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 Information about Monterrey, Mexico
Monterrey is well known as the prosperous and industrious city of the north of Mexico. Monterrey is the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon, located on the northeast part of Mexico, just two hours from the state of Texas and an hour and 15 minute flight to Mexico City.
Monterrey is a city of major importance in Mexico and is known for being a great option for entertainment and cultural events. With great hotel infrastructure that offers from International hotel chains to regional, but no less great hotels...more
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Zacatecas Driving Directions
I hope this might be of help now that the
intersection of Mexico Highways 54 and 45 outside of Zacatecas has been
constructed and completely signed. The Hacienda del Bosque sits right next
to this new interchange so there are four different approaches depending on
where you are coming from. This is the intersection where Mex 54 from
Guadalajara joins 45, splits from 45, or joins it depending on how you want
to look at it and the direction you are coming from. Mex 54 and 45 meet
northwest of Zacatecas as 54 comes from Saltillo and 45 from Juarez. For
about perhaps 10K they run together as one highway. The new intersection is
very well signed both for the Hacienda and wherever else you are going.
1. From San Luis Potosi and Aguascalientes, and through the city. If you
choose to drive directly through Zacatecas city, it is a six lane boulevard,
with buses usually gumming up the far right lanes in either direction. Three
new overpasses within the city have eased congestion, and if you don't mind
traffic, and don't have a rig of excessive size it is an entertaining drive.
You will get your eyes full of contemporary Zacatecas as the historic
Zacatecas is about two blocks to the north. Don't get any ideas about
finding parking as you do not want to leave this wide boulevard unless you
are in a van. It is all uphill as you will cross the Continental Divide at
the top. You will pass the turn off to the Hotel del Bosque, already mapped
in the guide. Keep heading basically west on this six lane as the city thins
out. You will approach an intersection indicating choices for Aguascalientes
or Durango-Guadalajara. To reach the Hacienda del Bosque, you want
Aguascalientes. Keep in the far left lane, drive up onto the overpass, and
the exit will curve off and bring you onto the Pesado / Libramiento, or the
truck route. The Hacienda is on the left. Once the concrete divider ends,
turn left into parking lot across three lanes of traffic while you wait in
the fast lane in the direction you are going. Use your four-ways? Traffic
will usually allow very frequent opportunities to make this left, so do not
panic at the idea.
2. From San Luis Potosi and Aguascalientes via the truck route to the
Hacienda del Bosque (also note the alternatives under bypasses around
Zacatecas city). As you approach Zacatecas city on Mex 49, which combines
with 45, and west towards Zacatecas from the junction of 49 with the cuota
highway from Aguascalientes, Mex 45D, you will see signs at an overpass
intersection for the Libramiento/Durango/Centro SCT (highway department).
Bear right with many trucks and busses, and loop back up and over Mex 49.
This bears basically south for perhaps a mile and then at a "Y" gently
curves to the right. Sometimes, obviously this route is choked with trucks,
and other times oddly devoid of them. Nice vistas of the city from above.
This route is curvy and has hills, so there can be double trailer trucks
crawling along. About halfway around the city you will come to an overpass
intersection indicating a turn to Guadalajara city and a street called Cinco
Senores. If you have no plans on staying in Zacatecas this night, and you
are going to Guadalajara, to can go this way. It is an alternative extension
of the Pesado/Libramiento and joins Mex 54 about five miles south of
Zacatecas city. You can also wait and turn towards Guadalajara on Mex 54 in
another few miles. You eventually reach the intersection in number 1 above,
as indicated by signs and turns for other major cities, with the Hacienda an
easy right immediately before reaching this intersection.
3. From Guadalajara to the Hacienda del Bosque. As you approach Zacatecas
city from the south, there will be a Modelo/Corona beer distributorship on
the left. Get into the right lane as signs for "Ruta Pesado/Libramiento/Aguascalientes"
indicate you should be. This is the intersection mentioned in 1 and 2 above.
Do not go straight over the overpass. Bear right onto the pesado/libramiento
towards Aguascalientes, then get into left lane as Hacienda is coming up
fast. You will see it to left, and turn immediately after concrete divider
ends. Again, you are in the fast lane, making a left across three lanes of
traffic.
4. From Juarez and Fresnillo, Mex 49/54 southbound, to the Hacienda del
Bosque. You will again approach this same interchange on the combination of
Mex 54 & 49. You will know you are there as there will be sign for a right
turn towards Guadalajara on Mex 54. Do not turn towards Guadalajara.
Continue straight on the Pesado/Libramiento/Aguascalientes route and in a
very short distance, just after you go UNDER the overpass you will see the
Hacienda on the left. Again you are in the fast lane making a left across
three lanes of traffic.
