Zacatecas

November 10th

Breakfast, dog walking, packing up finally done we left the RV Park in Saltillo at 10:45, estimating our arrival in Zacatecas to be in the neighbourhood of 5:00PM.


The drive through and around Saltillo was uneventful, the trip the day before made it a lot easier. It was still about 45 minutes before we were southbound on the highway. On the peiferico detour we did eventually get past the gravel truck, but waited until the road was a bit wider!

We decided not to take on any more fuel at this point, thinking that with the new fuel use program on the laptop we weren't just guessing. Art felt sure we could make it all the way to Zihuatanejo with just one fuel stop along the way, probably somewhere near Zacatecas.



The drive was much the same as yesterday, lots of plains, slowly rising ground and the odd mountain pass. We measured several straight stretches at more than 50 kilometers without a bend! The railroad kept us company for a large part of the trip.





Traffic was a little heavier but not bad at all. The road surface for the most part in good shape though there were a few spots where we had to slow down a little due to the rough surface. As mentioned on the previous post, passing down the middle is not only acceptable practice but expected and perfectly legal, when the line marking the shoulder is broken. We spent a significant amount of time well onto the shoulder--the view from the right hand seat sometimes a little unnerving!


About two in the afternoon we found a wide spot on the road where we could safely pull off and made our lunch stop and relaxed for about 40 minutes. A bit further down the road we came across a proper rest area and picnic site marking on the Tropic of Cancer. We stopped briefly for an Abql photo and moved on. Rest areas in Mexico can be very infrequent and are not marked on the maps.

Shortly after this stop we pulled into the next Pemex we came to and took on 210 litres of diesel into our 330 litre tank. Our tank minder said we still had 31 US gallons so it was spot on. Still lots of fuel, but we do like to keep a good reserve and don't like pouring fuel into a nearly empty tank and risk stirring up any sediment that may have settled on the bottom.

The road into Zacatecas has been up graded a lot since we first came this way, now a two lane divided highway with wide shoulders. There were a lot of changes on the approach to town but as the hotel was on the main truck bypass we were not concerned. Then we began to see signs indicating the distance to the hotel and they were frequent. Anyone coming this way for the first time will have no trouble finding it.

At 12 minutes to five we were parked, almost level, jacks down, 50 Amp electric connected, TV dish up--we were here.


This 5 star hotel has quite a few RV spaces but they are very narrow. We needed two spaces in order to put the slides out. The 50 Amp RV outlets are extremely rare in Mexico. We didn't really need that amount of power but the rig is is equipped with a 50 Amp cord so we might as well connect without needing adapters.

Indoor heated pool, weight room, showers, sauna, bar, restaurant--it has everything, though all we made use of this year was the restaurant. Food and restaurant service here was OK, certainly not up to what you might expect in a 5 star place but good enough. At this late date I don't remember what we ate, though Gillian did take a doggy bag for tomorrow's lunch.


The highway in the picture (looking north) is the the road we came in on, and would take southbound tomorrow, right beside the hotel. This is the Trafico Pesado (heavy traffic) route around Zacatecas so we had traffic noise all night. Parallel to this highway, on the other side of the hotel, right alongside the rooms, is the railway. Trains all night too. Fortunately with the new overpasses the trains no longer need to sound their horns at level crossings!