Coahuila, México - May 2015

[kphoger]

Last week, our family and two others took a trip from Wichita, KS, to Parras, Coah.  For those interested, we took I-35 to OKC, I-44 to Wichita Falls, and then US-277 all the way through Texas (except for a short bypass of San Angelo on Loop-306) to Del Rio.  Crossing at Del Rio/Acuña, we took MEX-29 south to Allende, which is where we got our paperwork; from there, it was MEX-57(D) down through Sabinas, Monclova, and Castaños.  South of La Muralla, we cut down on COAH-114 to MEX-40, then COAH-102 to Parras.  The whole stretch from OKC to the COAH-114/MEX-40 junction was an entirely new route for me.  It was definitely a winner, and we'll be going that way in the future as well.

This was a church mission trip, wherein we led a vacation bible school.  It's a trip we've done every year since 2009, but exactly what we do there changes from year to year.  There were six adults, four young children, and a baby, in a caravan of three vehicles.  If anyone has any questions about driving this particular route into or through México, I'd be glad to help.

All these pictures were taken on my wife's cell phone from the passenger seat...

Ciudad Acuña, having just crossed the border.  One of the vehicles with us was getting searched at the border facility, so we parked here until that was finished.  As you can see, recent heavy rains didn't stop at the Mexican border.  We crossed early in the morning on Sunday, May 24; just after dawn the next day, an F4 tornado took the city by surprise.  More than 13 people were killed and a couple hundred injured by the twister, which only actually touched down for six seconds.  Both southbound and northbound, most intersections in town were flooded but still quite passable, as were intersections in Zaragoza farther south.  We drove through a lot of rain on this trip, the heaviest of which was in north-central Coahuila on the return trip.  When we stopped to turn in our papers at Allende on the way north Saturday afternoon, it was an unseasonable 65°F and raining.



Southbound MEX-57 approaching the small mountain range of La Muralla.







Having left Parras the following weekend, here is a view looking north toward the same range.



Westbound MEX-40 at Paila.  We turn to the south here on COAH-102 to Parras, which is our annual destination.



And now for two unedited videos of driving around Parras.  If someone more tech savvy than me would like to edit these (say, increase the speed by about 40%), I'd love to see the results.


Heading to our ministry location in the Ojo de Agua neighborhood on the south side of town.
(Sorry about the massive amount of dashboard visible)


Heading back again, with a side trip into town.
(The video skips briefly at 8:51, while I parallel parked and ran in to grab a restaurant menu.)