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09-08-2008, 09:28 PM
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Drive to Playa day 4 part 1
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 are all of the pictures and they are not in any order. I have not had a chance to include descriptions but I will soon...promise. macanded/Drive to Playa - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting     
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09-08-2008, 10:06 PM
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 I'm relieved to know you're safe and in PDC!  Dang girl, you and Dave made good time! Now you can definitely break out the champagne or at least a few margaritas! Did you end up driving any or did Dave drive all 2300 miles? How is your bed? I bet you're exhausted and starving. Is it raining in PDC? Are there any effects of Ike? I haven't looked at the pictures yet. I'm going to now. What day do you fly back, Thursday?
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09-08-2008, 10:16 PM
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I told Dave I'd drive 1/3 of the way here...well I was writing so many notes and taking pictures and when he asked if I wanted to drive, I said yes but he has to take notes and pictures. He said no thanks! Well, I offered to drive from Chetumal to Playa and his response was, "Are you kidding...no thanks. I am not going to drive us 2000 miles for you to pull us through the last 300! I got it". hmmm...okay, I was just offering!  I have not even checked out the bed yet. We put our stuff in the room, took the laptop to the lobby area and ordered margaritas. That's where I am now. We are getting ready to head to...well I don't know where we are going but it will involve food because we are starving! After dinner...I am going to bed. Will let you know about the bed tomorrow. When do you leave for Hawaii? Please do a trip report for that.  We fly back on Sunday afternoon. We have to go look for storage tomorrow to put this stuff into along with the truck, buy a pump for the bike tires then the rest of the week is for hanging out at the pool, beach or wherever. Oh, I have to go renew our contract on our office space. One year this month and we have not used it once! It was for tax purposes really.
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09-08-2008, 10:34 PM
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Kami, have a margarita or three- you deserve it after a drive like that. Hell, with my bad back, I don't think I could even stand up after logging that many miles that fast.
 Great trip report, hope you'll have time to write more. Have fun!
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09-08-2008, 10:36 PM
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We leave Friday so we'll be gone when you get back. Should I do a trip report on this forum since it isn't related to Quintana Roo or PDC? Wow, I didn't realize you had the office space a whole year! I'm glad you have several days to enjoy PDC! I look forward to hearing more from you tomorrow!
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09-08-2008, 10:51 PM
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09-08-2008, 10:54 PM
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I plan on getting some sun this week. My white rear-end needs some! I will talk to you before you leave to Hawaii. Tell Brent hello for us.
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09-08-2008, 10:56 PM
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Advil has been my friend!
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09-08-2008, 11:17 PM
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 Brent said hi. 
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09-08-2008, 11:20 PM
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I feel your pain..next time try driving it with a mother-in-law in the back seat.
__________________
I'll take 2, please. Please bring them to me over here. 
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09-08-2008, 11:36 PM
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09-09-2008, 12:01 AM
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Wow, what a trip Kami! I feel exhausted just from reading your report!
Glad you made it safely to Playa, and finally have a chance to rest!Reading your trip report brought back so many memories of our drives across Mexico. I have so many questions and comments! Guia Roji - So glad you finally got yourself this atlas. It's awesome! It's the only map for Mexico we've found to be accurate (mostly). Between that and the SCT driving directions, we had all the info we needed. But what is the Mapsco? I don't see it on their website. We have an older version of this atlas. Checkpoints - Oh my! You sure encountered a ton of checkpoints! And got asked to pull over a lot. I guess it's probably part of Calderon's war on drugs. Things have changed since we last did the trip, although we didn't go through Tampico. The only time we got stopped in our 3 drives was to make sure we weren't taking meat into the state we were about to enter. No searches, no passport checks, nothing. Tolls - I was laughing about the tolls! We found the state of Veracruz to have the most expensive tolls and the WORST roads! We figured they needed the money to fix them. Coca vs Coca Light - Yeah, this is a pet peeve of mine cuz I'm a Diet Coke girl. But Mexicans do NOT do Diet Coke. Even in Playa when you get off the tourist beaten path, it can be hard to get. Convenience stores often run out of it, and don't even try to order it at your local taqueria! Well, now you have another adventure under your belt. Living and working in the Riviera Maya will bring you a whole lot more adventures and new experiences. Seeing how you've handled things so far, I think you'll be just fine.
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