Episode Two - November 2007

After three days of rest and relaxation in La Pesca we continued south and spent the night in a hotel parking lot just north of Tampico. We shared it with one very long motor home from British Columbia and about 15 semi trucks. We found the Super Wal-Mart in Tampico and stocked up on food and money. It was nice to find an ATM in the Wal-Mart. I had planned on changing money at the Border but could not find anywhere so we had been surviving on pesos left over from our last trip to Mexico. We also located the entrance to the Tampico by-pass for the next morning. We had read about and heard some horror stories about gringos who mistakenly try to take campers through the city. Local off-duty police are very vigilant and extort as much money as possible from the weary, nervous travelers. The following morning – Sunday, we got up early and started on our way around Tampico. Horrendous roads full of potholes and impatient drivers. It took us 1 ¾ hours to travel about 25 miles. Then, when we got to the end of this awful stretch of road we were expected to pay a toll. We paid gladly - just to get out of there.

This was a fairly long driving day. We did 235 miles in just under 8 hours. We had a lot of narrow, bumpy, twisty mountain roads with wet and foggy driving conditions. Occasionally the sky would clear a bit and we saw that we were driving through some lovely countryside. Remember the song from ‘Annie’? - The Sun Will come Out Tomorrow. We sang that a lot.

We finally stopped for the night (three, actually) in the town of Monte Gordo (fat mountain) in an area known as The Emerald Coast. Lots of hotels, campgrounds, restaurants and a long stretch of beach. Unfortunately we were still out of season. There were not many travelers about and most of the hotels and restaurants were closed. We found a campground called Alicia’s. It was right on the beach and also had 2 swimming pools. There was one other gringo in there apart from us. Thankfully the managers spoke a little English. The facilities included cold showers and seat-less toilets (is someone hoarding the seats somewhere?). Unfortunately it rained for three days. We stayed that long because we were hoping the weather would clear up and we would get to see the lovely place it only hinted at through the rain. According to the web-page Quinta Alicia’s has a restaurant and a shop. They were not open when we were there. http://www.ontheroadin.com/gulfcoast/quintaalicia.htm

In Monte Gordo we met some interesting and unusual people:

Across the road from the campground was a poor, local restaurant advertising pizza and ‘English spoken here’. We had to check that out. Inside the owner/cook was very hesitant about letting on that he actually did speak English. He was A******* from Tom’s River, New Jersey. He had left the US 8 years ago, married a local girl in Monte Gordo and told everybody that he was in paradise. He said that his restaurant used to be a lot nicer but it had suffered a lot of damage during the last hurricane season.

Also in the restaurant we met L**** who was on his way to Chetumal in the southern Yucatan and had met A******* and was staying in his pick up truck beside the restaurant for a while helping A******* get the restaurant back on its feet.

At a local coffee shop, The Italian Coffee Co., modeled on Starbucks and very out of place in this area, we met M*** from Massachusetts. He had escaped the US about 6 months ago and made it as far as Monte Gordo and has spent the last ½ a year living in the back of his pick up truck. We got talking and found out he was an electrician and as we were having some electrical problems in the camper he agreed to come and check them out the next day.

All of these three men were running away from nasty divorces. All of them had decided to come to Mexico so that the ex-wife could not get anything else out of them. That is why I have not given their names. Also all three of them also claim to be ex-military intelligence or CIA. They certainly had some interesting stories to tell. Or, maybe they just had vivid imaginations.

M*** from Mass is helping to manage one of the local campgrounds. When we went to pick him up to come and help us with our electrical problems we met Bill from British Columbia. Bill and his wife had been in the area for 2 weeks, were fed up of the weather and were moving over to the west coast. So he said – more about Bill and Jean later.
We also met Bob and Clare from England who for the last 8 years have spent 6 months of each year in their 5th wheel camper in Monte Gordo and the rest of the year in England. They have recently moved into a house in the area and M*** has bought their camper. It is the same as ours but a year older. He is excited about having something to turn around in after spending the last 6 months in the back of his truck. He is planning to stay in the area for a while and help run the campground.

While talking to the people in and around Monte Gordo we found out that we had been very lucky going round Tampico. It seems that most campers get stopped by rogue, off-duty policemen – even on the by-pass. Bill said that he showed the guy his wallet and said “look, very little money inside”. The ‘policeman’ reached in and took it all! The managers of Quinta Alicia gave us a form to have the ‘policemen’ fill out. Apparently once you start asking for badge numbers, etc. they back off. Let’s hope our luck holds.

While M*** and Gerald were working on the camper Simon and I took a long, wet walk up the beach. We both really enjoyed it. Found lots of shells and a couple of lovely little sand dollars. In spite of the rain and cold, Costa Esmeralda looked very inviting. I hope that we will be able to stop there again on our way home. Maybe we can time it to coincide with some sunshine and turquoise seas this time.