Kathy and I spent three nights here at Jimmy and Yuda’s Hotel and RV park in El Triunfo. The town is a short distance from the RV park and it is very quiet other than the chickens and the cows and horses with bells on roaming the forest. We spent the first day there doing laundry and just hanging out. We did head in to town to look around and ended up having lunch at this really beautiful restaurant. We got there a bit early for their Paella, which the cook was in the process of making. It was fun watching him put the ingredients together into the large pan over the coals. By the time our food came out, I could have just ordered the paella. Maybe next time. It was Sunday, and we asked if they make it on Monday, and of course it was a no. Oh well.
I had the Pork ribs, and yes they were delicious, but not as good as the ones my dad and brother make. They were slow roasted over a fire and had a nice flavor. The BBQ sauce was a bit different than I am used to and they were not as tender as I am used to, which is probably why Dad’s still win. Kathy had a cranberry and pecan salad that she enjoyed very much. We strolled around the building, took in some of the exhibits and the artistry in the courtyards, and just enjoyed the early afternoon. It was all really beautiful. But laundry was in process, so we headed back to get another load in the washer.
I did get a bit of work done in the afternoon on the Palapa covered kitchen and patio area. I was a bit far from the Starlink so the internet was a bit slow, but I did manage to get posts updated on the website and get some of the security bits updated as well. I am still working on the contact forms, comment forms, etc that just aren’t connecting to the email services. We retired toward the pool a little after 5 in hopes of some adult interactions, but the weather had cooled and the owners retreated to the indoors; although we did manage to order a Margarita. We did find a nice indoor common area where we could get out of the cold wind, and we ended up ordering a pizza from Yudy. Kathy had befriended a couple from New Mexico and talked them into coming down for a chat. We enjoyed exchanging stories of travel with the. This is their 4th time down in Mexico and the third in Baja and had lots of advice and reassurances for us for the mainland.
The second day we were there, we wandered through the town on a couple of hour walk with the pups. The streets are a mixture of pavement, cobblestone, and dirt in this old mining village. There is a huge museum and mining tour (including the underground) and quite a lot of the old buildings have been restored. Part of it is because of the town’s history and partly because it is said the land surrounding the town is owned by Sam Walton’s daughter and she has a vested interest in the area. Either way it is really nice.
We relaxed the rest of the day, mostly inside as the weather had dropped to the low 60’s and it was a bit cold. I worked on some of the mapping issues I am trying to work out for the website and got a bit more reading done in the book that Kathy had picked up in la Paz. We decided to take it easy on the budget and make lunch and dinner, so Kathy made her famous bean dip and I made that Olive Garden parmesan chicken slow cooker recipe with rice. Both were delicious. Looking out the back of the camper at the campsite is a beautiful site.
Ok, now some nerd stuff. I am typing this to download my brain a bit, so skip this portion if it bores you. Here are some photos of the past few days:
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20251227-30-el-truinfo
I am still working out the power patterns on the solar panels. In this camp we are dry-camping, meaning no water, no sewer, and no electricity. Generally we start the morning with 60% power in the battery, meaning we have used approximately 1500W of power in the past 24 hours (not counting what is used when it is charging). With a full day of sun, I can barely get the batteries from 60% to 100% this time of the year at the angle of the sun. In La Ventana, I pointed the camper south and we seemed to get enough sun to charge it up. But add in clouds and a different angle, and it will not charge completely. It intrigues me with 600W of power on the roof, we should be able to get it done. With the panels in parallel, 3x200W, assuming 85% efficiency, we should be seeing 18A coming in @28V, but it rarely gets to 12A. Maybe I need to assume 50% efficiency, because that seems to be where the current is: getting only 300W from the 600W panels. So in El Truinfo, we were facing southwest and that seemed to be nearly the same as facing south. I am not sure if a tilt would be better when we are stopped. To make it worse, I use a DCDC/MPPT converter that “prioritizes renewable energy”, meaning when the truck is running, it is fully capable of pulling 50A from the truck and using it to charge at 50A into the battery, but it never seems to get above 35A, and usually runs about 25-30A. It seems that the solar is killing the alternator current. Generally we need 5 hours to charge the battery when driving, which seems the case. As long as I park in the sun and make sure solar is charging, it will still fill the battery, in full sun, no clouds. I might just disconnect the solar one of these drive days to see if I can get more power from the alternator source.
I need to go back to the calculations to see what I should be getting with this setup versus what I am actually getting. I thought about getting more batteries during the stop back in AZ in November, but that would just get us several more days out of the battery use, but it would also take longer to charge. On the 5th wheel trailer, the same 3 solar panels are in series and push 10 amps (@115V), which ends up 50+ amps charging. Plus we have 7.2KW of storage compared to 3.6KW in Howie. I am thinking I might need to use a DC/DC charger direct from the alternator without the solar, and get something that will push up to 70A to charge. That would fill the battery in 2 hours of driving. I need to put this in a diagram and the calculations on paper to figure this out. I don’t want to be down in Central America needing to use the AC to keep it cool in the hot hours and not being able to keep the batteries charged.