Fresh Fruit; Fresh Tequila

Even though our border crossing experience was very easy, we were both a little nervous about driving in Mexico. After all, we had spent the past 2 weeks spending time with our very concerned families, and getting looks from people like they would never see us again. We tried to stay positive through all of this – knowing that the US media sensationalizes the violence in Mexico and having heard from travelers currently in Mexico about the safety of various regions – but positive thinking can only go so far.

But once we got on the highway and started driving, we felt safe the entire time. In general the roads were in great shape. We saw police and military vehicles, but they were all doing their job – keeping the public safe. [It is a bit unnerving the first couple times you see guys carrying automatic weapons at their side, but that wears off pretty quickly.  With the history of violence against soldiers and policemen by drug cartels, you can see why they do it.  The military presence was strongest at the border, and decreased rapidly as we made our way south.] The biggest annoyance during our first day of driving was the speed limit. It seemed to change drastically every few minutes: 100, 110, 40, 80, 100, 40, 100, etc. They must have an anti-cruise control lobby here or something. Several times we encountered two seemingly contradictory speed limit signs right next to each other. On the left side of the road, 100 kph. On the right side, 80 kph. We later found out that the pair of signs indicates that the two lanes have different speed limits. Makes sense.

We took the cuota (toll road) from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey. It cost about 200 pesos (less than $20 US) and was a great road. We took the road because cuotas are reportedly safer and we were trying to cover a lot of ground the first day. [Also have higher speed limits] However, there is a free highway that runs fairly close to the cuota and had it not been our first day in Mexico, and had we not been trying to travel so far in one day, we would probably have taken that highway.

Mexicans love their signs, especially along the highways. There are constantly signs along the road, informing travelers of everything from “Don't drive tired. Your family is waiting for you.” to “Keep the highways clean.” But sometimes the signage breaks down just where it matters most: in the cities! We planned to take the highway through Monterrey, as we had read it was an easy drive and our map indicated that the highway went right through the city and continued southward. We drove into the city without any problems, but all of a sudden we were faced with a Y in the road. And neither fork had the highway we were on. What?!? We took the left fork, saw that we were now on a different highway, and proceeded to make a U-turn (retorno) at the first opportunity. Coming back towards the intersection of doom, we were in the wrong lane and missed our turn. Now we were still going the wrong way, but the opposite direction. Again we used the retorno and were heading back towards the intersection, determined to get it right this time. This time the sign was way off on the side of the road,[As in, we ACTUALLY HAD A SIGN] so of course we missed the turn AGAIN. [I was swearing pretty heavily by this point] Now we were on the road where we had first gone the wrong way. Ok, at least we know where the retorno is and where our turn is. Easy peasy, right? Wrong! We took the turn for the highway, and it took us north instead of south. [We're now heading out of town the way we came in] Doh! We eventually found a retorno and finally were back where we had started. We came to the Y intersection again and took the right fork this time, confident in our direction. Except now it took us to the second road in the wrong direction. Having already driven this route, we again knew exactly where the retorno was and this time made our exit to catch the highway heading south. But then it went right through downtown and the signs disappeared! At this point Ike remembered that he had downloaded an offline maps app, so we broke it out and eventually made our way out of the city and back on to the highway. We were both ready for cervezas at this point, but were only a fourth of the way to our destination for the night. On the bright side, we did get to drive right through an arch that was a few centuries old, and clearly not made for cars.

Once we were out of downtown we decided to pull over and fill up with gas and buy a couple of tacos for lunch. We had read about some common scams at Mexican gas stations, but still weren't quite prepared for what happened when we pulled in. The pump attendant asked what fuel grade we wanted and how much, typical. But then three other men came up and started asking if we wanted service (fluids and oil check). We said no, but they insisted it was free, so we made the mistake of saying “sure.” They opened the hood and started checking every possible fluid. The attendant told us our windshield wiper fluid was “bone dry.” I turned to Ike to see what we should do. “I just filled it before we left Iowa, so it should be fine.” Hmmm, ok. We told the attendant that we were not interested, but he insisted that his wiper fluid would protect the eyes. Hah, ok buddy, no thanks. Next he tried to inform us that our brakes weren't working. (That's funny, because they certainly were!) He used a syringe to pull out some brake fluid. It was black. He said “It should be clear, like water!” Again, I turned to Ike. “That's not true. Brake fluid is dark blue. [We had added some back in Nevada] Anyway, our brakes are working fine.” I told the attendant “No gracias.” And he responded by saying that if we are in a wreck, we wouldn't be able to stop, so may God bless us. Then he made the sign of the cross in the air. What a salesman! Luckily for us, despite all of the “service” distractions, the gas attendant was honest with us. After paying we pulled away from the pump, parked Sweetcakes, and headed over to the taco stand. We purchased 4 tacos (a little less than $4) and got back on the highway. Those tacos were out of this world! Eaten on corn tortillas, because we couldn't remember the word for flour.  We asked after we ordered of course. 

