Day 4 Coatzacoalcos to Playa del Carmen

Day 4 Rise and shine...4:38 am. Let’s go! I stumbled over to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face and holy cow....what are these black things under my eyes???? What do I do, I look like I’ve been beat up! I searched for some eye cream...I got nothing. No close up shots of me today! I threw on my blue jeans, a tee shirt, ball cap and flip flops, helped Dave load the truck and off we go. No coffee, no breakfast, no nothing. It’s going to be a great day! The drive this morning was pretty boring because it was still dark outside and there was not much to see. We did see a large big rig turned over on its side with so much fruit covering the highway. Everyone seemed okay. The sun did not come up until we reached Villahermosa. Filled up with gas, grabbed the worst coffee ever and on the road we went looking for hwy 186... Found it. By my calculations, we only have 611 km to reach Chetumal, which should put us there around 12 or 1:00 pm today. I’m starving. We’ve eaten nothing in 24+ hours except a pp&j sandwich that I made driving down the road. Maybe we will find something soon. Driving down 186 was really no different than some of what we’ve experienced over the last couple of days but maybe I really took notice this morning. It’s about 8am and we are still in the state of Tabasco; the children are off to school. Hwy 186 is a 2 lane hwy, a lot of which is under construction so the road in many places is very dangerous. What you see though is many open air shanties that these people call their home. I’d be very surprised if any of them had electricity. This sight made me realize why so many Mexican Nationals want to leave Mexico to seek a better life. The conditions were deplorable, the people looked sad and what concerned me the most was that the Mother’s would walk their children miles down this main hwy to go to school, cars exceeding 100km with many trying to play chicken while passing other drivers. I know that these are daily life tasks for these people and they may or may not think twice about it but as an outsider, my heart goes out to them because I know that there is danger there. Not intentional danger, just very high risk for a tragic accident. We have not experienced any rain today; I really hope that it stays clear. I haven’t been able to check the bed to see if it’s ruined or not and I will wait until I reach Playa to do so. Why put a cloud on my good day because there would be nothing I could do about it anyhow. Just north of Chetumal, about 400km, we come to a checkpoint. Took out the passports and visa expecting them to look over them but they didn’t. However, they wanted to see in the back of the Tahoe. Now I don’t remember if mentioned before or not but in order to get to the back of the Tahoe, you have to take the bikes off the rack; the bikes that are rigged to the rack. This is an ordeal and they did not care. There were at least five military and police watching in anticipation on what they were going to find. HA...you find nothing, I want to loudly say. Instead, I waited in the car like a good little wife in a culture where the man makes the rules. Besides, I did not want Dave to get into trouble because he could not control his wife from running her mouth. God I am such a thoughtful person. hehe. We finally find a Pemex to stop at and get a little snack...my belly has not forgotten that I’ve not eaten yet and it’s 9:30am. So the only thing that this whole in the wall Pemex station sells is coke, not diet coke but the real life, sugar-laden, make your teeth scream coke. Ok...I will have a coke. They also sell junk food such as chips, cookies and a couple of other things. Where are the nuts? They would hold me over until Chetumal when we find decent food. No nuts. Okay, I will take a coke and a bag of ruffles; not baked ruffles but the greasy ones. 3 chips, a drink of coke and I am on a sugar high for the day. Can’t do it; it was not good. I’ll wait for Chetumal. Three miles later, another check point. We stop. The military asks where are you going. Playa del Carmen we say. Okay...buh-bye. Much of Hwy 186 is under construction just past Escarcega. We were cruising along following a van and a Volkswagen was following us...we were making good time and it was quiet entertaining for the three cars to try to keep up with each other. But then we looked down at the gas gauge..1/4 tank left. Oh no!!! It’s exactly 157 km from Escarcega to the nearest Pemex. Then one appeared right before our eyes just south of Xpujil. Be careful here though, they are sneaky! The little boy washing my windshield was trying to distract me while the other two men were looking in the car, eyeballing what they wanted. UGH...no problems with this kind of thing until now. And there it was; hwy 307! My heart was pounding and everything just looked so differently than the rest of the country. It had the feel of the place I love and the smells that are all too familiar. STOP THE CAR!!! Right before my very eyes was the first sign of the sea.. Who cares if it was the lagoon in Bacalar; it was still Caribbean water. There were ribbons of deep blue against the teal; the colors that make the water so beautiful. I knew I had less than 3 hours to Playa. Once I arrive, I will check into our hotel, find a margarita somewhere and listen to the sounds of Playa. This has been a wonderful trip and I am thankful that I was able to do it. I’ve seen some of the most beautiful countryside and some of the worst, too and there is nothing that I would do differently. The way that I look at it; Total cost for the 3 nights hotel with tax.$374. Total cost of gas to get to Playa.$480. Driving through Mexico with my best friend. Priceless. So that’s my trip...My 2300 mile journey. Thank you for sharing it with me. If you ever have the desire to take a journey of your own, wherever that it might be, I hope that you will take the time to do it; I have a feeling that you will not regret it. A couple of must have items if you make this drive: Rainex for the windshield Windshield wiper fluid Windex and squeegee so that you can clean the bugs off the windshield Toliet paper, paper towels and hand wipes A compass if your vehicle does not have a built in one. This is probably the most important as you WILL get turned around. However, as long as you can see that you are going either in the south, east or southeast direction for 90% of the trip, you are heading in the right way. Pesos. Even OXXO does not take dollars until you get into a more of a tourist area. Here's a link to all of the pictures from our drive to Playa. I have not attached comments or tags to them yet but will do it soon. http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/macanded/Drive%20to%20Playa/

