Please view our profile for our RV and vehicle information.
We have a Surge Guard and one extra water pump which hubby attaches to the “city water inlet” hose to increase water pressure.
You will need a minimum of 75 feet of waterhose and at least 20 feet of sewer hose.
Temperatures are given in Celsius.
TV is Star choice / Canada.
Topes are speed bumps, marked and UNMARKET.
We have an extra fuel tank on our diesel truck (280lt total)
Gas is 5.3 pesos a litre
L= left R=right
Geverment palace in Monterrey
12.09.2005 08:00 cold at 4 degrees and raining.
Left Santiago which is south of Monterrey mx, which is south of McAllen, TX. On hwy 85.
Nice two lane divided hwy with the usual topes through the town until Linares. Drove through many Orange plantations. A bag will set you back a big 35pesos. There you find a “Soriana” grocery store on hwy 85 if needed (L). After Linares, the road is two lanes until Cuidat Victoria. We followed the signs to Tampico 70 and Matamores 101 for the by-pass. Keep going strait until you see Pemex 6616 on the R bud line up to the left since this is where you have to go. You are now on hwy 70 for about 10km and will come up an overpass and an other sign, Tampico hwy 83 take an R, this number confused us since it was not on our maps. If you pass the airport, you went too far.
It is now 12noon. Good roads and this one will merge with hwy 81 and 180 until we get to north of Tempico hwy marker 47 and the Country Express Hotel.( 3pm now ) It is a terracotta colored nice building on the R. Has a 24hr. Restaurant. Next to it, in a separate building where two showers and one toilette, which looked quit clean bud, we did not use them. You park behind the Hotel on dirt and gravel, lots of room. There is a palapa on one side and it looks like they are building more shower/wc facilities.
We paid 50pesos at the front desk, which also has a banjo. Dinner at the Restaurant was good. Homemade potato soup with bacon, Chicken and beef fajitas and a coke 140. - pesos. Two omelets and coffee in the AM 70.-pesos. Later the parking lot got more customers, trucks and some empty school busses no RV’s.
Friday Dec. 9th. 09:00am.
Back to hwy, 180 to the Tampico by-pass at km 51, right after Pemex # 4215 take a R. Overhead sign will say Mexico, Veracruz, and on the right side a sign Libramiento Poniente Tampico.
Toll both at around 9miles we paid 44 pesos. Another 9 miles to an intersection and you have reached Mex 70, turn R, and soon pass Pemex # 5152. Had trucks there so we think it could be an overnight stop if needed.
THE NEXT IS A CORRECTION FROM THE TERRY CHURCH BOOK. A FEW MILES AFTER YOU WILL SEE AN OVER PASS MAKED TUXPAN TO THE RIGHT. TAKE IT.
You cannot take a LEFT as the book suggested, since they build this over pass. We missed it and so had to turn around in the next village. The spots to turn around on the way there where too muddy and small for our size rig. We where afraid we might get stuck in the mud with all the rain lately.
After the over pass you will cross a bridge and come to a toll both. ( 14p). the road after the toll both has been redone until the town. The town has many TOPES AND ROUGH roads. After Pemex # 5575, you will come to a “Y” with a sign: Transito Pasado, heavy traffic, red circle/ arrow. TAKE THE LEFT FORK AND DRIVE UP THE HILL.
You are not allowed to go through the town with RV’s. Shortly after you will get to a “T” and turn R, you are back on hwy 180 south. On the right, there is Pemex # 3159 shortly after that which looks big enough to spend the night. Now we are driving through farmland, good roads with a few rough patches and topes in towns. Before Cerro Azul was a road construction with little delay. We took the road to Alamo hwy 127, which bypasses TUXPAN. Small hills and orange plantations are around us. Before Alamo, we paid a 14pesos toll over a bridge, which was bumpy for half a mile. Lots of Oranges and Bananas still around us. It is a well travelt road, big trucks, as you all now with a different kind of speedometer than ours!!!! One federalis checkpoint,did not even have to stop.
Arrived in Poza Rica at 3Pm.
An other Federaly check at a topes, let us go through.
Stay in the left lane at the light, Pemex # 6857, Veracruz/ Cazones hwy 180; take a L. Follow the sighs VERACRUZ Cuota. I think we paid an other small toll for an other bridge. When you get to BLV. RUIZ CORTINES TAKE A LEFT. There is a clock tower at the intersection to your left. From there on just keep going straight through the city. At the outskirts of the city, there is a Sam’s to your left. A few miles after that you will come to the sign. Veracruz quota take a R. The toll both is at he end ( 56p). Take a Left to Guitierrez Zamba.
WARNING: IN GUITEREZ THERE IS A BIG UNMARKED TOPES. We think this is the one we can attribute the broken dishes. Even as we had bungee cables on our kitchen cabinets we had a bid of trouble to close it so we could get our slide out. Have been full timing for 4 years and our second trip to Mexico and finally managed to break some dishes and glasses. Not a bad average.
Paid an other 36 pesos over a bridge and then we finally arrived at the Emerald Coast around five PM.
