Norma, the wonderfully hospitable owner of Hotel Rancho El Morro in Saltillo, got her staff on the phone to find us a dog friendly hotel in Queretaro. It’s not as easy as it is in Canada and the US. There are very few available, due, she says, to the fact that Mexican dogs are ill-behaved. Personally I think it has more to do with the fact that the Mexican hotels haven’t caught on to the extra income they can obtain by charging a pet fee to people with dogs.
We were cutting it fine for time when we arrived in Queretaro. Everyone has told us to never drive after dark and the dreaded dark was fast approaching. The hotel we were aiming for had the unlikely name of Hija del Alfarero Queretaro. Our GPS led us to narrow busy side streets, almost too narrow for the truck, full of people but no hotels. We phoned the number that we had for the hotel, and, after several tries to get the right prefix (is it 01, 011 or 502 or???) we managed to get through. The desk clerk said we were in the right neighborhood. Another squeeze down the street and we saw a building that had an open door that led into a into a lobby.
The lobby
Nancy dove out the door of the truck. Next time around the block, the desk clerk jumped in, leaving Nancy and Capi to man the desk, while Bill and the desk clerk squeezed and turned the Tundra through the narrow clogged streets into a parking lot a few blocks away.
Our room was on the right
Capi enjoyed the restaurant, but was totally out of her element on the busy streets and Saturday night festivities at the plaza.
Capi asked for pollo
The next morning we drove around Mexico City to Cholula, just outside of Puebla. We were determined to try the camper. A new app for campers, ioverlander.com, led us to the Las Americas Trailer Park. We were pretty much alone there and it gave us the chance to finally organize the camper and figure out what we had forgotten.
First day using the camper.
The plan was to go to Puebla to decide if we were going to the Golf of Mexico or the Pacific. The Pacific won so next day we drove to Oaxaca. We had nothing arranged at Oaxaca, but a call to Mandi at the Sealand Aviation office solved the problem. She checked ioverlander for us and suggested the Overlanderoasis just outside Oaxaca, in a town called Santa Maria de Tule.
The overlanderoasis is run by a couple from Kamloops, B.C., and attracts people from all over the world who are driving around the Americas. We recognized and met Neli the travelling dog and her canine co-adventurer Maya from a blog we have followed called Nelisbigadventure. Their human, Victoria, gave us advice and tips about our future travels. It is a comfortable and friendly spot, so we decided to rest up for the day, before we take Capi to the Pacific.
So, of course, it rained….
