Category: Travel

Saturday morning bright and early we crossed the border into Mexico. Crossing took a while because we got there before the offices opened but by 9am we were on our way south. Our goal was to drive a long way our first day. The quality of the roads varied widely but we made good progress and finally stopped for the night in the town of Cerro Azul.This is a picture of Duke outside the door of our motel room.

Coincidentally just before we stopped for the night we were caught in traffic behind a guy named Ron Farmer who is running from Pole to Pole to raise money for the Red Cross. While we were eating dinner he caught up with us and came into our restaurant to eat with his support people. We chatted with his Mexican organizer and photographer who was from Cancun.

Sunday morning we caught up with and passed his motorcade again about 3 miles south of Cerra Azul. A few miles after we passed him the main road was closed and we had to take a detour on dirt roads for while. We even crossed a river on a causeway with water over the road..

When we reached Veracruz we parked and walked around looking at hotels. We ended up in a wonderful room at the Gran Hotel Diligencias. Our room is on the fourth floor overlooking the swimming pool, the cathedral, and  the main square (the Zocalo).

We immediately went out and had a snack on the edge of the square.

For dinner we ate at the hotel restaurant. We ordered fresh fish. It is priced by weight. The waiter brought out three fish for us to chose from. We chose the snapper and the waiter took it back to the kitchen where they grilled it for us. It was fantastic.

Last night there was a concert in the Zocalo by Mane de la Parra. It was fun to watch and listen. From our room after the concert we watched security rush him through the crowd of screaming girls to the hotel.

Yesterday and today we have been exploring Vera Cruz. It is very hot and incredibly humid here. We walk for a while then come back to the room, relax and enjoy the air conditioning.

Veracruz was first settled by Europeans over 400 years ago. This is part of the original wall around the city.

The terrapins in the pool in front of Faro Carranza reminded me of our turtle at home. My friend Linda tells me that he is starting to call her Mom.

 The pictures from teh mexican part of our trip are on Flickr here.

Since we left Tucson on Wednesday morning we have traveled over 1000 miles. Now it is Saturday morning and we are at the southern tip of Texas in Brownsville. Along the way we stopped at  Kartchner Caverns State Park near Tucson, Calsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico and visited my cousin Carol in San Antonio.

Carlsbad Caverns and Kartchner Caverns are both caves but they were very different.

Kartchner was discovered in 1974 and was kept a secret for years until the discoverers could work with the owners and the state to create a new state park which was opened in 1999. The cave has been preserved. The discovers went into the cave through a sink hole. To enter the cave when we were there we went through new sealed doors to a new tunnel entrance. The doors are sealed so that the cave will not dry out and die. IKartchner has beautiful formations and is beautiful. But the most impressive thing about Kartchner is that it is a living pristine recently discovered cave.

Carlsbad on the other hand is stupendously big and awe inspiring. At Carlsbad caverns We took the self guided hiking tour which goes into the natural entrance of the cave. The entrance is a big hole in the ground. We hiked down switch backs on a trail down into the big hole. We went down, down, down. Every time I thought we were at the bottom we would come around a corner and there would be more switchbacks going down. It literally felt like we were descending down into the bowels of the earth and it was as beautiful as it was awe inspiring.

We descended 750 feet almost straight down and when we got to the bottom we explored enormous caverns full of impressive structures. The Big Room that we explored is 8.2 acres big and has a ceiling that is immense. We took the elevator back to the surface.

Carlsberg Caverns were fantastic they were totally different from Kartchnar Caverns. Both of them were fascinating.

From Carlsbad we headed to San Antonio. We had lunch with my cousin Carol and her husband in San Antonio and then drove on to Brownsville where we are now. Today we are crossing into Mexico.

We ave been having picnic lunches most days. Thursday we stopped In Pecos, Texas and bought some local cantaloupes and then had one for lunch. Boy! Was it good. The 100+ temperatures are pretty impressive too!