Click on a photo to enlarge it.
On Monday, we drove Winnie back to the workshop and took the canoe off the roof. Tigre, one of the workshop dogs,
promptly took this opportunity to pee on the canoe handle!! Helen cut off the bottom of the kitchen blind which had
got a bit dirty and re-sewed it. The transmission was checked and topped up, air put in the air shocks, and the roof
sealing was completed.
We left at 7-45pm and helped prepare food - shrimps and octopus. We chatted to Dave and Carmen, who fell asleep
exhausted in the chair! Not surprising after all these late nights.
On Tuesday, we had coffee with Carmen and saw the new Pope revealed live on TV. Carmen drove us to the workshop and
then we spent 4 hours driving around Guadalajara with Carmen getting parts. We got back to Dave's at 7pm and had
yummy chicken and Chinese noodles.
On Wednesday, we gave Carmen a small gift to say thank you, as she was teaching today and we would be leaving before
we got back. Then we went to the workshop. Our air con needs a new compressor which Dave doesn't have. So that will
have to wait until next year. We have a new regulator for our propane tank as the old one was leaking. And hopefully
everything else is finished.
We cleaned the canoe and put it back on the roof and then settled the bill. We said sad goodbyes and left just after
11am.
Our first stop was only a few metres down the road at a weigh station. Winnie is under 3 tons and within the weight
range, but only just! At least we're legal which is what we wanted to find out. Then we drove to Wal-mart (!!) and
spent over an hour trying to clean Winnie a bit as he was quite a mess. After shopping and lunch, we set off at 2pm
and drove north for 5 hours. We stopped at a Pemex for the night and continued cleaning and putting things away.
We didn't sleep very well because it was quite loud. We also got cold! We carried on driving and got to a campground
at Zacatecas at 1-45pm. Actually it was a hotel car park but we had electricity and water and there was a brand new
shower and toilet room for us. Then we found out that the Britannica CDs we had bought from the market, don't work.
The installation is missing. We obviously should have been given a fourth CD!!
We washed Winnie outside, prepared a meal and then did a monster washing up that had been building up for the last
few days! On Friday, we wandered around the colonial streets of Zacatecas for a few hours which was really pleasant.
On Saturday, we got up early and started on the long drive north up to Copper Canyon - about 700 miles (1127km). The
roads were very good and we made a lot of progress until we hit a small town called Nazas and couldn't find the way
out!! We kept finding dirt roads. Eventually we asked a man on a bicycle who we followed to get to the proper road!!
He was pedalling like mad, so we gave him 10 pesos for a cold beer!!
We found a Pemex just as it was getting dark and we had managed 300 miles (483km) which is an absolute record in
Mexico!
It was really peaceful at the Pemex but we still didn't get much sleep because it rained all night!! Unfortunately,
our alcove window failed the test - it still leaks even though we've just had it resealed!
We continued our drive and met with strong head winds and sand storms! Then we got lost in Hidalgo de Parral and that
slowed us down aswell!! (In our defence - the road signs in Mexico are either missing or misleading and we're not the
only ones to complain!!) We finally managed to find the right road and hit even stronger winds on a very curvy road.
The amazing thing was that it didn't matter which direction we were driving - as we went round bends the wind was
still blowing in the same direction!
The strong wind blew out the pilot light for our fridge so we had to keep on eye on it. We took another detour to
avoid a toll road (a very long one as it turned out) and we finally found a Pemex at 8pm. Another 300 miles and
another extremely long day.
