Today was much better than yesterday.
Yes, we awoke in a bordello and Bob remembered where he was. I reminded him that we had four onlookers… so we got out of bed and started getting ready for the day. Most of the routine now is just getting the dog bowls and dog beds into the car without the dogs getting out of the door. We loaded up the car and then took the dogs for their morning walk. Not a whole lot of green open space around a bordello, but we managed to find some. After the dogs were done, we went to leave… only to be held up because one of the towels from the room was missing. Seems they do an inspection before they let you out of the gated community (like a parking garage gate). That dang Solavina, always stealing towels from everywhere we go. After a long discussion in Spanglish, I finally asked the guy if I could just pay for the towel, and be on our way. Ok, $20 American. Not wanting to swallow pride and get the towel out of the car and return it, I paid the $20 and I hope Solavina is happy, now that she has her very own “Motel Holiday” towel, and she had better have fun using it.
Next stop was for gas and pesos, so we followed the road into Coatzacoalcos. Or however you spell it and if you can say it, you win $5 US – really necessary to differentiate that now!
We followed the signs for Cocacolatown, as I was now calling it, or CCloco for short, and found ourselves lost (again) and without pesos or gas. (I really hope that my mother never reads this post.) We finally figured our way out of town (ok, I figured it out, with some help from the GPS, that said things like “go down unpaved road….” Yeah, that’s a good idea!) and got back onto the highway and eventually found the cuota (toll) road to Villahermosa. The next gas station was about 50 miles away, but we made it there, to Cardenas, and they had an ATM!!!! What a sight to behold! We got lots of money, some drinks, some water for the dogs, some snacks for us, and we were on our way again. Lots of the same scenery – rolling country side, mountains in the distance, cows, horses, pigs, goats and dogs and cats.
We made our way through Villahermosa without any trouble (getting lost) and were back on the highway. Villahermosa is about the size of Cancun and has another cool bridge at the end. The highway runs right through the middle of town and is slightly elevated, to allow you to see all the busy traffic that you are missing. As we left Villahermosa, we came back onto four lane, divide highway that just went straight ahead. Passed through your typical Mexican small towns, with stores selling lunch and tamales and tacos on one side and stores selling auto supplies and tires on the other. Lots and lots of dogs roaming around - but that’s another post for another time.
We followed the signs to Palenque and didn’t get lost once. I’ll have to write all of these hints down for future travelers, so they can avoid my mistakes. We got to the hotel Kin Ha, where it was recommended that we stay, as they take dogs… Bob went to check in and was told “no mascotas” – no pets. Meanwhile, there were three dogs wandering around the property, all friendly and fairly well maintained. There were about four or five people sitting at a table to the side, so I went over and asked them about having dogs… the woman, who seemed to be the owner, told me that she didn’t speak English and to go talk to the girl at the counter. I was speaking Spanish, so I’m not sure why she was telling me this. So I start again, and she tells me the same thing, before I can even finish my sentence… and gives me a really nasty look. There was a little baby there that one of the men was holding and cooing at and it did cross my mind to grab the kid and hold it hostage until we got a room. Instead, I went over to the counter and asked the girl, in English, if dogs were allowed, and she looked at another woman, who shook her head “no,” and the girl told me “no” in English (like I couldn’t figure this out on my own?). I told her that a friend of ours had recommended the hotel to us because she had stayed there a lot and that they allow dogs, and the girl repeated this to the woman who was standing there (who is a different woman than the mean owner woman. The woman just shrugged her shoulders and said, no mascotas… no pets. So, I asked the nice girl if she knew any place that would allow dogs, and she told me right across the street, at the Aldea. I thanked her, threw the mean owner woman with glasses some stink eye and got back in the car. We crossed the street and headed up the hill to La Aldea.
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