The Cactus Trip Diaries

Breakfast at Hotel Ancira was at 8:00, so a chance of a bit of a lie in. By nine we were on the road and heading back to Saturday’s S1793, past Ojo de Agua (now S1807). Eunice wanted to look for a particular spot for which she now had the GPS. This time it produced nice pictures of Astrophytum and Epithelantha with the sun in a better position, so I was quite happy with the repeat stop. Eunice failed to find a stone that she found last June.

We stopped briefly in town, as we passed the guys from the breakdown service and minutes later were back on the main road to Monterrey. Perhaps we should have stopped longer at the tyre guy, as soon the low tyre pressure light started to flash again. All four tyres were still round, but we were uneasy about the situation and stopped at the first tyre man (here again called a Vulkan for short, just as in Chile), where Eunice’s I Phone’s translation software told the tyre man that we would like him to check the pressures. They seemed OK, but he put them up from 33 to 34 just to be on the safe side. The warning light stayed on …..

Soon we entered the outer city limits of Monterrey, Mexico’s third largest metropolitan area, with some four million inhabitants. Eunice had booked us into the Best Western, but this turned out to be a bit of a nightmare, with eight hotels of this chain in town. Eventually (three hours later) we arrived at the right one, and after settling in, we decided to find a Walmart for some purchases. Top of the list was a tyre pump that works from the cigarette lighter, breaking the reliance on finding petrol stations etc. It will stay in the US for use on future trips, so a good investment. I’ll do the same in Chile I think.

Today’s pictures include one of me with the painted lady at Walmart, one of the more unusual pictures taken on cactus trips. I’ll also include an image of me with new hat – should have gotten one in Cuba as well so that I can start a display of hats at the Stonehenge Cactarium, Winebar, Cinema and Haberdashery, with my unique Cuba shirt substituting for a Cuban hat.

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