A little later we turned onto highway 31, a beautiful mountain pass with huge outcrops of rock. We slowed down on the winding mountain road, and at that point made the call to stay at the Las Palmas campground in Matehuala, about half way to our destination in San Miguel de Allende. We did not want to drive in the dark and, after all, this was our first day in Mexico. We needed some time to enjoy it!  We took the mountain pass as it was more direct.  Our camping in Mexico guidebook [tailored to RV'ers] mentioned that big rigs shouldn't take it. "We'll be fine!" I said, and we actually were.  The pass was amazing, the roads were  fun to drive [even in Sweetcakes!] and we passed the time listening to Radiolab.  

We pulled into Las Palmas, which is actually a hotel with a gravel parking lot in the back, and were the only ones camping there for the night. It was very expensive, but we had hot showers and were able to relax that night. We headed to a local supermarket to buy some groceries and were shocked how cheap some of the food items were (limes for $0.60 per kilo, store-made tortilla chips for $0.50 per pound in 6 different flavors, including one that I swear had to be MSG it was so good). The beer was a bit expensive, but the young woman working the alcohol aisle was super friendly with us.

The next morning we headed to a gas station before getting on the highway. We now knew to say no to the service offer, but the gas attendant pulled a quick one on us. Ike asked for the regular octane gas, and then the attendant “accidentally” started running premium gas for a bit, then “caught his mistake” (and cleared the gas pump without us seeing the $ value), and switched to regular octane. We probably ended up paying a few extra bucks for our gas... not the end of the world, but we learned another lesson. Our plan from now on is to have one person deal directly with the gas attendant and the other person will deal with everyone else that comes up to distract us. And in particular try to find places where there is only one attendant so we can't get blindsided.  "Do you want the water cleaned off the car?" I was asked.  "Todo esta bien." I replied.  The old man starts wiping anyway.  Sweet! Now I have dirt smears all over from your dirty rags! Nice work bub!  We also were right next to municipal police having their truck filled with gas, so naturally I thought we'd be fine. Derp da derp. 

Have we mentioned all the topes (speedbumps) in Mexico? They put them in to prevent cars from exceeding the speed limit, and boy do they work. We've already gone over more topes than I can count. Sometimes they are marked with a sign, sometimes not. If you are lucky the tope itself is painted yellow and white. But sometimes they are both unmarked and without a sign, and we came upon a completely random unmarked tope on the road leading into San Miguel. “Shit!” Ike exclaimed as he saw the tope too late to slow down sufficiently. Boom, we flew over it. The bed platform gave a noisy thud as it landed back down on the frame of the car. We didn't think much of it, but later realized that we had lost the pin to our rear swingout. Oops! Good thing I asked Dad to make us a spare at the last minute. We've already placed an order for a few more spares, but hopefully we won't have any more surprise encounters with topes. As we go to press, we've already had one more. The topes also have a variety in their build.  Some are low and rounded, others are built like trapezoids.  It's a new experience every time you go over one! I'm just thankful we got new shocks before the trip.

We rolled into San Miguel de Allende and found the downtown campground without any problems. We met Dan & Heather from JFDI Overland, and Jakob & Nikki from Sprinter Van Diaries. Both of them are heading to Ushuaia, Argentina as well. After settling in and eating a quick lunch, we set out to buy our Mexican cell phone plan. We had read online that this was not a minor undertaking, but we had no problem. The woman that helped us spoke perfect English and we were in and out of the store in half an hour. The high point of this experience was watching all the American retirees try and have work done on their phones. "Yes, ah, I uh, I cannot send or receive text messages." said a woman in a sun hat, dark floral print shirt, and an incredible southern drawl.  After being helped, she proceeded to make her way back in line again for help with adding money to her balance.  We also enjoyed being cut in line by another patron. I was too stunned to start yelling at her.  We stocked up on more groceries, then relaxed in the shade for a bit before strolling through downtown. It was Friday night, so the whole town was out at the main plaza. Tons of people were milling around the large church on the plaza, with street vendors galore, and a handful of mariachi bands. We heard a lot of music and noise and then soon encountered what must have been a bachelor/bachelorette party procession. The bride and groom were dressed in all white and at the front. They and all their guests (there were probably 50 people following them) had little shot glasses tied around their necks and people were pouring shots of tequila. How do we join that party?! It started to get dark, so we meandered back to the campsite, made dinner, and then spent the rest of the evening trading stories with the other overlanders. A great way to kick off the southern leg of our journey.

