Since we go to the Yucatan every year and there are only so many ways to get there, it can get boring if you follow the same route. I try every year to get us to something we haven't seen yet, down some road we haven't traveled. It's not hard as there are still so many places I want to go in Mexico and so many things I want to stop and see. This year we came down the long way through the state of Chihuahua which is like driving across Texas. In Zacatecas we were about half way down the length of Mexico, oddly we were also about level with the tip of the Yucatan although by road we are only a third of the way there. Here's a map of Mexico that is zoomable.

One area I've long wanted to visit is called the Huasteca. It's a long strip of tropical rainforest that runs from the east side of the Sierra Madre Oriental to the Gulf of Mexico. I've read that it is the farthest north rain forest on the continent, no doubt. It runs through 3 states and there are some differences between them. This trip we decided to go to the Huasteca Potosina and check out Las Posas, the fantasy built by Edward James.

To get there from Zacatecas we took a good road to San Luis Potosi and spent an hour getting around that huge city. It was getting dark and we spent the night at a Pemex gas station at the first small town after clearing the city. It was the eve of the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Mother of Mexico and the most revered saint in the country. There were lots of rockets going off but we slept easily, unlike one of our dogs. Hombre is Mexican, he grew up with lots of cohetes (rockets) going off frequently but suddenly, after one more summer in the relatively quiet US, he is now scared of them. He cowered and shivered and acted like a gringo dog. His sister Chica, she who is terrified of 18 wheelers, slept like nothing was going on. I'm hoping Hombre will get over his new fear and get used to them again. If he doesn't, life is going to be rough on him for half the year.