"Son todos Mejicanos aqui en Tejas..."

Estos dos son fotos de New Orleans, pero por fin llegamos a Mexico! Estamos en Saltillo en las montanias. Cruzamos de Texas ayer al mediodia. Despues de tomar un cafecito y pasear un poco mas por las calles del viejo New Orleans, salimos directo para Texas. Decidimos tratar de llegar lo mas lejos posible, para poder cruzar la frontera al otro dia. Pasamos Houston (gigante ciudad, rodeado de refinerias de petroleo) y terminamos durmiendo en un rest stop cerca de Victoria, Texas. Enseguida nos dimos cuenta que en Tejas todos hablan espaniol - Mateo se levanto de maniana y dijo, "papi, son todos Mejicanos aqui en Tejas!"

Sorry for the delay, but it is sometimes hard to find internet access and time to post something at the same time. We are now in Saltillo, Mexico but here is how the last couple of days have gone…. Day 5 – we left New Orleans, after a café au lait at the Café du Monde and walking around for a bit more in the French quarter – so beautiful! We checked out of the hotel and the valet parking guy had a hard time starting the bus, so Gustavo drove it out himself (the guy was not amused). We drove sraight through Cajun country to the State line, and after crossing over into Texas we decided to try and drive as far as possible before resting for the night. The bypass for Houston went right through the downtown area, and the sight of that huge city at night was impressive, along with all the oil refineries lighting up the night sky. We couldn’t believe the never-ending lanes of traffic and we saw a couple of accidents at the exits into the city. Ariel laughed his head off because he saw a sign that said “Nazar’s Jewellery Store,” which reminded him of a movie he and his friends like called The Mole People. We stopped for dinner at “Al-T’s” Cajun restaurant, in Winnie, Texas, which was surprisingly good! The food was fresh and tasty, and they served nice big salads with this wonderful pickled okra that they make themselves, and delicious homemade bread. The waitress was really friendly and so proud of their food that she gave us a “Boudin” (dirty rice?) to try – it was kind of like a sausage shaped link, but stuffed with meat, rice and spices. We were tempted to buy some of their pickled okra, but didn’t want to carry anything else. We got away from the city and camped out at a rest stop on highway 59 just outside of Victoria, Texas (no 24-hour security guard, but wireless internet access - we were just to tired to use it!). There was a lot of light and movement, with people coming and going, so we decided to just pop the top again and sleep there.
Day 6 – South Texas - Mateo woke up this morning and said, “son todos Mexicanos aqui en Tejas” because he could hear people speaking Spanish all night long from his perch on the top bunk. And it’s true! The cars we saw were all piled high the gifts for el dia de los Reyes Magos, the Jan 6th holiday being almost bigger than Christmas. The scenery in Texas changed quite a bit already. There are cacti and palm trees, and is getting more desert-like. We passed through total ranch country, and actually this is a historic area because of the missiones. Actually with all the ranches and cows it alomst looked like we were already in Uruguay! And, of course, the taquerias have already begun to appear at the side of the highway! Texas casi se parece a Uruguay, con la flora y todas la vacas y estancias. Nos encontramos con un loco de Quebec que se va a Mexico en bici, y paramos a hablar con el por un rato. Tal vez nos encontramos en el Yucatan si llega antes que nos vayamos nosotros. Nos hizo dar cuenta que nosotros vamos super comodos en este vehiculo! As we were driving along on 77 we met up with a guy from Quebec who is heading down to the Yucatan peninsula on his bicycle. We stopped to chat with him for a bit – he has already been on the road for a month! We exchanged emails, and maybe if we stay in Mexico long enough we can meet up with him again. Seeing him slugging along with his bike and gear really made us realize just how cushy a set up we have here!
We decided not to go to Corpus Christi, but to just head straight for the border. We spent more time in New Orleans than we thought, and now just wanted to get into Mexico! We ended up in Mission, Texas by fluke (we passed the exit for McAllen) and it happened to be where all the RV parks are anyway. After a hilarious trip to a border Walmart (everyone here speaks Spanglish - we felt right at home immediately!) where we bought a battery so we can get our fridge working, and a jack, and some other stuff, we found ourselves an RV place right on the Rio Grande called Oleander Acres, which mainly cateres to the over-55 crowd escaping the winter in their various home provinces/states, and it was just what we needed. Hot showers, our own cooking (pasta and pesto from – where else? - Trader Joe’s) and we even did a couple of loads of laundry (thanks Eva, for all those American quarters you gave to Mateo!). Fue todo un aventura el estar en Mission, Texas, donde todos hablan una mescla de ingles y espaniol - nos sentimos como en casa! Fuimos al Walmart a comprar un par de cosas y el Ari dijo que nos sentiriamos fuera de lugar si no hablaramos espaniol en Texas! Por lo menos en el Trailer Park donde nos quedamos pudimos cocinar, organizarnos, y hasta lavamos un poco de ropa. Mateo y Ariel hasta hicieron un nuevo amigo!
