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On September 2nd we left Oaxaca for for Cuernavaca. Along the way we stopped at a Pemex station for the night
in Acatlan (N 18:12 W 98:03 Elev 3875’). There was a really noisy dog there so it was an earplug night. The next
morning we finished the trip to Cuernavaca and spent the night in the Costco parking lot. We had originally been
given permission and later they reneged, but it was too late so we said we would leave in the morning. We moved
over to the Mega parking lot off of Diana St. offramp from the PanAmerican highway. (N 18:56 W 99:14 Elev
5154’).
We saw some of the sights in Cuernavaca like the Borda Gardens, the museum on the plaza and hung out on the
plaza. Cuernavaca is a nice town, but I think I am becoming weary of traveling between towns. I much prefer to find
a nice spot to hang out even if there isn’t anything to do. As I write this we are camped next to a small lake just
south of Morelia….there is nothing much to do here except kayak in the lake, play bridge online and just enjoy the
beautiful views. What a life!!!! Speaking of bridge…Larry has created a monster!!!! I find bridge to be a
fascinating game and online I can always find partners anytime of the day or night. People from all over the world
are playing…you never know where your partner might live.
On September 5th we headed north toward Taxco and stopped at the Hacienda Vista Hermosa, a beautiful hotel
out in the country where Colleen had spent one night when she was sixteen years old and traveled to Mexico with
her Spanish class. She had some great memories of the place and wanted to revisit. The hotel was Cortes’
country home and was incredibly interesting and quite elegant. The swimming pool was enormous and had an
arched viaduct running across it and carved stone lions on pedestals in it in several places. We went down into the
dungeons and wandered the grounds.
From there we went on to the Grutas de Cacahuamilpa (N 18:40 W 99:31 Elev 3715’) and met Larry and Joyce
who had gone ahead. It cost 20 pesos per person to get in to the caves and the manager made sure we knew that
he expected a tip for himself for our camping there. We did pay him another few dollars when we left. The caves
were pretty awesome and I enjoyed wandering through them.
While we stayed at the caves we went to Taxco two days in a row in a bus/taxi/collectivo combination journey.
Colleen had it in her head that a ruby ring was something she just had to have and so we shopped until we found
the perfect one. She also had her other ring repaired at the same jewelry shop.
Leaving there we took off for San Juan Teotihuacan to an RV park that we had heard about from Roy and
Margarita. Colleen and I led the way directly through Mexico City down Insurgentes and out the other side. We only
made one wrong turn the whole day…Colleen did an incredible job of navigating. We spent the night in front of a
restaurant right down the street from the pyramids since it was so late when we got there. The next morning we
found our way a very short distance to the Teotihuacan Trailer Park (N 19:41 W 98:52 Elev 7531’). We were
welcomed by the owner, Mina, and set up in a grassy area at one end of their place. The reason she asked us to
park close to the house was because there were going to be some activities taking place there in the next few
days.
The next morning, September 9th, Colleen and I caught a bus about 2 blocks away to go to the airport in Mexico
City to fly back to New Mexico to see the new grand-daughter Madison. It was a really convenient trip to the airport
with the bus and then the metro leaving us very close to the airport.
We arrived in Albuquerque at about 11:30 pm after our plane was late leaving Phoenix. Our friend Marilyn picked
us up and took us home to her house. We rented a car a drove up to Santa Fe the next morning to see Madison
and her mom and dad, of course.
I stayed in Santa Fe for the entire week and Colleen spent a couple of days in Albuquerque seeing friends. On
Sunday, Colleen came back up to Santa Fe and we attended a groundbreaking ceremony and party for a housing
project that our friend Bonnie has poured her heart into for the last 5 years. It was a great party! There were
wagon rides, magicians, live music, great food and we got to hear Chris Williamson perform. The community is
called Birds of a Feather and you can find information about it online if you are interested.
On Tuesday night, Barbara and Gary, our friends in El Dorado where we used to live invited over some of our
friends so we could catch up with them. One of the interesting things about the party other than getting lots of
hugs from our friends, was meeting Susie and Gary. They started corresponding with us after reading about our
travels in this journal. Since we started the trip they have moved to Santa Fe so we invited them to the party….it
turns out that they are just as charming as their letters had been.
On Wednesday morning it was time to head back down to Albuquerque to get a few errands and visits finished
before catching the plane back to Mexico City on Thursday the 16th.
Now you have the chronology of that week, but you have none of the emotion of meeting Madison, the new grand-
daughter….it was indescribable…I loved holding her and comforting her when she was fussy (which wasn’t much).
