On the way, we stopped for an hour at a Pemex gas station with a good parking area and had some breakfast and filled up with gas.
We had to skirt around the ring road of Morelia, and we would be driving right by a big Walmart so we stopped in to pick up a few things. Walmart sells a brand of Great Value mixed nuts that I really like, and was hoping to stock up on two or three big bags, but they only had one left in stock.
The outskirts of Morelia.
We were actually in the store for a long time. It was busy, and we waited in line at the cash for a while. By the time we got out, we decided we might as well have lunch while we were parked there.
We were headed for a natural rock formation that looked like it had a decent overnight spot. It wasn't much of a detour, but it was a very secondary road that wasn't in very good shape.
And, we had to go through a residential section of Morelia to get to it.
Always up for an adventure!
A bit slow going, but the alternative was 15 kms longer.
We got stuck behind this yellow dump truck for a while.
There was some kind of event at this town church. Everyone was dressed up.
Watch for cows on the road!
We arrived at the Los Piloncillos site and sure enough there was a nice level parking spot for Igor. It's only about a km from a nearby village, so it's not especially remote, but the road out front is in bad shape and hardly anybody uses it except for some gravel trucks that would stop by the end of the work day.
Igor, parked up at GPS 19.826929, -101.33992
We also had two friendly dogs to show us around.
The attraction here is the weathered sandstone rock formations.
It's not a very large area, but fun to wander around for an hour.
That dog would have been another great stray to adopt. We've come across this situation many times in our travels where a dog tries to adopt us... but it just doesn't suit our lifestyle right now.
Great spot for the night.
This morning, we are headed to Valle de Juarez. It's still 225 kms (140 miles) west, and we're going to take the free road the whole way. So it'll likely take five hours of driving plus stops. We hope to make it there by 4:00pm!
Happy New Year!
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Nice price drop on the Coleman 225 Portable Tabletop Grill.
And in Canada...
Happy 2026 from Mary and Blair! You were right.....Merida is HOT! Your house looks lovely, congratulations on the excellent decorating.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you both as well!
DeleteWe hope that you will be able to deal with the heat down there in Merida and still be able to enjoy your time there. For us the weather is just perfect inland and with a little altitude.
Thank you, we are pleased with how the house looks, we still have a few minor things to do but overall it is ready for us to enjoty. :-)
What a nice overnight spot! The landscape reminds me of Bryce national park, on a smaller scale. Nice to have friendly doggies to greet and walk around with you! Did they look like they were being fed by someone?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Kevin and Ruth!
It was a great overnight spot, it would have been better if we were a little further away from the road but the road was so quiet that it really didn't make a difference anyway. When we were walking around and checking out all the rock formations we actually mentioned to each other that it was like a very, very small version of Bryce Canyon!
DeleteIt was nice having the dogs there to great us and keep us company as we explored the area. I think that they liked the attention that they got from us and yes, they looked like they were fed by someone. Come evening they both took off back to town. They weren't wearing collars but they were good and healthy looking.
Happy New Year to you both! Looking forward to more exciting adventures in 2026.
ReplyDeleteVal Stark
Thank you and Happy New Year to you as well!
DeleteWe are looking forward to our adventures this year, I think we are going to have some good ones. 😊