it was on to Aduana (Customs) for our temporary vehicle permit. The gentleman who processed us could not have been nicer. He helped fill out our paperwork, again all our copies were ready. He inspected the motorhome, inside and out (but no search), took the vin number and whilst he prepared the permit, we paid the fees of $6.00. He then accompanied us back to the RV, put the sticker in the windshield, hugged and kissed me on the cheek!, shook Tom's hand and welcomed us to his country. Both Tom & I were slightly overwhelmed and quite pleased with ourselves. We can only hope border crossings continue to be this easy. HA!! By 2:30 we were on our way. The first thing we noticed were the roads are in terrible condition. Now and again we reach a mach speed of 35 miles an hour but for the most part we are lucky to maintain 25 mph. We realize there is no way we will get to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan this night. We turn off the main road (CA2) onto a side road to the lake. Now we are "cruising" at 20 mph and it is getting dark. We finally find a gas station at the small town of Polulul and they give us permission to park in their lot overnight. The next morning we are up bright and early to continue to Lake Atitlan. We leave at nine o'clock and figure we have about 2 hours of driving time remaining. After 2 hours of driving through roadwork, ravines, across washed out bridges and just about anything else immaginable, we pass a family of Germans. They wave and stop us. "Are you heading to Panajachel?" they ask. We nod. "Well, the road is closed due to a landslide", they say and off they go. We look at each other, find a place to turn around and head back to a village we passed, which had a gas station. We are about 6 mile from the lake. I pull out the maps and we arrive back at the station. We begin to try to find out what is happening and how are people driving to the lake. We are told that 2 of the 3 roads which go to Lake Atitlan are closed due to landslides. The third is the road from CA1 through Solola, which is mentioned in all guidebooks as the steepest, worst route to the lake! It is also a detour of about 50 mile! Oh well. We find the correct road and on we go and go and go! Everything we had read about this road, is all true. It is narrow and steep and slow. At Solola, we had to make several turns down narrow streets and then the steep decline to the lake. The views were amazing. We finally reach the hotel where we knew there was RV parking at 5pm. Once again, what was supposed to be an easy 2 hour drive , had turned into a marathon session. But we are here. After setting up the RV, we grab a beer and head down to the lake to watch the sunset

Jose's Cabana Camping, Puerto Arrista

This is a small update of the campsite for our birding friends. There are lots of birds in the area and at the campsite, remember those 6 acres and the lagoon. There is 71 species of birds noted on the property incuding the Boat-Billed Heron, the White Bellied Chachalaca, the Painted Bunting, the Russet Crested Motmot and the Giant Wren. Birders come here from all over the world to view them. Well we are on our way to Tapachula and will cross the border tomorrow.

Arriaga to Puerto Arrista, Chiapas. 30 mile

The state of Chiapas is the most green, luscious state we have travelled through. Unfortunately at this time of year that does translate to mosquitos. Jose's Camping Cabanas is in the middle of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. Not many people make it as far as Puerto Arrista. Jose, by the way is Joe from Canada. He owns this place with his family and it is amazing. They have about 6 acres of camping, cabanas and hookups. There is a small patio area where you can join them for meals. Last night, we visited with 3 German students from the University of Stuttgart studying Civil Engineering. They were headed north so we gave them information for Saladita and the Michoacan coast. Tom and I remain amazed at the number of European youngsters (late teens to mid twenties) who just fly in to Mexico and then travel by bus, wherever it goes. They camp, hostel, sleep in hammocks and just generally hang out. Americans think they need a destination, hotel and God forbid, they ride on a bus! As we were sitting, we realized we were getting smoked out. Turns out that burning coconut shells keeps the mosquitos away. Tonight we tried it out and it does work so once again we have gained a little knowledge that might help. By the way, if you have a hound (or any dog, for that matter), Jose's is fabulous. There are the six acres, fenced in on 3 sides and a lagoon on the fourth. Winston is in hound heaven. He has scented, ran, waded in the lagoon (I know, totally disgusting) and roamed to his heart's content. It is such a joy to see him so healthy and happy after the paralysis of a couple of months ago. After being in Mexico for 3 months, we have achieved a certain amount of comfort and complacency and we are now trying to prepare for our border crossing to Guatamala and our route through that country. We keep changing and syaying flexible. Right now, our plan is to get to Lake Atitlan and Antigua and then follow the Pacific coast to Monterrico. Mike and his wife Betty live there. They are friends with the Saladita crowd and we look forward to meeting more fellow expats. From there we will drive through the rest of the CA4 (El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) to Costa Rica. Our next blog will be frm Guatamala - somewhere. Pray for our safe and successful crossing. Talk to you all soon.

