Friday, 5 April 2019: Cardenas to Puebla

We were on the road by 7:30, well sort of.  By the time we got coffee, gas and breakfast tacos from a local food truck it was 8:11 and we were rolling for real.



In the end Cardenas wasn’t so bad but we don’t need to stop there again.
When we got gas this morning, our on-board meter indicated 541 miles of range before we needed gas again.  That’s a new high for La Perla as usually the range is just under 500 miles.  The attendant must have really topped it up.  I will miss full service stations when we get back home.   And we finally got our car washed.  We hadn’t been able to get the car washed on our last few trips to Merida so Justin and I spent some time a few days ago detailing the inside.  We wanted to get that done before we started loading it up again.  Today finally the outside got some attention too.

We talked to Eric yesterday.  Just returning from a family spring break trip to Florida, he was rather bummed to be sitting in 39’ weather in Milwaukee.  I can’t say that I’d be pleased either but we still have a few days before we get that far north.  For today, I’ll take the 95 and sunny that is forecasted.

I was disappointed when I tried to book our hotel on line.  Both Expedia and booking.com indicated that Villa Magnolias in Puebla was fully booked.  Thankfully when I called, Andres was able to take my reservation.  We’ve stayed there several times; their secure parking, clean and spacious rooms, and especially easy access on and off the freeway help to ensure we will come back again and again.

The scenery is totally different than in the Yucatan.  They've had to cut through

mountains and rock formations to form twisty-turny roads.  Sugar cane, bananas and even cattle are abundant.  We are back on toll roads.  Most often the folks selling all sorts of foods, snacks and various other goods are clustered at tolls booths and inspection points.  These entrepreneurs are now also taking advantage of the traffic delays caused by construction.  Today we even saw parrots and crocodiles for sale on the side of the road.  Passing on the live animals, we did buy pineapple.  This was the best pineapple ever!!!

We checked into Villa Magnolias just before 5pm.  We needed to stretch and to walk.  We called an Uber to go into Cholula for dinner and a stroll around the centro.  We had a progressive dinner.  Our first stop was for  appetizers.  We chose queso fundido mixto.  Our second, and final stop was for ice cream for dessert.

 

We’d planned to get an early start in the morning as the drive to Saltillo was about 11 hours.