Saltillo to Rio Verde

We knew where we were going, but decided to test the new Mexico chip we had purchased for our new GPS, a Garmin Nuvi 650. We were pleased to see that upcoming street names were appearing on the screen. If we had known the name of the cross street it would have been a big help! We had entered the latitude and longitude of the park as given in “Mexican Camping” into the GPS but it wanted us to turn half a block early. The coordinates were for the park itself, which is located to the rear of the hotel grounds, and not for the entrance.

When we arrived at the RV Park we were the only ones there. By the time we left there were 4 rigs. We soon got to know an interesting couple from France who have pretty much travelled the world in their little van, including South America.

This year they are doing Central and North America. We hope to meet them again this spring/summer when they come to the Island, on their way to Northern BC and Alaska (via the ferry from Port Hardy)

In Saltillo we were unable to re connect with Jesus and Marta, a Mexican couple we met last year so we thought we would remain here a few days, hoping that they would return. On our last day we went to the restaurant, where we first met Jesus and Marta, for Gillian's birthday. We were pleasantly surprised to find we no longer had to walk through a cloud of smoke to get to the Non-Smoking Section; the entire restaurant was non smoking! The waiter said that the law had recently changed. We didn’t ask if it was a City or State law, but have not yet found another smoke free restaurant in Mexico.

We passed the time sight seeing, relaxing, shopping and getting the laundry done. We learned something here--Don't have the hotel do your laundry--it cost 300 pesos! (almost $25.00 Canadian) We also decided test the GPS, and had it search for an ATM. It indicated that the nearest HSBC ATM was some 60 kilometres away--while we were standing in front of one! The GPS has all the streets in the data base but lists business only for a few select cities.

We left Saltillo November 10th, as usual about an hour later that planned, on what was to prove to be an interesting day. Our destination was San Luis Potosi, a fairly easy run down good roads about 6 hours to the south.

Just leaving town, distracted by trying to read road signs, we both noticed the red traffic light at the last minute! Thank God for air brakes!! The old rig wouldn't have stopped short of the intersection. Other than the package of coffee exiting the kitchen cupboard and arriving between our seats, it appeared uneventful!

About an hour before San Luis Potosi we changed our minds and turned east onto a new toll road. This would save us at least 2 hours travel the next day as we had planned to backtrack about an hour to the “libre” to the east.

30 Kilometres later we arrived the toll booth, paid the requested toll and carried on. About 12 Km later a white van passed us, (we were doing about the speed limit) tooted the horn, put on their 4 way flashers and slowed down to about 40 Km/H (on a 100Km/H highway). About a kilometre later when it was safe to pull off they did so, signalling us to stop. We pulled up along side and Art queried "Que Pasa?" The van was from the toll booth; the young lady had not noticed the car we were towing and had not charged us for it!!!!

We gave her 100 pesos and asked for a receipt. She said she would be back in a minute and drove back a little way to one of the exit toll booths. She promptly returned with our receipt and 5 pesos change. Art thanked her and said that this was the most amusing thing that had happened all day. We laughed for the rest of the day.

Along the way we spotted several large "dust devils" and Gillian managed to snap a picture of one through the bug splattered windshield.

We arrived in Rio Verde just a bit before dusk. We were looking for a hotel mentioned in the “Church” book. We asked a few times for directions to the Media Luna Hotel, described as near Rio Verde. At the last place we checked, a Pemex (gas station) west of Rio Verde, we were assured that it was about 20 minutes further down the road. As we pulled back onto the highway we both immediately spotted the large sign on the other side of the street, not 100 metres away; "Hotel Media Luna!

We pulled in and Gillian checked us in (200 pesos)--they could give us electricity and water but had no sewer, though if we had a box to put it in they could get rid of it for us.!!!!??

As Gillian walked the dogs Art got us parked and set up. For some reason he opened the bedroom closet to find that the clothes rod had fallen to the floor of the closet, the cheap plastic supports having broken at both ends!!!

We were parked in front of the restaurant so we went in, ordered a couple of cold beer from the owner behind the bar which we carried over to a table. Since there was a wireless connection, we had brought the lap top and took the opportunity to catch up on e-mail. The waiter kindly supplied an extension cord as the battery on this old clunker is only good for 20 minutes or so.

The sign did say that the restaurant was open; a waiter was folding table cloths, there seemed to be one or two people wandering in and out of the kitchen area, but there was no indication of food preparation, no menus offered or in sight, no one asked if we wanted anything, and the owner soon disappeared into his office. We later asked what hours the restaurant was open and he said until 11:00 PM!!!

We strolled around the Hotel grounds with the dogs, admiring the empty pool (after all, it's winter!) and the gardens which were a bit run down. There was also a dive shop on the property, though Rio Verde is no where near the ocean, diving in the lake at the Media Luna Park is quite popular.

We made a simple supper in the motorhome and had a reasonably early night, preparing for tomorrow's drive through the mountains to the Gulf Coast.