Huatulco, Oaxaca to Arriaga, Chiapas. 217 miles

Monday. Still reeling from yesterday, we break camp early and go back on the same dreaded road to get our ereader from DHL. We are trying to come up with a system, using what we have to be able to have an awning for shade and rain. Tom has a few ideas but I can see that he is still too shell shocked from this happening to deal with it. It is quite a long drive for us and we stop several times for Winston, for lunch and a couple of checkpoints. The countryside is lush and green and quite mountainous. The El Parador Hotel where we stay is on the side of Mex 200 and is really an overnight stop for travellers but the parking area for RVs is thick grass and shady. Winston as I have mentioned in earlier blogs lovesgrass. He rolls and plays. Tom prepares hamburgers for dinner and I catch up on emails, blogs and getting the new ebook up and running. Before going to Guatamala, we are contemplating making a side trip to Puerto Arrista (way off the beaten rack) to stay at Jose's Cabanas, a tropical paradise. After Sunday, we could use a little of that.

Puerto Escondido to Bahias de Huatulco, 73 mile

Sunday, July 4th. What a day and at the end of it we are left with a huge problem. The drive to Huatulco was fairly easy and straightforward. This is election day in Mexico. As we pass through towns and villages, we can see the town squares "the zocalas" tented and ribboned for the occasion. It was around 5pm when we got to Huatulco and if we had only gone straight to the RV park. If only! Insead we decide to check out the location of the DHL office, where our package is. We found the street but not the office but we did find a large Super Che supermarket. Tom made a U-turn and decided to go and pick up something for dinner. If only! Whilst Tom went to shop, I walked Winston. Upon leaving we knew we had to make another U-turn to put us back in the right direction for the camp. I was checing our camping book and Tom was looking in the side mirror for traffic to enable making the turn. I look up. "Honey, you are really close to"......BAM! The side of the RV rocked and I could hear thumping and clanging. I look at Tom and say quietly "I think we just lost our awning". Tom pulled over and we got out. No, No, he kept saying. Sure enough the entire awning - top, cover, sides, bars - the whole thing had gotten ripped off the side by a tree limb. I follow Tom who is talking to himself like a sailor with Tourrette syndrome. What can I say? We pick up all the parts from the street and get them on the sidewalk. We look at each other. "Let's just put everything in the RV and get to the trailer park" I said, "we can check everything out then" Not having a better idea, Tom complied. Not much was said during the last part of the drive except for Tom muttering and blaming himself. We get to the RV park, settle in, pay for the night and assess the damage. It is awful. Completely broken and unreplaceable unless we head back to the States. That is not even an option. Tom blames himself. "Honey, let' take a walk on the beach with a glass of wine and watch the sunset" I tell him. It's an accident. It happened and now we have to deal with it and cope. But, self recrimination and loathing are not productive. We walk and talk and try to come up with a plan. We are still too upset and stunned by the suddeness of it all. We take photos in case the insurance company asks for them, we decide what we will keep - the cover and side rails and discard the rest. We eat lefoveovers for dinner, neither of us with much of an appetite. We go to bed, tomorrow is another day.

