Tambuque Balnerario

Now in the Chiapas... and still going

Rescuing 2 Mexicans

The expression “alternative tourism” does not really apply to us. Where ever we go, where ever we “camp”, where ever we eat, we rarely see any tourists. Every morning we take the road, not knowing where we will sleep at the end of the day. Every day offers us new adventures, new sceneries, new food and new encounters with Mexicans of all ages and all social groups.

For 3 weeks, we have been traveling in North-Central Mexico; a mountainous region with scenic roads, many of them not paved. The weather always great, we haven’t seen the rain, however, we have experienced many cold days and nights. We have seen colonial pueblos, mineral, hot or warm springs, breath taking canyons, rivers coming out of mountains, giant tufas, rain forests, deserts, mist, waterfalls in all shapes, ruins, caves, deep valleys, etc.

Lots of people seem happy to chat with us, despite our limited knowledge of Spanish. Sometimes, they tell us about their best “spots”, they invite us to their modest houses. Once, we accepted a lady’s offer to sleep in her living room. Before we left her small village in the mountains, we bought her a flash light and fixed her shower.

Our VW camper takes the gravel steep roads very well despite the horrible speed bums. In average, on the roads we travel, there are more than one speed bump per kilometer, and some of them can greatly contribute to ruin a suspension. As a result, I had to learn to slow down. Sometimes, in a single day, we drive from 100 meter altitude to 2700 meter and down again; no need to say that the scenery is in proportion to these extremes.

We rarely stop to access the Internet, we no longer read newspapers or watch TV. Yesterday, I learned that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated last week.

We are heading to the Chiapas, it is probably a 9 hour drive from here, but it will take us more than one week to get there. We have already taken over 1,000 pictures. Thomas is putting some on http://www.flickr.com/ you can see some of them at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1moment/

We occasionally rock climb, last time; we rescued 2 Mexican climbers attending a 4 pitch route leading to a 3,000 meter peak in the El Chico National Park. To reward us from saving them, they invited us in a restaurant in Real Del Monte. The best food we had so far (see picture). That was our last meal of 2007, it was a memorable December 31 day.

When I grow up...

Ahmad Lopez on Mothership Connection.

Cocina Mexicana

Chips and salsa, green and red, tacos, burritos, rice and beans, not too different by name what we are used North of the border, but it's pretty tasty and very cheap. And it all gets washed down with beer or margaritas. Marie also cooks on the ancient gas stove in our campground. Travelling further South we have tasted a few more local specialties (nogales, molle rojo etc.) and learned how to make spicy salsa on a campground fire.

El Rincon Campground

The birds’ song waked us up this morning. Big birds are eating pecans from the tree near our VW Camper. We also had 5 horses looking at us when we finally made it out of the VW. We are the only campers in this campground located at the food of Potrero Chico. We have full access to the rooming house. Only one room is rented to 2 Mexican brothers who are great climbers. The place is called “El Rincon” (the Corner) and comes with a splendid view on the valley and the Sierra. It costs $3 per person per night. It’s at the end of the road, a little too close to a pig farm; a pig farm of about 3 pigs. When the wind comes from East, we can smell their perfume.
Thomas likes the place; he wants to stay here longer. I want to go south; I have been here for 6 weeks…. We can come back here in February. Potrero and the house will still be here.
Yesterday, we went climbing again. I took Thomas to some 5.10b and 5.10c I like. We also spent a part of the day chatting with Mexicans about the best spots to visit in Mexico.

First impressions from Potrero Chico

Big walls, little of an approach, climbers from all over the world are here, and most importantly Marie knows everybody and everybody knows Marie.

Many days we climbed in the shade, in shorts, no shirt. When there was cloud cover we climbed on the southern exposed walls.

Here is the tick list so far:

Dec. 8, Saturday
Woke up at 10PM, beautiful weather, climbed all day in shorts, no shirt.
Wonder wall - just developed in 2006!
5.8 - Evil Shenanigans*, p1 only
5.9 - One dead teardrop*, top loose
5.10a - Mexican Squeeze Job*
5.10a - Read headed step child*
5.9 - Mr. Hanky, harder than the 5.8 rating
5.10a - Monkey Bizness, sporty, needs cleaning on top
Big handholds, kind off steep with breaks. Many times clipping the anchor was thee hardest.

Dec. 9, Sunday
Cloudy morning, a bit cooler, still climbing in shorts.
Mini Super Wall
Mas Panza Que Pelo, 5.9+
Lamb Nuts, 5.10c, TR
Cat Wall
Cat Daddy, 5.10a
Dirty Screwdriver*, 5.8+
Skary Cat*, 5.9

Dec. 10, Monday
It rained overnight, so we got tips from our Mexican climbing friends what places to visit. It was mostly cloudy in the afternoon, so we went climbing on the sunny side.
Jungle Wall
Space Boyz***, 4 pitches, 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9, very nice clean streak between cacti.
Mini Super Wall
Cerveza, 5.10b*, TR, delicate
Coca Cola, 5.10a/b*, jugs

Dec. 11, Tuesday
Another cloudy day, just perfect temperature, although Marie had to celebrate a case that came with a couple of phone calls in the morning.
Jungle Wall
Yankee Clipper***, 5 pitches, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10b, 5.7, 5.9 - Marie led the hard stuff, I am not used to the exposure, yet.
Picked up a bag of limes on the way back, now we just need the booze!

Dec. 12, Wednesday
Another cloudy day with perfect temperature.
Jungle Wall
Boys, 2 pitches, 5.8, 5.6. The 5.9+ variation was too hard for me.
Wonder wall
5.10b
5.10a - Read headed step child*