Larry and Martha decided their best option was to be back in the United States and they set off a week ago. Then a couple of days ago, Sue and Roy decided their best option was to be anywhere but the Unites States and they chose Valle de Juarez, Mexico (we were there at Christmas)... and Garth decided he didn't want to be in the Unites States either so he was going to visit his sister in Puerto Vallarta, but would go with Sue and Roy along the way.
So now we are five rigs. The rest of the group is carrying on according to our original schedule however that may also change along the way.
We're a little behind on blog posting because of poor internet access. We've been up in the mountains of the state of Hidalgo... a very beautiful state, but with poor cellular coverage in the mountainous areas!
We left Tolantongo on Monday morning. Due to the Mexican long weekend, Tolantongo was busier than usual, but we had left the canyon area on Sunday night and drove up to the bus parking area to spend the night. That turned out to be the right thing to do. Sherman had to summon all of his horses to do the drive out, but he did fine! One section in particular was so steep that I had the pedal to the floor and he couldn't get past the 10 mph (16 km/h) mark!
But, I still want to show you some photos of Tolantongo on a Sunday...
We got up early to make out way to the cave area before the 8:00am opening.
This shot of some of the tents was take at 7:50am!
Sue and Ruth.
Mona and Roger.
Hot water shooting out of the ceiling.
On Sunday, Ruth and I didn't do much else for the day. We relaxed around the motorhome and had a nap and spent some time with Sue and Roy and Garth and played some Qwirkle.
At the end of the day, the goal was to be able to get all of our rigs up at the top of the hill by evening. And we accomplished that. Quite a few buses remained up there but there was enough room for us as well.
Monday morning, we headed out as a group to a gas station where the roads separated and Sue and Roy and Garth headed due west towards Valle de Juarez.
The road had some rough spots heading out of Tolantongo.
But the scenery was fantastic!
A guy taking his horse for a walk.
Saying goodbye to Sue, Roy, and Garth.
When you spend 4 months traveling together and everybody gets along, it's hard to say goodbye. But when you are quite confident that you will see each other again sometime soon it makes it a little easier!
Goodbye Sue and Roy!
Goodbye Garth!
And then there were five.
The last five rigs are continuing on our original route, heading north towards Laredo, Texas.
The scenery is fantastic.
Some Mexico RV travelers overnight at Pemex gas stations. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's sort of the Mexico RV equivalent of overnighting at a Walmart.
In our mind, there is always somewhere better than a Walmart and all it takes is a bit of effort. And in Mexico, it's pretty much the same. Overnighting at a Pemex is kind of a last resort for us.
This route through Los Marmoles National Park should have afforded some overnight options... but it didn't. There was great scenery along the way... but absolutely no place to overnight for a group of RV's. In fact, there wasn't even a decent option for a single RV, let alone a group of five (or originally 8!).
But there was some great scenery...
Watch out for the cattle sitting at the side of the road!
We stopped for lunch where we could!
We arrived at the Pemex and asked if we could overnight. The owners said fine, and I said that we would all fill up before we left the next morning.
The lot wasn't very level, but we made it work!
Parked overnight at a Mexican gas station.
While we were there, we watched a Mexican stand off between a cow and a dog!
It turned out to be a good place to overnight. We probably could have asked at the village if we could have parked in a local field, but this was fine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big price drop on a wide selection of Kids Educational Toys
And in Canada...
Beautiful scenery for sure.
ReplyDeleteMost definitely! We really loved that drive as well as our next day's drive. :-)
DeleteFound it very interesting that two decided to stay in Mexico rather than come back to the US for the virus. Methinks they were smart.
ReplyDeleteThere were actually three people that decided to stay in Mexico, in two different units. The three of them were in their 70's and felt that they were in the high risk category and really didn't want to head back into the USA with the way things are there at the moment, so they went to a quiet little farming town that should offer them a nice safe haven. If we didn't have to lead the rest of the caravan out of Mexico and also keep our commitment to get back to Saskatchewan for May 1st, we just may have followed them. :-)
DeleteSuch great pics and beautiful as you say. GREAT blog. keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
Rob
Thank you and we will do our best to keep them coming but life gets in the way sometimes, especially now. Who knows what is going to happen next!
