Category: Road Trip Spring 2014

Not much new today. After a great breakfast in our B&B in Guanajuato we drove a fairly long drive from Guanajuato to Puebla. We did about 310 miles and it only took about 5 hours. So far all the roads on this trip have been quite good. Mostly divided highway toll roads (Cuota). The tolls for the use of those good roads today were $45.

When we got to our hotel we just vegged out and watched bull fighting. It was fascinating but gory.

We have had nothing but excellent food on this trip. My meal tonight included onion soup, a stuffed chicken breast with a mole sauce and a corn flan for desert. It was so delicious. I don’t have a picture of tonight dinner but last nights was equally delicious so I will include a picture of it.

Today was a relatively short drive to the town of Guanajuato. it has a population of 72,000. Guanajuato was founded in 1559 and was a very rich gold and silver mining town. Because of its origins it is built on the side of the hills. It has narrow streets and colorful buildings.

Our bed and breakfast, Casa Zuniga. is set into the side of the mountain overlooking the town. Right now at 9:30 pm it is raining out. We have our balcony door open and can hear the rain and a band playing below us. We can see the lights of the houses on the hills below and across from us and occasionally the lightening illuminates the hills. It is lovely. Earlier we sat out in the sun on the balcony and enjoyed the view of the multicolor houses, the churches and the hills.

Finding Casa Zuniga was a bit of a challenge. I use Google maps and the Lonely Planet maps but I ended up directing Duke up a very strep very narrow road before we asked directions and had to turn around. Finally we saw a little sign and all was well. Casa Zuniga is right next to the funicular that takes us right down into the heart of town.

We went to the museum at Diego Rivera’s birth place and just wandered around. Several tunnels for cars run under the town. They were built in the old river bed.

I am including a few picture in this post. If you would like me to share my iCloud photo stream with you or the link to my Flickr photos please let me know.

To say it was a run in with the policia is a bit of an exaggeration but as we were driving into San Luis Potosí today after a drive of about 250 miles we made a left turn into traffic. The next thing we knew a motorcycle policia had pulled up next to us and was motioning for us to pull over. He asked Duke for his license and then said we would have to go to the station and wait 3 hours to get the license back. Then somehow he was telling us we could avoid the hassle by paying 1,500 pesos (about $120). Duke said no and pretty soon it was 1000 pesos, then 700, 500 and 200. Duke offered him 100 and he just gave Duke his license and motioned us to leave.

During all this hassling there was a man about our age watching intently and taking pictures with his cell phone. We are pretty sure that this concerned citizen is why we ended up paying nothing. As we drove away the policia and the concerned citizen were having a heated argument.

We were close to our hotel so we parked and went out exploring. After dinner we walked around some more. There are several pretty squares and they were full of people. There were dancers and venders and we had fun wandering around.

This morning first thing we crossed the border from Laredo Texas into Mexico. Laredo and the area south of the border was very flat and all desert. We drove around Monterey which has lots of industry including steel mills Apparently it has been called the Pittsburg of Mexico.

We drove into the mountains and tonight we are in Saltillo. It is a town of 710,000 people at just over 5,000 ft elevation which is the same altitude as Reno.

After we got here it started to rain. Duke took a siesta and I read. Later we walked around the center which has some pretty parks and a beautiful Cathedral.

We just finished dinner at a very upscale Restaurant called Montero. I have to include pictures of the food. It was. wonderful!

I’m still posting from my phone so the pictures will probably all be at the end of the post

This an attempt at posting from my phone. Today we spent a bit of time exploring Big Bend National Park. We drove over a dirt road down to Santa Elena Canyon .

At the end if the road and after a bit of a hike we were at the Rio Grande as it goes into Santa Elena Canyon. I always assumed that the Rio Grande, our national border, was a good size river. It is not as big as the Truckee in Reno!!

The canyon walls on the Mexico size were gigantic! For scale look for the canoes in the picture.

Another exciting event today was that Duke is now 62 so he was able to get his Lifetime National Parks Pass for just $10!

Tonight we are in Laredo, Texas ready to cross the border first thing tomorrow. There was an interesting article in the New York Times a week or so ago about Laredo. You can read it here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/us/deep-ties-tested-on-mexicos-border.html

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