Puerto Escondido, July 2nd & 3rd, 2010

We woke Friday thinking this would be our final day in Puerto. Again, we have been here almost 2 weeks and the time has flown by. Tom goes surfing with Jim and meets up with Pat who is also out that morning. Tom arranges for us to go to dinner with them, one last time. Pat is also helping me out by printing some insurance forms from online for Guatamala. The afternoon brings a surprise. Up until now, with the exception of Texas Jim, we have had the campsite to ourselves. Imagine our surprise when a huge motorhome pulls in. Mike and Rosemary are Australians but originally Rosemary is from England and Mike a New Zealander. They are headed to the States but coming back from Panama and Costa Rica. More stories and info. Unfortunately for us they are only planning to stay one night and we are going out to dinner. We ask lots of questions. The most interesting info is that they color photocopied their vehicle license plate and drivers licenses and then laminated them. They kept all original in safety and had only the photocopied license plate on their home. It seems that in Central America, license plates get stolen and the police have a habit of keeping your drivers license until you pay them to get it back and they don't really know the difference! It got Tom and I thinking. With dinner brought surprise number 2. We knew Sunday July 4th was election day in Mexico but what we didn't know was that for 2 days there was no sales or public consumption of alcohol in Mexico. Yes, that's right. The day before and the day of the elections, no alcohol is sold. After having 6 people for drinks that night, we are low on beer. This led to a late night foray at the local abborretta for supplies. We had a great dinner with the Puerto gang and hope to meet up with them in a year or so. Saturday, Mike and Rosemary had a slight mishap in the motorhome. A sink oveflowed and soaked everything. They would have to stay one more night. As I had already planned a dinner of smoked salmon fettucine with spicy green beans and almonds, and I knew we had enough to go round, we invited them over. However in the afternoon, armed with some addresses from Pat we went to town. First to an office store. We had color copies made of the car licenses plate and our drivers licenses and then had them laminated. Is this considered forgery? I am sure the US would not approve but if it works in Central America and helps us keep all of our originals, so be it! We also got some reflector tape to put around the motorhome. Again, in Central America the police looking for any reason to get money found Mike and Rosemary "in violation" for not having reflector tape (They do have the standard reflectors that are acceptable in any other country) on their RV and having no emergency reflective triangle in case of a breakdown. They were fined and immediately went and purchased the desred items. Tom & I decided to be preemptive. We feel more prepared now to face the CA4 (Guatamala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua). We had a wonderful dinner with Mike & Rosemary. Picked up more names of contacts and said our ggodnights. Tomorrow, having dried out, they are headed to Acapulco and us to Huatulco.

Puerto Escondido, June 28th - July 1st, 2010

Monday, 7am. I could not have gotten out of bed for anything, let alone be drenched and pounded by high waves. But Tom, the trooper went out with Jim, as usual. Extreme perseverance, but he slept the rest of the day! Chatted on skype with family and friends in the evening and...went to bed early. Tuesday, Jeanne sent our new ebook via DHL, there were no promises on when it will arive in Huatulco but we have a tracking number and faith. Tuesday night or rather early Wednesday morning about 2:30am, brings another surprise. Between the storms and flooding rain, tropical depressions and hurricanes, we thought that about covered any natural disasters. Wrong! Earthquake. A 6.2 epi-centered in Oaxaca (the state where we are) about 90 mile from us. Tom woke thinking I was up and moving around. Finding me asleep, he then thought someone was outside and had bumped the RV. But Winston was asleep and would have barked if anyone were lurking outside. Yes, Winston and I slept through it. Earthquake. I knew headed south into Peru and Chile we might face them but not here. Wednesday, I emailed another contact friend of the Saladita crowd who lives in Guatamala. Mike got back to me. Seems they live on the Pacific coast in Monterrico which is far south, not too far from the El Salvador border. Mike offers some advice on going to Guatamala and with luck we will meet him in a couple of weeks. We track our package, it is in Mexico City already, headed for Oaxaca. Thursday we decide to take Winston to the vet for a check up. Poor thing. Of the 3 of us, he has had the most difficult time and seems to go from one problem to another. This time, it is a rash that has developed on his back and he is losing some fur. His skin also feels bumpy. Pat had said that although Mexican dogs handle the conditions here well, American dogs have a difficult time adapting. This is true for Winston. So, Thursday finds us at yet another vet, here in Puerto. At this rate, when I write the book, there will be a whole chapter on vets. It turns out he has been bitten so many times by ants, flies and other insects which he then scratched and infected the area. Another round of anti-biotics and some special shampoo. A bath every three days and Winston hates baths. We are also going to be applying Frontline every 2 weeks from now on. Hopefully this will help all problems. When we get back from town we check the tracking nmber again. Surprise. In only 2 days th package from Jeanne has arrived. DHL came through again. We decide to stay here until Saturday, break camp early and get to Huatulco to pick it up by 2pm. That leaves us just one more day in Puerto so we should make good use of it.