Part Three

Villahermosa

We enjoyed a buffet breakfast, a swim in the giant pool that had peacocks wandering around, a walk around a laguna that was very reminiscent of Stanley Park, and a shopping spree at a modern supermarket.

Our destination that day was just up the road to an out of the way place we had heard about. It was purported to have caves, waterfalls, and cheap camping. The drive off the highway was a pleasant one, giving us glimpses of rural tropical life and feeling a bit as if we were in a parade, all the people staring at us as we slowly rumbled by and us smiling and waving! The place turned out to be just what it was supposed to be, no tourists, beautiful jungle setting and safe camping, all for $1.50.

The afternoon brought heavy tropical rains just as we were getting into their pool fed by the creeks rushing off the hillside. Perfect timing! Tropical rains must be experienced to comprehend their intensity. By the time they diminished it was too late to hike to the caves so we spent some time "talking" with a few of the young men who acted as guides for the caves. We had great laughs with each other and made good use of the talking translator.

The setting was perfect, flowering plants, swaying palms, the roar of waterfalls nearby, and thousands of fireflies filling the night sky. More rains continued throughout the night and we discovered a flaw in the design of the van. Because of the curved sides, we found that during rains we could not have any windows, screens or the hatch open. This made for a very hot an humid climate within the van, to say the least. Our hatch seal had also shrunk so we had to put out a bucket to catch the drips for the night but I was able to fix it up the next day.

The spot was very good for our mental well-being and gave us a much needed break from driving every day, all day. The next day we also only had about a three hour drive to reach our target, Palanque, a famous town with an archeological site. We toured the ruins and as this was Dianes's first exposure to this type of thing she was awed at the size and scope of them. We tramped around all afternoon, up and down the various buildings with their high steps, mixing with the other tourists. We found it a bit of a culture shock to see so many other white faces and bodies but we sort of enjoyed hearing English spoken again. A walk around the town was interesting as they were constructing curb, gutter, and sidewalk along some of the main streets. The work was done all by hand and by what appeared to be Indian (native) people. It was if a whole rural community was brought in to do the construction. Mothers, fathers, kids, grandparents, everyone working while the local Mexicans just went about their daily business.

We found a campground that was frequented by other traveller and it even had hot showers. Our neighbours also had a VW van and were from Guatemala so we asked them about road conditions and security in Guatemala. We were relieved to hear that as far as they knew, the road which were planning on taking into Guatemala from Belize was passable. Some of the other campers appeared to be stuck back in the 70's with their music, mannerisms and possible drug use, but live and let live.

Having had a few days where we didn't put on too many miles we decided to drive hard to see if we could get to Cancun the following day. The Yucatan Peninsula is very flat, averaging thirty feet above sea level, with a limestone shelf which extends into the ocean about twenty-five miles at depths of only twenty feet. The road was straight as it cut across flooded fields and we made decent time. The only thing that marred the day were the various food and agricultural checkpoints along the way that managed to confiscate all the fresh food we had bought!. Dusk found us slightly lost, looking for an elusive campground. We drove around more than 80 km looking for the place and words took place between us as which approach to take, settle down in a public place on a busy street, find a 24 hour gas station to park at, or to continue to look for the campground. Intuition worked out and we found the lovely spot nestled right beside the city of Merida (2 million people).

The next day we were back on a toll road which whisked us into Cancun where we set up in a buggy campground just north of town. We planned to spend a while in this area, hopefully getting some swimming, snorkelling, interneting, and vehicle maintenance done. We also hoped to go a short way down the coast to Puerto Morellos to see if Pat and Al Beach were around. Cancun was surprisingly large and by far the most tourist oriented city we had come to. The old town was extremely congested and hard to manoeuvre in because all the street went on angles and were joined by the famous gloriettas (circle intersections).

We spent several days getting oriented and getting the van fixed up (rotate tires, front end alignment, oil change etc). I can see that front tire wear is going to be the problem, not the rear wear as expected. This is due to the alignment getting put out by the unavoidable hitting of some of the large potholes on the road.

Came across Pat Beach at her home, by accident (coincidence?) while looking for another campsite. It was great to see someone you know and we plan to visit them and do some diving with them later this week. As I redo this part this morning (my two hours of work last night was lost in a computer glitch) we are planning to take a ferry over to an island to do some snorkelling.

Part 4

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This page last updated January 16, 2000.