It was fun shopping for her highchair and showing her off to friends….she is an amazingly beautiful child and quite
alert for a 2 week old. It was fun showing her how things move in and out of her sight and having her follow them
from side to side. It was fun teaching her that the rattle is associated with a sound and she can find it by turning
her head toward the sound. I could go on and on and you all would be bored to tears….me, I was moved to tears.
We loaded up all of our stuff…there was more stuff to take back to the rig such as: green chile, DVDs, 2 tires for
Larry and Joyce that weighed 68# each, some new pants and shorts from the Salvation Army, a warm robe, a
cassette player and a few other odds and ends. We were pretty heavily laden and glad that Larry and Joyce met
us at the airport with the truck.
So, that takes us to the middle of September and time to end this segment of the journal. I have put up lots of new
pictures on the website on the General Pictures page and a couple of new ones on the home page too. Look for a
link to a page of pictures just for Madison in case you really like babies too.
We left San Juan Teotihuacan on September 18th and drove 124 miles to a small lake called La Presa near the
town of Villa Victoria. The trip to the lake was not without its difficulties as we had to drive around Mexico City to get
there. The following is an excerpt from Joyce's journal that describes the day's events.
"As anyone knows who has been to Mexico City or has read about driving in or near Mexico City, it is not easy!!!
Believe it or not, there is no ring road around the city. We wanted to avoid the toll roads because they are so
expensive (about $2 per mile for our rig; a bit less for Kathe and Colleen - it's based on the number of tires or
axles, I'm not sure which). We had to work our way from the northeast of the city to the west in order to get on a
road to Morelia.
Kathe and Colleen led because they speak Spanish and can more quickly ask directions if need be. We were in
stop-and-go city-like traffic getting nowhere fast and had gone less than 20 miles the first hour after asking
directions several times. We stopped and talked over a new route and decided to "bite the bullet" and take some
toll roads in order to get anywhere that day. Also, the other type driving was very stressful for Larry and Kathe.
When we pulled out of the Pemex Station where we had stopped to talk, we hadn't gone too far when the municipal
police pulled us over. We radioed for Kathe and Colleen to wait for us. The police wanted to see Larry's driver's
license. He only uses his International Driver's license down here because the police are notorious for taking the
license then not returning it until you pay a bribe. Since a person is allowed to get as many International ones as
they want, he came with two so if one were taken, he'd still have another one. He does have his original South
Dakota license but he would not let them know that. They refused to accept the International license but we knew it
was valid and legal. They also kept trying to tell us something that we couldn't understand. Finally we got Kathe on
the radio and had her talk to them. The police agreed to drive up to where Kathe and Colleen were parked and we
followed.
The police told Kathe that Larry had not used his turn signal when he pulled out of the gas station. He hadn't, but
that was not the issue. (First of all we were pulling into a divided highway and the only way to go was the direction
of the traffic.) The police said he would have to give Larry a ticket and he also had to have his United States
driver's license but for $300US he would let us go. (That was the issue!) Kathe said we would not pay it. Then the
police told us that they would have to impound our vehicle until Larry produced an original United States driver's
license. The office to pay a fine and get our vehicle back closes at noon on Saturday and isn't open until Monday,
so the police officer said they'd keep our truck until then.
I got out all our guidebooks to look for phone numbers to call if police were treating us unfairly. One book said:
"Although with decreasing frequency lately, traffic police ... seem to inhabit busy intersections and one-way
streets, waiting for confused tourists to make a wrong move. Although he probably won't mention it, the officer is
usually hoping that you'll cough up a $20 bribe for the privilege of driving away. Don't do it. ... He may hint at
confiscating your car,..," etc. Well, our officers didn't hint at anything. They outright asked for $300 and said they
would have to confiscate our truck.
Kathe asked them to call their supervisor to come and also told them that we were looking up the number to report
extortion by police. They then asked how much we'd pay to be let go. Kathe told them we wouldn't pay anything.
Finally they let us go. Kathe wrote down their names so we could report them.
When we got to the tollbooth on the toll road there were four national policemen there. Kathe told them the whole
story. They took the complaint very seriously. They rolled their eyes when she told them we were stopped for not
using our turn signal. They also assured us that the International driver's license was valid and the police had no
right to say it wasn't. They called the phone number we gave them to report what happened and gave the names
of the two officers. They said they hoped that two "rotten eggs" didn't give us a bad impression of the police in
Mexico and that we wouldn't keep that as our memory of Mexico. We told him how nice and helpful the police have
been on our whole trip and that we knew Mexico was trying to get rid of police corruption so that's why we reported
the incident.
At this point we had only gone 34 miles in three hours! We finally got on the toll road and were doing quite well. (It
cost us $46.50 to go about 25 miles.) We stopped for lunch then got off the toll road to try to take free roads the
rest of the way. We came to a road where trucks and busses were not supposed to enter, but usually those signs
refer to commercial vehicles so we proceeded. Again Kathe and Colleen were ahead but the police stopped us
because we weren't supposed to go on the road. Our trailer stands out like a sore thumb as "tourist" whereas
Kathe and Colleen's rig looks like a city bus, so isn't noticed as easily.
