July 5 – 11

On Ioverlander, Palma Sola Club is marked as an orange farm / campground and was highly recommended by our friend Phil who also stayed there. From the street delicious aromas are wafting out of the small roadside Comedor (restaurant). Climbing down from the truck, all masked up, with my best possible Spanish I asked the man who came out if we can camp, his first question was “how long have you been in Mexico?” Covid is rampant in the cities, with lower infection numbers out in the country, and the locals are working hard to keep it that way. “Cinco meses”, (five months), a slight bend of the truth I reply, standing at a respectable distance, he thinks for a moment, I mention we have two kids, and just like that, his eyes brighten and welcomes us in. We park up the back of the property, past the rows of heavy orange trees to an open area with large covered swimming pool, and not a soul in sight, apart from the heat, it’s perfect.

For $300 pesos, less than $20 CAD, we camp under the shade of a big old oak tree. Of course the kids are straight into the, nearly clean algae green pool, it’s not terrible, but certainly not clean to Northern standards, but what are we gonna do? We’re in Mexico, and we figure life in a less than ‘sterile environment’ is probably more healthy, the kids don’t notice and are as happy as clams. After driving for the past week we’re excited to spend a few days in one spot and relax a little. The next morning Jaxon is in the pool early, am pretty sure he spent a little over 12hrs straight in the water, getting out briefly to be fed by some Mexican families who had come for the day. The women fell in love with his blond hair, and probably took pity on him for looking lean and felt he needed fattening up!

8th July

Driving on we found a beautiful private property that we stumbled upon by chance. The last visit recorded on Ioverlander was 2016. Our chosen camp for the night was still another 1.5hr away, happy to stop early we asked the gate keeper if we could camp for the night. Their expression showed confusion, but ok & swung open the gates. Driving in to this beautifully manicured and very old looking property we were quite happy with ourselves. The next morning one of the English speaking workers came and introduced themselves. Telling us his story of having worked in the USA & paying taxes for the past 25 years, he returned to Mexico, unable to make his dreams of getting a Green Card & citizenship come true. His daughter is the property manager, they told us that the previous owner, who was robbed and stabbed to death in Mexico City back in 2016, had a vision for this 550 acre property. He was building a vacation property with independent houses for rent, a campground, soccer field, basketball court & swimming pool. The buildings are still there, the pool has crumbled and grass has grown up through the court. The new owners turned it into an events location, the grand buildings are now used for events and catered weddings & banquets. But of course currently closed due to the virus.

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In a tour of the property, built over 400 years ago, complete with church, stables now converted to a banquet hall with a 1 tonne, solid oak, 25′ long dining table. At the end of the courtyard we shown an old, pockmarked wall that had been used by firing squads, with bullets still imbedded in the mortar and human boned incorporated into other wall construction. Oh if these halls & walls could talk…

Rolling on to higher ground towards Mineral de Chico, we found cooler temps at 9,000 ft. Our camp spot for the night had 2″ of hail on the ground! Chilly we pulled out our puffy jackets & hats, we felt at home surrounded by pine trees & alpine meadows. Finding that ideal climate and setting isn’t easy, too hot, too cold, too humid, there really is no pleasing some travellers 😉

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Police were stationed at our next intersection, preventing outsiders, like us from entering the smaller towns and potentially spreading the virus, we were forced to turn back to Pachuca, a small city with a very confusing road system. The navigation had us on course, but road signs posted disallowing trucks from taking certain roads. Four times in the next few hours we were stopped by Police, citing that we weren’t allowed to be where we were because of our size, and each time they were polite, professional and helpful. One motorcycle cop even gave us an escort in the right direction so that we wouldn’t get lost! Four times in one day and not one detection of corruption!

Eventually hitting the ring road North we take an alternative route back to San Miguel de Allande. It’s a beautiful day, the toll road takes us through yet another different landscape, this country is so incredibly diverse! This time we could be in Ireland with rolling green farmland with stretching rock stack walls, and unbeknown to us, through one of Mexico’s most cartel active and dangerous cities, Celaya, where recently foreigners have been carjacked at gunpoint!! Sh*t, I guess it was our lucky day, as we passed without incident.

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Again the conversation is about where to next…. We’re thinking about renting a small house in San Miguel for a month till the USA regains some normality, though I feel like i’ve been saying that for months now, and the opposite is happening. California, Arizona, Texas and other states have gone back into lockdown, tensions are raising between the USA & China and Canada are slowly seeing numbers start to climb.

We’ve moved into a beautiful casita in San Miguel complete with pool, trampoline & sweeping vistas. The family who own the property are super cool and have made us feel very welcome. So here we’ll happily stay till the end of August, we’ve promised ourselves to learn more Spanish, tune up the website and hang out with friends (covid compliant) enjoy many margaritas over as many stunning sunsets & devise our next steps.

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Salud!