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June 2nd, 2015. What weird day.
It was a great nights sleep in Ciudad Victoria. We woke at a reasonable time and languished to our content. We were not in a hurry. The hotel breakfast was nothing to write home about so I guess you can ignore this sentence.
Ciudad Victoria actually has an HEB and it was right across the street. Too bad the HEBs at home aren’t like this one. Eye-popping fresh veggies and ridiculously low prices. We stocked up for the day’s travel.
We left the hotel around 11 and headed south towards “El Cielo”, a protected bio-preserve just south of here. The drive took us into those mountains with low hanging clouds. Wonderful slow drive past the Tropic of Cancer. I let locals pass at will as I stared down ravines of a potential impending body cast. We didn’t have far to go so we enjoyed the scenery.
Once to El Cielo, the intention was to find a quaint room to chill at for a few days. No car, no agenda, no worries. What we found at El Cielo was indeed a lovely protected area, about 10 miles off the main road. Jaguars, parrots and plenty of bugs. Problem is, everywhere we stopped to get a room was ridiculously over-priced and all shared the same smell…and not a good smell. Something like a combination of mold and formaldehyde. Also, every place to eat was closed, either permanently or till the weekend and today is Tuesday. Oh, and no way to buy groceries and we bought the wrong type of groceries earlier. We drove around, waved at the eyes in the rainforest and then… left.
Ciudad Mante was the next stop but only for gas. We stopped for the day in Ciudad Valles. We we not going to drive like mad on mostly one lane, sometimes less type roads.
We stayed the evening at a lovely hotel in downtown Ciudad Valles. Great bed. Nice grounds away from the street noise. And topped it of with possibly the worst restaurant ever. Order wine. They’re out. Order a beer, get the wrong beer. Sharon’s green enchiladas magically become over-cheesy Swiss. My pasta and pesto came a full 30 minutes later, cold and certainly not pesto’d. Sharon remained sweet but I was a different case. My Spanish suddenly became second nature as I gesticulated a litany of complaints.
Tequila made it all better.
June 3rd, Wednesday morning. We were determined to have a better day. We stopped in at a local grocery and picked up some fresh pan dulce and a roasted chicken for later, then headed further south, into the region known as Huasteco. We drove for near an hour and a half and landed in Xilitla. We’ve been here before and it’s more our speed. Up in the mountains, thick with jungle, park the car for a few days and just walk. Our jungle bungalow on the steep side of a mountain has no AC and we don’t need it. The apron of trees blocks the direct sunlight and the altitude has us at about 78 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.
Things are looking good!
WiFi is spotty – Scottie, but we’re givin’ her all we can. You?
