TRAVEL TO PISTE AND CHICHEN ITZA

We left Merida EARLY in the morning, ahead of the wagon master and most of the caravan, because we were running low on LP gas and had to hunt for the Delta Gas establishment for a fill-up. As we departed, we told the wagon master that we were going to stop for gas at Delta.


We did a left turn into oncoming early rush-hour traffic, and navigating on our own with the trip log and GPS we found the LP gas place, drove in, and had to stop the 5th wheel right on the road because we are too big for the LP fill-up ramp. It took us a while to fill both 30 lb bottles.



The tail gunner had also been informed of our planned stop for LP gas, but the tail gunner had passed us. The tail gunner is always supposed to be behind the last RV in the caravan. We were now on our own, as no-one really knew where we were, and we didn't realize the tail gunner had not seen us!


So, we had to navigate on our own to Piste for several hours out of CB radio range of the rest of the caravan until we ran into the tail gunner and Les and Cathy - a quite amazing couple - he coping quite well with paralysis of one side from a stroke, and her doing all the driving in the motorhome. Well, Les's electric buggy had fallen off the hitch carrier on the toad because of rough bumps on the road. When the tail gunner saw us coming up from behind he said - Where did you come from?!
This is Les listening to a Maya guide.

As we arrived in Piste, we were supposed to dry-camp on a baseball field, but the wagon master found that he had been miss-informed and they were preparing for a ballgame for that evening! We had to scramble from one muddy field to a hotel parking lot where we were packed like sardines.



Here is a view over the back wall of or tight parking lot - a residential street in Piste.
The wagon master told another member to ask me to turn-off our tandem Honda generators. It was VERY hot, and we were trying to take refuge in air conditioning. This request was tough but I complied - only to be surprised about 15 minutes later when I found the wagon master's generator ON - so I restarted my generators (grr)!

A few minutes later there was a general order by the wagon master to turn-off all generators.

This pool in the adjacent hotel did save the day. I think there would have been a mini riot had we not been able to cool-of and let out steam in this pool. (photo: Betty Brewer)

That night a local family put up a traditional dancing and costume show at our dinner.