From Ciudad Mante to Poza Rica

The road from Ciudad Mante to Poza Rica was often just like this.   Gerry has read on several blogs that the roads are terrible along this stretch, now we believe it.   I guess we shouldn't be so surprised, given we are in Mexico.   We were surprised they were so good when we traveled through mid and west Mexico last year.  The four hour drive turned into 5 hours because of the roads.   Myrtles insides were rattled today to say the least.   Anything that wasn't fastened down had found a new spot, and some of the things that were fastened down were misplaced as well.

 

Some pictures of the magnificent views we had on our journey today.

They are building a raised bridge all along the main drag in Poza Rica.   At first we thought the bridge was falling apart, which was rather disconcerting.

This is next door to our campground.    We were amazed to see several working oil rigs inside the city.

All it took was one peso to get Gerry to touch this fence!  lol.   This is a long standing joke between Gerry and his kids, Sara and Taylor.   He offered them a quarter to touch an electric fence when they were little.   Taylor took him up on the offer.   To this day, they both remember it well, and it is often the topic of discussion at family dinners.  lol   Traumatic?   I tried to convince him to pee on it...but no amount of pesos was enough.  

I had to take five pictures and stack them one on top of the other to try to give you an idea of how big these bamboo trees are.    I have never seen them so tall before. 

We are both beyond exhausted.    From here we have only 10 miles to the El Tajin ruins, and then another 40 to the Emerald Coast.  After a half hour walk looking for an ATM machine, we couldn't even find it in ourselves to visit the ruins tonight.   Tomorrow we will slowly make our way to the ruins, then the coast and stay put for a while.  

We are staying at the Poza Rica Inn.   It's an upscale hotel with hookups in the back parking lot for RV's.   We went for showers, and the first thing we both said to each other was "WOW!  That's the best shower I've had in 3 weeks!"  I can't wait to go to sleep so I can wake up in the morning and have another one!   It seems to be the only thing this Oil Town has to offer, but on it's own, it was worth the stop.