City of Merida

Friday December 19…9:45pm

We left the Uxmal ruins at about 9am. We were heading for Merida, which is the state capital of the Yucatan. It was only about an hour drive so we weren’t in any rush to leave.

About 35 km’s outside of Merida, Ruth and I heard a loud bang come from somewhere in the back of the vehicle. It sounded like a large box falling, and Ruth went back to look but didn’t see anything. I felt a little vibration coming from somewhere, but it didn’t seem bad enough to be a flat tire. We pulled over, even though the road was busy, and I had a quick look. The tires all seemed good, but over the left rear there were some wires hanging like we had run over something. But we didn’t see anything, and S&G who were driving right behind us didn’t see anything either.

We drove another km or so to a safer spot to pull over. It turns out that one of the belts on the left rear inner tire had broken. I’ve never seen one go that bad, and still be able to hold its air pressure! The bad belt had then whipped up and cut through some of the wires, but they were pretty easy to fix and get out of the way. We decided to continue on, and drove the last 30 km’s or so at 50 km/h with the four way flashers going. I had let some air out of the bad tire, and we moved some of the weight inside away from the left rear as much as possible.

Made it to the Rainbow RV park in Merida. This is the only RV park for the entire city, and the owners know it. It’s not in very good condition, and they charge 250 pesos for a full hook up site. We don’t need electric, so the best they would do is 230 pesos ($21.85 CAN, $17.48 US). But it’s not well maintained, and I feel we are being ripped off at that price. Their electric is sketchy anyhow. I checked the voltage and most outlets are almost 130V AC, so we wouldn’t use it anyhow, although others here are using it without issue. They have about 50 sites, and there are 6 sites being used. Must have something to do with the price they charge for what you get. Ruth and I will likely not stay past tonight, however S&G want to see more of the city. If we stay another night, we will find somewhere to park for free.

The campground in Merida

I rode my bike about 4 km’s to a Goodyear tire center. Amazingly, their computer showed that their warehouse stocks the tire we need. It’s a bit of an oddball size, so I thought they would have had to order it. So we have an appointment tomorrow morning to get it changed, but have to go to their truck center about 10 km’s away. Merida is a pretty big city, about 700,000 population, so I was confident we’d be able to get the tire fixed up pretty quickly. Hopefully the job will go smoothly so that we can tour some of the dowtown area tomorrow afternoon.

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…422

December Fuel $275.50 CAN

December Grocery $207.03 CAN

December Overnight costs $ 94.45 CAN