The bride & groom with a decorated donkey!? All the people in this pic are with the party. Note the giant bride & groom puppets on the left.

The next morning we said goodbye to the other couples, then scoped out the organic farmers' market, which Hans (the campground owner) said was expensive because of all the foreigners that live in SMdA. We read online that nearly 10% of the population are foreigners, many are retirees. Boy was that a bougie farmers' market. Nearly all the customers were middle-aged white people. Lots of women sporting their yoga pants and carrying around their Starbucks. So cultured! We had fun people watching, then set out to explore the city a bit more. From there we found our way to the 'Art Walk' with local artists.  Naturally this must be where the people go after the organic farmer's market and a quick top-up at Starbucks. 

We found ourselves on a steep road that turned into a steep stairway that went up and up and up. At one point we were passed by a grandfather and 4 of his grandchildren, that were running up the stairs together and they even invited us to join them. We made it about 10 stairs and said adios. We decided to follow the stairs to the top and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city below. Editor's Note: we actually beat their pace, and were gaining on a trio of teens doing a workout. Slow and steady wins the race.

We wandered into this garden, which we later decided was probably a private hotel garden. Sorry, not sorry. Gaijin smash

Curvy, super steep road that turned into stairs. 

View of San Miguel de Allende from the mirador (lookout) at the top of the steps.

This little guy was hanging out near our campsite.

That night we decided to go out for dinner and ended up at a nice Cuban restaurant. Ike ordered enchiladas and I the Veracruz-style fish. Both were delicious! We saw a sign for 2 for 1 mojitos and ordered some when our waiter brought out the food. Except he thought we ordered 4 mojitos in total. When in Rome.... They were some of the best mojitos we've had (and Ike is a mojito master), so we couldn't complain.

Adorable old couple dancing at dinner

Sunday morning we toyed around with the solar battery for a bit, with help from Joaquin, from the German couple who has lived in the SMdA campground for five years. We set off for a short drive to nearby Guanajuato.

Guide books warn about the steep, narrow streets of Guanajuato, but it was still a shock to encounter it first hand. We followed the directions in our guidebook and on our GPS to avoid going through the heart of downtown, instead aiming for the “panoramic” road which took us up around the city. This route still had several tunnels (the city is built in a valley but extends up the mountains on all sides, so there are quite a few tunnels built to get from one part of town to another without going over the mountains), and at one point we hit bad traffic. I decided we could take a small detour to get to the panoramic road. But then we missed a left turn and ended up taking a 15 minute tour through the narrowest streets I have ever driven through (well, “ridden” through, since Ike was driving, thankfully!). But Ike drove like a pro, and soon we were back on the panoramic road. Closest to true off-roading we've done in sweetcakes. Those streets were bonkers.  Sweetcakes quickly felt very large.

The guide book warned that to get to the small campground we had to enter by going the wrong way down a hill. We pulled over at the top of the hill and I got out and ran down the hill to try to stop traffic. Except the hill went around a curve, so I could not simultaneously see Ike and see traffic coming up the hill by the entrance to the campground. So I signaled for Ike to come partway down the hill and then pull over to the side of the road, while I went down a bit more. I then signaled for Ike to come the rest of the way down, and ran ahead to stop traffic up by the gate. One car came around the corner, but thankfully they stopped while Ike roared Sweetcakes down the hill and through the entrance to the campground. #puttingthebullguardtouse

Just pray someone isn't trying to come up

We parked the car in one of the open spaces (the campground also serves as a parking lot for locals) and got out to find someone who was in charge. There were a couple of teens working on a pickup truck so I asked if they knew where the office was. The young woman told me that her father was the owner and so we paid her the 160 pesos for the night. The campground is up on a hill overlooking downtown and it was a stunning view. After a slightly stressful drive through the city, Ike was ready for a beer. We set up our camp chairs, he cracked a beer, and we settled in to enjoy the view. “Shhh! Do you hear a hissing?” Ike asked suddenly. I didn't. He went to listen to the car and put his head down by the front passenger wheel, but thought perhaps the hissing was something in the engine while it was cooling down. A few minutes later I walked over and heard the hissing when I put my head by the tire. So I walked to the driver side to see if I still heard the hissing. I didn't. I walked back around to the passenger side and started looking around the tire to see if we had a hole. I found the culprit: a screw was sticking right into the tire. Immediately my mind registers the little kid about 10 minutes outside of town that I saw throw something into the road right before we drove past. I thought it was odd at the time, but didn't actually see anything in the road. While we were driving through town with our windows down we had heard a “click, click, click,” but we thought this was just another rock stuck in our tire tread, which happens sometimes. The kid's dad probably runs a tire repair store.

