Day 10 & 11

Day 10 - Saturday, February 18th. Today we travelled 550km from Tuxpam to Acayucan. It took quite a while as there was much construction on the road. We did manage to arrive in Acayucan during daylight hours, although, PTL, so that was good. We landed up staying right off of the central plaza in a local hotel - Hotel Arco. It was only $40 for the night and it included our breakfast. You've gotta love that! The hotel didn`t have an elevator, although and we were on the 3rd floor. The poor guy who insisted on carrying up all our bags, the cooler, and all our other stuff. It must have been 30+ celcius plus 90% humidity! Needless to say, he was a sweaty mess after that!
The tolls we paid yesterday made up for what we saved on the hotel. We paid a total of 8 tolls and 472pesos ($38). That was a little crazy. One toll, which cost $10 was for a 5 minute drive! Oh well. The car ran great and we had a good day. Hope and I ended the day swimming a few laps under the stars. It was a great way to cool off before hitting the sack.
Day 11 - Sunday, February 19th. We put on 569km today and made it to our preferred destination - Tapachula - right on the border with Guatemala. We were not sure if we were going to experience tolls and crazy roads like yesterday, so we were not certain we'd make it to Tapachula. When we started out this morning, it was pouring rain and really slow going. There was a lot of construction on the roads and we had to wait numerous times as traffic was only using one lane of the highway. Then, after the first 2 hours, things opened up. The rain stopped and the roads widened and off we went. We did have one casualty today - an iguana. Over the past few days we have seen many roadside tragedies - dogs, cats, horses, cows, snakes, and iguanas - but we had not been the cause of one of these until today. This very cool looking iguana began to cross the road and then froze. Rocky steered the car to miss it, and then at the last moment, it decided to turn and run...right under our tire! Oooops!
We also passed through some pretty different landscapes today. From hot and humid tropical rain forest to dry dessert. As we drove out of a mountain pass, we came across an open field of windmills - hundreds upon hundreds of windmills, just like we saw in California. These things tower more than 60 feet high with these huge arms turning in the wind. It really is quite a sight to see.
We also had our first and only inspection today. Throughout this trip we have not had to show our passports or any of our paper work. Although there have been many army and police check points, we have been waved through each one. Today, we were stopped and had to get out of the car. They didn`t want to see any papers, but they did check the car. We thing they were looking for drugs and weapons. All was good and in a few minutes we were on our way again. I suppose the trip wouln`t have been complete without at least one check like this.
Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we are going to hit the border and make our way into Guatemala. Prayerfully, things will go smoothly as we are needing to make our way through Guatemala and into Honduras in 2 days.
Thanks for your prayers and thoughtful words of encouragement. We are so blessed!
Blessings,
Karren