SLOW SALLY & CREW

After many weeks of adventures in small towns and remote mountain areas, we were dreaming of delicious Mexican cuisine and ready for a big city adventure. We could hardly wait to find a good café, indulge at restaurants, and do some urban exploring.

We chose San Luis Potosi (SLP) for our urban adventure for a few reasons: it’s one of Mexico’s charming, colonial “silver cities”, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the gateway to La Huasteca Potosina region, which was our next destination. We had visited the city once before in 2016, during a cold, grey couple of days in December. We didn’t have Slow Sally (our van) at the time and had opted to stay in an Airbnb. This year we wanted to experience the city a second time, but through a different lens, so that we could better compare it to our experiences in some of Mexico’s other colonial cities.

In this post, we share with you what it’s like to navigate San Luis Potosi in a campervan, “camp” downtown, be immersed in the hustle and bustle of the colonial centre, and explore the fascinating central markets.

Navigating San Luis Potosi in a Campervan

We should know by now that entering any big Mexican city in a slow, less than manoeuvrable old campervan (Sally) is stressful. But we conveniently forget this fact after each slightly traumatic urban visit and are forever willing to repeat the experience again and again.

The drive into San Luis Potosi was uneventful until Google routed us onto the ring road. A relatively low height restriction bar, with no maximum height denoted, suddenly appeared on the entrance ramp. We hesitated a little too long, ran out of options, and crossed our fingers that we’d fit. Huge sigh of relief as we slipped under the bar, unscathed. Marc proceeded to dodge potholes on the fast-moving road and navigate the weaving lanes that randomly exit and split around cement barriers, just to rejoin on the other side… sometimes.

We were relieved to reach the bumpy, narrow, but slower-moving downtown streets. Google did an acceptable job of routing us the right direction down one-way streets but figuring out right-of-way rules at intersections eluded us. It seems that there are not nearly enough stop signs in downtown San Luis Potosi!

When we finally arrived at our “campsite” – a swank public parking lot – we attempted to 3-point turn into the narrow entrance. I thought we were clear when we heard a “crunch” as Sally’s fiberglass RV step scraped along the cement. Oops. Slightly alarmed, the parking attendant rushed out to help Marc manoeuvre through the entrance – thank god. Speaking of God, we almost ran over a nun during one of our entrance attempts. Oops again. On our third or fourth try, we successfully made it into the parking lot. We steered Sally into a spacious corner at the back of the lot and eased our nerves with a well-deserved beer.

Camping Downtown

There aren’t a lot of camping options in downtown San Luis Potosi. Our options were to either boondock on the city streets or pay to “camp” in a commercial parking lot. For 240 pesos per day (~$14 USD), the parking lot offered excellent security, a squeaky-clean bathroom, morning shade, and a central location. We opted for the parking lot; it was an easy choice, made even easier by the Dulce Amor Café next door, which has a shady dog-friendly patio, and tasty hot chocolate, chilaquiles, panqueques, and other traditional dishes (of which we sampled a few 😉).

Every morning, the friendly security guard would say hello and ask how we were doing. Despite our attempts to speak Spanish with him, he enjoyed practicing his English. We would take advantage of the cool, shady mornings in the van but as the sun crept over the parking lot wall and hit Sally, we’d escape the heat and head downtown for some urban exploring. Our only complaint was the American music blasting out of a bar down the street into the early hours of the morning… it would be more easily forgivable if the music was Mexican ;).

Immersing Ourselves in the Colonial Centre

Like Zacatecas and Guanajuato, SLP is one of the old colonial-era cities founded on the rich silver mines of the area. In fact, it was the capital of Mexico twice during its history. The wealth derived from the mines was used to construct magnificent churches, buildings, and public spaces, much of which has been preserved today. We never tire of exploring these old cities and every morning, we’d walk downtown to discover what the city has to offer.

Some of our favourite moments were spent exploring the San Miguelito neighbourhood, cooling off in the shade at the Jardin de San Francisco, people watching and admiring the San Luis Potosi Cathedral at Plaza de las Armas, walking up and down the extensive pedestrian street that connects Mercado Hidalgo and La Parroquia Basilica, and eating ice cream paletas and baked goods that we found along the way.

Finding good dog-friendly restaurants in downtown SLP was a challenge. Many of the cafes and restaurants we most wanted to try didn’t have outdoor seating. So, when it came to trying the famous pozole soup from Antijitos El Pozole, we had to settle for taking it to go. Nevertheless, the pozole was the best food we ate in the city. I ate so much of it that I didn’t have to eat the next day; unlike Campbell’s Chunky Soup, it really is a soup that eats like a meal 😉

Exploring the Hidalgo and Republica Markets

The north end of the well-maintained pedestrian street spills out to into the more hectic mercado (market) area. The Hidalgo and Republica markets are in separate buildings a few blocks from each other, but to us, 2 tourists just wandering into the area, it was hard to determine exactly where one ends and the other begins. Outside the buildings we walked through stall after stall, which snake through the narrow streets, protected from the elements only by tarps. Inside, we found more formal stalls selling meat, cheese, veggies, housewares, hardware items, tourist gifts, birds in cages, leather goods; if you can name it, they are selling it.

We found the market areas to be simultaneously overwhelming and fascinating; visiting them is equal parts shopping and sightseeing. One blog described the market environments as “visual, auditory and olfactory pleasures… or revulsions”. A perfect description, in my opinion. I took the opportunity to stock up on cheap fruits and veggies, leaving with a heavy-laden backpack.

We bring our dog Walter with us through the outdoor portions of the market but take turns going inside. I’m not sure if locals would appreciate a large, furry mutt in the market and additionally, I’m terrified he might take the opportunity to nab one of many very big chunks of meat, which are inevitably hanging or lying within easy reach.

How SLP Measures Up to Our Top Six

We recently wrote a post about Our 6 Favourite Mexican Cities for a Vanlife Adventure. San Luis Potosi didn’t make that list, but we wondered if maybe a second visit to the city, in a van and with sunny skies, would change our minds. So… did it?

The short answer is “no”. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why… we just didn’t enjoy it as much as the other cities in our top 6. Perhaps it’s because the city is flat and the architecture isn’t majestically displayed on the hillsides, the way it is in Zacatecas or Guanajuato. The camping option, while pretty swank for a parking lot, was not as good as other cities such as San Miguel de Allende and San Cristobal de las Casas. There were many street food stalls throughout the city, but they weren’t as plentiful or tempting as in some of the other cities we’ve visited. And then there’s the climate. It would be considered lovely by most, but we prefer cooler, high elevation climates such as those in Zacatecas and Puebla. When we visited SLP, daily highs ranged from 28 – 30 Celsius (warmer than usual for the time of year).

That said, we really enjoyed exploring San Luis Potosi and we would highly recommend visiting to anyone who enjoys colonial architecture, big cities, pedestrian streets, and pozole – whether they are travelling in a van or not!

Stay Tuned

We love popping into big cities but after 4 nights of camping in a parking lot, we were ready for a change of scenery. We steered Sally toward La Huasteca Potosina in search of blue rivers and famous waterfalls, with fingers crossed that the water would be cool enough to keep us from baking like potatoes in the 35+ degree heat.