Monterrey to Zacatecas

We were trying to figure our route from Chris and Jaun's place in Santiago. They live south of Monterrey, and we didn't want to deal with the traffic in both Monterrey and Saltillo. But there's this narrow road that goes through the mountains, and we figured the little blue car was up to the task. Are we ever glad we did!

There's no way we would have taken the motorhome through here, and it's not suitable to take any type of RV. But if you can do it with a car, truck, or SUV then it's a fantastic drive with gorgeous mountain scenery.

Looking on Google maps you can tell that this road is a bit curvy!

Wow!

Now this is a way to get some good photos! Couldn't talk Ruth into doing it this way though...

The road was pretty narrow and rough in places.

But the views were worth it!

During rainy season there can be some water on the road.

Wow. Again.

The road takes us through this pass.

What a drive!

Nobody on the road but us. We probably passed about 10 cars in the first two hours.

More mountains.

There are some villages along the way. 

It took us just over 2 hours to do the 106 km (65 mile) drive through the mountains. Some of the most fantastic scenery we have ever seen, and that says something. In the U.S. or Canada this would be a scenic drive of some kind. Oddly enough, near the end of this road where it comes out to the main highway, we passed a spot that looked familiar. It was the place where we had been parked in late September of last year the night that Whiskey passed away. Bit of a sad moment for both of us, and driving by there didn't bring back good memories.

The rest of the drive was on the main highway that leads to Zacatecas. It's a long stretch of highway, about 300 kms (180 miles) of straight, fairly boring driving.

It kind of looks like this the whole way. 

What a change from earlier on!

We pulled in to Guadalupe, a suburb of Zacatecas, around 5:00pm. Our friend Alejandra wasn't going to be home until 8:00pm, so we had some time to waste. We parked at the nearby Soriana grocery store and went for a walk over to the central plaza.

The 300 year old church here is a Unesco Heritage site.

They have just finished redoing the plaza, with a new fountain.

Couple of funny things happened today. We had taken a bathroom break at a fuel station on the highway, and three truckloads of federal police pulled in, wearing their full battle gear. We're standing in line, and I said to one of them "gracias para su seguridad" (thank you for your security). He says, in perfect English, "Hey, don't worry about it Buddy". Too funny. As we were driving away, we passed him and he said "See ya"!

Then later, we went back to the car parked up at the grocery store, and a gringo guy comes up to say hello. He had seen our licence plate and just wanted to say hi. We stood and chatted for ten minutes with he and his wife. Turns out he's originally from British Columbia. Even though we don't have the motorhome with us, we still stand out like a sore thumb!

We met our friend Alejandra at 8:00pm and spent the rest of the evening chatting. Today, we're going to go into Zacatecas and there's a museum that Ruth wants to see. 

Tomorrow, we are back with Sherman!

Yesterday's drive, 506 kms (303 miles).