Ok, so i’ve left the updates to Sophie for a while but i’m going to give this one a quick bash. Hunched over the laptop like Ernest Hemmingway (Enid Blyton??) after  few Modelo Especial’s, The Best Mexican cerveza, we’ve driven for over 20 hours over 2 days to get to America. Our eventual northern goal to reach Vancouver and then Hawaii.

I was keen to get through the Northern part of Mexico. The area bordering America has a fair amount of anecdotal notoriety and since we’d had such great experiences in Mexico, I didn’t want to spoil things by hanging around there. Turns out the anecdotes were wrong.

Leaving Hierve del Agua, the cool petrified waterfall and calcium pools in the middle of nowhere i told Milo was made of the same stuff that clogs up the kettle. Took some of the magic away there i think.

Back on a dirt road again. With a Winnebago,  you really don’t need a 4×4..!

We drove all day through the most beautiful scenery. Sounding like my dad going through the Lake District, I’m smitten by the place. It was totally lost on the boys just as the lakes were on me..

Past the local traffic….

to reach the next quaint old blah de blah town, where the local transport was still less advanced than our old bus…

but it had the coolest cafe’s

with a menu that we still don’t fully understand

which doesn’t matter because it tastes bloody delicious almost regardless of what you order…

We took so many photo’s that Sophie will share I know on Facecomic somehow..

Puebla. A town where there are Catholic churches, built on the ruins of Mayan temples long overgrown. For this one the conquering Spanish actually used the stones from the Mayan temple peak to save carrying new ones up to the top

but you can explore through the temple corridors inside the mountain, so that was a bit educational…

or just climb on the trees in the sunshine of course…

Another huge 10 hour drive to the next blah de blah old city, desperately beautiful colonial architecture etc etc…

where the shops are incredible. Chic, and full of artifacts that get our girl transfixed…

the cars are cool

and the restaurants are fantastic. This had THE best steak i’ve had for a very long time. And ice cold Modelo Especial…of course.

There were even 6 foot balloons for a few pesos that the boys could launch in the cathedral square after dinner. Now that’s scenery for a 7yr old..

We stayed a few days. Sophie got chance to visit a local artists home. Lost on me and the boys, but it looked good in the photos.

 

The RV site we found to explore San Miguel de Allende was right in the middle of town and perfect walking distance. The only down side, its a little tight to get into…

The second most popular place in Mexico for Americans, many of whom have homes here, its a stunning town. Plenty of Estate Agents selling $1m+ haciendas and townhouses, we met Swiss, German and American people. Where we stayed even had tennis courts, popular with American Ladies who Lunch.

Despite this, we changed our plans to visit more waterfalls and made the charge to the Mexico/US border.

It feels strange to be back in America. I’ll tell you about the argument, on a dusty roadside in Mexico a few miles from the border, about where exactly our vehicle documents were, some other time, but the first few miles after crossing, its a shock. Everybody drives so much faster. The cars are all new and bigger. People aggressively chop and change lanes to gain another few inches ahead, i guess because there roads aren’t full of speed bumps – as they are in Mexico – to slow them down. Mexican traffic, when you can find some, is all over the place with no lane discipline at all but once you get used to it, its polite, obvious, safer and more relaxing to be amongst. Much like the Mexican people.

 

Our first parking spot in America contrasts sharply with our last overnight stop in Mexico. I hope Milo will forgive me the shot of him picking flowers, but for 50p per night you can stay here…

or for $50 per night, these are our new neighbors. And don’t forget, we are just over the border in what used to be Mexico..

This is one of the last roadside cafe’s on the Mexican side…

Not hard to see why problems exist.

Having said all that, its great to be back in the world where English is almost understood..

Yep, good old Walmart. Though even the local chocolate wasn’t enough to cheer the boys up…

Its nighttime now and being in the desert its finally cold. Off to The White Sands National Park tomorrow – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_National_Monument –

Gypsum salts rather than Calcium. Hmm. How the hell am I gonna make that interesting for a 7yr old…..