Zihuatanejo to Patzcuaro

Saturday, 13 February

At 9:05 after saying goodbye to all our neighbours, several of them wishing us luck with such phrases as “No more RV Moments” and “No trauma, no drama”. We left El Manglar extremely slowly dodging around and sometimes through the huge potholes in the street while trying to avoid the worst of the head branches. We hooked up the Jeep in front of Hotel Real de las Palmas a couple of blocks away to avoid towing through those pot holes. The Jeep was able to dodge the worst of them.

We went straight to the main road in and out town and onto the Mex 200 via the large glorieta (roundabout) where we turned north. Well, actually mostly west. The updated section of the highway was in good shape and missed many of the small towns and their associated topes.

As we proceeded Art noticed that the front air pressure gauge was dropping slowly, the rear gauge seemed to be keeping up. Gillian said she heard air hisses at times, particularly when rounding curves. The air suspension is supplied from the front air tank. Art said that as soon as there was a safe plane to stop he was going to do so. The highway here has no shoulders.

Then the rear gauge began to drop, then the low air alarm came on. Fortunately the rear gauge which
supplies the rear spring brakes was still showing above 100 psi so we had a little time.


Again fortunately, we very soon, almost on the dot of 10:00, came to a place where we could pull off the highway. Not only was there enough room to get off the road, we weren't on a curve! The road was straight in both directions.

We investigated but could not hear anything over the traffic noise. And of course there was no cell phone coverage! We were just short of the town of La Union and only 18 kilometres short of our exit to the 37D toll road towards Patzcuaro, our destination for tonight.

We unhooked the Jeep to look for either a mechanic or a cell signal. The nearest big city was Lazaro Cardenas, about 50 kilometres to the west. Gillian elected to go rather than sit on the side of the highway in the rig.

In Lazaro there was no immediate sign of a heavy duty or diesel mechanic so she called our friend Memo, the owner of the restaurant at El Manglar, for the phone number of Juan, a part time waiter who had a connection with a mechanics shop.

Gillian returned and told Art that Juan had said that he would get a couple of mechanics and head right out. She then told Art that while returning she noticed that her phone had a signal at La Union, only 1K up the road! No later had she said this a car pulled in front of us. Juan and his mechanics!

Much poking around under the rig they finally found a leaking fitting at the right rear airbag. One of them covered the leak with a finger and the air pressure began to build. The mechanics drove off to La Union to get a new connector.

Once that was installed the air began charging, a few tests the air pressure seemed OK but did not reach quite as high as before. A brake fandown test showed it refilling withing normal limits so we set off. Juan accompanied us as far as La Union where the mechanics were waiting to see if all was well. It seemed to be. (Note the wording.) We paid the bill, 110 pesos for the fittings and 2700 pesos for the fix and service call and a tip for Juan. A bit over 200 bucks. Canadian!

At 2:15 we were back on the road.

Our usual stop in Patzcuaro has been the El Pozo RV Park just on the south edge of town. Large enough for us and relatively easy in and out other than watching for trains as we crossed the track and the arch over the entrance. Unfortunately the park has since closed and will likely not reopen. There is a small park close to centro that we visited in the old 30 footer and that was a very tight fit off the street and though a couple of small alleys usually crowded with parked cars. This left us with little choice.

We had been to Rancho la Mesa RV Park several years before in the Chevy Tracker just to check it out and liked what we saw except for the entrance road, which was in terrible condition. We had very recently heard that it had not improved at all. We bought the 4 door Jeep in 2011 so this had to be before then.

Great directions from posters on RV.NET including an excellent map. We unhooked the Jeep on the side of the highway before making the retorno (U turn) to the entrance road. Gillian went first to scout the way and to make sure there was room. We had heard that a caravan had recently arrived. (NOTE to UK readers: in North America a caravan refers to a group of RV's travelling together, not a camping trailer.)

The road was as remembered. Terrible. Many large and deep pot holes, the motorhome swaying back and forth. If that wasn't enough, there were topes! One of which was followed by a deep hole which caused one of the galley cabinets to open and deposit its contents onto the floor, including a canister of rice which of course opened.

Gillian kept reappearing in the Jeep, checking that Art was still coming along.

The caravan was there however there were still a few empty spaces and managed to get parked and level without difficulty, electricity was good and the view was great. Keven the wagonmaster came over to introduce himself. We knew of him and his wife; we have read many of their posts on RV.NET. When he saw us he said “I've read your blog!” to which Art replied “and we've read yours”. (Travels with Kevin and Ruth.) It was good to finally put faces to the names.

That night Gillian asked Art if he wanted to eat in the restaurant here which has a good reputation, or did he want her to cook something in the motorhome. With 40 and a half years of marriage behind him Art knew that there was only answer to that question.

Gillian had Chicken Mole and Art decided to try their roast turkey leg also done in mole sauce. It was the biggest turkey drumstick either of us has ever seen, at least 4 inches in diameter and done to perfection, very juicy and tender. Suspecting that as is usual in Mexican restaurants there would not be a lot of veggies served, Gillian ordered a salad to go with it, to some of which, Art helped himself.

Before we called it a night Art checked the battery charger (remember our Xantrex inverter/charger has failed, we have to connect our backup Canadian Tire batter charger) and it was showing 90%. We didn't really need to charge, the driving and the solar had them pretty full but no lead battery likes to be left undercharged for long. Our aim is to get it to 100% at least every 4 or 5 days.


Before leaving in the morning Art took a few photos of the view,