Thursday, June 6, 2013

Vega de Altorre and Ciudad Valles

We left Villahermosa the next morning and headed out for Tuxpan, a coastal city further north. The drive was fairly good the most part, but as is common in Mexico, a good highway can quickly turn into a narrow and crowded mess. How painful it is to go from 100 Km/h down to 70 or even lower for extended periods of time. Of course, the roads themselves are narrow and full of large transport trucks making passing range from hazardous, to impossible.

After 6 hours of merciless driving, we decided to end our journey at the tiny village of Vege de Altorre, 2 hours south of Tuxpan. These villages live off of American tourist dollars, so with the poor economy and fears of the narcos, the villages weren't at their best. No matter, we found the fairly nice Hotel Dorado on the main street and spent the night there. The place was kind of funny, on the surface it had this wonderful veneer, but when you looked closely you noticed that everything was actually cheaply made. Well, it doesn't matter as I had a nice rest.

Their food however, was irredeemable. Believe it or not, but the best thing we got from their restaurant was hamburgers for the dogs. I can't believe they have the gall to call that slop food, and charge money for it on top. I don't want to say anymore.

The next morning we left bright and early, and we were determined to reach Ciudad Valles, the first of three cities on the final leg to America. We may have left a little too early however, as the road was covered with a  thick layer of fog. Combined with the poor Mexican highways, travel speeds were reduced by half. Fortunately, the fog dispersed in a little less than hour, so all was good and well soon enough. We stopped at a gas station to get some food and fuel (I know gas station food). The food was even worse than the previous nights. I know it came from a gas station, but don't we deserve better?

A few hours later, the GPS diverted us off of the main road and onto some crummy side roads. I really mean crummy, because I don't think they've seen a construction team since they were built in the times of Pancho Villa. Really, this is worse than those small Range Roads that cross rural Alberta. Eventually we reached the small town of El Higo, about two hours south of Ciudad Valles. We missed the turn to go to the city, so my mom decided to turn our F-350 around in a narrow Mexican alley. Well, after some heated words and a lot of paint being scratched off the truck we were out of El Higo and at Ciudad Valles.

Now being a city CV is not a place like Tenosique and Vega de Altorre where people will bend the rules for money. Only one hotel would allow the dogs to be on the premises. That was the Hotel Mission. Everything was going good, but soon they had a change of heart and had dad sleep in the truck with the dogs. Bastards. Take it from me, if you have pets, do not travel to Mexico.

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