Only days 3 in Mexico.......and.....

We slept very well at the rock climbing retreat. The mountains were cool at night and we were serenaded to sleep by crickets. As you can see the view was amazing and the pool was just the perfect temperature.

      

Our goal, the beach, was a few days drive off. We set off for Santiago de Queretaro an 8 h drive from our current campsite. 

                               

We had found a hotel that offered Parking for RVs and camper cars. We rang ahead and they said they had room for us. 

We took off at sunrise, ready for a long day. The morning drive was pretty good with excellent toll roads. 

We stopped at a restaurant off the highway which had great Barbacoa but weird art, stuffed animals and some weird art on the menu. 

                         

We were half way there, 4h to go and we could relax!  Then, BANG! A pole jumped out in front of Rosa!!!!! She was injured!! 

       

Luckily Sol is MacGuyver and he was able to put her back together, we only lost 30 minutes! She looked a bit odd after some duct tape was added, but it worked a treat! 

Rosa actually looked worse than this as Sol had put the bumper back on by the time I took this picture.

Looking a bit sore and sorry we still drove the 4 hours to the hotel at Santiago de Queretaro. 

The roads for the next 400 km were horrific (we have since worked out that road conditions are specific to regions. Stay clear of Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí States) So bumpy and so many pot holes! Not really what you need when the bumper and headlight is duct taped on!! To make matters worse locals were driving at 90 + miles an hour in the right hand lane impatient to force us into the left hand lane where the pot holes were. So it was a toss-up between driving crazy fast and losing the fender and light ( and probably us in the process ) or slowing down a naviagating the luna surface on the other side. We managed to dodge the mother of all pot holes, it was half the size of our car and a foot deep. That would have been the end of Rosa! We realised pretty quickly if you follow the locals you dodge the potholes, as they drive the road daily. 

Turns out this next campground/4 star hotel (The Flamingo Inn) was a bit classy. With Rosa duct taped within an inch of her life, the guy at reception didn't really want to serve us. We said we had called ahead and confirmed we could stay. He wasn't impressed. His colleague was nice and pushed him to finish the transaction. He took our 200 pesos as though it had contracted some terrible disease and threw it into the register with a grimace. We spent that night putting cable ties on Rosa's bumper as we couldn't risk another day of driving those roads if the bumper and light weren't sound. 

We didn't take any pictures of the fancy place because we were busy and they weren't nice. 

It was ok, but nothing on the previous two nights near the mountain. 

Next stop: Oaxaca, a town which sounds nothing like it is spelt!