This past Thanksgiving I spent a week in the Mexican village of Ajijic, located on northwest shore Lake Chapala, about 45 minutes south of Guadalajara. We rented a car (an innocuous, oddly named, Dodge Attitude) at the airport, and while it wasn't essential to have a car(Mexico has an extensive bus system) it did allow us to day-trip a much further than if we hadn't had it.

Driving in Mexico presents more than a few challenges, especially for the tourist. Perhaps the greatest is being pretty much on full alert mode when you're behind the wheel. This is sometimes difficult to do, as the countryside is beautiful, different, sometimes quaint and always interesting - in other words they're are lots of distractions. But once you hit your first tope at speed, you'll be soon finding yourself gawking less and more on the lookout for the "warning signs" of impeding front suspension failure. Topes are speed bumps, also referred to as reductors de velocidad on the infrequent occasions when there is an actual warning sign. Other indicators can be the flash of brake lights of the car in front of you as its hood, then trunk bob up and down wildly, or perhaps you'll notice the cluster of roadside vendors on either side, hoping that you'll look over their wares as you slow down.

Another challenge already alluded to is poor signage, most turn-offs are marked once, when it's time to turn - there's no quarter mile incremental build-up like in the US. It's now, one chance only. And should you be on an autopista (multi-lane toll roads with alleged limited access) you'll be hard pressed to find a "returno" to back-track.

Because of their expense, the autopistas are lightly traveled, and it's the usually parallel carretera libre (old, free highways) that are crowded with trucks, pick-up trucks and coches (cars) all fearlessly passing each other, solid line be damned. While usually more scenic, they can slow and stressful.

Driving in the smaller towns is also fraught with hazards - if the streets are paved, it's usually with cobblestones (so fun to stop on in the rain), they're narrow, most intersections don't have stop signs and there are few visible street signs (usually the sign is embedded in the wall of a building).

Traffic lights - think horizontal for starters, and a left turn? in Mexico you make it from the right lane, with the traffic signal. If a vehicle is using it's left turn indicator it's usually sign that the guy behind you is going to pass you or the guy in front of you thinks it's alright for you to pass him (except if he's actually turning left - always possibility).

You can read more about my adventures driving, hiking, eating and getting to know Mexico and its people on my blog Mexico Musings at Explore-Retire-Mexico.com.

Labels: Ajijic, Guadalajara, Lake Chapala, Mexico Musing

This past Saturday saw another great Club Sportiva excursion, this time to eyeball a vast assemblage of exotic military hardware, some very extremely unique, most pretty rare and surprising enough, individually and as a whole, not all that valuable. Our visit was to the Jacques Littlefield's Tank Collection in Portola Valley. The collection is housed in a four huge, modern warehouse buildings in the midst of a large private estate. Attendance at the collection is for groups by appointment only and on this day was guided by an very knowledgeable and loquacious tank collection board member by the name of Mike Green.


So it was an extremely interesting day, with some 35 plus club members and their guests attending; curious but not one of us arrived in a Jeep. The four hour tour began with a visit to the restoration shop. In some ways this was the most fascinating aspect, with the one of Mr. Littlefield's newest tank technicians, Jason, giving us the inside scoop on what it takes to refurbish a tank. Actually it's pretty simple, money and lots of it. Oh and time, plenty of that (going on 5 years for the Panther Tank in the photo on the right - more on all the world's surviving Panthers here). And a lot of really big heavy duty tools.

The Panther tank is a story unto itself, having been recovered from the depths of a Polish river where it had lain for 50 plus years after becoming stuck while trying to ford at night. As part of the restoration, the gun turret had to be completely reconstructed as it was blown apart by explosives as the fleeing Germans did not want to leave anything of use to the advancing Russians. The pic at the right shows how thick the frontal plate is on the reconstructed turret.


The collection itself is amazing in its breadth and quite interesting, with many specialized vehicles on display in addition to tanks, including half-tracks (even a half-track motorcycle), recovery tanks, anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns and plenty of ex-Soviet weaponry, such as a mobile radar array and the accompanying Scud missile launcher. virtually all of the vehicles run, and most have all the details in place - radio sets, blankets, small arms, first aid kits.

As our guide pointed out, the value of the buildings and property far exceeds the contents. It seems that tanks are not all that desirable as collectibles as one might believe - I think it's something to do with size, weight and portability along with a poor resale market. The 70 ton (or is tonne?) British Chieftain, built a couple of decades ago for some one million pounds, was purchased for a mere $500. The trouble with tank collecting is transporting your collections; is it cost of $10K to get the Chieftain here ten years ago from Britain.

Many thanks to Member Liaison Andrew Welker for organizing this special trip, I know everyone found it very fascinating and fodder for many stories this past week. And one thing to note if you ever get the opportunity to go - dress warm, there's no need to keep the tanks warm in the warehouses.

See more pictures of the Jacques Littlefield Tank Collection at these links:

http://www.mishalov.com/littlefield-6jan07/

http://sfahistory.org/tanktour2006.htm

Labels: British Chieftain, Club Sportiva, Jacques Littlefield, Panther Tank, Tank Collection