The Start of the Journey

Saturday morning we departed San Antonio, TX to begin the long trek down to Oaxaca, Mexico. We covered almost 1000 miles and reached our destination of San Luis Potosi, Mexico around 10 pm. San Luis Potosi is north of Mexico City about 300 km. Clearing customs and the drive was for the most part uneventful. As usual we get stopped at every state border crossing for an *inspection* which is just a cheap excuse to look at the cars. We are up to nearly 1500 pesos in tolls with one day done.

The highlight of the trip so far was driving by the snake skin vendors. As a refresher you can visit last years blog but in short there is a series of road side stands (about 50) in a short 1 km stretch 150 km before San Luis Potosi that sell snake skins, birds that look like small falcons in wicker baskets and some type of animal in jars of liquid (we think that it may be pickled snake). This year we had the pleasure of driving by at night only to find the stands still open with huge bonfires in front of each stand for lighting. The whole thing was more than a little spooky, we decided against stopping.

We are also out of (for the most part) the *let your cows and mules roam free on the road* country so that is a relief. Nothing like dogging a 1500 pound animal when you are doing 110 km per hour.

Today we leave for the long trek around Mexico City to Pueblo.