Our new attempt at studding our tires for winter?

Luckily we had everything we needed to repair the tire. We pulled out our tire repair kit and then re-inflated the tire. Ok, now time to relax! 

tranquilo

We spent the evening enjoying margaritas (yesss, cheap tequila and delicious limes!) and chinese food while watching the sun set over the town. We also met our neighbors, Jana & Adi, from Switzerland. They've been on the road for nearly 3 years and plan to stay in Mexico another 7 months. Respect!

We clearly weren't ready for the photo.

The next morning was tranquilo. We woke up, practiced yoga together, had some breakfast, then set out to explore the town a bit. We stumbled upon the Diego Rivera house/museum, located at DR's childhood home. The first floor contained a temporary exhibit displaying interviews of Japanese immigrants to Mexico, or Mexican citizens of Japanese decent. Ike and I had fun translating the Japanese and Spanish quotes and displays. Many of the Japanese quotes focused on morals and working hard. Very Japanese. It must be hard for them to adjust to the totally different culture in Mexico. We explored 4 stories of the museum, seeing many of Diego's works on display. We didn't realize he had such a wide range of styles in his pieces. It also helped reinforce my difficulty with remembering Spanish words and not Japanese.

This is me in crocodile form

We wandered a bit further down the street, found an empanada vendor (sooo delicious), and then wandered through the market. I was shocked how many people were out and about on a weekday mid-afternoon. The large, indoor market had everything you could possibly want to buy: souvenirs, clothes, home goods, snacks, produce, meat, etc.

We again fell asleep to the dogs howling throughout the valley, but were awoken in the middle of the night by the wind trying (thankfully unsuccessfully) to collapse our tent. Hooray for REI's Half Dome tent!

The next day was a fairly long drive over to the Grutas de Tolantongo, recommended by Jana & Adi, which are natural hot springs. The drive was a fairly simple one, but we ended up getting very lost in Ixmiquilpan. Both of our GPS showed only one road that connected the main highway we were on to the road out to the Grutas. Unfortunately, it brought us out to the road where it was a one-way coming into town, instead of heading out of town like we needed. Our GPS did not have any of the small side roads around this highway, so we were driving around blind. We bumped along a cobblestone road heading north, but eventually gave up because it did not appear to connect to the road we were looking for. After driving around the main plaza several times, we finally took an “invisible” side road and eventually met up with the road we were looking for.

After passing a million more topes we ended up in a beautiful agricultural plain and then came upon the mountains and valley where the Grutas were located. Our GPS showed a gnarly series of switchbacks to get down into the valley. It took us about 20 minutes to descend the mountain, but we didn't mind because we faced stunning views of the mountains and valley the entire time.

 dem springs

 Watching all the backed up traffic try and pass the thousand or so bikers was hilarious. But also kinda intense because they kept jumping into our lane to do it.

They made us pay 2 days' entrance fees to camp on-site, but luckily Jana & Adi had told us about a 2 for 1 coupon available on the website. We followed the signs through the hotel area to the camping area. The whole place was pretty empty. We only saw a handful of visitors, everyone else appeared to be a construction worker. They must have been preparing for the busy season (winter)? We found a nice spot by the river then walked around to explore the grounds. The caves closed at 5, and given that it was nearly 4, we decided to do the caves in the morning. Instead we donned our bathing suits and went for a dip in the river. It was fairly cool by this time and the water was only slightly warm, but it was still enjoyable.

We returned to our car and started cooking dinner. Shortly after, a security guard approached us on an ATV. I handed him our tickets and he informed me that we had to park our car in the parking lot above. We couldn't keep it by our tent. I asked when we needed to move it, and he said ahorita. Right now. I told Ike the bad news, and then the security guard said we could finish our meal, but needed to move the car in an hour. We ate and set up the tent, but by this time it was starting to get dark. I proposed that the security guard probably would not return for the night and that we would probably be OK to not move the car. A little later we heard the ATV buzzing around up above, so Ike hopped in the car and drove up to the parking lot. Except he couldn't, because it was blocked with a chain. So we ended up keeping the car by our tent for the night after all.

