Long journey south

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It’s another misty morning. We are up and packed by 10am ready to go to the bus station. Edgar has turned up and has kindly offered to drive us to there. He is such a sweetie.

At the bus station we check in with no problem - today our seats are allocated. I go off in search of brunch as we don’t know what we will get on the bus. I choose a small pizza and chips from Dominoes, wrongly assuming that it will be fast food. It turns out that the guy behind the counter is not only responsible for taking the orders, but also making and cooking the food. I see my pizza made from scratch and half an hour later it is ready!

We wolf our food down as there is a long queue and strict security checks to get through here. The strictest we have encountered so far! Every piece of luggage is examined and the walk through metal detectors are also buzzing loudly - not just with my metal hip, but with every other person that passes through it would seem! Ian is not amused that he has to lift our heavy luggage on to a table - and now we have to unlock it so that the contents can be examined. It does seem odd that anyone who cares to board the bus at any other stop or station in between will not need to go through any security at all...so it does seem to defeat the object somewhat!

Security cleared, our bus has arrived. Today our parcel contains a bag of crisps, a pack of 3 biscuits and a bottle of Vimto! I am glad we had the pizza...we were hoping for a sandwich! As it turns out, it’s not a problem...at the next stop we have a bus vendor selling subways so we purchase a couple for later.

The bus crawls out of Monterrey as slowly as it crawled in. It’s a busy city! The sun has come out once we reach the outskirts and we enjoy a lovely ride through the mountains towards Saltillo. I settle back to enjoy a spot of Vangellis which seems to suit the pace of this journey.

Seven and a half hours later and we are on the outskirts of San Luis Potosí and we can see the rain clouds dumping their load ahead of us. Just our luck! The bus station is, as usual, on the edge of town so we need to call an Uber.

The Uber has, apparently, arrived and nowhere in sight. Here we have a new challenge - he can’t see us, we can’t see him, he can’t speak English, we can’t speak Spanish! Texting me that he is in a blue VW Golf several times is not helping...we knew that already! Finally Ian finds his empty car half way down the busy street. At this point the driver has found me and the luggage. OK, is it just me...but wouldn’t it be obvious that we would be waiting at the pick up point outside the bus station rather than half way down a busy dual carriageway? Never mind.

Next problem...the one we always have when a Golf turns up...we can’t get both our bags in the boot! Ian squeezes in the back with the luggage whilst I take the front. The driver is not looking pleased. We give him the address of our AirBnb which is typically vague. It has stopped raining and the sun has made a brief appearance. There is a beautiful sunset over the old town. I would like to be whip out my phone to take a photo but I don’t dare upset our driver any further. He is asking me if we are in the right place but I really don’t know!

In the end, our driver takes us to a point somewhere vaguely near to where we all think we should be and dumps us. He is still looking grumpy despite the fact that I have tipped him (none of the Mexicans do). I note that our Uber rating has just lost its shiny five star rating and we have slipped down to 4.65 - blimey we really have upset him!

Abandoned and with bags trailing behind us, we cross a busy road to the place where Ian thinks we should be. He has found the road but not the number. Apparently we need to be 30m from the Cielo Tinto restaurant. We locate said eatery where I take the address up to the waiters standing at the door...maybe they know it? Yes, they do! The lovely waiter will take us there himself and even insists on wheeling my bag for me! He wheels it back to the very door that Ian had located, so we had just missed spotting the number...which is now obvious! Our hostess, Elvira, is standing outside waiting for us.

Our accommodation is very nice - the room is large and set off an inner courtyard. It has a table and chairs as well as a comfy sofa. We are also provided with dressing gowns as the bathroom is on the opposite side of the courtyard. Ian is prepared with a torch to hand - darkness has fallen, it’s pitch black and I noticed some interesting pipework trip hazards earlier!

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