Chiconcuac - noon

Aha! I've found out where we are - just outside the village of Chiconcuac. Coming in yesterday, we were so intent on finding the park, we drove right through the village without seeing any identifiers. So we cycled into town this morning, right after the power (and thus my Facebook chat, of course - and the internet as a whole) went down. I should really arrange to have the power go out more frequently, to get me off the computer and out cycling, or walking, or swimming. I was just so excited that the network was actually functioning this morning, I wasn't going to get off until I had read absolutely everything on my list. I had internet access for a while yesterday, but it would have worked faster under treadle power.

This morning, Robin saw that I was connected, so he grabbed his computer and turned it on, whereupon I lost my connection. We thought at first that we had just overloaded the network, but then we saw that there was no electricity in the RV at all.

So off we cycled to town - uphill all the way. We bought a few groceries from a lovely lady who looked at me with a very stern expression, wagged her finger, and told me in Spanish to practice my Spanish! I felt about six years old. Then she smiled, I giggled, and we had a great chat - in Spanish, of course. Once Robin and I had bought our groceries, we cycled home for brunch, stopping first at the town hall, where I noted the town's name. Along the road, we flagged down the water truck and asked its driver to follow us home, so that we could replenish our drinking water supply.

When we got back to the park, we had new neighbours. I said "Good morning" to them, and they looked a little baffled, so I said "Hola!" and they responded. It turned out that they are Francophones from Quebec. I let them know that the water man was coming, and we stood talking for a few minutes in our broken Spanish, mostly, with a little English and French thrown in now and then. I speak no French, so that part was interesting. I asked the gentleman whether he spoke any English, and he replied in Spanish, "Poquito" (a little). They are here to spend a month learning Spanish by living with a family in Cuernavaca. Then they are going to spend another month just exploring. I like that kind of encounter. It's hard for people to stand on their differences when everybody is struggling for words, looking equally foolish.

It also turns out that we didn't break the electrical system. At least I assume we didn't, because the whole town is out, and Robin's laptop doesn't draw that much power!

News flash: While I was connected this morning, I opened my e-mail and discovered that my Found Poetry submission had been accepted. Woo-hoo! I am totally chuffed. My find will be up on the site today http://www.foundpoetry.org/blog/2009/02/from-la-ventosa/. I just hope I'll be able to see it. I'm starting to feel like a bona fide citizen of the blogosphere. Thanks to Kathryn Magendie for introducing me to Found Poetry.

It's just occurred to me that I'm taking part in a small but not insignificant culture change. Whenever I visit people's homes, I am drawn to their bookshelves. Seeing what books they read - and what books they care about enough to keep - can tell me a lot about new acquaintances, and it can also lead me to discover new books, new authors. Now, when I find a new and interesting blog, I explore its Links section and its Blogs I'm Following section. There are some fascinating blogs out there, written by fascinating people, and most of them have Links and Blogs I'm Following sections, too. The web is so full of a number of things - it's a wonder I ever get any exercise!

Somewhere near Cuernavaca, Morelos

Three hundred and some-odd kilometers from Acapulco, that's where we are. We left behind the sultry jungle air and the crashing of the surf, and we climbed the Sierra Madres. For a while, it seemed we had lost the palm trees, in favour of pines - but then the palms began to reappear, along with prickly pear and a cactus that may have been a saguaro. It looked as if someone had stretched a saguaro out so that it got really tall and skinny.

Seeing that cactus made me remember a conversation I had several years ago with my friend Lupytha, who managed the RV park where we stayed in Bahia Kino, Sonora. I asked her what a particular cactus was called in Spanish. She said "Cactus." Fair enough. What about that other one, the barrel cactus - what is that called? "Cactus. We just call them all cactus." Well, I guess that simplifies things!

Getting out of Acapulco turned out to be as easy as we hoped - if expensive. We traveled mainly on a toll road. I said at one point that it was an elegant road. It was smooth and straight, terrain permitting, and as we neared Cuernavaca there were plantings down the centre - dwarf palms and oleander. At least the tolls are well spent. The scenery was lovely. It reminded us what a huge country Mexico really is.

One odd thing was that we passed several towns along the way to which there were no exits. Nor were the names of the towns posted. I don't know how people get to or from those towns, but it certainly isn't via the toll road.

I was a little apprehensive when I saw what RV park Robin had chosen. It seems to be owned by the same people that own the place where we stayed last night. However, it is very quiet and pleasant. The park is nearly full of rigs, but we and the people next to us are the only campers in residence. I think the rest are permanent sites leased by people from Mexico City or thereabouts. We are near a village with a number of little shops selling fruits and vegetables, general groceries - and there's a tortilleria, where I bought half a kilo of corn tortillas, fresh off the press. The road from the village to the park reminds us both of places in England. There's a long, very tall stone wall right next to the road. It seems to surround an estate. Very English.

We've booked in for two peaceful nights in the mountains.

Acapulco

Sounds romantic, doesn't it? There was a time when Acapulco was the ultimate in romantic getaways - but I think it's lost a lot of its nice. We tried to avoid coming into town at all, but we missed our turn. I think we were supposed to turn right, back at the little town that was only about eight blocks long - eight blocks of solid traffic jam. Have you ever had the desire to jump out of your car, leap up on the roof, and start yelling "Listen, idiots!" Either all the intersections were four-way stops, or there were no stops. I'm not sure. At any rate, every intersection was a knot of cars and trucks and buses and us, nobody moving, everybody except me honking (and no, I wasn't causing the snarl!) Between the intersections, there was a parade - a very slow-moving, sometimes not-moving - parade of the vehicles that had managed to bully their way onto the highway. All I could think about was getting through the mess. Eventually, I did, and it soon became apparent that I had driven right into Acapulco - and right into a construction zone.

Well. I didn't hit anybody, and I didn't get lost in a maze of tiny streets. With Robin's help, (he of the excellent map reading skills) I drove calmly down the coast road and went through two separate cities, to all appearances. Is there a Nuevo Acapulco now?

I finally made a wrong choice - I knew that I had, but couldn't help it, traffic being what it was - and ended up on one of those tiny dirt and pot-hole streets. I turned left at the next corner and stopped. There was a little store there, with a taxi parked in front of it. We asked the taxi driver to lead us to this RV park, and he did. Even he had to stop to ask directions.

All that was about three hours ago. It was still light outside, but Robin had had enough for the day - which had started out, after all, with a trip to the tire shop, so that we didn't actually get on the road until 11:00 o'clock. We also try not to drive at night here (remember my description of the topes?). So we rented a space at Diamante Acapulco RV Park. It's not a thing of beauty, but it is a place to sleep. It has electricity and wi-fi - and Robin says it has two swimming pools.

TJ and Kris hadn't had enough fun yet, I guess, so they decided to keep going. I have a feeling we won't see them again until we get to the Yucatan, because they're talking about going all the way down to Playa Escondido and then cutting across. Robin prefers to catch the expressway, which is very close to here, and head toward Mexico City, then detour later (I hope!) We will keep in touch via Facebook, though, and hook up earlier if we can.

So buen viaje, TJ and Kris! And good-night, all.