October 30th - Pemex #10820 Magdalena, Jalisco

474 Km.

We hit the road from Villa Hildago a couple of minutes before eight, pre-dawn in the mountains, and found that somewhere around the time we left the state of Tamaulipas and entered the state of San Luis Potosi, we had gained an hour, it was in fact just seven; so an early start.  Still a little groggy, and just into my first cup of coffee, I expected a serene and solitary morning cruise on the rural autopista.  What I found was a serious, heavy truck free-for-all.  Although the cuota was divided four lane, plenty o' steep hills, and a silly amount of semi's meant the slow lane was nose to tail, roaring, smoking trucks, with constant jockeying for position, as every driver played the game of torque, gears, weight, and velocity, in an attempt to be a 1/2 mph faster than the pinche dullard ahead of him impeding his progress.  My coffee remained untouched, as I jockeyed the Brave through the maelstrom, 'til we departed Mex 57 D at San Luis Potosi (the city).  Turns out, not only is this the main route between Monterrey and San Luis Potosi, with it's mile long automobile manufacturing plants, but also the main route south to Mexico City!  Although the roadway cement was fairly new, the continual bombardment of overweight trucks was quickly reducing it to rubble.  Once south of SLP, freed of Mex 57D, the pavement became smooth, the traffic non-existent, and the drive became the lovely coffee-swilling scenic cruise I had initially expected.

The country we travelled through today was beautiful.  Scrubby desert to a green desert full of myriad types of cacti some as large as trees and lots of ground cover.  Prickly Pear cacti 10 ft tall with its dark red fruit a contrast to dark green.  We saw increasing numbers of birds and a coyote as we neared Guadalajara where the vegetation became forests and agricultural land.  The coyote was about the same size as ours at home but a darker rusty brown.

Bear grass forest

Joshua Trees

large Prickly Pear

Guadalajara

camped at Magdalena Pemex

We had an early start so instead of stopping before Guadalajara we decided to make the leap around it and stop in Magdalena.  Of course the Garmin couldn't register the route we needed and the signage was horrid.  We stuck with Church's Mexico book and read our way through.  Looking for signs and the largest conglomeration of trucks heading in one direction, chancy.  We managed to find the south perimeter although lord I had my doubts several times. Unlike the highways, the South Periferico around Guadalajara was very, very bad.  I heard Cam describe it as a "piece of sh*t" pretty much continuously as we rolled and rattled along.  I saw it as that wonderful "sh*tty" brick road around Centro Guadalajara.  By the way, a Garmin can't pronounce Mexican city names.   Guadalajara was unrecognizable.  

Magdalena is a small community known for its fire opal mines.  Hmmmm.

October 29th - Pemex # 6678 - Villa Hildago

An uneventful night in CD Victoria if you don't count the barking dogs.  We are adjusting quickly as we did when we lived in Fort Simpson with the huskies howling.   The hotel has a big shepherd and he serves as night watchman.  In the morning 2 truckloads of federales wheeled in and out of where we were parked.  I have come to think of that as a really good thing.  I think they just want to let us know they are providing good security.  "Gracias por su seguridad " and I mean that.  Although I feel no less secure in Mexico than in the U.S. or many parts of Canada.

CD Victoria is in a valley between two mountain ranges: the Sierra Madre Oriental to the west and the Sierra de Tamaulipas to the east.

We drove through the Sierra Madre Orientals.  The Brave lived up to its name, passing semis on the up and down climb of the valleys.  Saw one truck wreck, it was carrying some sort of grain and about 30 Mexicans were busy gathering the spilled booty into containers and sacks.  I was too busy watching for people and vehicles to think of a photo and that would have been a bit macabre anyway.

Well, the Brave got decarbonized today.  We started out at 313 metres elevation in Cuidad Victoria, and climbed up into the high central plain, to 1671 metres at Valle Hildago, SLP, with the CRV in tow.  55 Km/Hr. at 3200 rpm seemed to be the sweet spot, which it would hold all the way up the mountain.  Temperature gauges never moved.  The highways are new, and in very good (better than 90% of Canadian roads) condition.  We hit the first of the cuota's (toll roads) which were a treat, up to par with the best roads in the States, and running through largely pristine valleys.  As we got higher and drier, the Joshua trees and Organ Pipe cactus appeared.

Beautiful country mixed green of treed valleys and near barren desert in other portions.

We arrived at Pemex 6678 in early afternoon.  It has a security gate and tonight it is full of truckers and Class A's from Quebec.

270 Km.

October 28 - Ciudad Victoria

Things went smoothly at the border and we were on the road by 9.

Matamoros

selling wreaths for Day of the Dead

note the back tire rubber falling off, followed him through town

We were stopped at checkpoints by both army and federales on our way to Ciudad Victoria.  First one, federales, checked vehicle permits said "Canada" and waved us on.  The last 2 looked at us and our "little dog too" and told us to roll on through.  We saw Scissor-tailed flycatchers, Caracaras, as well as chickens and the fairly regular goats and horses tied to feed on the edge of the highway.

Just outside Ciudad Victoria

This is orange grove country and there were vendors selling loads of oranges along the highway into the city.

We arrived at Hotel Hacienda Escondido around 2:00 p.m..  The very helpful and friendly staff tried to figure out a way to get the RV past a suburban that had died in their RV entrance.   One fellow came in and did a sharp skidding turn to back up to a horse trailer and move it but that only afforded enough room to get a VW bus through around the Suburban.  Do not count on the staff to judge where your RV can and cannot go.  They are very enthusiastic but lack experience in the art of maneuvering an RV.   One fellow offered to climb a tree and lift a low wire so we could try a back way, hmmm, maybe not.  It proved to be impossible, we opted for their large parking lot.  We will have to unhook to turn around tomorrow, de nada.  I must say the people at the border, check stops and hotel have all been extremely patient and helpful with our struggle to speak español.  Even the federales although not smiling are not abrupt but try to make the communication as painless as possible.   Our Spanish has improved greatly but we are nowhere near where we need to be.

Brave parked at Hotel Hacienda Escondido

320 Km.