Laredo, Columbia Bridge, Saltillo and Matehuala

Thursday, 15^th November

One month since leaving Victoria.

We left the Flying J on the dot of 8:00AM. The road was longer than expected with a reasonable amount of truck traffic, which didn't surprise us at first. After a while we realised that 99% of the trucks had turned off somewhere along the way! We were driving northeast, parallel to the Rio Grande. Nor were there any signs indicating that we were still on the right track.

Just when we were beginning to have doubt,s we arrived at the bridge and crossed into Mexico. On the other side a long line of stopped semis signaled the approach to the border control. We pulled in behind, not sure if we needed to or not but almost immediately an official in a small cart waved us around, led us to the entry and waved us on. All the lanes ahead were closed, but a sign for vehicle import etc pointed to the right.

It looked tight, two 90degree turns, but doable. As soon as we were committed to the turn several officers began waving their arms while one of them opened one of the lanes. We tried to reverse out but had gone too far into the curve so the Jeeps front wheels turned against the direction of travel. (Because of the front wheel camber all tow vehicle manuals warn NOT to back up when being towed.)

So here we go again: Art begins disconnecting the towbar and cables while Gillian puts the brake on in the Jeep, takes the transfer case out of neutral and removes the auxiliary braking system. We are getting pretty good at this. It must be a regular occurrence as all the officials watching the procedure knew exactly what was going on!

Gillian went through in the Jeep, Art following in the motorhome. We were shown where to park (blocking a couple of vehicles) and went in for out tourist permits and the temporary import permit for the Jeep. We were on our way again at 9:35, having arrived at about 8:45.

We were now driving southeast on the Mx 2 across the river from our northeast bound drive earlier. We soon joined the 85 which runs directly from Laredo and a few kilometers later stopped at the checkpoint. The customs officer said that he wanted to enter the rig to inspect it. Trekker of course met him at the door. He asked if he bites and Art said “Only on Tuesdays”. He flashed a slightly nervous smile and after a cursory inspection we were on our way, finally.

At the first Pemex we had stopped to buy time for our Mexican phones but the store there didn't do them. Better luck at the next, so now we have a couple of working phones, same numbers from previous years.I'm still amazed that Mexico is so far ahead of us in making it easy to top up your cell phone; at almost every Oxxo (a large chain of corner stores similar to 7-11) and every supermarket you tell the clerk what carrier you are with, how much you want to put on, give her the  money and tell her the phone number which she enters into the computer and BEEP! you have minutes again!

The day had started somewhat overcast and continued for most of the day. The roads were in good condition and except for a couple of sections straight and level. Nearing Monterrey and around the Perifico the weather began to show signs of deteriorating but improved nicely as we approached Saltillo.

Later note: we found out that 2 days later, 17 November,there was a multi car accident and 4 hour road closure due to fog and rain around Monterrey!

We have been to and through Saltillo several times, the last only last year so were quite confident in finding the “RV Park” we planned to stay in even though it would be new to us. We have not approached the city from this direction though and the GPS was a little confused with some new construction be before long we were on the highway into town that we recognised.

Since we weren't staying at the Imperial this year, (We had read a couple of reports on the internet that the price was almost 500 pesos and there was no longer much room in the park due to new buildings going up) we took the bypass and connected with the ring road, missing a bit of heavy city traffic. We knew that La Fuente Hotel, where we planned to stay, would be on the highway out of Saltillo that we would be taking when we left. We also knew that it was not far along after we left the ring road.

We had the coordinates in the GPS so we knew we were getting close. We spotted the sign as we approached exit #3 which we took, only to find that this exit joined the lateral about 50 meters past the hotel! And we had three lanes of lateral to cross! This wasn't going to work, so we carried on a short distance and were able to make a retorno, follow the opposite lateral two exits back to the highway where we saw that we should have taken exit 2 the first time along.

Here is a photo of the hotel sign from the lateral for anyone looking for La Fuente Hotel.The exit sign seen on the left is the one AFTER  the one you need! You need Exit 2.

