…but I am pretty sure I’m getting close.
This does not have to do with the fact that I am on this solo journey. It has a little bit to do with the fact that my first night in Mexico, after a full 7 hours of driving, 5 in the dark, that I pull into, within a 100 yards, a camp spot, where 6 months previous I had managed to spend an hour for lunch. Never any doubt I could find it. Yep, I tend to remember where I’ve been. But that’s not totally unusual. Yesterday was the day of enlightenment. (or just a reminder why I am here)
The plan was to take it easy. Get some PM done and drive an hour or two. I didn’t climb down from the tent until about 9:30. Slept in to honor Thanksgiving. I drove the 3 short miles to the beach and opened the tent back up to air out the bedding, rotated my tires, swam, respooled my winch cable, swam again, organized my truck, swam again, messed with my electrical gremlins, swam and then got in the truck about 3:30. Plan was to make it to Tepic at sunset, find an ipod cable, grab something to eat and set up camp. Seems simple enough right?
Decided against the pricey Autopiste for the back roads. Stopped to dick around some more with my faulty passenger side low beam. Still not fixed. Got lost in Tepic. Not once, not twice, but 3 times looking for any store that would have an ipod cable. No luck. Got gas. Ate dinner. Spoke and entire paragraph in Spanish and more importantly understood the answer coming back to me the first time. Hit the road about 8 hoping to find a spot to camp about an hour away. Well being completely out of my element in the jungle, one hour became 2, then 3 then 4. About midnight I stopped for a Military checkpoint. Asked the guy where I should camp. Said the area was unsafe and to head to Puerto Vallarta. Not too far out of my way to Guadalajara so of I went. This beach private. That beach no camping. This beach scary as hell at 1 am. Head into town, look for a cheap hotel or RV park. See a sign for a cheap hotel. Very cheap. Hourly. Skip it. No luck. Wander some more. Find the Walmart, no camping. Go back into town, look up hotels on my phone. Give up. Buy some more caffeine, and these damn vanilla wafer cookies dipped in chocolate I’m addicted to now, and back into the jungle. Head up the coast. Awesome, all private. 4 Seasons resort, Jack Nicklaus Course, Gary Player Course. Yeah this will work just fine for some stinky kid to camp. Find a dirt driveway with some name on the sign. Looks like the road hasn’t been used in awhile. Also just enough room in the field for an 80 Series Land Cruiser. Let’s see, 3:45am, I can be up and moving at 7. They’ll never know I was here. Back the truck in, bugs everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Time to climb in the back. So I push all my crap to one side. Grab my sheet to lay on and go to sleep. Didn’t send the SPOT signal because I wasn’t confident in veracity of the ‘okay’ statement. Grabbed my signal flare for safety and went to sleep. Slept sticky, sweaty and rolling to the driver’s side all night but not bad for 3 hours. Hopped in the driver’s seat drive 3 miles back toward town to a scenic viewpoint, I mean trash pile, grab the pillow and sleep another 2 hours in the front seat as buses rumble by with the engine break on for the sharp turn. Wake up to see a naked Mexican man changing into a swim suit to head down fishing. Beyond him and out of focus to my blurry eyes is a whole truck full of middle aged men staring at me.
So the part that makes me a freak? It was one hell of a day. Not great, but pretty good. That is why I’m doing this trip alone. As I was chuckling to myself wandering through Puerto Vallarta at 2am I tried to think of how all my friends would have been reacting at that point. It would have made a long day for anyone, it was for me, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Today more of the same, 90 mins in PV looking for an IPOD cable. (I have 16 more cds of Spanish lessons I need to load up) A truck that is 2.59 meters tall and a seaside tourist town do not combine for convenience in parking. So a lot of walking, 5 stores, finally lowered myself to hit up Walmart. Have felt guilty for it all day. Took a pic of some A arms laying in the parking lot. I guess they have white trash using Walmart as their driveway in Mexico too. Hit the road again south. Plan to get to Colina then head east. Spent too long in Manzanilla looking for a cheap hotel. The RV park was in the industrial section and I didn’t want black lung when I woke up, so now I’m down south on some stagnant beach, not an ounce of breeze, 85 and muggy. Sweating as I type this in my sweltering tent. Tomorrow I head east into the mountains and hopefully some heat relief. I decided to nut up and go into Mexico City. If all the rumors are true if I can survive there and not get robbed or accosted the rest of the cities in my future should be much easier. Hoping Sunday will not be too crazy. We’ll see.
So with that being said I’m going to continue to celebrate the long holiday weekend and watch a little Vacation before I go to bed.
‘excuse me, does anyone know which way to the expressway?’
Dave Connors
Lead - Expedition Americas
http://www.expeditionamericas.com/
1 comment:
walmart? really?
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