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| AJ doing play doh |
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| J doing stencils |
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| Aaron and his blanket |
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We did get an early start today! We were up at 6am and out
of our hotel room by 7:55am. By only 8:20am we were stopped in road
construction. I feared another long day like yesterday tied up in tiny towns
and their “topes” (speed bumps) and being constantly stopped in construction
zones. Kris saw a different road that was labeled “Veracruz”, and since that
was the next big city on our gps map, we decided to give it a go. It was a toll
road that cost 31 pesos or $2.30US, therefore in great condition with minimal
road construction and minimal traffic. It also bypassed the small towns and
their topes!! We trucked along for quite a while. Though the drivers tend to
behave erratically (especially in the big cities), one courteous thing that we
see a lot of on the open road is that semi trucks will use their left turn
signal to show you that it is safe to pass them. It is most helpful and saved
us a lot of time. We filled up with gas which was 500p or $37.04US and some ice
for 20p or $1.48US. We happily paid 19p or $1.41US for a second toll road.
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| The Ocean! |
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Our
first sight of the Atlantic Ocean (really the Gulf of Mexico I think) came in a
town called Costa Esmeralda (Emerald Coast). The ocean stayed on our left side
for the next few hours until we turned inland a bit more. After another 19p
toll road we saw what looked like a security check point, but turns out it was
a group of people giving a survey and when they found out we didn’t speak very
much Spanish they let us pass! The roads turned sour for a bit, pot holes,
super bumpy… then suddenly the air conditioner wasn’t working right, the air
was usually really cold, but it was warm at best now. When we bought the car
the a/c wasn’t working and we had the compression switch replaced before we
left, so maybe it went out again? Kris pulled over and took a look, he’s become
quite mechanical since buying the suburban! He found that one of the hoses that
goes to the compressor had fallen off, probably by all the bumpy roads. Within
minutes we were back on the road with lots of cool air blowing on us! Thank you
Lord! Soon after we paid 44p, $3.26US for another toll road that took us into
Veracruz.
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| J showing off his big muscles! |
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| AJ taking in the sights |
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Machetes double as weed eaters here. We saw quite a few men
alongside the road cutting down the tall grasses with long machetes! Seems like
very hard work. We headed into the big, no HUGE city of Veracruz and prayed
that we wouldn’t get lost like we did in Tampico. Veracruz had a few McDonalds,
Dairy Queen, Dominos Pizza and the first Starbucks that I’ve seen south of the
border. To find an ATM we had to leave the main road a bit, which resulted in a
small not-so-scenic detour… and we had to pay 15p to enter a parking lot to
access the ATM. Now with plenty of pesos we stopped again for gas which was
576p $42.67US for 60.75L.
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| Kris looking forward to shrimp! |
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| Shrimp! Yum! |
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We stopped for lunch. Turns out it was a seafood restaurant.
Kris ordered garlic shrimp, I had buttered shrimp and they made the boys a
chicken breast. We also had plenty of Spanish rice and tortillas. Kris also had
Horchada which is rice milk with cinnamon, very yummy! Lunch was 275P and we
left a 10P tip, so $21.11US. Not bad for two big plates of seafood! The
atmosphere was great too, we saw many live butterflies and dragonflies which
really excited the boys.
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| view from a bridge |
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| beautiful mountains |
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Another toll road and 19P ($1.41US) and we were off and
running. When passing through a small town we noticed a yellow license plate. Each
of the Mexican states have different plates just like the US and we’d been
noticing the differences as we drove through. We hadn’t seen a solid yellow before.
It was a Belizean plate!! While going over some topes we drove alongside the car
and asked him if he was spoke English (which he did), if he was from Belize
(which he was) and if he was heading there now (which he was). Then he asked if
we wanted to follow him and we gladly accepted.
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| Red rock moutains! |
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After about an hr or so he stopped in another
small town and met up with another Belizean man whom he’d been caravanning
with. They had dinner and we bought some bottled water and a loaf of bread
(40p, $2.96US). They said they planned on driving a couple more hours then
staying the night in a hotel. We told them that we needed a hotel with internet
and we’d gladly pay for their hotel room for allowing us to tag along. After
dinner we followed the two Belizeans and ended up driving 3 hours after it got
dark. Most of the roads were decent but there was a long stretch that was full
of holes and the darkness only made it more difficult. We were thankful to have
such a sturdy vehicle with great ground clearance.
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| sunset in Mexico |
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| Hotel Del Viaje |
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At about 10pm our buddies
stopped for gas and took us to a hotel. They decided to keep going for a while
but they gave us directions and we finally learned that the man we first met
was Mariano. He gave us his phone # in Belize and asked us to call him. He
lives near Placencia which is an area we wanted to visit. We learned that Mariano
and his buddy travel to the US frequently and buy cars, drive them to BZ to
sell there. We thanked them so much for their help and advice! It was such a
blessing to follow them through some of the more complicated road interchanges.
We paid 440p ($32.59US) for our hotel room and got settled in. We checked in
with my family via skype, they were a little worried b/c we didn’t check in
last night (due to lack of internet), the internet wasn’t good enough for voice
or video chat and we were exhausted so we turned in quickly and fell asleep
easily.
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| Sun burst behind clouds |
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Looks like fun!
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