Adventures in Mexico

Monday, 19 December 2011

We had excellent roads outside of Vera Cruz this morning. I wonder if the very bad roads through the first half of Mexico (superseded only by very bad drivers - who well may be my fellow transmigrantes, not locals) are an intentional scheme to make you choose the toll roads whenever you have the opportunity.

The toll road out of Vera Cruz was like a dream. As though all of the roads we had traversed til now were not even real; this was the pleasant drive through the beauty of Mexico that we wanted. Thud. Well, almost. You have to be alert and Adept at averting potholes even, strangely, on a newly paved road. And they are deep. Some might be 12 inches. (I didn't measure. But a misstep could have cost me a wheel rim.) My dad explained why potholes could be so deep on a new road. Something about an improper foundation...he knew exactly...

So we are drawn like magnets to toll roads but we have been out of pesos to pay for them for awhile. The bond-man (Nacho) in Texas told us we would need to change $300 US to get through Mexico. However, Ana, the only best friend I have ever had for only one day (because then we lost her in the caravan), pshawed the need for that much.

"Your car doesn't use much gas. You need $100 at the most," she instructed.

It's the only bad advice she gave me in all of the hours I knew her.

I changed $200 with apologies to her saying I really felt better to have at least that much. What I really needed was to change $600, what with this long drawn-out trip and meals for two and hotels for two. (Remember, my dad's wallet left there at the diner in Oklahoma. Or was it Kansas? With much of his cash and his only credit cards. So my cash is now for two) And we've found no place since the border to change dollars to pesos (partly since our biggest need fell on the weekend.)

We've drawn out cash at cajeros (ATMs) thinking "Now we have enough!" because $100 US is about $1345 pesos. It's so hard to think in multiples of 13. This is a life instance where elementary school math matters. But then we run into a gas station that takes only cash and a lunch that is about $20 US for us both and a few tolls and a hotel and - out of pesos again. A constant battle for pesos. One website says I will pay $800 pesos in toll before I cross into Belize. This is somewhere around $60 but the multiples of 13 sound like so much. Still, once you drive the non-toll-roads, you will pay it. You don't know what you're getting with toll roads either, but you pay in the vague hope of something better...

The great (toll) roads outside of Vera Cruz were short lived. Soon we were dodging potholes again, and, worse, clinging white knuckled to the steering wheel. We were back to two lanes - sometimes one. Winter in Mexico is like Summer in Wisconsin: Construction Season. Every road we were on had a good portion under construction. I think 2013 is the year to drive through Mexico (thinking the construction projects will be complete.) I wasn't for some reason, worried about us, but for the perilous drivers around us, passing three semis in a row on a blind hill, with oncoming semis appearing over the crest and using the center line as a lane unto itself. This was not one renegade driver, this is the Mexico Way. We have seen 6 or 7 accidents in the ditch. 2 or 3 were semis turned over. One was a disaster with at least four cars in the ditch. Most involved a car we had seen barrel past on the road. If I am exaggerating, it is only by one. It's terribly sobering.

* * *

We've had a few very hard days in a row in Mexico. I haven't had internet or much cell service to keep you apprised. I can't explain the stress of this trip. It's exactly what I should not be doing for my natural regimen to Fight cancer. But it's exactly the right thing to do.

Sometimes that is how life is.

Just like I feel that I should be in Pennsylvania with my sister, grieving with her and helping her through this horrific time with the sudden death of my nephew. But it is the right thing to do to continue on to Belize. (Believe me, I tried to figure out another way... with my dad along and two dogs and a car...it was all more than I could do or coordinate or afford.)

It is right to continue on.

This is the trip of a lifetime for my dad. He is 89 with some aging-mind symptoms, I am finding. It is now or never for such an adventure as this. He has been a trooper and he is having a great trip, as far as I can tell. Meanwhile, I am daily about to crack. Between luggage falling over on the dogs again, to my dear Dad's 17th time of asking the meaning of "Vera Cruz" (Will someone please tell me?! so we can settle that!) to no pesos, to no sleep in hotels with 24-hour restaurants and blaring TVs and idling semi trucks...

It has been a hard time. I keep wondering what I am supposed to learn. How can I let go of all of this difficulty and accept whatever comes? And have fun and let it be an adventure?

It is ugly to see ourselves at our worst. It feels like that is me now. Mad about no sleep, mad about pesos, mad about the translation of Vera Cruz. But God is merciful to me even when I am at my worst...It's a good day this morning (Tuesday). The hotel from hell is behind us. We found a restaurant in Escarsega that served the best and only breakfast I've found in Mexico compliant with my diet - vegetable and rice soup that reminds me of Escabeche in Belize (onion soup). i am thankful for small mercies. I cheated (on my diet) and had coffee so I will be awake for the very short trek from here to the border. Where they probably will not let us across because I was out of cell minutes and have had no internet for days to alert the Bureau of Pup Dogs and Other Animals, with the required 2-day advance, of our border crossing. They will inspect Elias and the Gute to insure the dogs are up to snuff for life in Belize.

Ah well. In the scope of all things, it is simply miraculous to be Near Belize. What is another day of waiting for a jaguar to lick your forehead? (This is what my dad is looking forward to first... :-) the zoo where you can be in a cage in the jaguar pen and see him up close and let him lick your forehead through the bars...)

One day I'll tell you about the Absolute Worst Day of Mexico when the rooftop carrier was deafening and no amount of retying could fix the noise, so we drove for five hours in horrific, dangerous traffic, unable to speak or hear, the dogs catatonic in the back seat with the bamming noise, nearly the whole route was driving through construction, and we saw the most accidents of the whole trip and - no, say it isn't true - wound up in the same town we had started in. One day I will tell that terrible story and it will be very very funny instead of nightmarishly beleaguering...

I love Mexico, in spite of all of this! I would do it again...(and I will, around about May 1!) but not in the same way. This has just been an unusual set of remarkably difficult circumstances. We're eager for Belize! Even customs can't daunt me now...

Love and adoration,

Susan for
Me and Dad and the Pups