May 17 - Tampico to Saltillo - 380 Miles

We are now heading home.  Tampico is on the Gulf Coast, and Saltillo is quite a bit inland.  We had chosen Saltillo partly to ride through two other Mexican States, Tamaulipas and Coahuila, and partly because it is in line for us to re-enter the U.S. at Del Rio Texas.

We started early in the morning to make this longer trip, and hoped for good roads and few slow villages.

The roads were indeed quite good, mainly because they lead to Monterrey, Mexico, which is a very large industrial city.  The scenery was quite varied, starting with very green costal areas, then high mountain desert, back to green again in irrigated areas, then desert again.

On the way we saw many Orange groves, and many little fruit stands selling Naranjas (Oranges) and Jugo de Naranja (Orange juice).  We couldn't carry any oranges, but we could drink Orange juice.  We have been drinking lots of fluids to avoid dehydration while riding, and by the time we stopped at a small fruit stand advertising Orange juice, we were really thirsty.  We bought a half gallon of Orange juice and each of us drank a full quart!  It hit the spot.

We decided to ride to and through the big city of Monterrey to have better roads, and that worked out all right.  Even though it is a huge city, the signs were good and we made it almost through without incident.  However, as we were leaving the city, the rainstorm that we had seen along the neighboring mountains caught up with us.  It just poured, with lots of wind also.  We pulled over and put on our rain suits, in the protection of a small roadside stand, and waited it out.  Then away we went, with trucks spraying dirty water all over us and the bikes.

Monterrey is a modern city with some modern skyscrapers, and is in a beautiful setting.  It is in a valley tightly ringed by ruggedly beautiful hard rock mountains.  To get into the city from any direction one has to go over relatively easy mountain passes, with the mountains towering over the pass.  Our ride into and through the city must have been about 15-20 miles, and the whole time the very sharp rock mountains pressed in on both sides.  Monterrey might be a city worth visiting again.

We found Saltillo a city anxious for industrial development.  A small  Daimler-Chrysler auto plant is there, and an huge industrial park has been set aside, with lots of advertising for tenants.  This seems to make for high motel prices and high restaurant prices.  We found a reasonable older motel, but the prices of new motels catering to new business people were about $120 to $150.  Mexico hotels and motels are not really cheap ($45 - $65), but much less than these new ones.

Well, tomorrow is the ride to the Mexico - U.S. border and our last day in Mexico.  We're both getting tired, and are glad to be headed home.

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