They stopped us in time so we could have driven over a dirt section to get to the correct road. We radioed ahead
to Kathe and Colleen to tell them they should come back but they didn't know how to come back. Kathe talked to
those police and they said for us to follow them and they'd go up to where Kathe and Colleen were parked to lead
us all back to the right road. When we got there, the police went into their rig and said they'd have to give Kathe
and Colleen a ticket because they were not supposed to be on that road. Kathe told them she knew that now, but
how could she get over to the road on her right. Her rig wasn't good at jumping over dividers.
The police explained that they had to stop her for her own safety and that we hadn't driven on the road so that's
why they didn't give us a ticket. (But they told us to follow them onto to the road to get to Kathe and Colleen, even
though we weren't supposed to be on the road!!) Kathe told them that we had been stopped earlier and had
reported police for trying to extort a bribe and give a ticket for a trivial reason. All she wanted was to know how to
get to the right road and if they were concerned for her safety, they could lead us there. They finally did. But they
took off in a hurry and didn't get us all the way back to the right road. After stopping and asking more directions,
we found our way through Toluca and onto a very nice road toward Morelia. We finally were out of city traffic and
on relaxing country roads."
After being in the city for so many days both in Mexico and from our one week visit to the US, we needed a more
bucolic setting for a few days. Colleen saw the small lake on the map and we headed for it without having a clue of
what we might find. It turned out to be a fairly sizable lake with a soccer field, church and open area right next to it.
We were easily able to get down to a flat area overlooking the lake and about 50 feet away (N 19:28 W 100:03
Elev 8460'). Nearby was a small village and other than the trash in the area it was quite lovely. We were able to
launch our kayaks and paddle across the lake and around its edges where there were some large weekend
homes of people from Mexico City. Men fished with nets for small fish and women washed laundry along the
shores. It was not a particularly clean lake but gave us a few days respite from the city.
While we were there Colleen, Joyce and I picked up quite a bit of the trash and then hired four schoolgirls to pick
up the rest. We provided the large trash bags and then for 40 pesos hired a man with a truck to take all 27 bags to
the dump. Curiously, it turned out that we had hired the girls of the family that threw the trash there in the first
place. The neighbor woman thought it was fitting that they ended up picking up their own trash. On Monday
evening we attended the church service in the little Catholic church just feet away from where we were parked. We
spent three nights there among sheep and lots of lovers who would come in their cars after dark.
From our cute little lake we were off to Morelia and another city experience. Again the maps were not accurate and
we drove for a long time over terrible potholed roads and after two hours we were no closer to Morelia than when
we left as we could not find the right road. At one point we entered the small town of Maravatio following the signs
to Morelia and found ourselves approaching a central plaza with a market set up around it. It was jammed and taxis
were pushing their way into the mess with us right in the middle of it. Larry and Joyce were about a half block
ahead of us and discovered that they could not make the turn around the plaza because of all the carts and
parked vehicles. All the taxis started honking until Joyce got out waving her arms around told them to stop it and
they did.
Colleen got out of our rig to see if she could help them negotiate the turn and I was approached by a traffic cop on
foot who told me that we should never have come down the street we were on and should have followed the signs
for a bypass that I never saw. We ended up in a bit of a shouting match with me suggesting that they put up signs
that people could see and him telling me that we were now blocking traffic...duh. He did mention that there was
supposed to have been a traffic cop at the turn to keep this from happening and he didn't know why he wasn't
there. I wasn't particularly intimidated by this cop because of our dealings with extortionist police from the day
before.
Larry and Joyce were finally able to make the turn after some carts and vehicles were moved out of the way and
then it was our turn. We didn't have any problems with the first turn, but the next one was tight. In order to miss
something large on the left I managed to bump the sideview mirror of a small truck on the right. It was on a spring
and there was no damage so we proceeded on our way.
The road was lined on both sides by pink cosmos with beautiful green rolling hills on both sides of the highway and
so the rest of the trip to Morelia was lovely and basically uneventful.
We parked behind the WalMart in the area of the loading dock (N 19:41 W 101.13 Elev 6208'). While there we
wandered around the town, shopped for groceries and other items, saw the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 in English with
Spanish subtitles, visited the eye doctor with Larry when he started seeing flashing lights, and generally hung out.
Larry's flashing lights turned out not to be a detached retina but it needs watching.