DeleteI agree we the DC, stay in Mexico! The US is not handling the situation well (imo).
ReplyDeleteWe do tend to agree with that as well and if they don't let us across the border then we will just enjoy more time down here but I think they will let us through to continue on to Canada where we will report for our work assignment in Saskatchewan. Unfortunately things definitely seem to have gone totally crazy in the US and Canada too for that matter.
DeleteProbably staying in Mexico is not a bad choice. You may need new paperwork to extend visitors visas but I am sure they will do that for you. Things are very very weird here. All schools, pubs, casinos, colleges, rec centres closed. 2 of 4 kids lost jobs this week. I think staying in paradise might be the answer for now, especially when you have guaranteed incomes and can spend that there.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you have health coverage! Doesn’t hurt to read the fine print - god forbid you get the Coronavirus you may not be covered. Especially since The border is closed and people have been advised to return home.
DeleteAt the moment we agree that staying in Mexico is a good choice but that could change, as they get more reports of the virus down here. If it weren't for needing to be back in Cabri, Saskatchewan for work at the beginning of May we probably would consider it.
DeletePeople here in the group, have read the fine print on their insurance forms and also contacted their insurance companies to get verification on what they are covered on and for how long and so far so good.
The Canadian border closed this morning to all but "essential travel". Just thought you'd like to know!
ReplyDeleteDoesn't affect us Vicky. The Canadian border will always be open to Canadians returning home. And the Mexico/U.S. border remains business as usual for Americans and Canadians returning home by land.
DeleteYes, I meant to do that. I will put a map in the next blog post!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful area. You were high up in the mountains and the pictures were great. Too bad the group is breaking up but you do whatever feels right. Save travels.
ReplyDeleteYes, the area is gorgeous and yes, we were pretty high up in the mountains but not as high as we have been on this trip, I think it looked so high because the canyons and valleys below us were way, way down.
DeleteIt is a shame that the group has been breaking up but we think that Roy, Sue and Garth made the best decision for them. They headed to a nice quiet little farming town in the middle of nowhere, which is one of our favourite places and where things should be pretty calm to wait out the storm. As it stands at the moment the rest of the group will stay together at least until Saltillo and then we will re-evaluate the situation and go from there.
We stayed in a Pemex/OXXO in December 2018 during the Mexico "government created" gasoline shortage. The OXXO was a drive through with an EV charging station and we were allowed to park in the drive through overnight as we were out of fuel and waiting for the tanker to arrive in the morning. It worked, but I wouldn't stay in a Pemex again.
ReplyDeleteI think that is the first time that we have stayed in a Pemex gas station since the beginning of our winter 2008/09 trip in Mexico. It is always our last choice but luckily this was a very nice one with pretty picnic area in a very tiny little community in the middle of nowhere so it was very quiet at night. They closed at 10pm and it didn't open again until 6am the next morning plus the road isn't traveled very much at night so it was really quite peaceful and pretty.
DeleteA lot of snowbirds are heading back to Canada and the US from the Yucatan early due to not having any health coverage here and having it back home. Definitely a consideration if one were to get the virus.
ReplyDeleteYes, we know a lot of our friends that have already headed back and we are as well but we aren't rushing back either. People in the group have read the fine print on their insurance forms and even called their insurance companies to verify what they are covered for and for how long and so far nothing has changed. We are being cautious and paying attention to any new information that arises and verifying the authenticity of it because there is definitely a lot of mis-information out there.
DeleteWell shoot!...Watching this adventure from the beginning it's too bad things have turned out this way..
ReplyDeleteVery special that all of you got along so swell and had a great time!...
I bet the hosts on this adventure had a whole lot to ad to everyone smiling in every picture..
Take Care..
David
Yep, we feel much the same way. We were so sure that we were going to finish off this trip with all 8 units but this whole Coronavirus thing has certainly changed that! Things may still change again before we are through but for now we will follow our original schedule and change it if need be. Nobody seems to be in a rush to leave as things seem to be a whole lot more calm here than north of the border at the moment.
DeleteIt has been wonderful that our group has got along so well and we certainly miss the members that have gone out on their own, our happy hours are just not the same anymore as well as just our day to day lives down here as a group. We are pretty confident that we will see them all again someday in the future.