Art parked on the street in front of the hotel while Gillian went in to make arrangements to pay for the nights parking and to get someone to open the gate to the parking lot. Churchs' book suggests entering though the hotel main entrance but for a big rig this would be pretty tight.

Soon the gate was opened and we drove in, the right front wheel of the jeep bumping over the fairly high curb. If we had been able to park a little further back from the gate we would have had room to move into the middle lane of the lateral and make a wider swing in.

The hotel employee showed us where we could plug in, at the base of a lamp pole, but since there was no ground it wouldn't work for us. Instead we chose the most level spot.

We were parked and set up by 3:00PM., the weather had improved substantially--it was a beautiful day.




The route from Larado to Saltillo was a good couple of hours shorter than our usual route down from Eagle Pass / Piedras Negras and the roads were better. The only drawback were a couple of stiff tolls totaling 805 pesos, roughly 60 to 65 dollars.

The hotel itself was very nice; there is a pool, tennis court, kids playground and a restaurant which another RVer told us later, served typical Mexican food at very good prices-all cooked on a mobile kitchen cart by one cook!

Later that afternoon our friend Jesus called, returning our call. We had met him and his wife in a restaurant parking lot 4 or 5 years ago and have kept in touch. We always try to get together for a visit when we come through. Jesus called again later after Marta had returned, inviting us out for breakfast in the morning, which of course we accepted.

Later that evening we planned our next day's leg of the journey. We decided that if we were clear of breakfast and bit of shopping by early afternoon we would set off for the city of Matehuala, a three hour or so drive. Otherwise we would be looking at an eight hour drive to Queretaro the next day.

 

Friday

Weather had changed over night. Compare this photo to the similar one above, taken yesterday afternoon.

Jesus y Marta arrived as promised at about 9:15 and took us to a lovely small restaurant recently opened by friends of theirs. They served typical Mexican food as well as an assortment of “American”. We all stayed with the Mexican selections, chiliquilles, machata, frijoles, rice, fresh squeezed orange juice and good coffee.

The atmosphere too was very pleasant, nothing garish, the Christmas decorations seriously understated by Mexican standards!

 

We passed a very pleasant hour or two then they dropped us off at the supermarket and they were off to Monterrey.

The supermarket was packed with Christmas shoppers, carts every piled high with toys and decorations. Fortunately the grocery section was relatively calm as we made our selections of fruit and veg, bread and milk and a couple of cuts of beef and chicken. Shopping done we caught an inexpensive taxi (40 pesos) back to the hotel parking lot, packed things away and were southbound to Matehuala by 12:30

We spotted the Las Palmas Midway Inn on our left but the left turn seemed to be offset from the hotel entrance by a vehicle length or two. Rather risk being ticketed for going the wrong way on the divided street we decided that we would to take the next retourno and approach from the south. So we missed the turn and true to our luck there were no more returnos, so we took a lateral off the highway and were several kilometers into town before we found a left turn that would take us north again.

We pulled into the large open approach to the hotel and parked, Art staying with the dogs and the rig while Gillian went in to register and to have someone open the gate on the north side. The main entrance is a little too low for our rig. As we wound around the rough dirt road to the gate Art realised that we could have made the left turn from the highway, there being quite a bit of maneuvering room in at the hotel entrance.


Las Palmas Midway Inn is a beautiful hotel; from the gate we crossed to the far corner of the property, the RV parking area being along part of the back wall. As we got settled another motorhome pulled in, the first we have seen in Mexico this trip.  Not surprisingly, another Canadian rig, a couple from Quebec, on their way to Acapulco.

We had an excellent dinner in the restaurant, where we met another Canadian couple, these from Kingston Ontario, traveling by car to Ajiic to their winter home on Lake Chapala (just south of Guadalajara).

Somehow we neglected to take any photos of the very pretty place. There was even a walking/cycle path where Gillian and the dogs had a good walk. I have put in a hot link to their web site which shows the grounds quite nicely. They even advertise the trailer park.