Out of Rio Verde the road climbs the Sierra Madre Occidental and is extremely twisty and fairly narrow, no shoulders-- about 6" separated our mirror from the on coming semi's. This was not at high speed however as a new highway is being built roughly parallel the curre
nt one, and there is a constant parade of trucks entering and exiting into construction areas. Some places single lane which as you can imagine slowed things down considerably. At one point we got behind an overloaded and under powered truck, and spent the next 20 or 30 kilometers at 5 to 10 Km/H for the most part, occasionally reaching the heady speed of 25 on the downhills, and there weren't many of those. We eventually passed the truck (thanks to the 300TD Diesel engine) and things picked up a little but not too much. Note the forward tire in the picture. (Click to enlarge any picture.)
We stopped for lunch on the bypass around Cd Valles and carried on, the road improving and straightening out a bit later, then followed the river valley along (and sometimes through the middle of) Rio Tamesi to Tampico.
Much of the road was built on causeways, the river widening into very large broad shallow lakes.
Sounds OK so far?
We had been given directions for the bypass around Tampico, and were glad we had. Entering the city we crossed under the bypass overpass (why there wasn't a right turn exit, missing the bridge altogether, we cannot understand). We saw the sign that said Tuxpan Left Lane, so we got in the left lane and carried on. By the time we reached the third "retorno" (U-Turn) we realised that there was NOT going to be a sign telling us to turn so we did anyway, through an enormous hole in the pavement--a sign of things to come. We approached the bridge and took the completely unmarked exit which took us up and over the bridge, crossing the highway we had just come down.
The engineers who built the bridge obviously had no communication with the engineers who built the approach to it, as they were misaligned vertically by several feet, and an obviously ad-hoc and too short ramp had been added. The motorhome dragged the hitch going over.
Then things got rough.
The bypass goes through the outskirts of Tampico, and all its topes. This road 
was never designed for truck traffic, and as heavy vehicles are not permitted on the main streets of Tampico, (except on the laterals) it is now suffering for it.
Where the pavement has not come completely apart, leaving potholes pedestrians would need a ladder to climb out of, it is severely rutted, and sagged. This was the first time we had ever seen semi's doing a slalom course, and it as turned out, it wasn't to be the last! We weren't as skilled as the professionals, but felt we would rate at least a 6.8 from the Russian Judge. The worst was over by the time we thought to take a few pictures.
We eventually reached the Mex 180which was no better, and after a mercifully few more kilometers, at 4:40, we reached Restaurant Pardo Alpino to stay the night. Gillian went over to inquire of the workmen putting in what looked like posts and supports for a vineyard, and arranged for us to park along side the restaurant for 50 pesos.
There were no services and the restaurant appeared closed, but later that evening the outside lights came on and someone was in the kitchen and later in the lounge watching music videos!
There were 4 or 5 very friendly but shy dogs hanging around, but they ran off when we took Tia and Trekker out for their walk. As the sun set in the west a full moon rose in the east. It was a beautiful and tranquil night, which was very welcome! 300 kilometers in 6 hours of driving time!
Click on the photos to enlarge
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment