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| Road to Las Pozas Canon FTb, 50mm/f1.8, Kodak print film |
This bus ride was easily the most exciting I have taken in México. The road twisted through the Sierra Gorda de Querétaro mountains, yielding spectacular views of the countryside.
Every few minutes the bus careened around a gravel covered corner, and I swear we were on two wheels a couple times. There were a lot of interesting characters on the bus too, including old man selling herbs and strange vegetables from a burlap sack.
We arrived in Xilitla around 14:00 and secured a hotel room for the night (just behind the municipal market building) for 50 pesos each. The room was ok, but stinky from mildew. Xilitla is very tropical, so this didn't surprise me.
Friday night we bought some tequila, explored the town, and hung out playing cards. It was an early night after a long travel day.
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| El Castillo in Xilitla Canon FTb, 50mm/f1.8, Kodak print film |
We then went down to Las Pozas to explore. On the way, we walked by banana and coffee trees. I didn't realize the climate could support that sort of thing. Las Pozas (the pools) is about 45 minutes walk from the municipal market.
The locals were very happy to point us the right way. At Las Pozas, we paid the $8P admission fee, and began exploring. After about an hour, we discovered a waterfall cascading into a beautiful swimming hole.
We then continued exploring, and I remember clinging to trees and vines staring over the edge into what seemed like an eternal dropoff. The trail was incredibly steep and muddy.
Eventually we got to the river above the swimming hole, and walked around above the waterfall, until we found some steps. We followed those up for a long ways, but never reached the top. Later we spoke with a local who said that at the top of the stairs could be found a pair of boa constrictors. I'm not sure what he meant. Live snakes? Something that looks like a snake? A sculpture of a snake? I don't know - I never found it.
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| Strange Sculpture Canon FTb, 50mm/f1.8, Kodak print film |