The next morning we woke up and headed over to check out the caves. We climbed the stairs to the first cave, stripped down to our swim suits (in front of the dozen or so construction workers standing nearby), and headed on into the cave. It was behind a small waterfall which cruelly dripped frigid water on us, but we were met with warm water as we entered the cave. The caves were big enough for us to stand in, but I could reach the ceiling and both walls with my arms. Warm/hot water was raining down in the cave, and mixing with cold water on the floor of the cave. Usually the water was only ankle deep, but occasionally there were pools up to nearly our shoulders. Oh, and by the way, there weren't any lights! So it was a bit scary at first, but we soon adjusted. We relaxed in one of the deeper pools for awhile, then headed back out of the cave. We pranced down the stairs in our swimsuits and over to the other cave. It was somewhere around 9am at this point and the air was very crisp. We gingerly walked across a river beneath a waterfall and into the second cave. It was much larger and the water was waste deep with a very strong current. Thankfully the cave had a couple of ropes along the walls to help guide you further into the cave. But again no lights. We fought the current into one of the back caverns, but the water was only lukewarm, so we headed back out into the main chamber. Here we followed another rope back on the other side of the cavern. We found a large smooth rock and sat down for awhile. Suddenly Ike jerked his hand up to his head and made a swatting motion. We both peered through the steamy dark air and could see something black, about the size of a quarter, on the rock near where Ike was sitting. He reached out to it with his hand and let out a small yelp. “I'm not totally sure, but I think whatever it was moved when I touched it. Let's get outta here!” At this point we were both remembering the giant spider from our caving adventure in Belize on our honeymoon a few years ago. We waded back out of the cave, back through the frigid waterfall, and sought the comfort of our dry towels.

After packing up camp and enjoying some breakfast, we hopped in Sweetcakes and climbed back up the switchbacks. We stopped at a fruit stand along the road, intending to buy a pineapple. (The fruit here is amazing!) The man and woman at the fruit stand offered us each a full slice of melon. Mmmm, we'll get one of those too! Then they offered us some strange kind of plum, some grapes, an orange, and kept offereing us things until my hands were literally full of fruit samples and I had to say that I couldn't take any more. All of the fruit was delicious, but we already had quite a bit of fruit in our car from the grocery store a couple of days ago, so we stuck with just the pineapple and melon.

We made it through Ixmiquilpan and back to the highway without getting lost this time. A couple of hours into our journey towards Puebla, on the east side of Mexico City, we were flagged over at one of the random checkpoints the police have along the road. The policeman saw that we were foreigners and asked for our documentation. The two other cops came over and stood by our window as well. We handed over our tourist visas and vehicle permit. He then asked for Ike's driver's license and both of our passports. All of our original documents were secured in our lockbox, so I handed over a high quality copy of Ike's driver's license and our passports. He then told me that he needed an original, that the copy didn't work for him. So I handed over the International Driver's Permit (in English, Spanish, and Portuguese) we obtained from AAA before leaving. He looked at the date, which said October 1, and tried to tell me the permit was expired. I explained that that was the start date. Then he told me he needed to see the expiration date. I showed where the permit said it was valid for one year. At this point I knew he was trying to get a bribe out of us. He then said he needed to see an actual date. I referred him back to the copy of Ike's US license. He then said that he needed an original document, otherwise it was an infraction in the state. I referred him back to the International Drivers Permit. We continued like this for about 5 minutes, both of us holding our ground. Then he and the 2 other cops asked for a soda when they saw our fridge in the back. We said we have no soda, only water. Then they asked for money. I feigned that I didn't understand, then they stood there and tried to remember the English word and eventually said cash. At this point I just started saying I don't understand (which I should have done from the beginning instead of conversing in Spanish). Ike takes over and points to our vehicle permit sticker, our documents, and says “Everything's good, ok? So we can go?” They insist with the soda/cash thing for another minute, then finally hand back the documents and say we can go. We sped off with smiles on our faces and called back “Gracias” as we pulled back onto the road. Phew, bribe avoided. Honestly, it is less about the monetary loss and more about letting cops know that tourists are not easy targets.

Tonight we decided to stay at a hotel in Puebla, since the camping options are a fair ways outside of town. We've enjoyed the internet and are looking forward to a night in a real bed! 

Bonus pic: The Mexican Green Angels. They patrol the highway and help people with car or other problems Also saw one pushing a car down the highway. That's how you do it.