So here it is the week between Christmas and the New Year and there have been a few events here at the Chimulco RV and Water Park. George and Carol had a Christmas eve dinner at their site for about 20 people. Then on Christmas Day it started with a Bean Bag Tournament for the whole RV Park. Mostly Canadians, bean bag is a easy fun game that most people can play. As a matter of fact, I plan on building a game for the river cabin when we get back home. Its fun and easy to play. Just Mercy’s luck, she drew as her partner the best bagger in the park, but scoring can be fickle, and they came in second place out of about 60 baggers. Oh well. I have included a few pictures of the game.
We then had a big ole Christmas Potluck at the club house. There were people there from Germany, Quebec (speaking French), Argentina, English speaking Canadians, and then us and a couple of other Americans. When Gordon Lightfoot came on the Ipod, everyone practically stood at attention ! We ate and danced the evening away. Some were drinking copious amounts of Tequilla. Mercy & I hit the sack at about 9:30. A couple of days later was Wayne & Pat’s (Texans) 50th Anniversary, so that called for a party. It started with breakfast at a Roadhouse Restaurant and ended with a Rib Bar B Que for about 40.
Mercy has been sick on and off since we were in Carlsbad, CA. About a week agho she took a turn for the worst, so we went to the Familiar Farmacia and got a course of Cipro (an antibiotic), guess how much it cost: 35 Pesos, thats about $3.00. She is feeling better, but she still has 3 days to go. Then, right during the Bar B Que for Wayne and Pat, I took sick, high fever and cold sweats, the whole enchilada. So now all I am doing is sitting in the sun and reading, reading bubble gum paperback, The Sun, and some technical shit about Tug Boats. You see, when you get to talking with all these travelers, you find out that they mostly have interesting stories to tell about their careers. There is a guy who was a test pilot for a airplane company, a guy who consults on Tug Boat design, a couple of RCMP cops, a car dealer. Many of these travelers have good stories. Most of them want to tell you their story. Then of course, there are the stories about the trip from Hell, and all the other horrors. But just last week, several couples went to a Rib Restaurant several miles South of here and on the way back, they got a up close and personal view of a shoot out right on the highway. Apearantly it was a drug hi jacking, so the bandits used their rifles to direct traffic around the scene while they unloaded the truck they shot up. The driver ran off, unhurt.
I've got some really interesting pictures, but they seem to be stuck in our camera. I still don't have a handle on this Vista OS. I liked XP better, so I plan on getting back to the picture thing and then I will post them, maybe manana.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
We have been here at Chimulco Trailer Park for about 3 weeks now. We did the obligatory Coscto thing in Guad, thats what the locals call Guadalajara. Guad is about 40 miles from here. The Costco seemed a bit high priced and full of middle class Mexicans, go figure. We went to Tonola, (toe.no.lah), a suburb of Guad where you can get anything that is made in Mexico. It is kind of like a huge flea market and one of the most traveled to places in this part of Mexico. It was cool, there was a guy and his wife selling a knife like deal that cut your potato, or zucchini, or carrot into the shape of a slinkie, and then you could put it on a stick and deep fry it. The sales pitch was just like watching an AS SEEN ON TV commercial, only in Mexican, a form of Spanish, with a bunch of Mexicans standing around. I got into it and bought one in the heat of the moment, and then he thru in a FREE gizmo that you could use to slice precisely other stuff like potato, zucchini, or carrots. Just like AS SEEN ON TV, only in Mexican. Great fun.
On Thursday Mercy & I went to the dentist in Estapac, that is a town about 20 miles from here. We went last week, but the whole town’s power was out, so we had to go back. The dentist is a she, and she is reportedly pretty good. George, a Canadian character who is everyone’s interpreter and concierge and tour guide, and who sells accordions, fiddles, bicycles. blenders and who knows what all else, went with us. He needed a temporary cap or something. The cleaning was a bit of a trip, since her vacuum sucker thing wasn’t working all that well and I choked a couple of times on the liquid buildup in my mouth, but she and her assistant got it going again and all was well. I think they needed a hose clamp or something. The water she used with the cleaning device was right out of a bottle of typical drinking water, when it ran out she had to replace it with another one. The dentist was chewing gum all the while she worked, a bit strange. The assistant just talked and talked, of course it was in Mexican, a form of Spanish, and she had a hard time keeping my mouth sucked out, But at the end of the day, it was worth it. The dentist got all of my teeth cleaned with a high pressure washer thing and she only charged us about $25.00 USD each. Not bad, considering at home it would be about $90, and I would have had to sit there and listen to how deep the snow is.
