When bad things start happening, it is best to be in a good place and that was true in this situation. The Hotel Tepetepan and RV Campground was owned and operated by an American from Chicago. Gene not only spoke English, but had lived in Catemaco for the past seven years. He knew the best brake mechanic in town. He took me over to the taller and introduced me to the owner. Gene’s Spanish told the owner what my problem was and arranged a time for his crew to come over to the campground and check out my brakes. The next morning the owner and two of his workers came to the campground and started to work. The front brakes were good, but the back brakes needed new pads. By the end of the day, we had a good set of brakes on the RV.

The Hotel Tepetepan and RV Campground

The Blogs have been few due to only intermittent Wi-Fi, but we should be able to catch up here in San Cristobal, Chiapas. We left Veracruz and drove to Catemaco, Veracruz, Mexico. A truly beautiful place, a location one would consider staying, like forever. Bordered beside Lake Catemaco, the Puebla of 23,000 was only a few minutes’ drive to the coastal beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

Catemaco lies in the mountains at 1200 feet. Not very high, but the climb is short and steep. That’s when things started happening. Just a few miles from Catemaco, as we passed through the Puebla of San Andres Tuxtla, the RV brakes faded from overheating. Fortunately, we were on a level plane and traveling only about 5 miles per hour. I pulled over and pumped the brakes for that last bit of stopping power. I was towing the car up and down the hillside and the extra 3200 lbs. overloaded the brakes.

We parked the RV, disconnected the car, took a walking tour of the city, and had a delicious lunch at a small three table hole-in-the wall restaurant. After an hour’s wait the brakes cooled and we drove the RV and the Chevy into our Catemaco campground.