Turtle right on past San Luis Potosi and on to Zacatecas

We didn't do anything today except drive.   The scenery changes fast as you head north through Mexico.     Can you see the stone fence along the side of this mountain?   Thinking about the sheer number of physical labour hours that goes into building fences such as these is mind boggling.

The fences went on for at least  50 miles.    

We have seen these stone tee pee like structures in several different areas of Mexico, but have no idea what they are.   Anyone?

This appears to be a church on top of a relatively small hill, but what was interesting about it is the road.   It circles around and around the hill until it reaches the top.

Can you see the road that leads up this mountainside to the lone structure atop?   I do believe it is another church.

We initially planned to stay in San Luis Potosi for the night, maybe even two nights.   Once we found the campsite (El Faro de Peter RV  Park), we decided we would rather drive another couple of hours and head to Zacatecas.   I didn't even get a chance to snap of picture of the campsite.   There was no one there, there was nothing near there of interest other than the reservoir beach.    

    We accidentally headed into centro and I quickly snapped this picture of the church.

We saw at least a half a dozen of these horse drawn garbage collecting carts.   I've never seen anything like this before.

The landscape changed again as we headed toward Zacatecas.   There are forest of pines and in the sierras; in the valleys and plains there is a great abundance of mesquite, maguey, cactus, agave, pastures, huisache, and many other semi-desertic plants.

The winds were high and there were a disturbing number of dust devils.   You can see at least 4 of them in this photo.    Some were small like these ones,

 but some were quite big  like this one.

Right after we saw all the dust devils we came across this transport truck.

And then this one.

And this one.

Finally after 5 hours of driving today, we are totally exhausted, sore as can be, and tucked in to our campsite at Hotel Hacienda Del Bosque and RV park.

The majority of the campsites that we have stayed in are listed in a book called Mexican Camping by Mike and Terri Church.    This book has been our bible on this trip, and we are very happy we found it.   However,  we must go on record as saying our tastes are very different from Mike and Terri's.    For example, the book has this to say about the campsite we are in right now.        

"Zacacetas has an excellent first-rate campground.  It's certainly the most upscale RV park in the interior of Mexico, and is also the most expensive RV park in the region".  

hmmm....ok, well we do agree that it is the most expensive RV park in the region.     350 pesos per night, and for that you have a typical water, electricity and dump hookup and the use of the facilities (cold indoor pool, exercise room, steam room, showers and bathroom) in the Hotel.   But basically, you are camping in a parking lot.   Tucked between highway 54, highway 45, the Libramiento and train tracks....the noise is deafening.      We don't know if we will stay here two nights or not.   We will see how well we sleep.    When the train went by Myrtle shook all over.   We might get lucky and the traffic will slow down and no more trains will go by while we are trying to sleep.

Another example:    Remember our raving blog about Reino de Atzimba Parque Aquatico?   Well, Church's book has this to say about it:  "The campgrounds at Atzimba are really designed for car campers using tents.  Camping spaces are not delineated, you just pick a place to park.  blah blah blah.  The campgrounds has several nice warm swimming pools, tennis courts and a restaurant."

huh.