We got to Tampico about 12:30, which was good traveling time. We opted to follow Redbeard’s directions and to take the bypass… Shirley’s directions had us going through downtown and both of us get lost every time we go to Playa del Carmen or Cancun, and we are familiar with both of those towns, and have been there and have learned our way around. We just didn’t trust ourselves to make the turns on time and not get lost in downtown Tampico.
It started raining just as we were entering Tampico, and it continued with a steady drizzle. Luckily, it wasn’t raining too hard. The bypass is kind of misleading… it might bypass the nice areas of the city, but you are still in traffic and congestion. We went through some of the worst living conditions that I have ever seen. Houses were built right next to the river, which has flooded, and entire neighborhoods were in about 3 – 4 feet of water. Some of the houses had water almost up to the second floor, and most of them had the first floors totally under water, and most of the houses are only one story. A tent city had been erected on higher ground, but it was still in about a foot and a half of water. It was just pathetic. It looked as bad as the Ninth Ward in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. We think that Tampico got a lot of rain and bad weather from Hurricane Dean, and now central Mexico is having a lot of rain. It’s rainy season too, so that isn’t helping. I was wondering why none of this had made the news, or wasn’t being talked about to death on CNN… oh yeah, right, because the people here just get up and help themselves, not spend their time mounting huge PR campaigns to get gift cards to spend on TVs instead of household necessities. Sorry… forgive the rant. Another lecture for another time. (Sorry, no pictures of Tampico. One, we were focused on getting through the maze and the mess and two, it was just too heartbreaking to take pictures. It just didn't seem right...)
We wound our way around the swamp of slums, and then up this enormous bridge that curves in the middle, and then back onto our beloved 180. We followed this through rolling countryside, with lots of interesting mountains and hills. Lots of greenery too. Lots of wildflowers on the side of the road. And lots of and lots of mountains. We kept following the road, and following it, twisting and winding up hills, down through valleys, through small little towns. It was very pretty and it was a side of Mexico that we had never imagined. I guess it can’t all be beaches and palm trees!
About an hour or so after we got out of Tampico, we hit our first military checkpoint. The guy asked for our car papers and checked the sticker on the window, just like we were told that he would. Then he asked about the dogs, and if I had their rabies vaccines. I was actually happy and excited! FINALLY someone is checking on the dogs! No one at immigration and/or customs was interested in seeing either the paperwork, or the dogs – they could have been half dead and infectious for all they knew (they aren’t) – and we had spent a lot of time and money and nerves getting the paperwork done for them, with the right dates, and planning our timing so that we could cross the border in time to meet the deadline for their papers, which is 10 days from being dated, and the deadline was Sunday - today. They guy looks at the papers, but they are in English so he can’t read them, but Solavina’s is in Spanish, which seemed to interest him but he didn’t say anything. He looked around the car a little and then asked me for some money. I was kind of confused – did I hear him correctly? Did I understand him? And also kind of nervous… how much money did he want, and what was he going to do if we didn’t pony up? Turns out that he saw our peso coins that we were using for the tolls sitting in the cup holder and he decided that he deserved a tip, I guess. I asked him “What?” and he said, “money – for sodas,” in perfect English. So, I gave him $20 pesos ($2 US) and he seemed ok with that. He shrugged his shoulders and waved us on. So, off we went again, through mas de mismo – more of the same -- hills, jungles, and bumpy, twisting roads.
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