We spent 4 nights in Morelia and then headed for Patzcuaro where we camped behind Pemex station #6393 (N 19:
33 W 101:26 Elev 6250') which had a convenient water spigot. The woman owner was very welcoming and so we
stayed there though it was about 8 miles out of Patzcuaro. Colleen, Larry and Joyce spent a couple of hours the
first day trying to find a better place but were unsuccessful.
We were back into rainy weather but it nicely waited until late afternoon to start raining each day. In the mornings
we went into town and did a side trip to Santa Clara del Cobre, a town that is famous for its copperware. Colleen
and I bought a gift for Justin and Amanda. We watched men working the pieces of copper with really basic tools
like hammers and tongs and were quite amazed at how large round pots could be made from flat pieces of metal.
Leaving Patzcuaro we drove 63 miles to another Pemex station #5234 north of Uruapan (N 19:30 W 102:04 Elev
6532). While there we visited the area around Volcano Paricutin where the lava flow during the 1943-1952
eruption half buried a church, and the village of Capacuaro where they make wooden furniture. Most of the
wooden furniture was very crudely made, but we found a shop where beautiful carved wooden furniture was
produced. Colleen and I decided that if we ever had furniture again this is where we would buy it. These villages
are inhabited by an indigenous group that is non Spanish speaking. The women wear beautiful and colorful skirts
with tiny pleats and bright rebozos over their heads.
While we were parked at the Pemex station a couple showed up in a Volkswagen and were curious about what we
were doing there. They wondered if we were from a circus or other traveling performers as they are usually the
only ones who travel in motorhomes or pulling trailers in Mexico; those rigs are usually pretty beaten up, however.
It turned out that they were the owners of a traveling circus that is comprised of most of their eleven children and
some grandchildren and in-laws. They were putting on a performance that evening in the village of San Lorenzo
and we were told to be there at 8:30. We got there on time to discover that we were the only ones there as the
performance started at 9:00 but the father of the family wanted to sit and chat with us first.
The father explained that there were upwards of 50,000 people involved in traveling family circuses in Mexico and
that the government provides teachers for the children though it was not clear how that would work if they were all
wandering around the country all the time. They generally looked around for a town that appeared to have some
spendable cash and set up on a vacant lot for up to a week at a time. They would put on at least one performance
each evening and the mornings were used for practice and training of the younger members. This particular circus
family also held revival church services in their tent when they weren't doing their circus acts. Just another
performance to a different audience...a great example of diversification to maximize asset usage.
He very nicely answered all of our questions and then it was time for the show to start and there were hardly any
people there besides us. In all about 40 people did drift in over the first half hour and we were treated to a
delightful performance of acrobatics, incredible 'fast hands' juggling that was unbelievable, and a couple of clown
skits by the younger children. We had a great time!!!
On Joyce's strong recommendation on our last morning in the area around Uruapan, Colleen and I went to the
National Park that is right along the edge of town. There is lots of water coming down the canyon there and
someone had a good time designing lots of fountains, water falls, and canals. It was really beautiful with lots of
jungley plants and flowers. It was easy to imagine that we were far away from a city though occasionally you could
see the walls of a house along the edge of the park.
Leaving Uruapan we drove 55 miles to another national park at Lago de Camecuaro near Tangancicuaro. Though
there is camping allowed inside the park, we were told that we had to park outside in the parking lot (N 19:54.036
W 102:12.466 Elev 5839'). There is room for about 3 large rigs and a couple of small ones though small ones
would probably be allowed to drive right in to the park. The fee was 20P/night per rig and 5P/day/person for entry
into the park.
The park is quite small as far as national parks go with lots of 300 year old cedar trees with fabulous gnarly trunks
and roots that grow on the banks of a crystal clear small lake. The lake is fed by a series of springs that flow
constantly and keep the water crystalline. The water was pretty cold for swimming considering that it was mostly
cloudy and rained in the afternoons. Around the edge are vendors of souvenirs, T-shirts and food. Weekends the
park is quite crowded and we were glad that we were there in the middle of the week.
We took down the kayaks and in the mornings paddled the length of the lake to a river that flows out of it and then
to where it ended at a small dam. It was a gorgeous slow drift down a very picturesque narrow river. Too bad it
wasn't longer before it hit the dam and then tumbled down a canyon. On the day before we left, Colleen and I
decided to throw in one last afternoon kayak down the river and got the 'benefit' of the afternoon downpour on our
way back.
We stayed at Lago de Camecuaro until Saturday the 30th of September thus ending the September journal.
