Uruapan 3
8 AM, we're in front of the garage.
The camper will be repared " in the street ", but one has to wait until 9 am to buy a missing part.
Christophe talks with the son, while the father is on his way to buy what's missing and Jean-Pierre works on our web site.
It's getting hot, a sun umbrella is installed in the street !!!
The grand father joins the team. They are now 3 working in the camper.
The job has been done with the highest professionialism, security being their first concern.
No one in France would have made it so meticulously.
3 hours of work have been a way of creating friendship links with this fantastic family who asked us a ridiculous price.
Pictures and hugs to end this great encounter!!!
The fan is now working, we can go on, released.
During the rest of the day, we visit the " Parque National Barranca del Cupatitzio " where el rio Cupatitzio gushes out .Its name means " The river that sings".
Tropical vegetation and a lot of waterfalls : that's a nice park.
10 km away, we reach " Las Cascades de Tzararacua "...beautiful waterfalls but the water which was so clean in the park is now brownish (the city pollution and enefficient city water treatment.
Uruapan 2
Too much to think of ...we did'nt sleep well.
But we start our hike to the volcano.
The volcano " Paricutin " was born on 20th february 1943.
At about 4 pm, after an earthquake, some fumerolles emerge from the ground, and a fault grows.
4 days later, the cone is 60 m hight and the first nolten lava appears.
One week after the first eruption, the volcano reaches 130 m in height.
The eruption will last 9 years and makes " Paricutin " the youngest volcano on earth.
All the surrounding, villages have been buried and there is just church bell tower left as a witness of the past.
After 2 hours hike, we start our drive to " Uruapan " watching the temperature level, non stop !!!
The garage owner we found on internet is not specialized in electronic.
He askes one of his employee to take us to one of his collegues, and gives him money to come back by taxi. He refused our offer to pay for the taxi, although we insisted ....incredible.
The second garage owner said straight away that it will be impossible to find the broken part in Mexico, and that the only solution is to fix a switch to use the fan manualy.
His diagnostic is the same as our french mechanician (that we phoned) as well as Thierry's (that we also phoned)
Too busy today....the appointement is for tomorrow at 8 am.
We stayed on the parking lot of an hotel where we have a long chat with Celine and Eric, from Quebec....a nice couple, on the road.
Uruapan 1
We're heading today towards " Paricutin " volcano.
We're in the dry season : everything is dry and there's a lack of water.
The fields are burnt by the sun and the landowners burn waterver the sun didn't. That's why we're pleased to climb up into the mountain and find green pine and fur trees.
Since our arrival in Mexico the roads we take are full of rubbishes and we're used to it. But that's nothing compared to what we go through today.
The villages we cross are just rubbish tips...Very surprising !!!
Anyway, we arrive in " Anjahuan " at the feeet of the volcano.
The village is very difficult to get through.
The street are " paved " with volcanic pebbles. The camper is suffering and, bad luck, today is market day.
The main street is closed and we have to take passages which we hardly can call " streets ".
A real 30 minutes nightmare, Jean-Pierre on foot guiding Christophe behing the wheel.
But that's not our day !
When we arrive at our bivouac, the engine cooling fan refuses to stop even with the engine off.
After 15 mn, Christophe unplugs the main battery, but that's not a solution.
He finally finds a way of unplungging the fan for the night !!!
At an altitude of 2 500 m in the middle of nowhere...it's difficult to find a garage.
On internet, we locate one 40 km away in " Uruapan "
We'll see tomorrow.
ROAD BOOK 042
MAVROS ODYSSEE