Sound Advice

Saturday evening was our official going away party for our friends, which was lovely. It was nice to see people and get caught up. Many of our friends stayed in touch through us, so many were happy to have an occasion to get caught up with each other as well as bid us farewell. I teared up a few times saying farewell to good friends - but overall tried not to hug anyone too hard or linger too long on wondering if we would see them again - either in Oaxaca, Toronto, or elsewhere.

When two of our friends left, I shared with them that they had given us some of the best advice we ever had received about immigrating to another country. They both immigrated to Canada not so long ago, and told us that they made the mistake of treating the first 6 months they were here like a vacation. This piece of advice really resonated with us - how rich do you think you are when on vacation?

Some other great advice we received:

• Buy a sombrero as wide as your hips to make sure you stay shaded
• There is always a spare room available at a friends place to come back and visit
• You will eventually be stopped and asked for money - 17 years of good fortune in this area has to dry up sometime
• Just because some people eat it, does not mean you should eat it
• As we were downsizing and getting rid of our belongings, a friend told us that if we had things that held a memory but we did not want to get rid of them, to take a picture of the item and then donate it. the picture would bring back the memory just as fondly and sweetly as the actual article, but it was a whole lot easier to pack

I am sure there are more that escape me right now, but I thought I'd get these down to encourage you to consider other gems that should make up this collection.

Almost four and a half years since our last posting when we returned from our stay in Oaxaca, Mexico and here we are again, ready to return to Oaxaca. Just 4 more days and we will be off on our new life's journey, the three of us: Tanya, Ralph and Diego (the family cat).

As back in 2010, we will be blogging our experiences and adventures. We hope that you will find the posts interesting and that you will follow us on this blog. Through reading about our adventures you will be able to experience Mexico and its peoples from the comfort of your homes.

Welcome aboard,
Ralph & Tanya

Mexican Tolls

We have been back in Toronto now for 3 weeks and have been very busy and not updating this blog as we should. By very busy, I mean that we have been driving to our Montreal area cottage which is a 6 hour drive and renovating the property each weekend. During the week Tanya is working and I am looking for a new contract. But I found the time this morning, after taking Tanya to the airport for her flight to San Francisco. She will fly back on Friday evening where I will meet her in Montreal so that we can work on the cottage again on the weekend and drive back to Toronto Sunday night.

Anyway, I want to give you an update on the cost of toll roads in Mexico. When we drove to Oaxaca, MX last October we left Austin, TX in the moring and crossed into Mexico at Brownsville and drove down the Gulf coast to Veracruz, turned right and drove towards Puebla and then south to Oaxaca. The tolls were approximately 550 pesos. The road conditions were okay but not great. There were lots of trucks on single lane roads which had pot holes and topes. A pretty drive though.

Our return trip was straight north to Laredo with tolls reaching 716 pesos. There were 16 toll stops ranging from 10 pesos to 120 pesos. The road conditions were great. The roads were straight, in excellent condition, mainly divided highway and lots of room for passing. The views were lacking but the driving was fast.

We had expected to take 3 full days to get to Austin as it had taken 3 full days in October to drive from Austin to Oaxaca. We arrived at Laredo late in the afternoon before 5:00 PM. The border crossing only took minutes. We turned in our temporary vehicle import permit at the first booth, drove another 5 meters where we paid a toll then drove up to the U.S. check point. We had nothing to declare other than a few cigars and 1.5 litres of Mescal. So, other than giving our Canadian nationality and Toronto destination we were quickly flagged through. All of this was accomplished under 10 minutes. I am not counting our 1st pass through where we missed the import permit both and had to circle around after paying the toll. But even with the circling I am sure that we were not more than 20 minutes crossing the border.

So, there we were, on the U.S. side of the border and plenty of sunlight left in the day so we decided to continue north. Because it was a long day for the cat in the car we stopped at Dilley, TX for the night which is about 1 hour south of San Antonio and the Alamo. Cat or no cat it was a good time to stop. We could have continued to Austin but it would mean arriving at 10:00 PM at night. Definitely not a good time to be showing up at a friends home where we are guests.

To make this short story longer let's summarize.

Tolls: Gulf Coast $550. Laredo crossing $716.
Time: Gulf Coast 3 days. Laredo crossing 2.5 days.
Driving: Gulf Coast a bit stressful because of trucks. Laredo crossing stress free except around Mexico City..
Scenery: Gulf Coast excellent. Laredo crossing boring.
Recommendation: I would drive the Gulf Coast again and take my time and enjoy the scenery. And I would stay over night along the way on the Emerald Coast next to the water. Even slowing down we would get to Oaxaca within the 3 days.

Poor Lil' Blue

Our little, blue Suzuki Swift took a bit of a beating in Mexico. All of those back country dirt roads, speed bumps and vados (inverted speed bumps or dips) plus failed pavement and pot holes make quite an impact on the wheels.

On the drive to Austin we noted that the car was pulling a bit to the left and there was a shimmy in the steering wheel. My first thought was that the alignment was off. In Austin, since we were to be there for 5 days, I took the car into a Suzuki Dealer for a check-up. Well, the Swift model is not sold in the U.S. so they do not have any specifications against which to check anything. Their alignment machine does not have a setting for the Swift so they could not check the alignment.