Last month I updated the website with lots of new pictures and a link to a map that shows where we are located at
any given time. The link to the map is at the bottom of our webpage at http://www.whirledvision.com
As always we enjoy hearing from all of our friends and other readers of this journal. Our plan is to cross back into
the States on October 26th or so and go to Oklahoma City for repairs to the rig and then to New Mexico to see
Madison and her parents.
in Acatlan (N 18:12 W 98:03 Elev 3875’). There was a really noisy dog there so it was an earplug night. The next
morning we finished the trip to Cuernavaca and spent the night in the Costco parking lot. We had originally been
given permission and later they reneged, but it was too late so we said we would leave in the morning. We moved
over to the Mega parking lot off of Diana St. offramp from the PanAmerican highway. (N 18:56 W 99:14 Elev
5154’).
We saw some of the sights in Cuernavaca like the Borda Gardens, the museum on the plaza and hung out on the
plaza. Cuernavaca is a nice town, but I think I am becoming weary of traveling between towns. I much prefer to find
a nice spot to hang out even if there isn’t anything to do. As I write this we are camped next to a small lake just
south of Morelia….there is nothing much to do here except kayak in the lake, play bridge online and just enjoy the
beautiful views. What a life!!!! Speaking of bridge…Larry has created a monster!!!! I find bridge to be a
fascinating game and online I can always find partners anytime of the day or night. People from all over the world
are playing…you never know where your partner might live.
On September 5th we headed north toward Taxco and stopped at the Hacienda Vista Hermosa, a beautiful hotel
out in the country where Colleen had spent one night when she was sixteen years old and traveled to Mexico with
her Spanish class. She had some great memories of the place and wanted to revisit. The hotel was Cortes’
country home and was incredibly interesting and quite elegant. The swimming pool was enormous and had an
arched viaduct running across it and carved stone lions on pedestals in it in several places. We went down into the
dungeons and wandered the grounds.
From there we went on to the Grutas de Cacahuamilpa (N 18:40 W 99:31 Elev 3715’) and met Larry and Joyce
who had gone ahead. It cost 20 pesos per person to get in to the caves and the manager made sure we knew that
he expected a tip for himself for our camping there. We did pay him another few dollars when we left. The caves
were pretty awesome and I enjoyed wandering through them.
While we stayed at the caves we went to Taxco two days in a row in a bus/taxi/collectivo combination journey.
Colleen had it in her head that a ruby ring was something she just had to have and so we shopped until we found
the perfect one. She also had her other ring repaired at the same jewelry shop.
Leaving there we took off for San Juan Teotihuacan to an RV park that we had heard about from Roy and
Margarita. Colleen and I led the way directly through Mexico City down Insurgentes and out the other side. We only
made one wrong turn the whole day…Colleen did an incredible job of navigating. We spent the night in front of a
restaurant right down the street from the pyramids since it was so late when we got there. The next morning we
found our way a very short distance to the Teotihuacan Trailer Park (N 19:41 W 98:52 Elev 7531’). We were
welcomed by the owner, Mina, and set up in a grassy area at one end of their place. The reason she asked us to
park close to the house was because there were going to be some activities taking place there in the next few
days.
The next morning, September 9th, Colleen and I caught a bus about 2 blocks away to go to the airport in Mexico
City to fly back to New Mexico to see the new grand-daughter Madison. It was a really convenient trip to the airport
with the bus and then the metro leaving us very close to the airport.
We arrived in Albuquerque at about 11:30 pm after our plane was late leaving Phoenix. Our friend Marilyn picked
us up and took us home to her house. We rented a car a drove up to Santa Fe the next morning to see Madison
and her mom and dad, of course.
I stayed in Santa Fe for the entire week and Colleen spent a couple of days in Albuquerque seeing friends. On
Sunday, Colleen came back up to Santa Fe and we attended a groundbreaking ceremony and party for a housing
project that our friend Bonnie has poured her heart into for the last 5 years. It was a great party! There were
wagon rides, magicians, live music, great food and we got to hear Chris Williamson perform. The community is
called Birds of a Feather and you can find information about it online if you are interested.
On Tuesday night, Barbara and Gary, our friends in El Dorado where we used to live invited over some of our
friends so we could catch up with them. One of the interesting things about the party other than getting lots of
hugs from our friends, was meeting Susie and Gary. They started corresponding with us after reading about our
travels in this journal. Since we started the trip they have moved to Santa Fe so we invited them to the party….it
turns out that they are just as charming as their letters had been.
On Wednesday morning it was time to head back down to Albuquerque to get a few errands and visits finished
before catching the plane back to Mexico City on Thursday the 16th.
Now you have the chronology of that week, but you have none of the emotion of meeting Madison, the new grand-
daughter….it was indescribable…I loved holding her and comforting her when she was fussy (which wasn’t much).
It was fun shopping for her highchair and showing her off to friends….she is an amazingly beautiful child and quite
alert for a 2 week old. It was fun showing her how things move in and out of her sight and having her follow them
from side to side. It was fun teaching her that the rattle is associated with a sound and she can find it by turning
her head toward the sound. I could go on and on and you all would be bored to tears….me, I was moved to tears.