On Friday we went to the town of Topalpa, (toe.pall.pah) which is a Pueblo Magico, south of here about 1.5 hours. A Pueblo Magico is something like an All American City, and there are 30 of them in Mexico. To be a Pueblo Magico it has to have some special character and architectural features to get the designation. Topalpa is at about 7500 feet elevation and the whole town has a view of the active volcano Colima, which is another 30-50 miles further south. There are pine and oak trees, and the houses roofs are pitched, instead of flat. The church is really nice, see the pictures.
On Thursday Mercy & I went to the dentist in Estapac, that is a town about 20 miles from here. We went last week, but the whole town’s power was out, so we had to go back. The dentist is a she, and she is reportedly pretty good. George, a Canadian character who is everyone’s interpreter and concierge and tour guide, and who sells accordions, fiddles, bicycles. blenders and who knows what all else, went with us. He needed a temporary cap or something. The cleaning was a bit of a trip, since her vacuum sucker thing wasn’t working all that well and I choked a couple of times on the liquid buildup in my mouth, but she and her assistant got it going again and all was well. I think they needed a hose clamp or something. The water she used with the cleaning device was right out of a bottle of typical drinking water, when it ran out she had to replace it with another one. The dentist was chewing gum all the while she worked, a bit strange. The assistant just talked and talked, of course it was in Mexican, a form of Spanish, and she had a hard time keeping my mouth sucked out, But at the end of the day, it was worth it. The dentist got all of my teeth cleaned with a high pressure washer thing and she only charged us about $25.00 USD each. Not bad, considering at home it would be about $90, and I would have had to sit there and listen to how deep the snow is.
On Friday we went to the town of Topalpa, (toe.pall.pah) which is a Pueblo Magico, south of here about 1.5 hours. A Pueblo Magico is something like an All American City, and there are 30 of them in Mexico. To be a Pueblo Magico it has to have some special character and architectural features to get the designation. Topalpa is at about 7500 feet elevation and the whole town has a view of the active volcano Colima, which is another 30-50 miles further south. There are pine and oak trees, and the houses roofs are pitched, instead of flat. The church is really nice, see the pictures.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Pictures at last
Here comes the Virgin, not sure if she is the only one left in MX
There were dozens and dozens of women and children with beautiful flowers
Look at his feet. His shoes have clacker bottoms and the gords also make noise, so when they all dance together is is very cool.Saturday, December 13, 2008
Gaudalupe Noise
For the past 4 days we have been hearing fireworks exploding day and nite. Sounds like bombs going off. I think they have a staff of guys whose job it is, 24/7 to make sure there are very few moments of silence leading up to the Fiesta. All the excitement has been building up to Dec 12th, The Fiesta of the Virgin of De Guadalupe, or something like that. Apparently Guadalupe is not a true Saint, but she is very popular in MX for reasons I know not. Todos Modos, (anyway) the whole country makes a holiday of it and in Villa Corona there are 2 churches, one big one, and one smaller one. They are about ¼ mile apart, and the deal in Villa Corona is they move the Virgin’s edifice from the big church to the small one. To move it, they have to have a big fiesta, a parade, and a special Mass. And then a big party in the streets!
The parade route goes right thru town and they cover the street with fresh green alphafa, and down the center of the green road they place two parallel lines of poinsettia leaves. Very pretty. There are marching/dancing teams making a lot of noise with their shoes and jangles. (see the picture). The first character in the parade is Dead Man; I think he may represent the end of the season, not sure. The bands play as loud as absolutely possible, mostly drums and trumpets. Then women and girls get all dressed up in their finest festive wear and bedecked with flowers, lots of flowers. The children are especially cute. They walk down the green road along the sides, not in the middle where the poinsettia lines are. Then comes the Virgins edifice, carried by 4 strong men in their costumes right down the center of the road between the poinsettia lines. And to end the procession, there is a float with two really young children on it. The little girl must represent Guadalupe, and the boy is dressed up and looks like a baby Pope. Totally cute, especially since the on the roof of the house we were in front of there was a blow up Santa Claus waving, and the Pope & Guadalupe could not take there eyes off of him. Then the Mass, it went on and on, communion and all, now bear in mind there were a few thousand people there. The communion line was long. The minute the Mass was over, the Tequila stand right out in front of the church opened with gusto. The party begins. Food booths of all kinds, kids games, people all over the place. The music and party went well past 3AM.
The nicest thing about the parade was when the lady in the house we were in front of came out and gave us all seats from inside her house to sit on. Nice town, nice people.
