The Emerald Coast!

Friday Nov 30,2007

Yesterday was a long day of driving insufferable roads and then stretches of wonderful autopistas over rolling hills covered with orange groves. We left La Pesca and the deserted beach in the early morning. We wound the sometimes torturoous roads to the bypass around Tampico and followed the Church's book to the letter. The directions were good and made it around Tampico in about an hour or more. The truck traffic is unbelievable. There is nothing much in the way of RV stops south on Mx 180. We had decided to stay at Cerro Azul and the Condado Western. Hah! Such a stop. There has been weeks of rain and the roads were cleared of numerous mud slides. The yard of the hotel was a swamp and we couldn't get into the back field behind the motel so the senora let us park in the mush in the front yard. We were not prepared for the clientele that constantly came and went out of the little rooms. A car or truck would pull in to the tiny "garage", a curtain was quickly drawn across the entrance, a hand stuck inside the curtain collected the fee and the curtain was drawn tightly again, securing the car inside from prying eyes. A few hours later, the car would back out again and be on it's way. At 3;30 that morning as we were laying in bed trying to sleep, some "boracho" hit the back of our coach with a big Bang! and before we could get our wits about us, he sped off! Pop stumbled around and found the flashlight and we went outdoors and checked. He had hit the Blue Ox hitch square dead center and never touched the coach!

We got out of that swamp early morning and headed for the coast. Arrived at this lovely oasis of De alba Campground and plan to rest here to renew our fragile nerves! Hope to go see the ruins of El Tajin maybe tomorrow and the voladeros (flying men) that perform there at the temple. It is only about 35 miles so, a nice day trip. Today we rest!