We crossed the border in Laredo at 3:15AM where the non-Mexican members of our group had to file for entry papers. This was Joe, and I. The rest of the family has citizen status, or easy entry due to being children of Mexican citizens. They gave us 180 day passes. Maybe I could be a migrant worker into Mexico? Nah…

About five hours later we stopped off to rest and eat just past a toll booth between Monterrey and Saltillo. I took a few pics of the road and mountains. One of the mountains is called ‘La Silla,’ which means ‘The Seat’ in Spanish.

We got to Saltillo just before 10AM where we saw some familiar sights.

After gassing up and stretching our legs, our goal was clearly visible:

Around two hours later we stopped to stretch and for a bathroom break. We were truly in the middle of nowhere. A lot of Mexico looks like this. I guess you could call it the ‘Nebraska of Mexico.’

We finally arrived in Zacatecas city, the capitol of Zacatecas state. We got our rooms at the Hotel Condesa, where we stayed two years ago. Jennifer and I got the last room available that had a balcony.

It made for some good first pictures of the city.

The same duros stand was there from two years ago. Same mother and daughter running the stand, too. Some things never change! P.S. for Jueros (whiteys): Duros are a fried corn-puff snack covered in hot sauce & lime juice. Duros stands often sell fresh fried potato chips, also covered in hot sauce & lime juice. Where do you think Doritos came from?

The park with statue kitty-corner from the hotel was just as picturesque as ever.

We all rested and took showers after the long drive before heading out for dinner. We ate at RecoVeco Buffet. Forget Mexican buffets in the U.S. or anywhere else. This was the real deal. We had eaten there two years ago and it was just as good as I remembered.

After dinner, we explored the city and markets.

Jen and I bought Zacatecas t-shirts. Then we walked through the plaza featuring the statue of Genaro Codina, author of The March of Zacatecas — the state’s official song.

We walked by the Fuente del Faroles – ‘Fountain of Lanterns.’ When we visited in 2004 it was under renovation, so this is the first time I’ve seen it the way it was meant to be.

Of course you can’t walk in a five hundred year old city without walking by a five hundred year old church.

After that Jen and I split from the group to go exploring on our own. We decided to return to the hotel via backstreets.

We got lost. Zacatecas city is not a bad place to get lost in though. The alleys are never too dark, and there are always people passing through them.

We found our way back to the hotel eventually, where I experimented in taking some night shots using my tripod from our hotel room balcony.

A little bit later, we went out again to explore. Just for fun, we tried to find a pizza place. We succeeded, but the pizza didn’t look that good. They only had some dried slices under a heat lamp, which obviously weren’t that fresh. The woman who ran the shop couldn’t make any fresh pizzas because she was out of cheese. Out of cheese, in Mexico! That’ll teach us for trying to find pizza at 9PM in Zacatecas.

We found a drug store and asked about sun block for me. At 200 pesos ($20 U.S.) they can kiss my white butt! We returned to the hotel where we ate in the hotel restaurant. Jen had grilled cheese sandwich and I had enchiladas with green sauce. The sauce was creamy, not like the usual lime-chile kind.

Jen had cocoa, which she really enjoyed because it was frothy and tasted like ‘Abuelitas.’ In other words, it was authentic Mexican hot cocoa, not the low grade American kind. I had some fresh-squeezed orange juice. Real juice! Imagine that!

Then we went back up to our hotel room and fell asleep quick. It’s hard to sleep on a 20 hour drive, but easy to sleep after!