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Arrival in Mexico, Monterrey. 7th July-11th July
We packed up our camp in San Antonio and had breakfast at the Chuckwagon. Appropiately as we were off to Mexico we had tacos. We were both feeling a bit nervous as we boarded the bus that would take us over the border and into Mexico. Neither of us could speak much Spanish and we didn't really know what to expect of Mexico. This was really going to test us out as travellers.
As we arrived in the border town of Loredo it was raining hard and as we exited the bus to report to customs, Richard slipped on the wet bus steps and landed on his bum on the road beneath. Hola Mexico! The customs officials took our money, filled in a form and gave us our visas. After a quick bag check, we reboarded the bus (carefully) and within a few minutes, the bus was driving across the Mexican dessert headed for our first stop, Monterrey.
We arrived in the afternoon at the big and busy bus station. Immediately we felt a milliion miles away from Texas. It was still raining as we found an ATM and got some Pesos. All in large notes of course which wasn't going to be much use for getting on to the Metrorrey underground so we went and bought some juice to get some change. At the station it wasn't immediately obvious what tickets we needed to get through the barriers but looking like lost tourists attracted a helpful Mexican who showed us what to do with lots of gesturing and pointing.
Our destination was at the end of the line and we were able to find our hostel fairly easily with the map from our guide book. Luckily the owner spoke good English so we didn't need to try the few Spanish words we had tried to learn on the bus. It was quite late now so we headed for a nearby bar for a couple of bottles of Corona and some traditional Mexican food, nachos.
In the morning we picked up a walking tour leaflet from the hostel and wandered around the Gran Plaza admiring the Cathedral, and other buildings and statues. It started raining again as we arrived at the tourist office to see what else there was to do in Monterrey. There we found out there was a free brewery tour nearby and also there was some Mexican wrestling (Lucha Libre) on that night which sounded like fun. After trying out another Mexican tradition, a siesta, we headed off to the brewery but were too late to get one of that days tours so booked one for the next day and went to see if we could get tickets for the wrestling. At the arena we were able to buy front row seats for just 150 pesos or 7.5 pounds. We went for some food at a Mexican eatery and then as we had some time to kill before the wrestling went to a bar and sank a few Coronas.
The wrestling was chaotic and hysterical although very entertaining. Masked wrestlers encouraged the noisy crowd as they performed their theatrical and acrobatic moves in and out of the ring involving live chickens, stepladders and an abseiling entrance from the roof. Our ring side seats meant that when the fights spilled out of the ring, the action was right at our feet. We got caught up in the atmosphere and even joined in some of the chants even though we weren't sure what was being said. One of the chants sounded very much like "Queso, Queso" or cheese, cheese, which summed up the antics in front of us.
A good way of saving money while travelling is to visit museums on the day that they are free. Wednesday was free day at the Museum of Contemporary Art which was close to our hostel so after some breakfast we went for a look around the exibits of photography and paintings. We then headed back to the brewery for our tour which turned out to be a bit naff and there was only two free samples at the end. Boo. We then attempted to visit a museum on a hill on the outskirts of the town which involved getting a bus but our poor Spanish let us down as we tried to find out which bus to catch and so we abandoned the idea and headed back to the hostel. We did however manage to find a restaurant and order food. We were glad when what was delivered to our table was what we thought we had ordered and was quite tasty.
We left Monterrey the next morning and took a bus to Ciudad Victoria. We had booked these tickets on-line to avoid the embarrasment of trying to get them at the ticket booth in the bus station. A simple showing of our reference number and we had our tickets and boarded the bus. The journey took as through picturesque landscapes of hills and jungle and occasionally vendors boarded the bus to sell various edible goodies but we still weren't confident enough to try asking for anything.
On arrival, we were determind not to take the easy option of a taxi so instead used some very basic Spanish to catch a minibus into the Centro where the helpful driver told us where to get off. We wandered round for a bit and eventually found the hotel that we had chosen from the guide book. Some more bad Spanish and pointing secured us a room for two nights. The arrangement of rooms around an inside courtyard resembled a prison block but the room was roomy and the concrete bed was surprisingly comfortable. After a walk around the central plaza, we found a restaurant and again took some random potshots at the menu and learned that Huevos Reveuoltous was actually just scrambelled eggs. We retired to our "cell" to try and learn a few more useful phrases.
On Friday we successfully managed to get a bus to the zoo where there were lots of animals from Cental America and the rest of the world. There was also an aviery where you could walk around inside and get really close to the birds inside. Steph particularly liked a white parrot which one of the zookeepers told us all about even though we couldn't understand a word he was saying. We just smiled and nodded politely. After the zoo, we went across the road to a park where we rented a pedal boat for a while before heading back to the hotel. In the evening we walked to one of the other plazas where we watched some traditional Mexican dancing and ate corn on the cob from a street vendor. Having sampled some Mexican city life, our next destination was the beach at Tampico.

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