Xilitla and Narcobloques

Well as I said last time I went on a trip to Xilitla in San Luis Potosi this last weekend. It's a really interesting place with some very unique things to see. The bus ride down was slated to last 8 hours but somehow turned into 12, but that's Mexico for you. We stayed at a hacienda which offered little more than mats on which to place our sleeping bags, which was nice. We made a fire all three nights. Proof:
The first day we went to see some surreal gardens. They were funded by Edward James who was apparently best buds with a bunch of pretty big surrealist painters and wanted to give them a place where they could blow their minds (even further). At least that's what I imagine as the reasoning, not sure on that. Anyway, the place made no sense but was really massive. There were tons of seemingly unplanned concrete structures with staircases leading nowhere or to precarious vistas of the surrounding jungle.


It really was quite cool, although a tad confusing. We also took a side trip to a pretty large waterfall which we could stand under and try our best to get hypothermia. After this the trip took a turn towards (or I suppose kept turning towards) the bizarre as we were mysteriously invited to the house of the mayor of Xilitla (I think). Luckily it turned out to actually be a very cool house with a great view of the surrounding mountains. There was also horseback riding and 4-wheelers for those interested. Personally I just enjoyed the view and took a hike up a small hill to get the complete panorama.
Click for bigger as usual.
After that we returned to the hacienda for a night of bonfires and various beverages and fun all around. The next morning we begrudgingly awoke only to be thrown in the pack of pickups for an excursion.

On the agenda that day was a boat tour in an extremely blue river. For some reason we weren't allowed to swim in it until the very end and so it was a kind of annoying ride. We eventually arrived at this waterfall and promptly turned around without swimming much to the chagrin of my boatmates.
Luckily on the return leg we stopped for a swim in a cave off to the side of the river which really salvaged the trip for me. There was a nicely positioned rock wall for a ~25ft. dive into the water which was a lot of fun.
After the boat ride was complete we crammed back into the trucks for a two hour journey down some very unfinished roads, severely damaging our spines in the process. Luckily we soon arrived at 'the bird show' which made me a little anxious at first but turned out to be much cooler than I anticipated. It turns out that there's a sinkhole several hundred feet deep which houses a ton of birds. They all come back at night and circle around above the entrance. When the air currents are right, they dive in. It was really impressive. One could also pay 10 pesos to look over the edge (with a security rope around the waist which probably wouldn't do a thing but whateve). It was really impressively deep, and the birds dive-bombing overhead were really spectacular.

Here's a video for all you video fans out there!

Anyway, after another awesome truck bed ride we arrived at the hacienda for another evening (over which I did not end up sleeping at all). The next day we started off with the longest 'three hour' bus ride of my life (about 5 hours, incidentally) and arrived at an eco-hostel for the final leg of the trip. We were supposed to do some canoneering but we were running out of time so we ended up just swimming under a waterfall and in a pretty awesome canyon. Unfortunately for some reason they told us not to take our cameras so you'll have to take my word for it. We also walked across a rope bridge and had a lovely dinner. After that we piled on the bus and promptly fell asleep, only to wake up at 4 AM to see we had arrived at Tec. Luckily this time my first class was at 4 PM that afternoon so I could get some serious sleep in. Unfortunately somewhere along the way I got a brief but intense cold.

In other news this last week, Friday brought two bouts of bad news. Apparently two Tec students were killed by gunfire between the army and a few organized criminals just outside of campus in the very early morning. It was the first such incident involving Tec and has a lot of students quite worried. Personally I see it as an isolated incident and don't have a problem with staying in Mexico unless things keep going south. Also Monterrey was the target of a few 'Narcobloques' which are targeted attempts to cut off Army patrols but blocking major highways. This directly inconvenienced me as I was trying to make it down to Hill Rom's factory for a tour and got stuck in a traffic standstill for 45 minutes. Again though, it was more inconvenience than danger. In other news David Guetta, a pretty big electronic music guy came to town and I was able to go. It was a very nice evening although my ears still hurt a bit. Next week I'll be traveling further south for my longest trip of the semester, I hope to have an update out around the 4th of April, we'll see!