ONE OF THOSE DAYS

You know the kind - right?! 

My first thought for this post was to put up a few pictures - a few descriptions to match and be done with it. It's not a day we want to relive.

No - it wasn't THAT bad - and no the van didn't break down. But still - as far as a traveling day it stunk.

It started well enough - although we were a bit nervous at this point about making our way through Guanajuato to get on highway 67 on the south side.

Retracing our steps along the Panoramica.

The same tower we passed on the way in - down to a single lane - is anyone coming from the other side? Who knows!

Now on the 110 going through Gunuajuato - not so bad really. There were areas of more traffic but easy to get through the city.

Then pretty quickly out of Guanajuato. The traffic picked up again through the next town, Marfil but again the signs got us easily onto the 67.

Highway 67 is the shortest route between Guanajuato and our destination for the day - San Miguel de Allende. It's a yellow road on our Mexican map - so a secondary route. It's narrow but just fine.

Passing through the town of Santa Fe. We often notice in smaller Mexican towns that there is a specialty - here - these Christmas animals.

The 67 goes right to the 51, 11 km south of SMA which is our planned route. Suddenly there was a sign directing us to the left to get to SMA. Hmmm - so we took it. Who knew there was a smaller road that would take you to the north side of SMA. In the end we arrived into SMA at a completely unknown place - since we haven't been there before we were at a disadvantage. Good thing I had Church's book in front of me that had a simple map but showed that we were entering SMA by the train station. Here we are getting on the Libramiento a Dolores.

Which took us to the Mega where we stopped for groceries. There we ran into a couple that we had met at the Aduana at the border. They suggested that we follow them back to their place - we could visit or park there for the night. We were actually on our way to check the RV Park out to see if we wanted to stay there.

It looks ok here - but we drove right through the centro historico or SMA - not what we had in mind. It was busy and crowded - not for us. When we arrived at Wanda and Irwin's place it didn't look like we could fit under their gate. So - we carried on - getting ourselves completely turned around and lost in SMA. Not fun - thankfully the van came out of it unscathed. We were done.

We have lots of friends that like SMA however we could tell pretty quickly that it wasn't our kind of place.

So - once we got ourselves back to the Mega we headed south out of town. We didn't really know where we were going but we were going. Ahhhh - back to the country.

The drive was ok - although Derek was worried about both the fuel pump and since leaving SMA our breaks didn't seem right - oh great.

See what's happening here - glad we were way back just watching.

Our first major hurdle was getting through or around Celaya - boy were we thrilled to find out that their is a cuota to take us right around the city. We continued south to Salvateirra where we headed west towards Yuiria. Both of these cities had routes around as well. At Uriangato we got onto another cuota. Boy, this day is costing us but we are moving pretty fast. 

The above picture is the entry onto the land bridge through the Laguna de Cuitzeo.

It was a good day to be driving anyway with all the rain. Is that a break in the clouds?

By this time we are wondering where we would spend the night.

Can we make it to Patzcuaro Derek asked. It was around 3:00pm. I thought we could make it if all went smooth for the rest of the ride.

We just needed to get ourselves around Morelia.

Considering they have the Periferico Paseo de la Republica that shouldn't have been a problem. 

Except for this!

They are rebuilding and elevating this loop on the west side. Sheesh - of all the timing. So - we were REALLY slowed down. It was almost painful.

And painful for Hraefn too - bumpy?

We're we ever glad to see this….

And this!

Thankfully the highway south of Morelia is fast and that Patzcuaro was only about 40km away.

Since we have been here before it was easy for us to get to Villa Patzcuaro Hotel & RV Park. Boy, were we happy to be here arriving just before dark.

Ok - done.

Not a day to remember.

Here's the map….

Of course - really we should have just gone south from Guanajuato through Irapuato and Salamanca. By the way - Guanajuato is in the wrong location on the map and disregard the trip to Juventino Rosas - google map is challenging at times.

Next up - the fantastic city of Patzcuaro. We LOVE it here. 

It's Friday - we pulled in Tuesday night. Where has the time gone?

We'll be sad to leave in the morning but we have four more hours to drive until next March. We are anxious to get to our winter home and set up.

Teresa

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