May 5

Well, an eventful day. We got to Laredo before noon. Getting the import permit for the car and going through immigration was less of a problem than Barbara was anticipating. She had been reading too much about all the potential problems and pitfalls. Getting to the office was the biggest problem as you go over the border and there is no one or any officials there. You have to go several blocks away. Apparently, anyone can go into this border zone without passing any checkpoints and can stay for 3 days. However, after this 20 kms border zone, one does have to go through customs and you need the correct permits or you have to go back into Nuevo Laredo to get them.

The road to Monterrey etc. is divided highway; for much of the way, there are toll highways which are of the same standard as US interstates. The tolls are fairly high--over $190 (pesos that is or over US$19) and 117 pesos (just divide by 10). This area is desert with only scrub bushes, cacti and very short trees. Then, you start into the mountains. Monterrey and Saltillo are quite high up. Both cities are booming and industrial. Saltillo is called the Detroit of Mexico because there are GM and Chrysler assembly plants (Monterrey has over 3 million people and Saltillo about 3/4 million). There is a lot of construction in both cities. Saltillo is said to have the highest average income of any city in Mexico. Both cities have interesting websites with lots of information. We in Canada tend to have a view of Mexico as very backward; it isn’t so.

We decided to continue to Saltillo because it would be farther and we would have a shorter trip for the last leg to Ajijic. It had some large American hotel chains and that is what we thought we wanted. However, when we stopped at a couple, they wouldn’t take dogs, they were very expensive (all the American businessmen) and very crowded. We continued to the south of the city. However, there were no big hotels. 

Just as we were giving up hope and deciding that we would have to go to next good sized city (over 300 kms further) we saw the sign for the hotel where we are staying. I’ll get the name for tomorrow. Right now, I’m sitting outside on the patio beside the pool; it is after 6 p.m. This is a real Mexican hotel--one story stone and stucco buildings spread out with lovely gardens, lots of trees and lots of shade. About the only sounds are birds; there seem to be dozens of doves cooing and some other birds making more raucous calls. The price of this is $550, or half of the American chains. I suppose for some people, they would not be happy as there is no TV. But our room is spacious and lovely. We had a tasty Mexican dinner (I think that we may be the only guests); we had a glass of wine and learned that it was Mexican. It was delicious, certainly better than many of the wines I have bought at liquor stores. We will have breakfast tomorrow--all these at Mexican prices (I haven’t got the dinner bill yet, but I think that it was $50-60 each (again divide by 10 to get the dollar equivalent). Only the proprietess speaks English, but she was lovely, even produced a map on how to get to the highway to go to Guadalajara, etc. With all the road construction, it is confusing and very easy to get misdirected.

Barbara commented, “Just as I was wondering if we had made a mistake [driving in Saltillo was a bit harrowing and she was driving], we found this place!” It is a real oasis and the Mexico we are looking for. It is about 700 kms to Ajijic from here so that we will have a good day’s drive tomorrow. We can hardly wait, although we certainly intend to come back here for a visit. This is the older, more gracious side of Saltillo (there are big, lovely homes all around).