Remember that there a lots of taxis and busses to get you to the Cento part
of Zacatecas from the Hacienda which is out in the "sticks", and you will
find a lovely city with incredible street life, a vibrant cultural calendar
of almost multiple nightly events available at the Turismo Office on
Hidalgo, friendly and helpful people, several incredible museums, parks to
rest in, good eating, etc., etc. We live here and while we drive through the
cental city, we taxi, walk, or bus in for shopping and other events. As you
can see, we like this place. Altitude is high so evenings are cool and
afternoons hot, cool and hot being defined by whatever the seasons are.
February can be chilly, meaning lows in the high 30s, low 40s F. and highs
in the low to mid 60s F around 2:00 PM. All year the high altitude sun is
hot. Palm trees grow here in the parks so this is not the Arctic.
Now, other routes either new or ones that are discovered from living in a
city for seven years. Better signage has also helped the process. There has
been a great emphasis on highway construction over the past six years in
particular, both brand new roads and renovation.
There are ways to get to the Hotel del Bosque, not to be confused with the
Hacienda del Bosque, without going through the city. We like the Hotel del
Bosque because it does not have a busy highway and busy railroad tracks
right next to it as the Hacienda does. The downside is no sewer hookup,
although there is water and electricity. You can negotiate with them as to
where they might let you park, as there is a disco, usually open Friday and
Saturday evenings. If you like to dance you are in luck. They would allow us
to pretty much park where we wanted, and run a cord through a window into a
nearby room. The Hotel del Bosque has undergone serious renovation in the
past eighteen months, and is a serious uptown place, so the rules might have
changed. The real plus of this place is the usual quiet and it is a five
minute walk to the city center.
1a. To the Hotel del Bosque from Juarez. Northwest of Zacatecas turn left or
north towards Saltillo on Mex 54. This part of 54 from this corner to the
Villa de Cos junction is now four lane, and will be four lane to Saltillo
within five years. You drive almost immediately past the edge of a small
town, but keep going north up a long but not particularly tedious hill. Just
over the top of this hill there is a right hand turn for Veta Grande. Take
this right and start up a long uphill grade that will take you through some
hilly terrain. You will actually be a thousand feet higher than Zacatecas,
or 9300' at the top. The views are amazing, or we think they are, and there
are actually pull-offs for rigs the size of a bus. You cross the toll/cuota
mentioned below. Don't get on it unless you are heading immediately to
Aguascalientes or San Luis Potosi. At a junction further on do not turn into
Panuco or Veta Grande. You can see dozens of mines along this route.
Eventually you reach the top and a gradual decent towards Zacatecas which
you will be looking down on. You reach a major intersection. Straight ahead
is signed Bufa which has parking lots large enough to land a 747. If you
have the time do this for many reasons including a view of the city that
will take your breath away, do it even if you are flying through. To left is
signed Solidaridad, but do not go left. Turn right. Keep going straight,
avoiding all the streets branching off at every conceivable angle. You may
see signs indicating Fresnillo, and an airport symbol. Past this corner to
right you will see a funky pink castle like building. This is Bracho, site
of the Morismas the very end of August (imagine a reenactment of the battle
where Cervantes lost his hand with thousands of players) and below the
castle a large metal canopy which is where the Pope held mass a decade ago.
It is said there were a million people here. So you keep straight ahead on
what in reality is the north Libramiento, which has no trucks, and within
about two or three miles of the above junction you will arrive at the Hotel
del Bosque on the left. Big sign announcing this. Transcontinental buses
drive down the driveway into the hotel so no need to be timid. You have
arrived without having to contend with any city traffic.
2a. To the Hotel del Bosque from Saltillo on Mex 54. After passing through
the very small village of Poso de Gamboa, an important junction covered
later with a new overpass under construction, continue on 54 approximately
five miles and you will see the Veta Grande junction mentioned in 1a above.
Follow those directions.
3a. To the Hotel del Bosque from San Luis Potosi or Aguascalientes. There
are several ways to do this. Below I describe two ways to totally escape
Zacatecas city. I include there alternative ways to the Hotel del Bosque and
Hacienda del Bosque. Here I describe how to get from Mex 49 and 45 onto the
north libramiento. The Pesado/Libramiento/Centro Sct turn explained in 2
above is the south libramiento. So, yes, there is a circle around the city
and the guides usually never mention the north section for many reasons
which have been remedied in the last year. Coming into Zacatecas you pass
UNDER the overpass and turn to the south libramiento/Centro Sct mentioned in
2 above. Keep straight ahead on the six lane. Little traffic out here. You
go OVER another overpass in about a mile. Keep going straight on the six
lane and there is another overpass. Look sharp! You have three alternative
turns here. The obvious is straight ahead or to the right a wide ramp/street
heading up a fairly steep hill. You want neither. Between the two is an exit
sandwiched into almost a narrow slit. It is signed Retorno/Guadalupe Centro.
