RV Caravan Travel Day - Villahermosa to Isla Aguada

We were on the road right at 9:00am again.

It's only 234 kms (145 miles) from Villahermosa to Isla Aguada, but with lunch and fuel stops, I figured we might arrive at 2:00pm or so if we were lucky. As it turned out, it was closer to 3:00pm!

There is a fairly new toll highway that bypasses the city of Villahermosa. But because we had come into the city to use the Sam's Club overnight, we had to backtrack a little bit to get back to the toll bypass.

Armed guards overnight

With a 308 km (191 mile) drive ahead of us, we planned for an 8:00am start. Once again, everybody was ready to go and we pulled out right on time.

We knew ahead of time that road conditions were bad for today's drive. We had spoken to a couple who had arrived at the RV park in Catemaco and they had just come from the way we were heading. We asked how the toll road was, and he said one section was new, but the rest was "horrible".

And he was pretty much correct.

Lots to see around Catemaco, Mexico

Both Saturday and Sunday were scheduled rest days here at Catemaco. But, Ruth and I are not ones to sit and do nothing. Especially when there is a lot to see in the area. We could easily spend two weeks here. There are at least a dozen waterfalls within a 50 km (30 mile) radius. A dormant volcano to hike. Unexplored coastline north of here on the Gulf of Mexico. The Sierra de los Tuxtla mountains are a daytrip. We need to spend more time here some day.

But for the time being, we wanted to get the group out on the lake. Both the waterfall trip on Saturday, and the Sunday lake tour were not scheduled tours as part of their itinerary. But we like to get them out to see things that they might otherwise not see.

Our timing was not the best!

Yesterday turned out better than had been forecast. The morning actually had some sunny breaks! It really should have been the time when we could have gone on the boat tour, but more people seemed interested in the waterfalls so we made a plan to get four taxis to take 16 of us to see them.

But first, I had a fridge problem to fix.

Lots of beautiful birds in Catemaco

On the road at 9:00am yesterday morning. Only 170 kms (105 miles) to drive, so we should be able to get there by noon, right?

Wrong.

This is Mexico! And this part of Mexico is well known for it's terrible road conditions.

I keep reminding myself, at least it is warm!

Yesterday, we woke up to the wet, windy day that had been forecast. The wind kept up all day, but the rain did stop occasionally and as I keep reminding myself, at least it is warm! Temperatures of about 24C (76F) during the day, and 19C (66F) at night.

Given the weather, we all decided to forego the trip into the city of Veracruz. Nobody was thrilled with the idea of visiting the aquarium, and the only other indoor activity would have been to go to a movie. Veracruz will have to wait for another time.

It's not all sunshine and roses right now...

Everybody was ready to go right on time again. We pulled out just before 9:00am onto the busy pot-holed road towards Veracruz. It's amazing that some sections of this road are actually considered toll road and you have to pay. And yet, the road is in terrible condition and there doesn't appear to be a free road alternative. The tolls are not high... but it still doesn't make any sense.

So, slow going for the first half of the drive. It took us just over two hours to do 100 kms (62 miles).

City of the Thunder God

The bus picked us up at 9:00am to take our RV caravan group to the El Tajin Ruins. This is another of the guided tours included with the price of the caravan. Our guide today was Andres... he was pretty good, and had a good sense of humor!

It was only 68 kms (42 miles) to the site, but it took us about an hour and fifteen minutes. You don't get anywhere quickly in Mexico!

There's a reason things are so lush and green in this area...

Yesterday was a day of rest, and I think pretty much everybody used it that way. We're at the beach, but it wasn't really beach weather. There's a reason things are so lush and green in this area... it rains fairly regularly! They had called for a 50% chance of showers, but it never rained at all and was simply overcast all day.

So people just took it easy. Some puttered around on the beach looking for shells. Some puttered on their vehicles.

RV Caravan Travel Day... Mexico City to the Emerald Coast

One of the things that we love about Mexico is that you can be from the mountains to the beach in under four hours from anywhere in the country. Well, it takes slightly longer than that when you're traveling with 12 rigs in an RV Caravan, but you get the idea.

Yesterday, we did 352 kms (218 miles) from the outskirts of Mexico City to the Emerald Coast north of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico.