Matehuala

Friday March 27…10:00pm

We were up before 7am, and Ruth went to make sure Alejandra and her son Antonio were awake as well. They came to Sherman to have a coffee and juice with us before we left. Antonio was excited because we promised him a ride around the block in the motorhome. He has decided that his mother should sell the house and they should buy a camper!

Parked in front of Alejandras house near Zacatecas

Alejandra and Antonio

We said our goodbyes and will look forward to when we can visit Zacatecas again. Thanks Alejandra!

We had a difficult time deciding our route from Zacatecas to the border. We wanted to try something different, yet didn’t want to be on any roads that were in bad condition, or under construction as many roads in Mexico are. And we didn’t want to go the same route we did last year. We decided to head east to San Luis Potosi, and then north to Matehuala. From there we’ll make our way to Reynosa area to find a border crossing.

Most of the roads today were in good condition, and 4 lane highways. We managed to do 380 kms (235 miles) in just over 5 hours of actual driving. That’s almost an average of 75 kms/hr, which is amazingly fast for driving Mexico in an RV! It was really windy though, so I had to hang onto the steering wheel at times. But, the roads were overall good, so although it was a bit longer than we like to drive on an average day, it was still a good day. Oh, and not very scenic…desert and cactus most of the way.

There are two hotels at the north end of Matehuala and they both accept RV travellers. We first stopped at the Oasis Hotel, which we had read would be the cheapest. They showed me to a paved parking spot and said the rate was 150 pesos ($13.35 CAN, $10.80 US) including electric. I tried to explain that we didn’t need electric and I asked for a discount, but either she didn’t understand (possible) or there was no discount to be had (likely) and that was the set rate. Then we went to the Las Palmas Hotel, which I admit is a nicer, more upscale hotel. However their RV parking is just a gravel parking lot. I explained that we just wanted somewhere to park, with no hookups. They generously (not!) agreed to reduce their rate from 269 pesos to 245 because we wouldn’t need electric. I said “NO, thanks”, and we drove back to the Oasis.

We are going to the “ghost town” of Real de Catorce tomorrow. There is a bus that goes there from Matehuala, and it apparently leaves at 8am, but we have to backtrack into town to get to the bus station. The people at the hotel don’t speak English, and we think our basic Spanish has figured out that they will call us a taxi if we show up in the office at 7am tomorrow!

So, off to bed!

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…517

March Fuel $374.70 CAN

March Grocery $269.31 CAN

March Overnight costs $158.44 CAN