Take this and get into the right lane. At the light, turn right onto a four
lane boulevard. This looks like a residential area, and it is, but it is
also the north libramiento which will become self-evident in about a quarter
mile. Some nice topes the first quarter mile, which then breaks into an
obvious bypass/libramiento. Keep straight until you approach a light and a
sign that indicates right to Bufa/Veta Grande/Saltillo. Take this right, up
a slight grade, down through a valley, and up a steeper grade to an
obviously major intersection. You are at the intersection described in 1a
above. Bufa to the left, Veta Grande and Saltillo to the right. You want to
go straight, which is unnerving as the continuing highway on the other side
of intersection dips enough so that you are not sure there is any road
there. Go straight, ignoring all the streets branching off at all angles,
and within a two or three miles the Hotel del Bosque is on the left. Again,
there is a sign announcing this.
4a. To Hotel del Bosque from Guadalajara. As you approach the junction as in
3 above, follow those directions as if going to the Hacienda, but about the
time you see the Hacienda on the left there will be an exit for Zacatecas
curving off to right. Follow this and you end up on a six lane boulevard
towards Zacatecas. In perhaps two miles you go UNDER an overpass. Look
sharp! Take the next right hand exit before this second overpass up a small
hill. Usually traffic coming from left then. Get into this traffic stream
and immediately to left. Continue left across the curving overpass. Once off
this overpass get to right lane. Ignore street to right as you come off
overpass. Ignore second right, signed with lots of arrows to different
hotels and street named Quedalibra, but the next immediate right you take.
The thirty foot high bronze of Benito Juarez should be on your left. To
right big sign about Hotel del Bosque. In two or so miles, right turn to
Hotel del Bosque with good sign announcing this.
Want to escape Zacatecas entirely? You will weep to know that for years
there was and still is a way around. North of the junction of Mex 54 from
Saltillo and 45 from Juarez, on 54 is the very small pueblo of Pozo de
Gamboa, and a junction of an good asphalt highway heading south which I
believe is Zacatecas 155. A new overpass is currently under construction at
this junction. If you take this road south around Tacoaleche and through
Zoquite, it joins Mex 49 to San Luis Potosi at Santa Monica. Santa Monica is
where the "cones" are, actually point up cone shaped former grain silos. At
Santa Monica there is an overpass over Mex 49, and all is well signed for
Tacoaleche at that end if coming from south. This is about two miles east of
where the new toll road route to and from Aguascalientes joins Mex 49. The
only topes are through Zoquite which is another small pueblo. There are a
few tractor-trailer trucks that know of this route, and they pass without
difficulty so you can too. Always just continue straight, ignoring other
signed roads branching off.
Another surprise is that the new toll road to/from Aguascalientes use to end
on its northern end at Mex 49. Now in the final stages of construction is
another connecting toll/quota which takes one from this point of Mex 49 east
of Zacatecas to near the junction of Mex 49 and 54 northwest of Zacatecas
city next to the Servicio Morelos Trailer Park. They are working fast and
furious on this and it will be open sometime this Fall. On this new quota,
there is an exit in either direction for Veta Grande. If you get off at this
junction, go north and one meets Mex 54 to Saltillo. One can, of course,
continue straight on the quota to where 49 and 54 meet at Servicio Morelos,
too. At the Veta Grande interchange, if one heads south they are on the road
described previously in 1a, you are heading for the Hotel del Bosque. I know
that some resent toll roads here in Mexico, and granted they can be
expensive. Concerning the new toll from Zacatecas towards Aguascalientes.
This bypasses a string of small towns on the free road which include Ojo
Caliente. This particular stretch of road is choked with trucks and has at
least a half zillion topes. The cuota around this costs twenty seven pesos
for two axles.
Another observation is the previously mentioned parking lot up on Bufa, the
one for landing 747s. I suspect that one could dry camp there without any
officialdom complaining. It is a pleasant downhill, very downhill walk into
the city and there are always a wealth of taxis to ferry one into this
beautiful city and back.
Lots of combinations of roads here, and whatever you need to do I hope that
it makes your travels just that much more of a pleasure. This is a tribute
to all the people who have helped us figure out not only where we were, but
how to get where we were going. Forgive me if I have scrambled something.
Mark Dunn
Zacatecas, Mexico
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Map Features:
North to South
RV
Parks
Hotel Villa Jardin
Closed
Imperial del Norte
Bahia Escondida
Campo Mexico
Las Palmas
Motel Oasis
Casa
De Esperanza
Victoria Trailer Park
Morelos Trailer Park
Motel de Bosque
Hacienda del Bosque
Hotel Mante
Peter and Susan's
El Mesquite
Quinta San Jorge
Hotel Valles
Ejidal
Ojocaliente
Medrano Hotel
MAPS
Aguascalientes Mexico Map -
Mapa
Zacatecas Photography
San Luis Potosi Photography
Santiago Photography
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