The parade route goes right thru town and they cover the street with fresh green alphafa, and down the center of the green road they place two parallel lines of poinsettia leaves. Very pretty. There are marching/dancing teams making a lot of noise with their shoes and jangles. (see the picture). The first character in the parade is Dead Man; I think he may represent the end of the season, not sure. The bands play as loud as absolutely possible, mostly drums and trumpets. Then women and girls get all dressed up in their finest festive wear and bedecked with flowers, lots of flowers. The children are especially cute. They walk down the green road along the sides, not in the middle where the poinsettia lines are. Then comes the Virgins edifice, carried by 4 strong men in their costumes right down the center of the road between the poinsettia lines. And to end the procession, there is a float with two really young children on it. The little girl must represent Guadalupe, and the boy is dressed up and looks like a baby Pope. Totally cute, especially since the on the roof of the house we were in front of there was a blow up Santa Claus waving, and the Pope & Guadalupe could not take there eyes off of him. Then the Mass, it went on and on, communion and all, now bear in mind there were a few thousand people there. The communion line was long. The minute the Mass was over, the Tequila stand right out in front of the church opened with gusto. The party begins. Food booths of all kinds, kids games, people all over the place. The music and party went well past 3AM.
The nicest thing about the parade was when the lady in the house we were in front of came out and gave us all seats from inside her house to sit on. Nice town, nice people.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Ok, so this is my second attempt at adding to our Blog. I will try and provide a real quick recap of this trip up to today, then I will post shorter post as the trip progresses.
First we left home on Oct 18 and it took us 4 days to get to Centralia WA to a 4 day TREK rally. We learned a lot about TREKs and made a few new friends. I didn’t have any repair work done to “Tickey” at that place, but they sure were doing a gang buster business. We have named our Trek Trickey, because it seems to continually trick me on one thing or another. He doesn’t like going North right now, especially since we just heard that is in ZERO in Newport! After the rally we went on over to the Oregon coast and spent a couple of nites at Rob & Sandy’s in Pacific City. While there we went to the Tillamook cheese factory and the biggest wooden building in the world, now it is a airplane museum. We then went to the Monaco factory near Eugene, that was very cool to see how they build these coaches, Mercy even enjoyed the tour. We left there for Peter & Barb’s house down in the Grants Pass area and spent a couple of days there catching up on old times. We met them a couple of years ago in Alamos MX when they first got their Trek. They wanted to come along with us but Peter is in the middle of remodeling a Victorian house in downtown Ashland so he has to stay until all the money is gone, then …..
Mercy & I like to travel the smaller yellow roads, so from there we came down into Calif via HWY 3. Now that was a trip, snow, curvey, steep, signs that said they do not suggest taking the road if you are towing, etc. We only saw about 2 others on the raod, but it was a beauty. Mercy developed cold sores on that one!
We stopped in on my aunt and uncle, Chuck & Barb in the Sacramento area and had a great visit with them and Mike & Kris, my cousin. I taught Barb how to place an ad in Craigslist. They want to sell their Bounder RV, so if you know anyone who wants a great deal let me know.
We then went on down to Yosemite. We have never been there and was it nice. We got right in, no problem. Spent a couple of nites there, saw a momma bear and her cub from about 60 feet. Really cute. We then went West to the coast, on the way we took a yellow road #229 near Atascadero. That is another of those that they say don’t take. It was gorgeous, but a bit windy and very narrow. It would be great on a motorcycle. Mercy’s cold sore acted up again.
We spent 2 or 3 nites at Pismo Beach, there were a ton of Monarch Butterflies there and it was very peaceful. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of RV out on the road anywhere.
We went on down to Steve & Lori Inlow’s house in Huntington Beach and wound up spending a few days there. We were on our way to Carlsbad to spend a week at a Time Share and didn’t have a place to store the coach, and anyway the AC was not working right, so I arranged to have it fixed while we were in Carlsbad. Got the AC fixed and solved the storage problem. Not only that, the guy we bought the coach from had transferred the maintenance insurance to our name, so most of the repair was covered. Back up to Huntington Beach after Carlsbad to get the coach and Mercy got sick. So we stayed at Inlow’s a few days more then headed off to Quartzsite for a nite and then on down to Amado AZ. Had dinner with friends Ken & Nancy from AK. We spent 2 nites there teaming up with Wayne & Donna and with Terry, a gal we met at Centralia.
A quick trip into MX early thur Nogales, then high tailed it down to San Carlos for the nite. Next day Terry left us for Mazatlan and we turned off to go to Alamos. A neat colonial town that was severely hit by a big rain storm about 7 weeks ago. They lost a lot of houses, over 200 cars, and about 25 people, but the town was already cleaned up and the roads were mostly passable. We stayed there for a few days then headed on down to Mazatlan for one nite. Of course we had dinner at Juanita’s, as good as ever. Next morning we headed out for Villa Corona, that is where we are now. We have spent over $150 in toll roads so far. Gas is about $2.50/gal. A bottle of Pacifico is about 60 cents.
So now that you are caught up, talk to you later,
Oh by the way, as soon as I figure out how to post pics I’ll do it. Got a few good ones.
