June 21 - Topes & Sandwiches

Topes are awful. Topes are speed bumps that the Mexican authorities have decided need to be on every road large and small. Some are tiny, some are so big that we bottomed out… and we’re driving an SUV. Some are we marked with a sign. A few are even painted. Most are unpainted, unsigned, and they totally sneak up on you. Not fun when you’re doing 75 kph.

This morning we went to the supermercado in San Fernando to get stuff for sandwiches for the road. Whole wheat bread – check. Queso Manchego – check. Lunch meat… uh, well. The only option was ham and it all looked disgusting. My favorite was the nasty looking Jamon de Pavo (Turkey Ham). We decided to forgo the ham and ended up eating Manchego, spicy Chinese mustard (stolen packets from the states), and wheat thins sandwiches. But we were planning on camping tonight, so we thought we’d cook ourselves a nice meal.

In Tampico, Janet was driving and I directed her to a nice toll road to go around the city. A bunch of sketchy little roads, a crapload of wrong turns, and about an hour later, we were finally on the other side of town and headed back down the coast. Most of the time was spent circling the base of a bridge trying to find the one road that actually led up onto the bridge.

We got as far down the coast as Tuxpan and decided we would camp on the beach near Tuxpan tonight. So we went to the largest supermercado ever (think Super Walmart) and got some salmon, green beans, and sprouts for dinner. The deli at this store had about 45 types of ham (all gross lookimg) and 3 types of turkey (also gross), so I’m not too hopeful for our coldcut selection for the rest of this trip. We left the supermercado and headed toward the beach. After driving through a couple of small towns, our road dead-ended into and industrial port. Apparently, that wasn’t the beach. It was almost dark now so we turned around and headed back to Tuxpan to find a hotel. After failing to find the one written up in the Let’s Go guide, we ended up at the only big hotel we could find.

I went to check in and had this exchange:

“Nesecito una habitacion doble para esta noche” (I need a double room for tonight)

“Quieres una habitacion con una cama o dos camas?” (Do you want a room with one or two beds?”

“No me importa, cualquiera es mas barato” (Doesn’t matter, whichever is cheaper)

“Hay una persona o dos personas?” (Are there one or two people?)

“Dos”

“Son un matrimonio?” (Are you a married couple?)

“Si” (I assumed it would be easier to say yes and that it might be cheaper)

So she gave me the room key and it turned out the room has two single beds. Apparently she thought we were a married couple from a 1950s TV show. I don’t think Janet and I are pushing the beds together tonight though.

Our dinner tonight ended up being tuna fish sandwhiches with wheat thins (notice a trend) and yoghurt de manzanas (eaten with a fork, we left the spoons in the car). As I handed Janet her crappy tuna sandwhich, I told her, “Well, at least it’s not the worst sandwich I’ve handed you today.”

Tomorrow we’re headed to Tajín (ruins) and hopefully aren’t driving all day. Maybe tomorrow we’ll start our camping and be able to eat our salmon before it completely stinks up our cooler and all our beers!