We woke up around 7am in McAllen, ate a free breakfast at
our hotel which mainly consisted of waffles, and then left around 9am for the
border. We crossed at Hildalgo, Reynosa, and were pleasantly surprised to see that
there was no wait at all to cross over. I highly recommend this border to
anyone travelling to Mexico through Texas. We crossed over and got our
immigration paper work done within about an hour. This hour probably
could have been 20 minutes if we had known where we were going, but we parked at the first building we saw and walked inside to find that we were in the wrong place for vehicle importation paperwork. Thankfully, there was a very helpful federal employee standing behind us who was kind enough to show us the way, and took us on a 1/4 mile walk to a building we could have simply driven to for the purpose of a nice tip. Though this walk took up about 40 minutes of our time, we were able to decide that we didn't need as many layers of clothes we had on the previous couple days as by the time we were done the temperature was in its low 70's.
Crossing the border
After crossing the border, we went to an ATM to get some pesos, drove a quick drive through Reynosa, and started making our way to Monterrey. We had originally planned to make it to Torreon the first day in order to make it a few hours closer to our final destination; Mazatlan, but I read in the news a day before entering Mexico that a Mexican gang had gotten so out of control that they now controlled the police station in Torreon, so I decided we would skip out on that town. Instead, we decided to stay in Monterrey which was only a 3 1/2 hour drive from the border, and would allow us some free time to check in early and explore the town a bit.
About an hour before we hit Monterrey, my foot became suddenly stuck on something, so I looked down and realized that a screw in one of our cases came loose, so the whole case was sagging about to fall off. We were able to pull over on an emergency shoulder and Eric screwed in back together within 10 minutes. We were back on the road in no time. Well done Eric!
We arrived in Monterrey around 3 o'clock. We found the istay hotel that we planned to stay in but hadn't booked a reservation at, and I sat to watch the bike while Eric went to book a room. He came back to say that the price per night was 7 dollars more than the price we saw online, so instead we booked a room using their internet access from the parking lot with our tablet and went back in to check in. The hotel clerk wasn't too happy with this, so he told us that we would have to wait an hour for the transaction to go through to his system. So for about 20 minutes we found a secure parking spot for our bike that the gate attendant helped us with, unpacked a bit, and by the time I went back in to check on the status of our room it was ready. The hotel was pretty nice; secure parking, quiet, clean and English speaking staff for about 62 U.S total.
After relaxing a bit, we started walking through the downtown area to get to a restaurant that we had planned to go to, and were surprised by how big the city was, how clean it was, and how beautiful the modern decor was. It was a Sunday, so there were a bunch of people out and about. There were buskers, concerts, ice skating, Christmas decorations and modern art to look at throughout the streets.
We read in the Rough Guide Mexico that the best thing to eat in Monterrey is baby goat, which is especially good supposedly because the weather in Monterrey produces good grass, and in turn producing good baby goat meat. So, we had to try it while we were there even though I felt somewhat worse than normal eating meat that had the name "baby" in it. To be honest, it was just okay. The meat was tender but didn't stick out to me as anything special. Along with the goat we ordered a plate of steak, which came with some vegetables on the side. All in all the meal was just so so. The margaritas and the ambiance however, was worth a visit to this place.
After dinner, we walked around town a little more, took some pictures, ate a second dinner of street food tostadas, and went back to the hotel room before 9.
Crossing the border
After crossing the border, we went to an ATM to get some pesos, drove a quick drive through Reynosa, and started making our way to Monterrey. We had originally planned to make it to Torreon the first day in order to make it a few hours closer to our final destination; Mazatlan, but I read in the news a day before entering Mexico that a Mexican gang had gotten so out of control that they now controlled the police station in Torreon, so I decided we would skip out on that town. Instead, we decided to stay in Monterrey which was only a 3 1/2 hour drive from the border, and would allow us some free time to check in early and explore the town a bit.
About an hour before we hit Monterrey, my foot became suddenly stuck on something, so I looked down and realized that a screw in one of our cases came loose, so the whole case was sagging about to fall off. We were able to pull over on an emergency shoulder and Eric screwed in back together within 10 minutes. We were back on the road in no time. Well done Eric!
We arrived in Monterrey around 3 o'clock. We found the istay hotel that we planned to stay in but hadn't booked a reservation at, and I sat to watch the bike while Eric went to book a room. He came back to say that the price per night was 7 dollars more than the price we saw online, so instead we booked a room using their internet access from the parking lot with our tablet and went back in to check in. The hotel clerk wasn't too happy with this, so he told us that we would have to wait an hour for the transaction to go through to his system. So for about 20 minutes we found a secure parking spot for our bike that the gate attendant helped us with, unpacked a bit, and by the time I went back in to check on the status of our room it was ready. The hotel was pretty nice; secure parking, quiet, clean and English speaking staff for about 62 U.S total.
After relaxing a bit, we started walking through the downtown area to get to a restaurant that we had planned to go to, and were surprised by how big the city was, how clean it was, and how beautiful the modern decor was. It was a Sunday, so there were a bunch of people out and about. There were buskers, concerts, ice skating, Christmas decorations and modern art to look at throughout the streets.
We read in the Rough Guide Mexico that the best thing to eat in Monterrey is baby goat, which is especially good supposedly because the weather in Monterrey produces good grass, and in turn producing good baby goat meat. So, we had to try it while we were there even though I felt somewhat worse than normal eating meat that had the name "baby" in it. To be honest, it was just okay. The meat was tender but didn't stick out to me as anything special. Along with the goat we ordered a plate of steak, which came with some vegetables on the side. All in all the meal was just so so. The margaritas and the ambiance however, was worth a visit to this place.
After dinner, we walked around town a little more, took some pictures, ate a second dinner of street food tostadas, and went back to the hotel room before 9.
I like the pics, Tini!
ReplyDeleteThanks! The rest can be found on my FB on a Flickr link. Glad you're following us :)
ReplyDelete