There was no office to speak of so went into the restaurant and yes they had a room. (Good thing as if it would have been full, we would have had to backtrack many many miles OR start over the gravel road (more about that later) or sleep in the truck!
So we checked in and he told us the room number (of course it was #8 Jessi!!!) and I asked for the key and he said, there's no key, it's open! And he was right - there was NO KEY for the room! You could lock it once you were in there for the night BUT could not lock it when you went outside! That was a little unnerving as we were carrying a lot of cash but you know, this is Mexico!!! There were actually only 3 other couples there that we saw in the restaurant so we weren't very worried!
Now the room? Very bare bones - there was a king size bed with a heavy spread on it and we hoped that would be warm enough as there are no heaters in the rooms and it was still pretty chilly at night! There was also an old couch and table in there - the bathroom had a newer sink and the shower was OK EXCEPT for the fact that the hot water was barely a trickle..............I chose to wait till the next stop to shower!! On the table were 2 bath towels and a bar of soap and that was it!!
It was very cool and windy out so we just hung out in the room for awhile and then went down for an early dinner. And darn if I forgot to take a picture of the meal we split but it was the BEST meal on the trip - grilled shrimp and fish over a bed of rice with veggies and very well presented!! We were both impressed!
Did I forget to mention electricity was just on a generator?? I was reading in bed later and about 10 the lights went off and I thought to myself - this is it, electricity is off for the night but it did come back on in a minute!!
Luckily Glenn had checked to see what time breakfast was as we eat and run pretty early and the restaurant didn't open till 8 so we knew that wouldn't work!! We got up early (and yes, we stayed plenty warm) and the water was beautiful that time of the morning!!
We knew when we left that we had the "gravel" ahead!! That's one of the reasons many people don't cross at Mexicali because there's approximately 30 kilometers of gravel as the highway isn't finished. But it saves a lot of time to go this way so that's why we decided to attempt it!! We hadn't been on the highway very long before a large sign said detour and we headed into the unknown!!
The strange thing was the road would separate several different times and there were no signs to direct you to which road you should take - and at that time of the morning there wasn't any traffic at all!! The gravel was more rugged than many of our ATV trails in Colorado - rocky, bumpy, pot holes, narrow at times (and if you had met a semi, you would have had to back up!!) and just darn slow!!
At one point we got behind a semi that was leaving a work station and we followed him for a while so I snapped a couple of pictures through our dirty windshield!
The pictures don't make the road look so bad but we knew we would NEVER take our 5th wheel on a road like this!! We FINALLY met a car once so at least knew we were on the right track!! At times you knew the other road was the new road and we would turn on it for a while. But all in all it took us 2 hours to drive that stretch!! So do the math and know we sure didn't drive very fast at all!
I was SO GLAD to get off that road!! We had eaten beef sticks and oranges in the car for breakfast but were definitely ready for a meal and since there was no frig or ice to buy the night before, our ice chest needed some ice desperately!! We found a small restaurant in one of the VERY small towns we were going through and had a great meal and bought some ice before we were back on the road!!
And the adventure continues.......................
3 comments:
You are way braver that I would be - did people speak English at the little towns?
Yikes, when that road split I would have freaked out! Glad you guys kept your cool!
ADVENTURE is right!! Wow!
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