We loaded up all of our stuff…there was more stuff to take back to the rig such as: green chile, DVDs, 2 tires for
Larry and Joyce that weighed 68# each, some new pants and shorts from the Salvation Army, a warm robe, a
cassette player and a few other odds and ends. We were pretty heavily laden and glad that Larry and Joyce met
us at the airport with the truck.
So, that takes us to the middle of September and time to end this segment of the journal. I have put up lots of new
pictures on the website on the General Pictures page and a couple of new ones on the home page too. Look for a
link to a page of pictures just for Madison in case you really like babies too.
We left San Juan Teotihuacan on September 18th and drove 124 miles to a small lake called La Presa near the
town of Villa Victoria. The trip to the lake was not without its difficulties as we had to drive around Mexico City to get
there. The following is an excerpt from Joyce's journal that describes the day's events.
"As anyone knows who has been to Mexico City or has read about driving in or near Mexico City, it is not easy!!!
Believe it or not, there is no ring road around the city. We wanted to avoid the toll roads because they are so
expensive (about $2 per mile for our rig; a bit less for Kathe and Colleen - it's based on the number of tires or
axles, I'm not sure which). We had to work our way from the northeast of the city to the west in order to get on a
road to Morelia.
Kathe and Colleen led because they speak Spanish and can more quickly ask directions if need be. We were in
stop-and-go city-like traffic getting nowhere fast and had gone less than 20 miles the first hour after asking
directions several times. We stopped and talked over a new route and decided to "bite the bullet" and take some
toll roads in order to get anywhere that day. Also, the other type driving was very stressful for Larry and Kathe.
When we pulled out of the Pemex Station where we had stopped to talk, we hadn't gone too far when the municipal
police pulled us over. We radioed for Kathe and Colleen to wait for us. The police wanted to see Larry's driver's
license. He only uses his International Driver's license down here because the police are notorious for taking the
license then not returning it until you pay a bribe. Since a person is allowed to get as many International ones as
they want, he came with two so if one were taken, he'd still have another one. He does have his original South
Dakota license but he would not let them know that. They refused to accept the International license but we knew it
was valid and legal. They also kept trying to tell us something that we couldn't understand. Finally we got Kathe on
the radio and had her talk to them. The police agreed to drive up to where Kathe and Colleen were parked and we
followed.
The police told Kathe that Larry had not used his turn signal when he pulled out of the gas station. He hadn't, but
that was not the issue. (First of all we were pulling into a divided highway and the only way to go was the direction
of the traffic.) The police said he would have to give Larry a ticket and he also had to have his United States
driver's license but for $300US he would let us go. (That was the issue!) Kathe said we would not pay it. Then the
police told us that they would have to impound our vehicle until Larry produced an original United States driver's
license. The office to pay a fine and get our vehicle back closes at noon on Saturday and isn't open until Monday,
so the police officer said they'd keep our truck until then.
I got out all our guidebooks to look for phone numbers to call if police were treating us unfairly. One book said:
"Although with decreasing frequency lately, traffic police ... seem to inhabit busy intersections and one-way
streets, waiting for confused tourists to make a wrong move. Although he probably won't mention it, the officer is
usually hoping that you'll cough up a $20 bribe for the privilege of driving away. Don't do it. ... He may hint at
confiscating your car,..," etc. Well, our officers didn't hint at anything. They outright asked for $300 and said they
would have to confiscate our truck.
Kathe asked them to call their supervisor to come and also told them that we were looking up the number to report
extortion by police. They then asked how much we'd pay to be let go. Kathe told them we wouldn't pay anything.
Finally they let us go. Kathe wrote down their names so we could report them.
When we got to the tollbooth on the toll road there were four national policemen there. Kathe told them the whole
story. They took the complaint very seriously. They rolled their eyes when she told them we were stopped for not
using our turn signal. They also assured us that the International driver's license was valid and the police had no
right to say it wasn't. They called the phone number we gave them to report what happened and gave the names
of the two officers. They said they hoped that two "rotten eggs" didn't give us a bad impression of the police in
Mexico and that we wouldn't keep that as our memory of Mexico. We told him how nice and helpful the police have
been on our whole trip and that we knew Mexico was trying to get rid of police corruption so that's why we reported
the incident.
At this point we had only gone 34 miles in three hours! We finally got on the toll road and were doing quite well. (It
cost us $46.50 to go about 25 miles.) We stopped for lunch then got off the toll road to try to take free roads the
rest of the way. We came to a road where trucks and busses were not supposed to enter, but usually those signs
refer to commercial vehicles so we proceeded. Again Kathe and Colleen were ahead but the police stopped us
because we weren't supposed to go on the road. Our trailer stands out like a sore thumb as "tourist" whereas
Kathe and Colleen's rig looks like a city bus, so isn't noticed as easily.
