Descend upon the desert

In crossing the mountains from Chamal to Tula I went from a pretty green place with rivers, and dropped out of the mountains into the desert.  It was as quick as that.  A few hundred feet and boom, sand, cactus, desert.  On my way from Tuña to Matehuala I stopped in a town called La Presa de Guadalupe where I was recieved by an extremely nice family who offered me a room in their house.  The next day I headed for Matehuala which is a good 120 km, most of which is on the autopista, a really big major highway.  It´s totally legal to ride your bike on the highway in Mexico.  Luckily there is also less traffic than a highway in the states, and the road is really wide.  I was pretty tired and thinking about finding a place to stay somewhere near town instead of pushing on, but I kept thinking that I should make it to km marker 180 for some reason.  And I did.  What did I find?  A white truck with 2 extremely nice people that offered me some water, took me out to dinner, and let me stay at their super nice ranch just outside of town.  I threw my bike in the back of the truck and we headed in to Matehuala for the last 20 km that remained.  Jorge, the person that let me stay at the ranch, turned out to be a bike enthusiast and bmx rider.  What luck!  I really can´t get over the amazing hospitality and warmth of the people that I meet here.  I am forever grateful for each and every one of the people that has helped me out along this trip.  It´s been amazing.  Today I made it to Real de Catorce, a ghost town in the mountains here in San Luis Potosi.  I´ll do some exploring tomorrow, and hopefully make it to Cerro El Quemado, but you have to walk or go on horse and I´m not too fond of horse tours.  We´ll see though.  After this I´´m off to Zacatecas.  I´ve had a cold for the last week, and I´m really hoping that it goes away soon.  It´s not really hindering my experience, but it annoying.  It´s sort of transformed into a sore throat today which is making my voice sound raspy and deeper than usual, which I secretly enjoy.  Maybe it will go away tomorrow.  Well, enjoy the photos and I´ll probably see you all in April.