Menaje de Casa (Household Visa)

Well we did it. Well, I say we did it. Our Menaje de Casa was approved by the Dallas Consulate on Friday. I cannot tell you what a relief this was as it's just one more major milestone for our move.

For those that do not know what a Menaje de Casa is, let me explain. IF you are planning on taking anything, other than just a car load of items, across the border and you have your FM3 visa, you must seek the approval from the Mexican government to do so. It's bascially a list of your household items, organized in a spreadsheet format, listed by box with the contents of each box and in Spanish. We were fortunate as the Consulate provided the format for us to use so there was really no guessing on what they wanted to see. We also had to list the value of each box or item that we are taking.

Dave and I toyed with the idea on whether or not we would even take anything as everything that we needed could be purchased in Playa or Cancun. However, once we saw that we wanted to take those things that are precious to us and things that we just could not part with, such as photos, certain Christmas decorations, our soft sheets and fluffy towels, we decided to move forward with the process of buying a 6x10 cargo trailer and taking whatever would fit into that. and obtaining approval from Mexico to bring these things into their country. Sounds easy enough, right? I'm not sure that I would have called it easy. It was very stressful. In hindsight, the only reason it was so stressful was because we were under a deadline to get approval for this. Once an FM3 visa is received, you have 90-days to get the approval from the Consulate for the Menaje de Casa. Now don't get me wrong, I can work under deadlines with the best of them but when it comes to my personal life, including deciding what I am going to take that will fit in such a small space, it wore on my emotions. 2500 sq foot, fully furnished house down to nothing. Very emotional. But...guess what. It's liberating to know that it's just stuff. Stuff that can be replaced. Stuff that holds you back from making many decisions in life. Stuff that collects dust and stuff that you don't need or use any longer. I've asked myself over the course of the last few days why in the world would I have bought so much stuff???? You know how much money I could have saved? Instead, I gave my stuff away with a smile knowing that someone else out there is collecting stuff and they might, even if for a very short moment, enjoy my stuff. FREEDOM and LIBERATION. I hope that I never collect that much stuff again.

Now, we are faced with getting our remaining stuff across the border by Sept 24th. We will either head to the border to begin our journey on Aug 16th or Sept 5th. Not sure just yet. I can guarentee you that I will have a bottle of champagne in hand though when it happens.

Here's a copy of a sample menaje de casa; just click to see larger view.

Stay tuned...