The mechanic took the car for a test drive. When he returned he said that since it wobbles at slow speeds the problem may be the tires themselves. To test this theory he switched the front tires to see if the car still pulled to the left. Well it then pulled to the right. He also pointed out that all 4 rims were bent out of shape. I was not surprised because I hit so many speed bumps at high speed and also dropped into many pot holes. I was more surprised that the tires had not blown out.

So I ordered 4 new rims from Hub Cap Annie's which I had to pickup and bring back to Suzuki. These rims were US$120 each. Whoa! In Canada the rims were C$60 each. Very curious.

The new wheels got rid of the shimmy but not the pulling. This will have to be looked at back here in Canada where the Swift model is supported. We were lucky during our 6 months in Mexico. In Oaxaca there was a Suzuki Dealership for motorcycles and not cars. We had to supply our own oil filter for oil changes. If we had required serious repair, would the Swift model have been supported out of Mexico City and Puebla or would it have been the same as in Austin.

Lesson Learner: Consideration for our next vehicle will include research to ensure that it is supported in the U.S. and Mexico.

The Texas to Ohio Drive

We left Austin early Thursday morning to beat the morning traffic. Andy gave us driving directions that took us around any bumper to bumper spots. We cleared the city and headed north. Tanya and I continued to do the driver switch every 2 hours so that we did not get overly tired.

We took a different route north because we were stopping in Dallas for lunch with Tanya's vendor friends at HP. We were given a quick tour of the HP campus then off to lunch with Debra, Jeannette and John. Missy was left to roam inside the car with water, food and her litter box readily available.

Back on the road we continued north. Because of the extra stop in Dallas we were only able to get as far as Little Rock, Arkansas. On the way south we had stopped in West Memphis. We stayed at the Galloway Inn in Little Rock and paid the $10 premium to have Missy stay in the room. While Missy was getting comfortable in the room Tanya and I went over to the Iron Skillet for supper.

Friday morning we got on the road about 9:00 am after our continental breakfast of juice, danish/bagels and coffee. We had lunch at Subway somewhere on the road in Tennessee. We even stopped for an afternoon snack at Dairy Queen somewhere in Kentucky. The flat land and straight roads started to change in Kentucky where hills started to appear.

On our trip south we had stayed in Fort Wayne, Indiana but this time we are on a different route and were targeting Dayton, Ohio for the night. However, it was getting dark as we were passing through Cincinnati so we stopped in Sharonville at an Econolodge just north-east of Cincinnati. So here we are, getting ready for the final charge north. The last time that I will have to load the car which we unpack every night.

Our crossing will be Detroit. The crossing was picked by our GPS as the fastest way home. I hope it has taken into account the actual time to cross the border. But we are ready. We have a list of the things we bought and are bringing back. In all it totals less than $400. I only have 4 cigars left and 1 bottle of Texas wine. We should not have a problem.

And friends. We are looking forward to seeing our Toronto friends again. See you all soon.

The Alamo

This morning we awoke from our cinder block hotel room to a mat of bugs outside the front door. They seemed to be a type of June bug, or large beetle, they were all on their backs, dead or dying. In spite of this ominous greeting, we packed the car and headed to Austin, with a short stop at The Alamo.


Understand I know very little of The Alamo, other than my nephew Colin is a huge Davy Crocket fan, who was actually 49 years old when he fought at The Alamo. I can say that the visit was a bit underwhelming. I had expectations of the great Canadian forts, high, thick stone wall, huge grassy plains and old support buildings. The Alamo was at best a lovely inner city park, with one building filled with large placards describing the US version of the great Mexican/Texan conflict. The area is ripe with Texas and Mexican history, which was I suppose an appropriate end to our six months in Mexico.

We have now arrived at our friend’s house, where we stay for 5 sleeps, and then back in the car to finish the last leg of our journey home.

The Sun Sets Over Texas - That's Dilley, Texas

Day 2 on the road, and we just "made" Texas this evening. We drove from Oaxaca to Queretaro, Mexico the first day, and stayed at the lovely Real Minas hotel. It seems Expedia hotel policies are not always accurate, and after some discussion, Missy (our Siamese cat) was allowed in as long as I brought her in discreetly. Well, for those of you who know Missy, discreet she is not!
This morning we rose early and ordered room service, which was a great start to the day. We then drove about 12 hours into Texas, crossing the border at Laredo.   As much as Matamoros, in October, was immediately Mexico, Texas in April was immediately Texas. Denny's. H.E.B. KFC. Domino's Pizza. Sign after sign of the American Dream - food. Gringo Food.
Gone were the signs of not driving while tired, no more signs asking me to not leave rocks on the road. My favorite road signs were outside of Queretaro, fake federal police cars! They look pretty real, too.
The road side stands today were filled with copper pots, garlic, strawberries and some weird long things that looked like snake skins, but we decided not to stop and find out for sure! Next time...