We left Monterrey on Sunday morning after few days of rest. The cold Nadia and I had stay behind us as well. We had decided to go southeast in direction of Veracruz, going through Tampico and Tuxpan.
Monterrey is great, and for many reasons I love the city and it’s population, but here, it is as expensive than the U.S., and I can’t really afford it. Anyhow, I will be back in the future and now is time to go.
In the absolute, I would like to not spend more than US$ 5 to get a space to open the tent every night. As we passed Ciudad Victoria, after roadside grilled corn with spice, and as the night was falling, we began to look for a place we could ask for hospitality. The Tamaulipas region seems to subsist on animal farming, and we saw numerous roads leading to ranches on the roadside. At 6:30, as darkness was already here, we settled for one of these roads, labeled “Chocoy”.
The large ranch had many buildings, but the first one looked more modern, and we started large maneuvers to attract attention of the habitant.
It is a delicate affair, since houses have no bells, and anyway, you can’t really go outside of the truck because of the many dogs jumping around. Your best bet is to honk until someone shows up. And as they will probably try to scrutinize you through the windows, turn on the dome light inside the car, and smile already.
After 10 minutes of effort, thanks to a screaming TV inside of the house, we succeeded in getting an old man out, who told us he really didn’t see a problem in having us camping in the driveway. He then disappeared without a good-bye.
After a diner with the friendly dogs, we went to bed.
We woke up late, at 7:30, which is a lot of time in bed, if you consider we were sleeping by 10 p.m.
This is also a sign that the roof-tent setup is really comfortable. Need to get an alarm clock, I guess.
An hour later, I was driving in direction of Tuxpan. As we were driving, it got increasingly hot in the car. At first, I didn’t get too alarmed, as these cars are famous for getting really warm, but as we arrived in the city, it became clear that something weird was happening. Soon, in the city center, the car also began to do A LOT of noise. To be more precise, the same noisy you would get if you had no exhaust pipe. I stopped on the side, and noticed than an oxygen sensor popped out of the exhaust pipe, letting the gases escape.
We found a quiet place, and with the help of young guys we met, bolted back the sensor on the pipe. But of course, the world being a not-so-perfect place, and thanks to the New York rust, we will now travel in a more noisy fashion. Also, soon enough, the car was getting warm again, so I will have to look again for the source of the problem. We went with our new friends to get shrimps, and after good-bye, we drove few more hours in direction of Veracruz.
In Poza Rica de Hidalgo, we made a quick stop in the Toyota dealership, but they could not see what could possibly be wrong. Regardless, those toilets were the best one I saw in a while.
On the Gulf of Mexico coast, we were able to negotiate a US$5 camping space, and went to sleep at 10 p.m. after fixing diner.
