After having two eventful days and long stressful drives, the plan was to take it easy and head north to the area called La Huasteca Potosina with amazing waterfalls and beautiful nature to take a break from towns and sightseeing.
Our last stop before heading north was San Miguel de Allende. A truly beautiful city with stunning architecture which looked very popular with American expats and tourists and therefore was packed with stunning high end art galleries and fancy cafes and restaurants. We had a great time relaxing in cafes having decent coffee and enjoy the beauties hidden in every corner of this charming town.
From there, we headed into the state of Queretaro and went around another giant city called Queretaro city and entered the reserved biosfera called Sierra Gorda where we started to feel that we are getting back into nature! We had a long drive till our next point of interest but I had so many camp spots with epic views on my list to spend few peaceful nights along the way.
That was the plan but it just got changes quickly when we got to the first mountain pass. The weather changes dramatically with thick layer of fog covered the road and the mountains with very poor visibility. We passed few dirt tracks that were the roads to our potential camp spots but it was no point driving them since it started to pour down so we kept driving and hoping that the weather will improve on the other side of mountains.
We saw countless accidents along the way and it made the whole drive more stressful and scary. From here the roads got worse with endless topes (Speed bumps in Mexico) which were really hard to see on a clear day, let alone the foggy and rainy day like this. We kept driving till early in the afternoon and it rained the whole day. Finally we got a view of a little charming town down in the valley and decided to stop there, have a lunch and think where we can stay for the night before it gets too dark.
The little town was a great stop to take a break, enjoy a beautiful little plaza and have a decent lunch that we didn’t expect. We managed to find a potential camp spot just before the next town and we were hoping to reach there before the dark. Just couldn’t imagine to drive around after darkness again!
We did drive and reached the camp spot before dark but it was closed! The nice neighbors called the owners and got the permission to open the doors for us so we can set camp for the night which was amazing otherwise we had no plan B for the night!
And it was simply one of the best camp spots we had in the whole Mexico. We set up camp and stayed for few days. After a long time, we were on our own in beautiful nature next to a stunning river with occasional visit from neighbors coming to do their laundry down in the river. The turquoise color of the water in this area was out of this world. After few peaceful days in the nature, it as time to move again.
From here we headed north in La Huasteca Potosina region and the plan was visiting as many stunning waterfalls as we can along the way and make a loop back south. But like everything lately, it didn’t go according to our plans. For each waterfall, we had to pay the entrance fee which was a lot of money and apart from that, the waterfalls were too developed for our liking and they didn’t have the wild natural charm that we expected or have seen in the photos. The problem with some of the others was the locals trying to push you to have guides or a lot of other random costs which simply wasn’t the case the year before when other overlanders were in the area. So we didn’t have a good experience in general there and the roads were getting worse and worse!
But finally one of our plans went ahead nicely! We had a nice hidden gem in mind for camping and it did really existed in the real world and it was as beautiful as we thought it would be. This camp spot alone worth the detour to this area!
We camped next to an unreal waterfall with great views while we could walk or kayak to a series of other sunning waterfalls. It was peaceful and looked like it was in an another world! The weather improved and we had stunning sunny days there.
From there, we started our drive south and experienced a different Mexico. For two days, we were trying to drive to the northern proximity of the Mexico city. The drives were long and painful with almost no amenities along the way. In rest of Mexico, we had lots of food and snack stalls but on this stretch of the road it was none!
We had to find a hotel to stay along the way because it was simply no option to camp. We managed to find a hotel next to a gas station and they assured us that parking in the yard next to a pump station is safe. The next morning, we saw few police cars in front of a hotel and realised that the night before, the local car parked next to us was broken into. It’s whole windscreen was smashed. It was a big shock after an intense day of driving. I have no idea how we got lucky and they didn’t break into ours but it was closest near miss that we had so far.
After another long day of driving we got to the area called Hidalgo north of Mexico city with beautiful nature and mountains. That’s what we needed after having many intense days in Mexico. But that is the story for the next time.
Mainland Mexico was like a roller coaster for us with so many ups and downs. After being into the wild in USA, Canada and Baja with occasional visits to towns and cities, we were constantly surrounded with people and had to be in populated areas. Wild camping is simply not possible and we had to stay in paid campsites or public pool parkings all the time. Adding bad roads to the mix, it was pushing us to our limits.
In the next post, we will face some more surprises pleasant and unpleasant as we navigate our way around the Mexico city south. Till then take care and enjoy life.
