Hotel Casa Real Matehuala San Luis Potosí

... is an enticing thought in Mexico. My photos don't show much activity but most were taken on Christmas Day. The lack of people did show off the full architectural attractions of this street. The rosy brown hues of the buildings were also dominant in the large paving stones that provided a smooth surface for our strolls. On the day after Christmas we retraced our route along Ignacio Zaragoza to visit the Jardin Colon and the ...

... Both Barbara and I speak French and that created a commonality with the visitors from France. Here we were speaking French in a Spanish speaking country and our conversation for a fleeting moment transcended international boundaries to create a moment of "bonhommerie" unique to travel. Simply put, it was a feel good moment. One of the most exciting observations we made in the Plaza de Armas was a banner proclaiming the "Fiesta de Luz" - a sound ...

... différence avec chez nous, ce sont les taxes. Encore une fois, la journée s'est bien passée pour nous, mais deux de nos caravaniers ont vécu des difficultés quand on a commencé à gravir les montagnes. Nous avons dû faire un arrêt en pleine ascension suite à un accident de la route et c'est à ce moment que les troubles ont sorti. Pour un premier, c'était son mélange air/essence qui ne se faisait pas bien et il a dû s'arrêter en bordure de l'autoroute pour ajouter de l'octane à son ...

... us on old back streets. We decided to pick up a couple of Spanish books, which we plan to read together to work on our language skills once we're home. Our third outing was a long walk with a dinner break. We apparently found the red light district on this trip! Dinner was at a restaurant at the corner of the street our hotel is on-- I had good chicken enchiladas in mole. We wandered around until about 9:30, just enjoying the night.

WEATHER: mostly overcast, few sprinkles, pleasantly warm. TOTAL MILEAGE: 132.1 miles All currency is in pesos. After running a few errands (including a camera stop- $50 each, a decent price- at the drugstore across from the hotel), we were on our way, to San Luis Potosi. We traveled through my favorite kind of scenery- high desert. There were a couple of burros and quite a few sheep, including one especially cute ...

... that we had missed the first time round. We arrived at the town to discover that it was a bit of a grebit hole, but we were determinded to get to Parquee La Venta (the big luscious park in the middle of this nasty polluted city). We walked around a big lake with crocodiles inside and got to the site - finally - we wanted to see this for 6 months! We entered to see the saddest sight ever, a hole with a rusty manky climbing frame and lots of sad and sick looking monkeys, they looked like ...

... small and relatively non-touristy. Other than the historical aspects, the only other attractions would be ceramics, and the numerous odd flavors of ice cream available in the town square. If you ever wanted to try tequila, or pork rind flavored ice cream, this would be a "must see" destination. We stuck with some more traditional flavors, but the whiskey ice cream actually turned out to be very tasty!

... Potosi you will see innumerable churches, schools, fountains, parks, plazas, arches, and monuments, all very nice with some being remarkable. If you like that kind of stuff your head will be swimming with the wealth of architecture and the abundance of it all. But for us, all those historic wonders pale in comparison to the monumental friendliness and generosity of our Tres Chicas Fuertes and their hospitable family and friends. Every home we visited we heard the same ...

... of Chile, The Salt Flats of Southern Bolivia, La Paz, Lake Titicaca, and to Cusco and Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, I don´t have much time so say a few words about this life-changing trip. Believe, what i would like to do more than anything is to tell all of you about my adventures, but I have tried to write this letter five times already and I can never finish, or start, or something comes up ...

We took a one day side trip to neighboring Queretaro, a city of about 1 million people with a light industrial and distribution base for good employment. It has a historical town center that is very flat and easily walkable. It was also a center of the Mexican Independence in 1810. You can get there easily from SMA by bus and it is worth about 1/2 to 3/4 of a day. Various tour groups also do day trips from SMA and you could hire a driver/ guide but going by ...