We are currently at the Neptuno Campground. In our opinion, the web page looks a lot better then the real thing. Showers are in poor repair so are the toilettes, which most have no doors. The place needs a lot of TLC. Some outlets are missing or have broken plates. The water pressure is not good enough for taking a shower without an extra pump on the outside or using your rigs water pump. The owner is Mexican and very helpful and speaks some English. Got a great deal on washing our filthy rig after driving through all this rain. His two sons’ did the RV and Car for 150. - Pesos. Still only 10 degrees. He charges 14 dollars a day. Try to park as far from the hwy 180 as possible. It is well traveled by trucks and therefore noisy. If they use the engine breaks it sounds like a machine gun going off.
There are only two other rigs here now. San Raphael, 10km away has great high-speed internet and grocery store. Lot’s of banana plantations around weather improving now at 24 degrees on Dec. 11.
More from our trip later.
* This post was
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edited 03/06/07 11:06am by swissmiss *
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Thanks very much for the interesting info. We're leaving next week (December 19-20) from McAllen, TX to Emerald Coast Neptuno Park. We haven't traveled Mexico for about 8 years. Would appreciate any other comments you have about the area. Where are you headed?
Try camping at Quinta Alicia or Corsair. Quinta Alicia is very nice but a little cramped while Corsair is not quite as nice as Quinta Alicia but has plenty of room to manuever.
We will be driving from Brownsville down the coast to Cancun departing on the 23rd. I would like to drive straight down the coast on 180.It appears most go to Victoria. Is this section of highway 180 OK or is the Victoria route the best choice? Thanks.
Update on going around Poza Rica.
We are now 4 rigs in the park. Three Canadian and one American. One person came yesterday and told us a better way to go around Poza Rica.
Once you pass Alamo and a few miles before Poza Rica you will see a big sign with a U- turn on it and the name, Tuxpan. He said a smaller sign of Veracruz. That area is under construction. Take that road and you will go north for maybe 3 Km, then see an other sign Veracruz, and take this road. He was not sure if it said Quota. This way you will not have to deal with the city of Poza Rica as we did. The toll road was 56 pesos.
We saw the sign bud since it said Tuxpan we did not take it, bud next year we know better.
It seems that there are many bridges along hwy 180 south and they do charge some tolls.
This is our first time this way so can only comment on the roads mentioned so far. Will stay here until after Christmas and then we do not know. It seems our plans change daily. From talking to other people here this is a typical thing that happens to you if you travel in Mexico. As you meet people and find out where they went = change of plans.
We did go to the "El Tajin" Ruins. Entrance fee is 38 pesos. It is a good hour from the park, south of Poza Rica. Great trip took "only" 100 pictures.
* This post was
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edited 12/28/05 11:30am by swissmiss *
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EdT wrote: We will be driving from Brownsville down the coast to Cancun departing on the 23rd. I would like to drive straight down the coast on 180.It appears most go to Victoria. Is this section of highway 180 OK or is the Victoria route the best choice? Thanks.
Will try to get more info for you from the "new" couple. I think they drove that way.
Just drove last week from brownsville to Honduras last week and passed the esmerald coast
I never went through Ciudad Victoria because the shorter road is through 180 which you pick up halfway Matamores/Cd Victoria at a junction where you see a pemex on the left and on the right you see a small almost hidden marker Tampico/ Soto de la Marina.
You go left there and end this very nice narrow paved 2 lane road with only a few topes in Soto de la Mirina in Manual, From there 0ne hour towards Tampico on a 4 lane devided highway.
Ronald & Shirley
Fleetwood Bounder 2007
Toyota Hilux 2.4D diesel as toad
I went through Victoria and would definately give it a miss next time. For one thing, as above post, the other road is shorter. For another, the Victoria campground is a mess - women's bathroom empty of all fixtures, men's bathroom smelled so badly I couldn't go in (and I have used squats through N.Africa and Asia) and waited two days until I got to LaPesca to shower. If you have a big rig and are independent, perhaps this won't matter as much. However, when I reached LaPesca, it was so much nicer - smaller but better camping amenities for less $, or you can camp free on the beach - there was no one else on the beach, so I stayed at the CG/Hotel listed in Church book). I won't go through Cd. Victoria again. From Brownsville, it's only an extra 20-30 minutes to LaPesca vs. Victoria.
Footloose-fancy free in a VW EVC
Visited since May 2005
(need to add to maps: Canada - British Columbia. USA - New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington.)
EdT wrote: We will be driving from Brownsville down the coast to Cancun departing on the 23rd. I would like to drive straight down the coast on 180.It appears most go to Victoria. Is this section of highway 180 OK or is the Victoria route the best choice? Thanks.
Brownsville to Tampico hwy 180, second hand report:
Our new neighbor has spoken to a couple that went that way five days ago. They told him it is no problem. I hope that answers your question. He also said if you want to do a shorter first day, go the Cudiad Victoria route and stay at the Victoria Trailer Park in Church’s Book Mexican Camping. He liked the people very much and said they are very knowledgeable about Mexico. The crossing he likes is, from Harlingen south, crossing at Los Indios Bridge. Follow signs to Cuidad Victoria, which will bring you through the town of Valle Hermoso, and eventually to hwy 180 / 101.
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