12 February 2010
From Patzcuaro to Mazamitla…well if you really want to know where we are you can take this GPS location to Google Earth and check us out: 19.94312N, 102.96779W
Not too much to write about tonight. We said our “Good-Bye’s” to our Patzcuaro camping buddies and headed for Mx 15. We drove through a couple of towns we’d visited over the last couple of weeks (Tzintzuntzan and Quiroga) and then headed west by northwest for about 130 miles. Tonight we’re sitting in the Hacienda Contreras RV Park. It’s almost totally flat, has great power, water, and sewer hook-ups, and the largest sites we’ve been in so far in Mexico. Today was a loonnnggg day… We left Patzcuaro just before 10 and after driving the 130 miles we arrived here just past 5pm…130 miles in 7 hours. What happened? Well today’s roads were again narrow and twisty, a lot of climbing and a lot of down-hill, but on one hair-pin curve a large 18 wheeler lost control and “Jack-knifed”, blocking all the roadway. Fortunately it was a single vehicle accident and no one was hurt except for the truck.
From Patzcuaro to Mazamitla…well if you really want to know where we are you can take this GPS location to Google Earth and check us out: 19.94312N, 102.96779W
Not too much to write about tonight. We said our “Good-Bye’s” to our Patzcuaro camping buddies and headed for Mx 15. We drove through a couple of towns we’d visited over the last couple of weeks (Tzintzuntzan and Quiroga) and then headed west by northwest for about 130 miles. Tonight we’re sitting in the Hacienda Contreras RV Park. It’s almost totally flat, has great power, water, and sewer hook-ups, and the largest sites we’ve been in so far in Mexico. Today was a loonnnggg day… We left Patzcuaro just before 10 and after driving the 130 miles we arrived here just past 5pm…130 miles in 7 hours. What happened? Well today’s roads were again narrow and twisty, a lot of climbing and a lot of down-hill, but on one hair-pin curve a large 18 wheeler lost control and “Jack-knifed”, blocking all the roadway. Fortunately it was a single vehicle accident and no one was hurt except for the truck.
As we were starting to approach the accident, we were met by cars and trucks that were flashing their headlights at us warning us that there was something going on up ahead. We continued until we came upon a Federal car with flashing lights. At first we thought it might be another vehicle check station but then we saw the line of cars, trucks, and buses and knew that that was too large of a group for a regular vehicle check. We sat in the line for about 5 minutes and then all of a sudden just about all of the cars and smaller trucks started making a “U-turn” and heading back the way they came. Well we saw an opportunity to advance in line so we continued down the road. Sitting there again for a couple of minutes and one of those Federal cars came by announcing for “CHICA automobiles” should follow him…well, we’re not the size of a class “A” motor home, so we must be a “CHICA” too. After allowing 5 or 6 cars pass us, I jumped in line… We passed “hundreds” of trucks and busses and a few cars that weren’t “Chica”, but we continued all the way to the very front and then we met a VERY SURPRISED “Federal” police officer… His look was great but not so happy and smiling as I would have liked, fact is, he waved us over to the side of the road and called in support to talk with us (either he didn’t speak English or he just didn’t want to deal with us…who knows (I say with a smile on my face)?). All I can say is this…we had front row seats for getting that 18 wheeler out of the ditch and roadway, AND we were FIRST in line to get the hell out of there 3 HOURS later. Now you know what took us so long to travel the 130 miles.