They stopped us in time so we could have driven over a dirt section to get to the correct road. We radioed ahead
to Kathe and Colleen to tell them they should come back but they didn't know how to come back. Kathe talked to
those police and they said for us to follow them and they'd go up to where Kathe and Colleen were parked to lead
us all back to the right road. When we got there, the police went into their rig and said they'd have to give Kathe
and Colleen a ticket because they were not supposed to be on that road. Kathe told them she knew that now, but
how could she get over to the road on her right. Her rig wasn't good at jumping over dividers.
The police explained that they had to stop her for her own safety and that we hadn't driven on the road so that's
why they didn't give us a ticket. (But they told us to follow them onto to the road to get to Kathe and Colleen, even
though we weren't supposed to be on the road!!) Kathe told them that we had been stopped earlier and had
reported police for trying to extort a bribe and give a ticket for a trivial reason. All she wanted was to know how to
get to the right road and if they were concerned for her safety, they could lead us there. They finally did. But they
took off in a hurry and didn't get us all the way back to the right road. After stopping and asking more directions,
we found our way through Toluca and onto a very nice road toward Morelia. We finally were out of city traffic and
on relaxing country roads."
After being in the city for so many days both in Mexico and from our one week visit to the US, we needed a more
bucolic setting for a few days. Colleen saw the small lake on the map and we headed for it without having a clue of
what we might find. It turned out to be a fairly sizable lake with a soccer field, church and open area right next to it.
We were easily able to get down to a flat area overlooking the lake and about 50 feet away (N 19:28 W 100:03
Elev 8460'). Nearby was a small village and other than the trash in the area it was quite lovely. We were able to
launch our kayaks and paddle across the lake and around its edges where there were some large weekend
homes of people from Mexico City. Men fished with nets for small fish and women washed laundry along the
shores. It was not a particularly clean lake but gave us a few days respite from the city.
While we were there Colleen, Joyce and I picked up quite a bit of the trash and then hired four schoolgirls to pick
up the rest. We provided the large trash bags and then for 40 pesos hired a man with a truck to take all 27 bags to
the dump. Curiously, it turned out that we had hired the girls of the family that threw the trash there in the first
place. The neighbor woman thought it was fitting that they ended up picking up their own trash. On Monday
evening we attended the church service in the little Catholic church just feet away from where we were parked. We
spent three nights there among sheep and lots of lovers who would come in their cars after dark.
From our cute little lake we were off to Morelia and another city experience. Again the maps were not accurate and
we drove for a long time over terrible potholed roads and after two hours we were no closer to Morelia than when
we left as we could not find the right road. At one point we entered the small town of Maravatio following the signs
to Morelia and found ourselves approaching a central plaza with a market set up around it. It was jammed and taxis
were pushing their way into the mess with us right in the middle of it. Larry and Joyce were about a half block
ahead of us and discovered that they could not make the turn around the plaza because of all the carts and
parked vehicles. All the taxis started honking until Joyce got out waving her arms around told them to stop it and
they did.
Colleen got out of our rig to see if she could help them negotiate the turn and I was approached by a traffic cop on
foot who told me that we should never have come down the street we were on and should have followed the signs
for a bypass that I never saw. We ended up in a bit of a shouting match with me suggesting that they put up signs
that people could see and him telling me that we were now blocking traffic...duh. He did mention that there was
supposed to have been a traffic cop at the turn to keep this from happening and he didn't know why he wasn't
there. I wasn't particularly intimidated by this cop because of our dealings with extortionist police from the day
before.
Larry and Joyce were finally able to make the turn after some carts and vehicles were moved out of the way and
then it was our turn. We didn't have any problems with the first turn, but the next one was tight. In order to miss
something large on the left I managed to bump the sideview mirror of a small truck on the right. It was on a spring
and there was no damage so we proceeded on our way.
The road was lined on both sides by pink cosmos with beautiful green rolling hills on both sides of the highway and
so the rest of the trip to Morelia was lovely and basically uneventful.
We parked behind the WalMart in the area of the loading dock (N 19:41 W 101.13 Elev 6208'). While there we
wandered around the town, shopped for groceries and other items, saw the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 in English with
Spanish subtitles, visited the eye doctor with Larry when he started seeing flashing lights, and generally hung out.
Larry's flashing lights turned out not to be a detached retina but it needs watching.
We spent 4 nights in Morelia and then headed for Patzcuaro where we camped behind Pemex station #6393 (N 19:
33 W 101:26 Elev 6250') which had a convenient water spigot. The woman owner was very welcoming and so we
stayed there though it was about 8 miles out of Patzcuaro. Colleen, Larry and Joyce spent a couple of hours the
first day trying to find a better place but were unsuccessful.