Adios,
First we left home on Oct 18 and it took us 4 days to get to Centralia WA to a 4 day TREK rally. We learned a lot about TREKs and made a few new friends. I didn’t have any repair work done to “Tickey” at that place, but they sure were doing a gang buster business. We have named our Trek Trickey, because it seems to continually trick me on one thing or another. He doesn’t like going North right now, especially since we just heard that is in ZERO in Newport! After the rally we went on over to the Oregon coast and spent a couple of nites at Rob & Sandy’s in Pacific City. While there we went to the Tillamook cheese factory and the biggest wooden building in the world, now it is a airplane museum. We then went to the Monaco factory near Eugene, that was very cool to see how they build these coaches, Mercy even enjoyed the tour. We left there for Peter & Barb’s house down in the Grants Pass area and spent a couple of days there catching up on old times. We met them a couple of years ago in Alamos MX when they first got their Trek. They wanted to come along with us but Peter is in the middle of remodeling a Victorian house in downtown Ashland so he has to stay until all the money is gone, then …..
Mercy & I like to travel the smaller yellow roads, so from there we came down into Calif via HWY 3. Now that was a trip, snow, curvey, steep, signs that said they do not suggest taking the road if you are towing, etc. We only saw about 2 others on the raod, but it was a beauty. Mercy developed cold sores on that one!
We stopped in on my aunt and uncle, Chuck & Barb in the Sacramento area and had a great visit with them and Mike & Kris, my cousin. I taught Barb how to place an ad in Craigslist. They want to sell their Bounder RV, so if you know anyone who wants a great deal let me know.
We then went on down to Yosemite. We have never been there and was it nice. We got right in, no problem. Spent a couple of nites there, saw a momma bear and her cub from about 60 feet. Really cute. We then went West to the coast, on the way we took a yellow road #229 near Atascadero. That is another of those that they say don’t take. It was gorgeous, but a bit windy and very narrow. It would be great on a motorcycle. Mercy’s cold sore acted up again.
We spent 2 or 3 nites at Pismo Beach, there were a ton of Monarch Butterflies there and it was very peaceful. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of RV out on the road anywhere.
We went on down to Steve & Lori Inlow’s house in Huntington Beach and wound up spending a few days there. We were on our way to Carlsbad to spend a week at a Time Share and didn’t have a place to store the coach, and anyway the AC was not working right, so I arranged to have it fixed while we were in Carlsbad. Got the AC fixed and solved the storage problem. Not only that, the guy we bought the coach from had transferred the maintenance insurance to our name, so most of the repair was covered. Back up to Huntington Beach after Carlsbad to get the coach and Mercy got sick. So we stayed at Inlow’s a few days more then headed off to Quartzsite for a nite and then on down to Amado AZ. Had dinner with friends Ken & Nancy from AK. We spent 2 nites there teaming up with Wayne & Donna and with Terry, a gal we met at Centralia.
A quick trip into MX early thur Nogales, then high tailed it down to San Carlos for the nite. Next day Terry left us for Mazatlan and we turned off to go to Alamos. A neat colonial town that was severely hit by a big rain storm about 7 weeks ago. They lost a lot of houses, over 200 cars, and about 25 people, but the town was already cleaned up and the roads were mostly passable. We stayed there for a few days then headed on down to Mazatlan for one nite. Of course we had dinner at Juanita’s, as good as ever. Next morning we headed out for Villa Corona, that is where we are now. We have spent over $150 in toll roads so far. Gas is about $2.50/gal. A bottle of Pacifico is about 60 cents.
So now that you are caught up, talk to you later,
Oh by the way, as soon as I figure out how to post pics I’ll do it. Got a few good ones.
Adios,
Monday, December 8, 2008
Villa Corona, MX
Hi guys, We are just starting this Blog. Hope it works out. It is a free blog service, so we'll see. If it works, let us know. We hope to keep you updated with pictures and info on our travels as time progresses, and as technology is available. We arrived in Villa Corona on Dec. 3rd. We paid for a months rent here at the trailer park http://www.chimulcotrailerpark.com/ . The nice thing about this place is that they give you a discount for a months worth of space, then you can come and go during the season. Never seen that before. Our travels so far have been really good. The Trek is working perfectly., especially since we got the AC fixed in Huntignton Beach. Luckily we had an insurance policy that paid for most of the repairs. We have averaged 8.6 miles per gallon. Fuel is $2.70 a gallon (give or take). Average temp is 80 during the day and 50's at night. Perfect sleeping weather. Last night we had dinner at a restaurant in the village "where mariachi began". We had a really good shimp dish and a hamburger and fries and 3 beers, cost was 120 Pesos, todo, including tip, thats about $9.00. Compared to a similar meal in Green Valley AZ at $68.00!!!! The lead singer was a short guy with a hugh mouth and voice to match. The band had 9 costumed men, and they were LOUD. We will head to the coast sometime after the new year. We will keep you posted.
Joel & Mercy
Joel & Mercy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
