We’ve Made it to Villahermosa!

A day late, but we made it to Villahermosa (in the state of Tabasco), the farthest east point on our trip – almost to Yucatan!  But to start the day … we really slept in this morning – didn’t get up until 6:40 am, which is really late for us!  But the wind outside is still truly howling!  When we got to the hotel yesterday, the door to the balcony of our room was locked, and I couldn’t figure out why!  After listening to the wind howl most of the night, I could now understand!  Wow!  When the wind blows here, it’s truly incredible! 

 Fortunately for us, our car was parked very close to the front door, so after a very nice buffet breakfast here at the hotel, we packed up and were on our way.  I wanted to be out by 8, but we were probably a few minutes past that.  As I had walked across the street last evening to get snacks, I figured I had done my “wind bit” so felt no compunction leaving R to put the suitcases in the trunk, as I dropped everything and headed straight into the car.  I was so nice and clean, that I didn’t feel like “feeling gritty” all day while we were driving. 

 The interesting thing, though, was that all the windows on the car were awful – even the side mirrors! – definitely needing cleaning!  The combination of humid salt air and windblown sand really did the trick.  I had thought that the hotel just hadn’t had their windows cleaning in a long-long-long-long-long-long time – but now I’ve realized that just one night sitting outside, and our car windows looked identical!  Incredible!

 I was able to wash the front windows with the windshield washers and water spray, but apparently there is no spray for the back windows, and it didn’t help the side windows either.  We managed to get to the first toll route and find a Pemex station.  We pulled in there and paid a young man 200 Mexican pesos (about $10) to clean all of our windows.  Made a BIG difference, let me tell you!  Relief to be able to get back on the road and actually be able to SEE out the windows!

 The drive from Boca del Rio to Villahermosa was scheduled to take about 5 hours and 45 minutes, give or take.  Well, it did that, and then some!  Turns out, this is just about the only road from the north that goes to Villahermosa … and, as it started to rain off and on during the day, there was, of course, an accident.  Looked like a bus vs. a semi, from what we could see of things and it stopped up the toll way entirely.  We basically had to inch our way forward for about 45 minutes.  NEVER thought we would be through that mess, but we made it! 

 The only photos we have from today (other than our delicious dinner tonight) are those that R took from the car, so I don’t have much identification other than we went over two bridges along the way!

  

R took this photo of a toll plaza!

   

A very tall bridge over a river!

Yet another bridge!

 

So, rather than taking about 6 hours to get from Boca del Rio, it took a good 7 hours … which truly made for a long day!  Our room, 506 on the top floor, was ready for us, and Bianca, the lovely gal with whom I spoke yesterday, greeted us warmly! 

 Our room really is lovely, and I got us unpacked as R set up the computer.  Not having a washing machine handy, and the hotel (surprisingly for a Hampton Inn!) not having a do-it-yourself washer and dryer, we are sending a HUGE washing out in the morning … with promises that everything will be back by tomorrow at 6 pm.  Better be, as R officially runs out of clothes tomorrow! 

After that, we headed downstairs to see about dinner in their restaurant.  Turns out that they don’t have a really extensive menu, but what they do have is really delicious!  Robert ordered their flank steak, cooked rare.  It came with grilled red and green bell peppers and grilled onion, as well as some guacamole and chips, which were wonderful!  I ordered their trio of shrimp tacos, which were really fabulous!  And I mean really!!  They had a great sauce over some chopped greens, and were so tastiful!  All washed down by a couple of glasses of Vino Tinto (red wine) which was also excellent.  

And they also have wine!

We started with some French fries!

R's excellent flank steak and veggies!

My amazing shrimp tacos!

 And still the rain continues to fall.  It’s interesting in that hasn’t by any means been constant all day, but definitely more off and on.  It’s also supposed to be colder and rainy tomorrow, but we’ll see when it gets here!  At any rate, after dinner we headed back upstairs, where I am now blogging and posting!

 Tomorrow, to La Parque Museo La Venta – still in the quest for more heads!

 So, more later and lots of love!

m

xxx