Taxco is a city built into the side of a hill and is known for its silver mines, jewelry production and colonial architecture. People have been taking silver out of the hills here long before the Spanish arrived, but, today, the main industry is tourism.
The Grutas de Cacahuamilpa are Mexico’s largest caverns and are one of the longest cave systems in the world. There are 15 large chambers that stretch out over about 12 km. Continue reading
Nevado de Toluca is an extinct volcano and, according to our guide book, at 15,090 feet is the fifth tallest mountain in Mexico. You can drive to near the rim of the crater, at 13,700, and then hike up and over the rim to two lakes – La Luna (the moon) and El Sol (the Sun).
We had read that you could camp in the beautiful gardens of the Flamingo Inn in Queretaro for 300 pesos per night, but when we arrived, the two spaces available for camping were taken by other overlanders that we had first met in Patzcuaro, then again in Morelia. Unsure of where we were going to spend the night, we spotted a Comfort Inn across the street with a large parking lot. We struggled with our spanish at the front desk, explaining that we would like to camp in their lot for the night, if possible. After a few minutes, the clerk began speaking english to us (yeah!), and after some back and forth discussions with his fellow staff, it was decided that we could stay there for the night, use the lobby washrooms, and there would be no charge. Bonus!
We drove into the town of Tula and there were police everywhere! Six police cars in a cluster here, eight in a cluster there….what the heck? Almost as thick as monarch butterflies! Was there something “going down”, or is Tula such a bad place that it needs such a police presence?
The road to El Rosaria Monarch Butterfly Reserve took us through many small villages. We often decide to take the libre instead of the toll roads….it takes a bit longer and the roads can sometimes be rougher, but you get to see the countryside a lot better.
We woke up on the side of Tequila Volcano, having slept really well in the cool mountain air. We took our time getting packed up for the day, knowing we had only a short drive into town. The morning in Tequila was spent looking after a few chores; we filled up our water tank with agua purificada, we spent an hour in the laundromat (clean clothes!!!!), and looked for a place to park the truck and camper for the evening. We were planning on sampling some tequila, actually a lot of tequila, and we didn’t want to have to move the truck later. We asked at one hotel with courtyard parking if we could camp there, but they were going to be full for the night and didn’t have room for us. We asked about the safety of camping on the streets, and were assured that it was perfectly safe. We ended up parking the truck on a dead end street surrounded by nice homes, and headed out for the day.
After leaving Puerta Vallarta, we drove through the mountains to the Pueblo Magico, Mascota. This lively town has a pretty little plaza, beautiful stone work, lots of plaster, colour and tile roofs. It is surrounded by pine covered mountains. We found a place to park after making our way through some narrow and occasionally double-parked oneway streets. We wandered around town for an hour or so with Piper, had an ice cream, bought some tequila….it’s all about priorities.
(Nov 18, 2017)
We set our afternoon’s destination as the Museo (Museum) of Pancho Villa in the small town of Canutillo, south of the city of Parral. We had read that you could camp for free without any hassles in the parking lot, and we were interested in visiting the museum as well. Quite a timely activity, as November 20th is an important holiday in Mexico, celebrating the start of the revolution in Mexico against the widely perceived corrupt government lead by Porfirio Diaz. Pancho Villa was a key figure in the revolution.
(Nov 17 – Nov 18, 2017)
After leaving Creel, we camped for a night at Lake Arareko, visited interesting rock formations, and hiked into a nice waterfall, then made our way to the town of Batopilas in the bottom of the Copper Canyon. We had been told that the road was paved, but was steep, and scattered with rock and debris. The first part of the 65 kilometre drive seemed pretty relaxed, we saw a few rocks and thought “Hey, this isn’t so bad”.