We Feel Like a Yo-yo

We feel like a yo-yo because we’ve had a busy few days with a couple of different sleeping places, but we’re back where we were at the end of our last post.

We got done at the hospital last Thursday morning and decided to brave the tree-lined streets and head back into Merida to the Alemán Parque, which is not only recommended by iOverlander, but was also suggested by friends we visited near there.  We managed to get to it without doing any further damage to the camper, and found it to be a very lively and friendly city park, very typical, in our experience, of city parks in Mexico.  It had small carnival type rides for the kids, lots of playground equipment, a skate/skateboard/trick bike park, brick-paved trails, and a large paved area for basketball, teaching your kids to ride a bike, or whatever else you might want to do on a large paved area.  The people were all super friendly and wanting to talk to us, and when we asked the park police for permission to park on the street by the park overnight, instead of giving us a hard time, they went out of their way to assure us that we were welcome and that we would be safe.  It’s less than a half mile to our friends’ house, so we walked over there for a nice visit before heading for the beach on Friday.

On Friday we headed northeast to the beach, to a village called San Crisanto, and a hotel/campground called Palula Beach.  It was delightful!  We drove through the regular afternoon downpour, and the final 9 mile stretch to the village was a very narrow tree-lined road which was a little harrowing, but we made it intact.  We parked on a fairly wide street in the village and Tom went to find the campground, and returned to the truck with the owner, Peligro, in tow, to make sure we would fit.  Peligro happily hacked a few branches off a couple of trees, and guided us into a great parking spot just off the beach with a view of the sea.

We went for a walk on the clean and beautiful beach before retreating to the camper when the rain returned.

There was some sargassum, but not so much that you couldn’t jump over it on your way into the sea, which was bath water warm and quite pleasant.

The next morning, Saturday, we took a walk through the town, where I saw a few things that made me really like the village. One was a very well maintained library.

Another was a sign to look for the street dogs and slow down for them. The street dogs were admittedly an annoyance when we were walking our dogs and they let it be known they didn’t appreciate intruders, but, like Belizean street dogs, they responded to an emphatic “NO” and an arm raised like a rock might be thrown at them. All of the dogs looked healthy.

The village is on a spit of land that runs between the Gulf and a wide marsh. On Sunday we walked the causeway through the marsh, where we saw many birds. We were hoping to get a look at some flamingos in the wild, and we did, but only as they flew overhead. We didn’t realize they flew in a V, like geese.

We didn’t realize that flamingos are the least of the birds to be seen in the marsh. Many paths were closed for walking because it is the nesting season for some special plover.

After our walk this morning, we took another dip in the sea, and then got packed up to head back to Merida.  As Tom was showering, the water started to sputter.  One of the things we didn’t anticipate with our travels would be difficulties finding water to fill our tanks.  Either it’s scarce, or it’s unsuitable because of dirt or salt, or it’s very difficult to get into our tanks because it can’t be done with a hose because the source is too far away, or the pressure is too low, or just because there aren’t any hose fittings.  So, one of our goals before stopping for today was to get water.  The campground where we stayed had enough for our use there, but they survive on rainwater collection, and we would have had to bucket it into the camper.  We stopped at a couple of gas stations, but their water was either dirty, or they worked from a tank with a limited supply.  We finally stopped at a fairly upscale mall because we had to get data on our phones, and we were lurking around the businesses surrounding the mall looking for faucets.

We finally found this restaurant, Los Trompos, which had regular hose bibs with regular screw fittings for a hose.  We went inside to ask if we could get some water, and the front end manager talked to the restaurant manager, who said sure, and told us where to park and how to do it.  We were super grateful, an ended up having a really good meal, which we definitely did not expect from a chain restaurant at a mall, and really only did to show our appreciation.  The food was great - Tom even had a second order of tacos al pastor - the service was excellent, the front end manager came out to help us fill, and they had super water pressure which filled the tanks in under 10 minutes.  So, if you’re ever in Mexico and see one of these restaurants, it’s worth a stop.

We’re now back on the back street behind the hospital since we have an early appointment tomorrow. Since I’ve already posted pictures of that, I decided that pictures of the dogs and cat are overdue. They all seem really happy to be traveling together in the camper, with the pack intact. The photo above is what we now see every time we leave the dogs in the camper and walk away. Ty is an ambitious watch dog.

Ty also lets Feetz have the rug.

Princha is generally right under our feet, or between us on the bench. We aren’t going anywhere without her permission.

Kismet remains the queen.