Mexico…finalmente…
Daniel estava ansioso por viajar dentro do pais e, e claro que sabiamos que as estradas daqui nao seriam nada parecidas com as americanas mas, a realidade ficou bem abaixo da nossa ja pouca expectativa. As estradas
sao estreitas, ruins, perigosas e cheias, mas CHEIAS de buracos, ou deveriamos ate chama-los de crateras. Estamos usando a tecnica descrita por outro casal de Americanos que fizeram esta mesma viagem ate o Brasil e de volta aos EUA, que e o “slalom driving”
que significa ter que gingar com o veiculo de um lado para o outro a fim de tentar desviar da maioria dos buracos porque, sinceramente, impossivel desviar de todos. Alem de ter que muitas vezes usar a pista contraria sendo que os veiculos do outro lado tambem
usam este recurso o que torna as manobras bastante perigosas.
O transito e caotico nas cidades maiores e apesar de existirem as leis de transito e de aconselhar-se a segui-las, ninguem as obedece, todos vao se “enfiando” aqui e ali, onde
tiver uma brecha e todos com pressa. Ate agora, com 4 dias de viagem dentro do Mexico, ainda nao podemos dizer que tivemos “prazer” em viajarmos por aqui…vamos ver daqui para adiante!
Hoje, 6 de setembro, sexta feira, estamos aqui
em Ciudad Del Carmen e ha um grupo de pessoas num “batuque” digno de ensaio de carnaval ai no Brasil…
De Ciudad Victoria passamos pela cidade portuaria de Tampico e Ciudad Madero. Pretendiamos neste dia chegar ate a cidade de
Poza Rica mas no meio do caminho nos avisaram que a estrada estava bloqueada devido a greve dos professores e como ja eram 5 horas da tarde e haviam nos desaconselhado viajar a noite, retornamos para o poblado mais proximo e tentamos achar um hotel em que
pudessemos colocar o motorhome dentro do estacionamento mas neste “poblados” hoteis ate existem mas os espacos sao diminutos e as ruas estreitas, passamos alguns sufocos para podermos dar re, fazer volta e entrar em certas ruelas com este “caminhao”,kkk
Retornamos para a fila de espera para o desbloqueio da estrada pois chegamos a conclusao que haveria um comboio de pessoas viajando a noite e que estariamos protegidos…liberada a estrada…seguimos ate proximo de Poza Rica onde pernoitamos
num posto de abastecimento.
Mexico...at last!
Daniel was eager to travel on the Mexican roads and explore the country and of course we knew beforehand that the roads here would by far be different from the American roads but reality showed us
that even our already low expectations were too high! Roads(if they can be called so...) are narrow, dangerous and full, did I say FULL, of potholes or should I say craters since some of them are huge...We are using a driving technique described by another
American couple who have made this round trip as being "slalom driving" which means you have to swing and sway your vehicle to try to avoid some of the potholes and obstacles since it is impossible to avoid all of them. Besides having to use the opposite side
of the road sometimes and the opposing vehicles use the same option which makes these maneuvers quite dangerous.
Traffic is chaotic in big cities and in spite of the traffic signs being there and the drivers being advised to follow them, no one seems
to care and signs are not observed at all, drivers keep pushing their vehicles in every small breach there is and since our vehicle is a little bigger it can be hard most of the time. Up to now we have been travelling 4 days into the country and we cannot
say it has been a pleasing trip. Lets see how it goes from here on...
Today is september 6th and we are here in Ciudad del Carmen and there's a group of people singing and dancing and playing their musical instruments that we could say we are
in Brazil before carnival when the groups rehearse for the big show...
From Ciudad Victoria we went through the harbour city of Tampico and Ciudad Madero. Our intention was to get to the town of Poza Rica when on our way we were advised to return to
the nearest poblado and stay overnight because the road was blocked due to a strike of teachers demanding raise in salaries and better working conditions. Since this was 5 in the afternoon and we were advised not to travel at night we decided to look for a
hotel where we could park the RV in their parking lot and spend the night. But in these small poblados there are hotels but parking lots...hardly...and the streets are so narrow we had a hard time turning corners and backing up to maneuver, and some streets
are SOOOO steep our cargo carrier in the back of the RV hit the bottom several times...what to do??? Back we went to the line of trucks and cars which were waiting for the road to be unblocked and we figured there would be a convoy of vehicles travelling that
road so we decided to take our chance. Road free...we were able to get close to Poza Rica where we spent the night at a gas station which stays open 24h.