Originally, we'd planned a rather leisurely wander north stopping in Puebla and San Miguel de Allende to shop, but changed that to a more grueling drive along the Gulf coast so that we could stop and see some things we'd never seen before. Worth it?? Ask us in about a month!!
We left Merida Tuesday and drove to Palenque where we spent two nights at the Chan Kah resort. We were greeted by Roberto, the 150 year old owner, who selected our cabin and it was one of them as far away from things as possible, but newer with a TV and very quiet, around a small swimming pool of its own. Just lovely. The food still isn't very good at this hotel, but the setting is just lovely, surrounded by jungle and arched flowering vines, and cabins covered in flowering vines. Palenque was as lovely as we remembered it, but quite crowded since this was the week after semana santa when Mexico is still on vacation.
Continuing on, we spent a night in Vera Cruz. The hotel Mocambo had been built in 1932 and we don't think ever updated but you could imagine that this was once the height of a very nice vacation. Built on a hill overlooking the bay but along the boca de rio far enough away from the port to be very nice. Then a drive through Xalapa or Jalapa where there was a large protest about something that completely took over the down town and removed any charm from the place to stay in Papantla. This was a scenic drive but Papantla is nothing to write home about except for its location near El Tajin where we began the next morning with a visit to its ruins and the niche pyramid with 365 small geometric niches. On to Tampico for a night and then a 4 hour drive to Xilitla, the object of this drive.
In Xilitla, we stayed at El Castillo which had been built as a temporary home for Edward James, a wealthy, eccentric, artistic, surrealist-loving Englishman who'd left his country and manor house West Dean (which he later gifted to become a college) to acquire 80 acres of land in a perfectly gorgeous valley near this tiny town in the 1960s. We watched a documentary about James who'd wanted to be a poet or artist but succeeded only in being a collector of artists and poets as friends. The only son, he was heir to a fortune and so lived well travelling the globe, but finally finding this remote spot in Mexico in which he could fulfill his dream. Edward James designed and had built surreal sculptures in the jungle that are truly astounding in size, scope, and thought. There are a few terraces with giant 
concrete flower sculptures that kinda make sense and that any of us could have conceived. But then, there are 70-80 foot towers simulating bamboo and flowers and stairways to nowhere, and geometric shapes that are simply magnificent and would never have grown from my own imagination. We were just wowed and were glad to have braved whatever roads and potholes and topes that we'd faced to be able to spend time here in this fantasy. Finally, (and apparently all it took was about $5 million US and all the concrete that could buy), Edward James had the last word -- he was an artist and a visionary.
We tore through Texas, Arkansas, bits of Missouri and Kentucky, and the length of Illinois and are safely here in Highland Park. The only mishap that occurred was at the border town of Matamoros. We had carefully selected this as the safest crossing with the least likelihood of drug/gun violence (and we were correct) but found there was a price to pay for this "sa
fety". We were stopped not once but twice by transit police insisting we had somehow broken a law of driving and would be subject to fines or imprisonment or both, plus of course they'd take our drivers' license (well, Eva's since she was driving at the time) until the fine or prison time was done. Clearly, a scam!! We might have been really annoyed if we hadn't already heard story after story from gas station attendants, fast food servers, and chambermaids about getting deported after 8, 15, and 27 years in the US. Interestingly, one of the cops said he'd prefer that we pay him in dollars instead of pesos, but the other was very clear that 600 pesos was the going bribe. This man is one of the two who robbed us in Matamoros.
fety". We were stopped not once but twice by transit police insisting we had somehow broken a law of driving and would be subject to fines or imprisonment or both, plus of course they'd take our drivers' license (well, Eva's since she was driving at the time) until the fine or prison time was done. Clearly, a scam!! We might have been really annoyed if we hadn't already heard story after story from gas station attendants, fast food servers, and chambermaids about getting deported after 8, 15, and 27 years in the US. Interestingly, one of the cops said he'd prefer that we pay him in dollars instead of pesos, but the other was very clear that 600 pesos was the going bribe. This man is one of the two who robbed us in Matamoros.
