When we got up this morning we had every intention of heading south to Guatemala. Yesterday we changed bunch of Mexican money into quetzals (the Guatemala currency ).
As we headed from the hotel to get on the freeway, Dahlia started missing again. Sadly Adrienne did not feel comfortable about travelling deep into Guatemala today. I must admit that I was torn between the decision of going to Guatemala or staying in Mexico.
Our main problem is our Westfalia is made in Germany with an Audi engine. Mexican mechanics have had no experience with this vehicle. Similar units made here in Mexico have a completely different drive-train.
Although Dahlia is having hiccups on a somewhat regular basis, I seem to know how to deal with it and she is running well at speeds between 110 and 120. However at idle, she often stalls-not great in towns.
The decision was made to turn our adventure into a holiday. We have spent 46 days heading south. I guess we were enjoying ourselves a little too much and spending too long at each stop. To make Panama would require FOUR more solid 8 hour driving days; then it would be FIFTEEN more solid days of driving to get home. With only 60 days left it would means only TWO slack days between driving days. This sounded too much like work so the adventure has turned into a laid back holiday in warm spots on the Pacific side of Mexico.
When we do it again we will have to focus more on getting to our destination quicker and taking "slack" time on the way home. Also, we would extend it from December to May to make sure we did not run out of time.
Heading west to the ocean our first stay is at Bars de la Cruz, a quiet little surfing village on the Pacific ocean. This way if the car gave us any problem we would at least be on the Pan-American highway and it would be much easier to get assistance.
The decision was a bit of a pain because we had to head back to downtown and Cristobal and change our Guatemalan money back into Mexican money. Of course we did this at a penalty.
The ride from San Cristobal to Texla Gutierrez was interesting. It was approximately 50 km all downhill. We dropped from 7200 feet down to less than 2000 feet in that distance. Texla is a very big city, and it was very hot. At one point it was 40°. We can't imagine how hot this town and area must be in the middle of the summer. The town services a big agriculture and mining area and seems to be very prosperous.
Next we drove through what must be one of the world's largest wind farms. For about 15 km. it there were many thousands of power generating windmills! We could not believe how they could ever keep so many machines serviced. Another odd thing was the speed with which they rotated. It was much faster than any in Canada or the USA that we have seen.
The constant wind in this stretch of road was rather challenging for car and driver. In one occasion I am sure we were thrust sideways on the road by a couple of feet! The road was straight but I was constantly steering!
The 6 Hour drive into Bars del la Cruz had us arriving just before dark. We are located under a shade palapa only a short distance from a well known surf beach.
It is a Saturday and we are quite surprised how few people are in the two campsites. We were told that February is one of the busiest tourist months for Mexico. However, From what we have seen in the past couple of days the tourist industry must be hurting very badly. Hotels were almost empty campsites were the same, and traffic on the road was not very dense. Weather is great and we have been treated like royalty but I feel sorry for the thousands of people who rely on the tourist industry in this part of the country.
Sent from Tom's iPhone
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