Yesterday's route was new to us, but we checked it out on google maps and google streetview, and I spoke to a taxi driver in Matehuala to make sure the route was okay for a group of eight RVs. Some of these small towns in Mexico are not suitable for RVs, and you have to be aware of routes that have bypasses around the central areas of these towns.
We headed out at 9:00am, again with a goal of arriving at our destination before 2:00pm.
Made a fuel stop for a few rigs, and then had a couple of miles to do on the major four lane trucking route, the Mex 57 highway. It's terrible. Busy, and a rough road. No ambition to do any more of that kind of thing than absolutely necessary.
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when we turned off onto secondary road 63.
This is our kind of road!
Blue sky and scenery along the way.
Hardly any traffic.
Coming up to the town of Charca.
The route bypassed the central area of town.
We stopped on the other side of town for a break and a couple more people topped up their fuel tanks. Everything is so much easier with only eight rigs instead of the twelve we had last year. Finding places to stop is easier, and a fuel stop takes only 20 minutes or so instead of 30 or 40 like last year.
We had to stop at the goat and sheep crossing!
Nice two lane back road.
A man and his burro.
You can see a couple of our group coming up behind us.
Scenery.
We had no problems finding El Faro de Peter RV Park. We parked the rigs at the side of the road and I walked up to see if the gate was open.
It was not.
I banged on the gate doors, but didn't get any response. Then, I saw a phone number written on the outside wall, so I called it but it went to an answering machine. I banged on the doors again, and this time I saw a head pop up over the wall. It was a guy working here, and he opened the gate for us.
I had read that this RV park is not well maintained and I had explained that to the group during our driver's meeting the night before. So, with expectations low, we pulled our rigs into the park.
There are only eight sites, so it's a good thing we are not a bigger group and it's a good thing there was nobody else here. But, I didn't expect there would be. One site was taken up with a class A motorhome that is owned by Peter, the owner of the RV Park. And one site had a pickup truck parked in it.
Peter was quick to come out and greet us. He's a Mexican, and speaks very little English. You would think he would be called Pedro, but I guess he likes to be called Peter. Friendly guy. Anyhow, he moved the vehicles off the sites and we all got set up.
His wife went right to work cleaning the bathrooms, which are actually quite nice.
As expected, the electricity at the sites is poor, and so is the water pressure. We learned a long time ago that solar panels and batteries are the best way to go when traveling Mexico by RV. So we just don't bother plugging in most times. I checked the voltage, and it was 122 volts, but by the time two or three rigs had plugged in it had dropped to 112 volts. No point in making it lower than that.
But, the wifi seems to work decently.
Peter says the rate is 350 pesos ($17.50 USD, $23 CAD) a night, and it doesn't matter if you plug into electric. I negotiated a group rate that works out to 250 pesos ($12.50 USD, $16.50 CAD) per night.
We will probably stay four nights. The city of San Luis Potosi is one of the few that we have never been to, so we'll take a trip in and do some exploring.
Happy hour at El Faro de Peter RV Park.
Happy hour.
GPS 22.269328, -101.124354
"El faro" means "the lighthouse".
And sure enough, there is a lighthouse here!
Why? We're not sure. But, the property does back onto a body of water. I'll get some photos of that today or tomorrow.
The lighthouse.
Very pleasant day, high of around 22C (71F) and lows around 10C (50F). Altitude 6,700 ft.
Yesterday's drive, 201 kms (123 miles).
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Record low price on this dog playpen...
And in Canada...
Pedro and Suzanne were amazingly nice to us. He took us all over the little town on his 4 wheeler. In '16 the care taker was Juan. He lived across the street. He washed and waxed the motorhome. His English is better than mine and we talked a lot. He and his family gave us a really nice memento wall piece on the morning we left. Very touching. If you can find him, please tell him we think of him a lot.
ReplyDeleteYes, we totally agree, Pedro and Susan and wonderful and very helpful people. He took Kevin and a few of the others off to get purified water in the 4 wheeler and yesterday he took half of our group into the city in his truck and the other half today. I don't believe that Juan is working for him anymore but can't say for certain.
DeleteWe are definitely enjoying our time here. :-)
Looks like a good travel day and a decent spot tp hang out for a few days.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great day! :-)
DeleteThis may be a crazy ask and even more than you want to do, but is there any way you can include an idea of the temps in each post. I've never been to Mexico before, so I am learning as you go!! I would love to know if it's cold up in the higher elevations like in other countries or is it just hot because it's Mexico. We are buckling down for up to a foot of snow here in my area of NC - just north of Charlotte, so maybe it'll give me something to look forward to. If not, no worries.
ReplyDeleteNow included above, thanks. I've been meaning to do that!
DeleteAh yes, the power! We foolishly turned on the air conditioning there and promptly blew the fuse for the whole park! Peter was not pleased because he had no spare fuse and had to make one by wrapping bare telephone wire around the fuse posts! Every day is an adventure in Mexico!
ReplyDeleteYep, everyday here is Mexico is definitely an adventure and we wouldn't have it any other way. :-)
DeleteSo far we haven't any troubles with the electricity. No one is using their air conditioner and some of us aren't even plugged in which gives the ones that are plugged in a little more juice otherwise the power level would be too low.
One thing I hadn't noticed before following your trip on the map - who drew those crazy state lines? They must have made sense to somebody, but it sure isn't obvious how just from looking at a map.
ReplyDeleteWe have often wondered the same thing! In some cases, it may follow a river and the river would then be the dividing line or perhaps a mountain, other than that I don't have a good answer. :-)
DeleteDo not miss Guanajuato
ReplyDeleteNo worries, we won't be missing it. It is one of our favourite cities in Mexico! :-)
DeleteLast year we had planned on going around Real de Catorce and take Hwy 6 and connect with the 63. Good to know it's a good road and scenery.
ReplyDeleteWe are sure you would be fine with that route. Not sure about highway 6 but 63 is definitely a good road, everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.
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