Layover Day

Friday morning got a late start on the bikes from Tanchachin because it was raining buckets. A late start wasn’t going to be a big deal as we only had about 100 miles to cover to the next destination. When it finally lightened around 11am we were off to Xilitla. Unfortunately we caught up to the heavy stuff in only about 30 minutes of riding. With fairly high heat and humidity it made for some fairly tough riding conditions. As we started climbing up the mountain to Xilitla, thick fog was added to the mix. We ended up driving around Xilitla for about 30 minutes up and down steep slippery stone streets trying to find the hotel Hank had booked. Not that Xilitla is that big, it’s just the the streets are narrow and jam packed full of cars, trucks, 4 wheelers and motorbikes. We did finally find the hotel and it was on a walking street up a steep stone stair/walkway. We parked the bikes at the bottom and unloaded and dragged the gear up the hill. Semi secure parking was provided by the hotel down the block a bit – also down a super steep and slippery stone street. Hell, I could barely walk up the street to the hotel as my boots were slipping on the smooth stones.

Xilitla is a town in the state of San Luis Postsi, in the Huasteca region of Mexico. It’s known for its fertile mountains and springs which create panoramic landscapes throughout the town. It’s literally built on the side of a mountain in the Sierra Gorda range. The rugged landscape has shielded it from industrialization, helping preserve its indigeonous culture. It’s one of Mexico’s designated Pueblos Magicos towns. It is also home to Las Pozas which is a bizarre subtropical 80 acre garden with waterfalls and polls interspersed with towering sculptures in concrete and stone and beds of tropical plants created by Edward Jones between 1949 and 1984. At one time there were over 29,000 orchids there. We walked down there after getting settled but was closing at 6pm so decide to come back in the morning. We were planning to stay 2 nights in Xilitla so decided to visit Las Pozas in the morning and then ride bikes to some of the nearby natural attractions.

The next morning – after trying to find a decent cup of coffee before 9am on a Saturday (impossible), we walked back down to the entrance to Las Pozas. It was pretty interesting – funky and strange at the same time. The amount of labor to build the structures and stone walkways must have been immense. The waterfall and stream running through was pretty spectacular as well. Another interesting thing was the hippy camp that was down near Las Pozas. The little individual cement casitas, stone teepees’s, (also made of cement) etc. matched the funkiness of Las Pozas. Luckily yesterdays rain had brought a cold front through so the temps were only in the 70’s. Xilitla is know for it’s hot and humid year round weather.

We finished touring Las Pozas and vicinity and then hopped on the bikes to check out some of the water features in the area. The most interesting stop included about 20 kilometers of off-road and a boat ride to the spot in the river that actually hits a wall because the water is flowing from an underground cave. There is a couple hundred feet of land where the river stops and starts again with the flow going underground. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and mild temps so all and all pretty good. We did get pretty muddy as the off-road were still full of muddy puddles from yesterdays heavy rains.

So the group I’ve joined up with includes Scott and Amy from San Antonio…Frank and Gabby from Germany and Tibor and Anna from England. Tibor is originally from Poland and Anna is from Lithuania. And of course there’s Hank from Dilly, TX. So happy to have joined up with this crew of good people and getting to see some interesting small towns and villages on the way down to Oaxaca. Hank has rooms in Oaxaca starting on Wednesday next week so only 4 more riding days to get down there. Can’t wait to see where we end up tomorrow!