| Looks a bit lonely, doesn't it? This is a 180 site
campground but it's out of season and empty. Seems crazy to me but with
Americans too frightened to come to Mexico, businesses like this one are
struggling. |  |
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I like Mexican cell towers. Initially somebody just planted the right sort
of plant next to one. Nowadays they add branches to the tower and disguise
it more effectively. |
| So you get to the crossroads and you wait for the
lights to change. Not a lot of acceleration in this one.... |  |
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So on to the open road. The bougainvilias are a nice touch but we actually
liked 'table mountain'. Our road to Zacatecas is, of course, dead straight. |
| It is one of the advantages of building a new road
across the desert we will soon be back into. But it is four lanes with a
good surface even if it goes up and down a bit. Tolls in Mexico mount
up. It has been a significant amount in our expenditure equalling 30-40% of
our fuel costs. |  |
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There are lots of signs like this one 'You and your family are first'
exhorting you to drive carefully etc. My favourite was 'This highway is not
high speed' - usually an understatement! |
| We have run into several army checkpoints and been
stopped three times now. In our case they appear just to want to have a look
and see what an RV looks like inside. They have always been young and
extremely courteous. |  |
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We passed a huge modern factory almost a mile long and eventually found this
sign. But they still had a lot of new vehicles parked in rows waiting to be
shipped. This plant was at least working. We had already passed a Chevrolet
plant in the previous town that, if not closed, was not working today. |
| Now whether the lights are green for you to go or not,
you are going to wait for this to cross. The tractor units are almost all
Kenworth and have plenty of power for rig which must be 100ft long. |  |
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There aren't a lot of roadside posters but this one caught our eye - but
what is it advertising?? |
| These are modern housing units. Each little black dot
is a water tank. There are places where they have built hundreds of these
tiny houses often in walled enclaves. This is as we come in to Zacatecas. |  |
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Whilst the biggest trucks are fine, the smaller ones are often overloaded
and travelling like this is not uncommon. This one is carrying wardrobes and
dressers - is the man an extra passenger or packing? Now when they go over
topes.... |
| The suburbs of the towns can look quite attractive if
you like the colour style. I'm sure the song Little Boxes was inspired by
sights like these. |  |
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Few houses in Mexico seem to have pitched roofs and they are closely packed
together. Not at all like an English city. That of course is why the town
parks and squares are so important. |
| Particularly when they are built in rows like this on
the new estates. However I am reminded of the Victorian terraces which is
what these essentially are. Very few buildings in Mexico are more than one
or at most two stories high because it is in quite an active seismic zone. |  |
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Our hotel central building is a rare exception but most of the hotel rooms
are single storey. The railway line runs immediately behind and the main
truck ring road immediately in front. Not the quietest location for a five
star hotel. |
| A small section of 'aqueduct' provides a water feature
for the hotel car park even if the water does miss the pond most of the
time. |  |
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The railway runs immediately behind and we had occasional freight trains
both day and night. This is serious modern power hauling over 100 freight
cars. |
| These are the same GE locos as Union Pacific use in
the US to haul their heavy freight. |  |
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Following immediately behind was this track tamper. The track that is used
seems to be in very good condition although a lot of people seem to be
employed to keep it so. A sign of a low wage economy. |
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