Our Trip to Monterrey, Mexico

As many of you know, last winter while we were at Sleepy Valley Park, I attended a style show and during the door prize drawings..........I won a free one day trip to Mexico. Last year, I did not have a passport or my birth certificate that one needed to make the trip..........so I asked if I could use it this year. I really didn't want to go alone.........what kind of fun is that? I asked Roger to go and I would pay for his ticket. That was rather hard to do and arrange with Keota here and not leaving him for that length of time. We finally decided to book the trip, we had our choice of about 5 trips but decided on the Monterrey one.

We had to be in McAllen (about 8miles) by 7:15 AM as that was when the bus was leaving. We didn't know anyone, but we were off. Due to the fact that our stop was the last one of 5 that the bus took, we got to move to the back of the bus and find a seat. Of course we got lucky and got the seats right across the isle from the potty......WOOPIE. After settling into our seats it was off to Mexico. I had never looked up to see how far it was, but after leaving at 7:15 we didn't get to Monterrey till about 11:30 AM. We did make one stop on the way, to stretch and potty.

The first thing our guide did when arriving was walk us thru a park to a public restroom. The guide "Juan" went to the boat and bought our ticket to ride the boat along the river walk. The River Walk is called "Paseo Santa Lucia" and we enjoyed it. The only bad part about the boat ride was we were cramped into the boat and if you were sitting on the left side and the guide told you to look to the left..........you couldn't turn that way. Roger missed some of it due to that fact. I was sitting on end of bench on left side of boat, in front so I got to see more...........I turned to front of boat and got a pretty good view.


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From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

After leaving the boat, we were led to the macro plaza and viewed the Governor's palace. It was built in 1906, the first floor is a museum and the 2nd floor is Governor's offices. Juan our guide said the governors of Mexico can only hold office for 6 years then they are done for good. They can run for President but not Governor again. There were a lot of statutes in the plaza, I can't remember all the names, but they were very impressive. The one thing we did notice was how dirty everything was. The brick path along could of used a good power washing and there was gum stuck to the path. We did get a few pictures of "Neptune's Fountain", it was quite
impressive.

From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

Next it was a short walk into a shopping area of downtown and to a Hotel for lunch. Juan had called ahead of time to let them know we were coming. The lunch was buffet all you can eat and set up very nice. Cloth table clothes, napkins.............the whole thing. Juan once again paid for every ones lunch to add to our bill to him at end of day. It was $12.50 each and that included the tip. There was a lot of food including, salad bar, bread bar, dessert bar as well as the main dishes. I could of said HOT dishes but that would of been stretching the truth. I was amazed when taking my first bite.............COLD. There were burners under everything and they all had lids on them..........but everything was cold. For some reason.............cold fish and other meat and veggies do not appeal to us. I have tired to reason out why it was all cold, and it just doesn't add up. After all Juan had called ahead and it was only 12.30PM so it wasn't that late in afternoon. The dessert bar was great............so I guess it made up for some of it.

It was back on the bus and a ride to "Horse Tail Falls" The road to the falls is an experience in itself. It is narrow and winds around. Now being a school bus driver, I have some experience in bus driving, but I would of never attempted to take it up there. It was a dirt road and a number of times we met cars and trucks coming down, very close calls. Also gave us a chance to see some of the homes.............if that is what they are called. Wow..........what a life. There was litter and trash everywhere and quite a slum area. One would think a drive to a tourist attraction like that that the road and homes would be something that would show a better impression of their county.

After arriving at the falls, Juan once again paid our admission to walk to the falls. That was $3 each. Ok, our total now to pay Juan is $2 for boat ride...........$12.50 for lunch and $3 for walk to falls. That is for each of us............that is a total of $35 dollars. Now Roger is sitting there adding all this up and saying......"how do we know for sure what all those things cost......he could be making extra money on this". Well, he may have a point, but how do we know Juan isn't telling us the truth. You have to trust sometimes.........besides..........I am sure he wouldn't have a job long if he were ripping us all off. Besides all of that..............the tour brioche said to pay your guide anywhere from $3 - $5 a day per person for a tip to your guide and the same for the bus driver. OK.................now it is up to almost $50 extra. I guess we would of liked to of had that all included in the price of trip to begin with and not have to worry about all the extra.

Back to the falls. After Juan paid for our tickets to walk, he told everyone they could take the walk ticket or if they decided to ride the cart or a horse it would be extra. It was only a half mile walk, so we walked. The horses looked like they were on their last leg........could of dropped over dead before we got up the hill. The falls themselves were well worth the walk and the $3 each. As you can see from the pictures. They really do look like a horse tail. This falls is spring fed.

From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

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Leaving the falls, it was back to the bus and a hair rising trip back down that awful road. The bus had a slight problem on one of the turns, but he made it. We then stopped at a road side market called "Los Cavazos". I stayed on the bus, but Roger got off and walked. He did find a leather case for his pocket knife that he has been hunting for.

Leaving Monterrey at 5:30 Pm we got back to McAllen at 11:30PM. Our stop was the last one to unload so about an hour of that time was driving around dropping off people. We both decided we have no desire to make another trip to Mexico. There is enough things to see in the US to keep us busy. But we can say we have been there and done that.

It has been a very busy week and today, I am chilling out and trying to catch up. I have to see about getting my taxes done before we leave here...............so that is my next thing on my "to do list". Hope everyone is doing well and hope to see everyone soon.