I forgot to mention in our previous post that in Villahermosa at three AM we were awakened by a drumming on the roof. Another tropical downpour; the folding chairs and our pot of herbs were out there in the open! Art dashed out wearing a pair of shorts and his Tilley hat (fortunately we don't have a photo) to release the safety straps and put the awning out!
The rain continued on and off for a while but by the time we were awakened by the dogs welcoming the workmen's arrival at 6:30 the rain had stopped. By breakfast the sun was shining down from a beautiful blue sky with just a few fluffy white clouds.
The ground was pretty wet around the rig but we hadn't sunk in much as the the satellite dish still has a lock on the signal. We watched the Morning News on Global BC, feeling fortunate not having to live through the forecast weather back home. :)
We lurched down the potholed road to the highway and by 10:00 we were heading due west on 180D, the toll road towards Vera Cruz. Some 130 kilometers and an hour and a half later we turned sharply south east towards Ocozocoautla (near Tuxtla Gutierrez) in the state of Chiapas.
A short while before we reached the turn we watched as the sky ahead of us darkened. Just few kilometers before we reached the intersection the sky blackened, a few large drops of rain fell, then it was like driving under a waterfall! Such a torrent! Fortunately the new road was taking us away from the storm and before long the rain tapered off and things cleared up quite nicely.
This was the long way around as far as distance was concerned but was probably the fasted route over mostly long straight road up through the mountains, not too steep or bad curves. Note the trucks ahead of us—one passing the other-- on a curve at the top of the upgrade! Not uncommon down here! At 1:00 PM we took advantage of the parking area at the toll booth and took a 40 minute lunch and doggy walk break. We reached the end of the toll road and the last toll plaza an hour later and on the outskirts of Ocozocoautla stopped for fuel and to check with a local bus driver about our turn as there had been some highway changes since we were last here.
At 3:20 we were at the gate of "Hogar Infantile" an orphanage for school age children that has a few spaces for RVs! We are not allowed to pay to stay! Donations are made through a non profit association in the USA.
We disconnected the jeep and scoped out the entrance. There was a big dip at the road edge, we were probably going to drag the trailer hitch going over it. Several young boys, probably about 8 years old were there to open the gate and direct us through the sheep pasture to the RV pads.
We also met Alice, or Alicia as she is known here, a young university graduate from England who was here as a volunteer. Her degree is in languages and she speaks fluent Spanish though when pressed she admitted that it had taken a while to get used to the local dialect!
Next morning we set off in the jeep, Gillian's turn to drive and Art's to navigate. We had a relatively short drive, but going, it would be all up hill. We took the toll road rather than the libre. This snapshot of our GPS screen will explain why; the magenta line is the toll road, the libre is in yellow.
Traffic was relatively light but we were almost continually going up, the trucks were grinding up hill in bottom gear for many kilometers at a stretch. Yes we did overtake this truck here.
Approaching Tuxtla the highway descended a long hill, traffic still light in volume (though heavy in weight!) until we arrived in town and that was a different story all together!
We knew where we wanted to go, we had been here before, we even had it in the GPS. BUT. As we turned off the toll road into the city we were met by a policeman preventing us from making the left turn we needed. Eventually we found our way around the closed street and approached Centro from the side.
Here too the police had closed he road we needed to turn right onto and directed us straight ahead. To shorten this story up a little, let's just say we went around, and back, and around etc mostly at less than a walking pace. Sorry about the over exposed photo but the sun was right in front. You can see the state of some of the streets we were driving on.
The GPS magenta line is the way we wanted to go. The Flag shows the destination we had entered (a Chedraui grocery store) which was very near the former campground that we wanted to check out. The problem was, the left turn shown is not allowed! We had to make a right and start over!
Here we gave up and widened our circle and eventually arrived in the centro historico. This is what we really wanted to see. We thought we would find somewhere to park the jeep, have lunch and stoll around the area, maybe take in the market or whatever.
It ended up being "whatever". There was nowhere to park, restaurants few and far between and we couldn't have parked in any case! So we just inched along, traffic unbelievably busy. We later realised that there had been a parade or somesuch in centro which is why all the streets into centro had been closed.
However we crawled along, certainly got close to the market stalls but couldn't stop to browse! Eventually we drove a large U shaped route then knowing where we were, drove to the Chedraui where we bought a couple of empanadas from the the "deli" which we ate in the jeep before returning to the rig.
At least the parade was over and the road back was mostly downhill so it didn't take as long returning.
Back in the Hogar, we went looking forAlice. We rememberd that she had said that of all the culture shock, what she missed most was a good cup of tea. She hadn't had one in months! The problem wasn't so much that she couldn't find tea bags, but fresh milk was not available in the town, and sterilised milk, or canned milk just didn't cut it!
We found her giving a piano lesson to one of the children so left a message with another student that we were looking for her. When she arrived a short while later, we asked her if she would like a cup of tea. She responded with a heartfelt "Oh yes please!"
From Ocozocouatla we will make one long days run to the Pacific Coast to Bahia Huatulco. We know we can do it in a day because several years ago we found ourselves overshooting our planned stop and so continued on arriving just at dusk!
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