We were back into rainy weather but it nicely waited until late afternoon to start raining each day. In the mornings
we went into town and did a side trip to Santa Clara del Cobre, a town that is famous for its copperware. Colleen
and I bought a gift for Justin and Amanda. We watched men working the pieces of copper with really basic tools
like hammers and tongs and were quite amazed at how large round pots could be made from flat pieces of metal.
Leaving Patzcuaro we drove 63 miles to another Pemex station #5234 north of Uruapan (N 19:30 W 102:04 Elev
6532). While there we visited the area around Volcano Paricutin where the lava flow during the 1943-1952
eruption half buried a church, and the village of Capacuaro where they make wooden furniture. Most of the
wooden furniture was very crudely made, but we found a shop where beautiful carved wooden furniture was
produced. Colleen and I decided that if we ever had furniture again this is where we would buy it. These villages
are inhabited by an indigenous group that is non Spanish speaking. The women wear beautiful and colorful skirts
with tiny pleats and bright rebozos over their heads.
While we were parked at the Pemex station a couple showed up in a Volkswagen and were curious about what we
were doing there. They wondered if we were from a circus or other traveling performers as they are usually the
only ones who travel in motorhomes or pulling trailers in Mexico; those rigs are usually pretty beaten up, however.
It turned out that they were the owners of a traveling circus that is comprised of most of their eleven children and
some grandchildren and in-laws. They were putting on a performance that evening in the village of San Lorenzo
and we were told to be there at 8:30. We got there on time to discover that we were the only ones there as the
performance started at 9:00 but the father of the family wanted to sit and chat with us first.
The father explained that there were upwards of 50,000 people involved in traveling family circuses in Mexico and
that the government provides teachers for the children though it was not clear how that would work if they were all
wandering around the country all the time. They generally looked around for a town that appeared to have some
spendable cash and set up on a vacant lot for up to a week at a time. They would put on at least one performance
each evening and the mornings were used for practice and training of the younger members. This particular circus
family also held revival church services in their tent when they weren't doing their circus acts. Just another
performance to a different audience...a great example of diversification to maximize asset usage.
He very nicely answered all of our questions and then it was time for the show to start and there were hardly any
people there besides us. In all about 40 people did drift in over the first half hour and we were treated to a
delightful performance of acrobatics, incredible 'fast hands' juggling that was unbelievable, and a couple of clown
skits by the younger children. We had a great time!!!
On Joyce's strong recommendation on our last morning in the area around Uruapan, Colleen and I went to the
National Park that is right along the edge of town. There is lots of water coming down the canyon there and
someone had a good time designing lots of fountains, water falls, and canals. It was really beautiful with lots of
jungley plants and flowers. It was easy to imagine that we were far away from a city though occasionally you could
see the walls of a house along the edge of the park.
Leaving Uruapan we drove 55 miles to another national park at Lago de Camecuaro near Tangancicuaro. Though
there is camping allowed inside the park, we were told that we had to park outside in the parking lot (N 19:54.036
W 102:12.466 Elev 5839'). There is room for about 3 large rigs and a couple of small ones though small ones
would probably be allowed to drive right in to the park. The fee was 20P/night per rig and 5P/day/person for entry
into the park.
The park is quite small as far as national parks go with lots of 300 year old cedar trees with fabulous gnarly trunks
and roots that grow on the banks of a crystal clear small lake. The lake is fed by a series of springs that flow
constantly and keep the water crystalline. The water was pretty cold for swimming considering that it was mostly
cloudy and rained in the afternoons. Around the edge are vendors of souvenirs, T-shirts and food. Weekends the
park is quite crowded and we were glad that we were there in the middle of the week.
We took down the kayaks and in the mornings paddled the length of the lake to a river that flows out of it and then
to where it ended at a small dam. It was a gorgeous slow drift down a very picturesque narrow river. Too bad it
wasn't longer before it hit the dam and then tumbled down a canyon. On the day before we left, Colleen and I
decided to throw in one last afternoon kayak down the river and got the 'benefit' of the afternoon downpour on our
way back.
We stayed at Lago de Camecuaro until Saturday the 30th of September thus ending the September journal.
Last month I updated the website with lots of new pictures and a link to a map that shows where we are located at
any given time. The link to the map is at the bottom of our webpage at http://www.whirledvision.com
As always we enjoy hearing from all of our friends and other readers of this journal. Our plan is to cross back into
the States on October 26th or so and go to Oklahoma City for repairs to the rig and then to New Mexico to see
Madison and her parents.
Copyright - All Rights Reserved
2005
2005
September 2004
Around the World with Kathe and Colleen