Mata to Mate

We crossed into Matamoros and stayed for about a week. 250 pesos the first night, 190 at a different hotel right on the small pedestrian walk, both with tv and bath. I found it surprisingly difficult to communicate the first few days, but quickly got down the difference between taco, gordita, tortas, and churros. Also found a fruit stand with bananas for 10 pesos a kilo, and we’ve been eating a lot of them sense: cheap, nutritious, and strong enough to travel for a day.

We needed to rest up after a bit of an ordeal at the border. We took a bus from Houston that was supposed to take us into Matamoros. The bus did not stop at the US side of the border, though; it just rolled on through to Mexican customs, so apparently you usually don’t need to get stamped out of the US. But Petra did need an actual stamp since she was from Germany and was only allowed to stay in the US for 90 days. So the computer needed to record her as leaving (as we were, on her 90th day exactly) or else it would be a hassle for her to ever return. So we were a bit confused when we rolled straight into Mexican customs. We had to leap out of the bus, grab our bags out on the border bridge, and ultimately hike the mile back to the US border just so Petra could hand her passport to the completely disinterested border guard. Then hike the mile back to the Mexican border, still with our backpacks; crossing the Rio Grande several times this way - was smaller than expected. (We’re really not set up for long distanced travel. We try to travel as light as we can, but after taking all the things we really need and/or want, we’re still weighed down enough that long distances are no fun.)

Then the Mexican border guard was especially unhelpful, and at first was only going to give us a 30 transit visa. Petra argued with him for at least an hour, until we finally got a 180 day tourist visa. We have to pay a tourist fee when we leave (about 220 pesos), and supposedly when we cross into Guatemala there may also be a 550 or so peso fee for making a transit through Mexico. I don’t think this is right, though (or that we can talk our way around it), and so after a lot of weighing the pros and cons were really happy we took the 180 visa. Anyhow, needless hassle at the border and an expensive taxi ride into town that should rather have already been on the bus.

Matamoros was nice and quiet enough, but we expected it would be cheaper further into Mexico. So we headed down to Ciudad Victoria…and were disappointed. The cheapest room we could find was at the Hotel de Escandon for 270 pesos -- a big disappointment. But the room was huge! Tv, bath, and three beds that would sleep five people. We kept asking for something smaller, but they wouldn’t show us anything else.

We did ultimately find a cheaper room at the Hotel Mexico around the corner. Small and not nice, no tv and an unpleasant smelling bath for 100 pesos a night, and we might have been able to bargain her down if we stayed a couple of days. But instead we poured over our map looking at possible travel routes, and decided to leave.

Matehuala looks like a short distance from Victoria on the map, but the road heads north and then dips back, which means changing buses. So we went up to Linares and then transferred for Matehuala, making for a longer travel day than we had thought. It was already dark when we arrived, and for the first time we got hassled by what I figure were touts at the bus station. We had a cheap hotel we had written down and asked to go there, and the taxi driver said no, no – it was a bad neighborhood of town known for prostitutes and drug violence. He wanted to take us to the Casa Blanca instead, which he assured us would be nice but for about as much as we were paying in Victoria. For a moment we were nearly swayed, but eventually and with much difficulty convinced him we wanted to go to our place instead – a hotel from a guidebook we saw online, and so which should not generally be too dangerous.

Our instincts were right – Casa de Huespedes “El Jacalito” was a lovely place with a vibrant orange courtyard shaded by two large trees. Not exactly a Mut Mee garden, but it was nice enough to sit in and the people who ran it were friendly. Bargained for a few nights stay and got a double (no tv, shared bathroom) for 90 pesos a night. So we stayed about a week. Matehuala is not a terribly exciting city, but we found some hippie kids twirling batons and poi for tips, there were a couple of cheap taco places, and a surprisingly good pizza place we had to try out. Nice to save up a bit of money (relatively) and really get back into our traveling habits.