Day 7 – crossing into Mexico lindo y querido! The birds in the morning were incredible (note to all you bird-watchers: apparently south Texas is a bird-watching paradise) and the kids made their first animal friend of the trip, a cute little stray ginger Tom cat. We woke up early and got ourselves organized, and were off again to get some errands done before crossing the border. We got to the Reynosa customs area around 12:30 but it took us awhile to get through because we had to deal with all of the stupid vehicle importation beaurocracy. We had read all about it on other travel blogs, so we more or less knew what it was all about and were as prepared as we could be. But the border official decided to make a big deal about the fact that we were planning to leave Mexico through Guatemala and continue on to Uruguay (stupid us for being honest) and then, of course, graciously made an exception for us, immediately followed by a request for a little something for a coffee….then we went to the “copias” window, where a woman photocopied Gustavo Trip Permit (we had already made copied of his driver’s license, passport and the vehicle ownership ourselves), and then she asked for a “tip” too. Anyway, after a long wait to pay at the “banco” window, the guy finally stamped our papers and we were off. I have to say, Reynosa is the ugliest city I have ever been in (even for a border city – even Chuy is nice by comparison!), dirty, noisy, polluted, unfriendly and really confusing. But we managed to make our way out and head toward Monterrey, and eventually Saltillo. Wow! The slow ascent into the mountains was breathtaking, even amongst the many, many factories and refineries in the area. So this is where all of the industrial jobs are moving to! We passed by a booming General Motors plant on the way into town. At one point our trusty GPS told us that we were at 1,500 metres and our ears were popping. When we finally piled out of the westy in Saltillo, the stink was out even worse than on a bad day in Hamilton! Now either it has gotten better or we have gotten used to it (just like Hamilton!). We found an RV park (and it is that, literally, a small parking lot at the back of a motel complex) and settled in for the night. There are a contingent of Canadians here in their RVs, heading south to see the butterflies in Morelia….hmmmm, sounds nice, but I don’t think we want to go that far west. We decided to go across the main boulevard and grab some dinner at the “Pollo Loco” (we hadn’t eaten since oatmeal in the morning, and Mateo had a killer headache even though we had been plying him with snacks the whole way, and I don't think it is the altitude - yet!). Man, even the fast food here is ten times better than in Canada or the US! We had grilled chicken, cabbage salad, rice, beans, warm tortillas, and this amazing “salsa bar" with different fresh salsas, guacamole, and fresh nacho chips! The best part about this trailer park(ing lot) is that it has wireless access! So the kids got caught up on their emails and at this moment I am writing this from inside the westy, looking out at a view of the lights of Saltillo (actually, I can see the sign for the Pollo Loco from here too…). I don't know when we'll have internet again, but we will post lots more photos of Mexico next time!

Cruzar la frontera fue - como lo puedo decir? - muy interesante, con los oficiales todos buscando una "propina" - pero salio todo bien y despues de hacer todos los papeles para el auto entramos. Fue precioso cuando empezamos a subir las montanias, impresionante, pero al mismo tiempo muy fuerte ver todas los industrias y fabricas en la vuelta, y pueblos enteros de casitas todas iguales hechas para los trabajadores. Todos los negocios que estan cerrando fabricas en Canada y EU se estan viniendo para aca, y contaminando el aire mejicano. Cuando nos bajamos del auto en Saltillo el aire tenia olores industriales. Ayer comimos en un lugar que se llama "pollo loco" y fue muy rico para ser comida rapida - lo mejor es que siempre sirven todo con salsas guacamole y nacho chips. Bueno, mas fotos en la proxima!

Los nenes tocaban musica mientras pasamos por Houston de noche. Only audio for this one, it was a serenade as we passed Houston at night!