Journey to the Jungle

So far with this blog I have discussed the diversity of culture and people without focusing on climate or environment.  Allow me to change gears (fitting turn of phrase for a country inundated with manual transmissions).

This past three-day-weekend I had the privilege of traveling with four other adventuring souls to a few key destinations in San Luis Potosí: Xilitla (pronounced Hee-leet-la) and Ciudad Valles.  Jenika and her boyfriend Fernando organized the trip, and Melanie, Jenna and I jumped on board for the journey of a lifetime!  We started the trip with having to switch vehicles because the hood of the car wouldn’t latch shut, but at least we had the option of another car.  Jenna being the most petite was seated behind Fernando (who had the seat almost all the way back), Melanie and I switched being squished in the middle, and Jenika was copilot.  The road through the Sierra Gorda and Sierra Madre mountains was breathtaking—not only in its beauty but also in its windy roads along steep, unprotected cliffs.  Fernando’s driving succeeded in making a few passengers car-sick, but more importantly, his driving enabled us to arrive at our destinations safely!

Our reason for visiting Xilitla was to see Las Pozas, a tribute to surrealist art built by Edward James.  Because of our delay in Jalpan over slow “gringo” service and terrible food, we were only able to spend about an hour and a half wandering through peculiar structures, of which we only saw a small portion.  While the humidity threatened to drain my body of all liquid, the pure beauty of the structures and the jungle preserved my energy.  Never having experienced a jungle before, I was enamored by the lush and dense nature of such an environment.  Everything was incredibly thick and heavy, from the air to the foliage.  The sheer weight of beauty and mystery was overpowering.  After speaking with one of the tour guides, Fernando learned that we still had about a three hour drive to Ciudad Valles, so we crammed back into the car like sardines and sped off into the hills again.

Arriving at our destination, a small campground along the Micos River run by Huaxteca.com (pronounced Was-teca), we found quaint huts with beds and electricity, and dinner waiting for us.  There was even a bonfire after dinner complete with pop music and marshmallows!  It was difficult to sleep that first night because of the humidity, but the sound of the river lulled me to sleep.  The next morning we loaded onto a bus to go raft the Tampaon River—a majestic turquoise river through the lush jungle.  Our rafting guide explained the safety rules for rafting and then told us we were going to practice being flipped out of the raft.  Immediately my mind started racing and telling me that the whole point of rafting was to stay IN the raft.  My experiences with rafting have been in freezing snow-melt rivers—staying out of the water is a good thing!  But the water of the Tampaon River is warm.  In fact, I spent more time outside of the raft floating down the river than inside the raft paddling.  There were only a few rapids and nothing over class II along the 15 kilometer river.  Whenever there weren’t rapids, I took to swimming, climbing up rocks, and jumping into the warm water—it was glorious!  Two-thirds through the trip we had to get out of the raft to traverse over some rocks and then splash down (literally because we had to jump off a 15ft cliff to get to the other side) to the other side.  They gave us a granola bar and some ice tea and then we were back in the boat headed down river.  At the end of the trip, they fed us a large comida (big meal usually eaten around 3pm) of traditional Huaxtecan food, which was delicious!  Most of us napped on the 1.5 hour bus ride back to camp.  Around 7pm that evening we drove into Ciudad Valles in search for some food because we couldn’t wait until the meal at 9pm at the campground.  I ate some delicious empanadas with a coke.  Upon returning to camp, we all headed to bed, exhausted from a day of rafting, swimming, and relaxing.  The next morning we packed up the car and met our guide for our trip to one of the fourth largest waterfalls in Latin America.  After driving about 40 minutes, we were given the option of walking down to the river or riding in the back of a sketchy pick-up truck—we chose the latter.  None of us realized that we would have to paddle a long wooden boat up stream about 5 kilometers to see the water fall.  It was a lot of work, and we had to get out and walk while our tour guide and river guide pulled the boat along the shore through rapids we weren’t strong enough to paddle through.  We stopped at a large rock in front of the waterfall to take some pictures.  Afterwards, we paddled a bit down-stream and then our guide reminded us of the “river position” and told us to get out of the boat and float through the rapids.  This experience was both terrifying and exhilarating!  After two rapids we swam to shore and walked a ways to a pool in a cave, complete with flitting bats.  The cool water was sweet relief after paddling so hard in the humid heat.  We had a snack there too and then headed back to our starting point where we changed and ate another fabulous Huaxtecan meal.  Satiated for the moment, we crammed back into the car and headed towards Queretaro.  On the way we encountered a closed road with no detour signs, but Fernando managed to get us on the right road.

Despite the length of this entry, I feel I have failed to describe the incredible nature of this trip.  Many random and funny incidents have been left out (probably to relief of my fellow travelers!), and I am not able to communicate all of the emotions and thoughts that swarmed my being this weekend.  I am overwhelmed by the enormity, splendor, and beauty of the God of the Universe and that He chose to lavish His love and blessings on me through this trip.  Plus I got to know some pretty awesome people!  I’m counting down until the next long weekend… now if I can just endure this whole working thing… :)