We planned on two nights here in Catamaco, the 9th being Gillian's birthday.
For Gillian's birthday, other than a cheeky card from Art, we also went out for dinner.Gene also told us that there would be a party birthday party for a friend of his going on the night of the 9th until who knows when and we would be welcome to attend. When we told him that it was Gillian's birthday too, he said that we must attend.
After breakfast Art did a couple of loads of laundry which took a while as the water pressure was so low the machine took forever to fill! Other than that we had a quiet day, Gillian catching up on her magazine and Art blogging, e-mailing etc.
That evening we did go out for and early dinner at La Ola (The Wave) in town. The restaurant is on the lakeside, with was also a nice garden leading to the lake where several fishing boats were moored. Inside the false ceiling was quite unusual and beautiful, it was of woven wooden material of some sort.
Recommended by Gene, (Owned by relatives—did he have a choice?) it turned out fine with some reservation. We had eaten here a few years ago, and remembered good food.
The only down side to our meal was that we followed the comments of Mike and Terry Church, in their “Travelers Guide to Mexican Camping” which said “ you must try the “togologos” a local speciality.
We did ask the waiter what they were and he confirmed our guess that they were snails. Well we both like escargot, though to be truthfull Gillian appreciates them more than Art, so we each asked for an appie order of togologos.
For our main course we ordered “Vuelve la Vida” (return or restore life) which was a medley of all seafood served cold in a huge brandy style goblet. Quite nice but you guessed it, more togologos!
For drinks Gillian ordered a Negro Modelo and Art a margarita. Or two.
The togologos arrived, done as a ceviche. Ceviche is not one of Art's favourite but he was OK with it. Until he tried to eat one. Gillian had the same response.
Togologos will not be written up in the Michelin Guide. Perhaps in the Michelin Catalogue. Not so much as tough as hard. Some of these little things the fork wouldn't penetrate!
The place is quite pleasant and the staff friendly and helpful. Our waiter knew about the party back at the RV Park and was surprise that we weren't there.
We also met an English couple with their Mexican friend, on their third visit to Mexico and had a nice chat.
Back at the RV Park we turned the TV on to catch the last 15 minutes of the 5 O'clock CHEK TV News from Victoria, ( remember the 2 hour time zone difference) feed the dogs and go across to join the local party.
More food and drink we visited and chatted for a few hours then we returned to the RV none the worse for wear, we planned to leave in the morning for Villahermosa.
Gillian soon retired but Art was determined to complete the last blog entry but Google was being difficult and having problems uploading pictures. He persevered until 1:30 AM (shortly after the music stopped!) then gave up and went to bed.
Shortly after 1:00 AM there was a sudden hard shower, and a gust or two of wind. Just after going to bed he heard rain on the roof once again.
Just after dawn Art was awakened by the wind which was buffeting the awning and shaking the rig. The only advantage of an electric awning is that he didn't have to go outside to retract it! Just a push of a button did the trick then back to bed.
7:30 AM Art gave up on any hope of continued sleep, the wind howling around ended that. We soon decided that there was no real need to push on down the road, we would stay a third night. We could take the opportunity to do more laundry! Sheets and towels. Two loads took most of the day! Gillian occupied herself with a bit of house cleaning.
A river flowed past the campground into the very close Laguna Catamaco. Here we watched divers collecting the infamous togolgos from the river, some them in the fairly strong current.
November 11
The wind had died down, it was time to go. The night before Art had filled the fresh water tanks but left the holding tanks, for morning. After breakfast that was taken care of, satellite dish stowed, power disconnected and we were ready to go.
On the road about 10:00 AM we set off south. As we headed out of town past the lake the wind returned and it began to rain. This route we had taken some years ago, but only remembered bits of it.
There were many small towns and villages along this road with population ranging from a few hundred (mostly children from the looks of things) to eight thousand or so. The rain eased off just in time for this photo of a town church.
Much of this road had been seriously damaged by the summer (rainy season) floods. We crossed several areas where the road had obviously been recently repaired and several were repairs were still in progress. We were not terribly excited about one temporary steel bridge about a foot wider than our track and no guard rails! Somehow we got across with out falling into the river.
We eventually reached the toll road heading southeast, but only after a couple of U-turns! Mexican road signs leave a little to be desired. Obviously the way to the toll road was not part of what we remembered!
The toll road was in disgusting shape for the first 20 or 30 kilometres, then on and off for another 50 or so then things began to improve as road repairs were under way. The last half of the drive the highway was in good shape.
Unfortunately the rain and cloud hid much of the true beauty of one to the bridges along the way. Further along one of the toll booths was almost completely flooded as the rain continued.
Approaching Villahermosa we began to try to recall and visualise the approach. We remembered that we had to take a returno and that it had been difficult to see the entrance but we remembered also that we had found it. That was a few years ago! A couple of extra returnos later we were on the muddy potholed dirt road to the balneario.
A young lady directed us to a less waterlogged placed to park, assuring us that it was firmer than the other areas. After a bit of manoeuvering to find a level spot (so we wouldn't have to put too much weight on the jacks) we were eventually parked, jacks down with wooden pads under the jacks and slides out A couple of young men had strung an extension cord out to us as apparently none of the electrical outlets on the posts worked!
Once connected to an very undersized cable Art set the satellite dish to searching out the satellite. It seemed to find it OK but when we later went to watch the news the the receiver had lost the satellite signal. It would appear that the rig had settled into the soggy sod! Re-setting the dish, all was fine.
We were also told (when we asked) that internet was available but only “close”. Surprisingly enough we were able to connect using the laptop at the dinette, hence an up to the minute ( or evening) blog post.
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