Ciudad Victoria is a small city of 300,000 nestled up against the mountains - the setting reminds me of Boulder, CO but the mountains are bigger and it is a latin city. A population of 300,000 sounds pretty big but the city is compact and easy to get around with a bike. Traffic is slower because streets are narrow, potholed and topes are everywhere. A tope is a speed bump and they take their speed bumps serious in Mexico. A car better slow down (ie. stop and crawl) otherwise you are going to do serious damage to your vehicle - but a bike is no problem. I am gettin' my traffic on and it is fun! Ciudad Victoria has no tourism to speak of and feels very mellow. The above photo is the central plaza of the city and it was mostly couples kissing and older folks feeding pidgeons while business people strolled through.
I am camping at the Ciudad Victoria RV Park billed as "the friendliest RV park in Mexico," and i believe it. (victoriarvp@yahoo.com) Rosie is positively charming and funny as hell. She married a man from Wisconsin and they started an RV park 40 years ago on what was ranch land. Now, it is an oasis in the middle of the city with wonderful shaded sites, hot water, and walking distance to everything you need. However, all of the press about border violence has brought US RV traffic to a trickle. Most people i meet are hardy Canadians (all return customers) and all lament how "scared" Americans are - makes me sad that is our new reputation - and everyone apologizes to me for mentioning it. Mexico has been wonderful to me apart from the head wind, which is not their fault. I even went to the infamous Mexican Police to deal with some visa issues and guess what? They were great! I did sit in a small concrete room for an hour with a bunch of other folks looking resigned but after about a hundred rubber stamps everything was fine - they do love their stamps (actually it was about 8-10 stamps, four by one person). All the cops from the federal level on down have been very friendly . . . but it only takes one real prick to ruin your day. . . Tomorrow i head out for Gomez Ferias on the edge of the El Ciolo Biosphere Reserve and will spend at least Sunday there - i discovered and am told people get an early start drinking on Sundays and it is best not to travel.
http://www.letsgo.com/14475-mexico-travel-guides-northeast_mexico-northeast_mexico-tamaulipas-reserva_de_la_biosfera_el_cielo-c
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Greg I don't know if you know the Ingolds from Warner or not, but Bret & Justin are going to be in Oaxaca on Feb 1-15 and going to Morelia on the 15...I'm not sure if this is anywhere near your time frame or anything but they'd love to meet up, maybe a place to stay (i think they're renting something nice in each place...). Not sure all the details yet but when I told them about your trip they expressed interest in crossing paths so I figured I'd run it by you. Email me if you think of it ott.joel@gmail.com
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