Mazamitla to Cuyutlàn

Feb 15^th

Mazamitla to Cuyutlan

9:45 we left the RV Park, hoping that between the Guia Roji road atlas and the Garmin RV GPS we would find our way. We were told that we should make the coast in four hours or so. We had thought to stop in the city of Colima but weren't happy with the overnight options so decided to carry on.

All worked well until in the middle of the small town Tecaltitlàn we sideswiped a taxi which had been approaching us and then swerved across the street to park on our right. About a foot and a half from the curb. Wish I had taken a photo or two. While trying to miss an oncoming truck our right side scraped the taxi's mirror and a cabinet latch creased it's rear fender.

Art carried on down about half block until he found a place to pull over to the curb. The taxi driver came running up and of course was soon joined by a “Transito”, or traffic police officer. Fortunately in Mexico a non injury accident is not usually a problem with the police unless those involved cannot come to a financial agreement. This often involves waiting for the respective insurance adjusters to show up! They work out the details between themselves.

Art knew that hitting a parked car was his error, so asked the taxista how much he thought it would cost to repair. He thought a bit, then the transito officer suggested two hundred fifty or three hundred pesos. Less than 30 dollars Canadian! Art had a close look the damage to the taxi. The mirror he knew we had hit, there was an obvious black streak on our new paint and Art had seen it happening his in his mirror. However he could see little damage to the taxi mirror. Back at our rig Art notice a little yellow paint on the latch of the water heater compartment and a shallow scrape along the side. So.

Back at the taxi, Art suggested that he could call our insurance. The policeman agreed that yes he could, then reminded the taxista that he would have to stay there until both our adjusters arrived! The poor taxista, we felt sorry for him. He had a fare waiting to be picked up, which is why he had stopped where he did. Art asked the taxista how much he thought he needed and was told 500 pesos, $40.00 Canadian. Art paid without argument and we got ready to go.

Then he started the rig. Very low air, no air charging and the low air alarm was on! We were parked in front of two vehicle accesses so crossing his fingers that the spring brakes didn't apply, pulled ahead and through the intersection to a clear section in the next block.

The transito was still around so Art explained that we had a problem with the brakes and needed a mechanic. He said that there was one about 4 blocks ahead. When Gillian began to walk that way he got upset and told us to drive. We tried to explain why we couldn't, without much understanding on his part—he kept telling us to drive slowly! But he did direct her to a mechanic in the block behind us.

A mechanic arrived and climbed underneath to investigate. The poor tranito was quite upset that we were taking up such space on a narrow two way street. The photo is of the block ahead of where we were. About this time a young man arrived and asked in very good English if he could be of help. Art explained the problem of no air applying the spring brakes so the vehicle would not move, it weighed 12 tonnes and could not be towed except by a very large truck. The officer was resigned to us getting it fixed where it was.

Fortunately it was soon resolved. It seemed so at the time anyway. The mechanic said that a filter was full of dirt. He said he had cleaned it out and should work now. Yes, it was charging. 50 pesos. Art also gave 10 to the policeman. The young man who had stopped refused anything. He and his wife or girl friend had been passing on his motorcycle and realised that we might need a hand with the language.

The entire elapsed time for both incidents was less than 30 minutes!

Some how we seemed to have missed our turn to the 54D toll road to Colima and instead of taking the short relatively straight route between the two white pointers and went south then up and around. We only saw one road to the right and it was signed Ciudad Guzman, which we certainly did not want so we followed the GPS. We knew we were wrong when on the GPS we could see the town of Tuxpan on our right instead of our left, then that was confirmed when we drove through the village of Tecalitlàn.

Here are a few photos of the highway before we got to the toll road. Please excuse the flies on the windshield!

However we were soon on the toll road towards and past Colima, tolls for the motorhome and jeep: 196 + 152 pesos, 27 Canadian Dollars.

And from the toll road.

The highway was in good shape, traffic light and the skies sunny but there was a lot of haze, probably from the volcano which had erupted recently was still sending smoke into the air. We could make the smoke out faintly in the distance but it was hard to see and harder to photograph.

We were a little concerned about finding the RV Park. Guia Roji showed it off the 200D (a toll road) but using Google maps it seemed to be accessed from the libre, which we would have to access at Tecoman. We had put the coordinates for the RV park into the GPS so we followed it's lead.

As we entered the toll road having passed the libre entrance, we saw a sign: Cuyutlan 26 Km. Whew! We have been on this toll road from Tecoman to Manzanillo many time and knew it well. Even before we could read the sign we saw our exit approaching. The good news: It's about a kilometre before the toll booth!

We arrived at Coconutz RV Park Cuyutlan at 2:00 PM,  4 hours, 15 minutes including the unscheduled stop in Tecaltitlàn. It was vacant, an unlocked chain across the entrance. Gillian let the chain down and Art drove right in. We had a look around, chose a spot and were about to pull into it when a young lady on a bicycle rode up.

Myriam, a trilingual Canadienne from Quebec, is one of the caretakers and works in the hotel up the street. She had seen us drive by. Shortly Carlos, the other caretaker arrived. Both very pleasant and helpful young people.

Nice little park—50 Amp service, almost unheard of in Mexico. The bathroom/shower rooms were absolutely spotless, with soap, shampoo, paper towels AND toilet paper, which is often missing in Mexican public bathrooms. A bit pricey though cheaper for longer term. They are reconsidering their rate structure.

Next day we took the Jeep up to Colima for a quick look around. Quite a nice city, at least around the square. We didn't take in any museums or tours, the weather was nice a bit too hazy for a good look at the volcano. We may go up another trip, It's less than two hours from Cuyutlan.