El Rosario (day 2)

It was a little warmer last night…temperature inside when we woke up was 7C (45F). Should have put the furnace on, but a hot coffee and tea warmed us up pretty good.

Around 9:30am or so, we took off for a walk up the hill. Our destination was the parking lot at the Monarch Sanctuary, about 3 kms (1.8 miles). We just wanted to confirm that we would be able to park Sherman there overnight. But it quickly became apparent that Sherman would not be happy doing another 3 kms uphill. Plus, the road was under repair in a few spots, and it just didn’t make sense to try and drive up there. This road is really only okay for pick up truck campers or van style RV’s. I would not try and take a motorhome or trailer up here.

The road we were walking on goes through the small village of El Rosario. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and everybody was outside. And because it was Sunday, people were gathering at the small church. Everybody we passed said “buenas dias” (good morning). And some of the children liked Whiskey. And some of the Mexican dogs liked Whiskey too. Poor Whiskey just doesn’t want to have anything to do with the other dogs though, and she wasn’t really enjoying herself.

As soon as it became apparent that we were not going to bring Sherman any higher, we turned around and walked back. We decided to spend the 400 pesos ($34.00) and stay two more nights at the Givali Hotel. This way, we can take the minibus up to the parking lot Monday morning, do the hike to the butterflies, and then return towards the end of the day. We will leave here on Tuesday morning. If we can get out the gate...

Spent an hour cleaning Shermans windshields. Something had left water stains on the windshield, and whatever it was, it wasn’t coming off for anything. Ended up using a fine paint cleaner to polish the glass. Looks good now, but it was a lot of work.

Spent the next hour or so underneath Sherman. I like knowing what condition things are in under there, and because we’ve driven a lot of bumpy roads lately I wanted to inspect for any damage. All I found was a section of the emergency brake cable that was loose and making a clanging noise against a heat shield. So I fixed that. But there’s a broken exhaust manifold bolt that I never noticed before, and the front stabalizer bar bushings need replacing. These things are not a problem though and can wait to be repaired.

Ruth was doing some tidying up inside while I was doing this, and Sherman is back in good shape. We’re really due to just stay in one place and relax for a while, but we know that time is coming for a month or so around Christmas.

Anyway, we enjoyed our day today just puttering around the grounds here at the hotel.