March 6, 2008
Day 1 On the road to San Luis Potosi
We crossed the border at Reynosa, Mexico at 8:15 am. Reynosa is a ways from the border so one cannot just walk across the border into a town as you can at many border crossings. This area of Mexico is much like southern Texas and Arizona, dry desert conditions with cactus and scrub brush. As we get a ways into the country it is very windy…even dangerously so. We see a semi alongside the road that is turned on its side. Our tour guide, Enrique, told us wind caused the accident and that it is a common occurrence in this area. This is pretty desolate country. We see small villages every once in a while. Most of the homes appear to not have any electricity. Usually there are some store fronts next to the highway and most probably have living quarters attached to the back of the business. The business, whatever it is, is their only source of income. As we travel through the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains into the high plains we see cattle and sheep ranches and many fields of prickly pear cactus (napal) which is a staple in the Mexican diet. We also see fields of chili peppers, agave for alcoholic beverage, and huge green houses where they start the plants. They have large areas of apartments for those who work in the fields. These small apartments seem to be much nicer than the average worker in Mexico has.
We arrived in San Luis Potosi where we will spend the night at the Hotel Real Plaza. It is in the mountains and 984 feet higher than Denver, CO. We took a city walking tour to the Plaza or city square. In most Mexican cities there is a city square with the church, the government building and the judicial building surrounding this square. Our tour guide, Enrique, is an archeologist and historian. He pointed out the many beautifully styled buildings around the square and spoke in great detail of the style of these building. Do to the time of day we were unable to get good pictures of the outside of the beautiful Cathedral Potocinia but we were able to get a nice picture of the inside. We ate dinner in the hotel and had quesadillas with beans and guacamole.
