Huasteca Potosina: Like a deer in the headlights

A few days ago, I got the opportunity to get on a road trip to this really beautiful place located in San Luis Potosí, México. When you google it and you see the images, you wonder if the water is that sky blue or is it just photoshopped. Well, to my surprise it truly is! This place is specially recommended for those people who like to explore, who loves nature and I think you enjoy it the most if you know how to swim. 

We arrived at 13:00, so we stayed at the hotel to get some rest after tiring 7 hours on the road. People on there gave us a friendly welcome along with cold Horchata drinks!  This hotel is also a Spa, so you could take mud baths (which I didn't want to try but I regret it now lol), massages and there's a pool with thermal water directly from a spring river underneath. 

Cascadas de Tamul

 The first place where we went were the waterfalls of Tamul, which is the biggest waterfall in San Luis Potosí. This in particular captured my attention due to the color of the water. I really loved this place, just look how calm and clean it looks.

 To prevent the water from getting polluted, people travel on canoes and they do not allow food. The cost to enter are $40 pesos (cheap!). I felt proud of myself cause this was my first time rowing and even though my arms got a bit sore because we had to do it for 8km, the experience was just priceless, and so were the views.

But wait, is this place pet friendly? Yes it is! 

Waterfal of Tamul. This is what I talk about when I say this trip is for people who loves nature.

We arrived here to see the most beautiful swimming hole: Blue sapphire water on a cave where bats live. Sounds a bit creepy but it's really interesting, actually. The water is so clear here too and it's perfect for people who love diving since it's so profound.

El puente de Dios 

The second place I visited and LOVED is located in the municipality of Tamasopo. Oh, and they welcome you in a hollywood-esque way, I found it pretty funny.

 This is called "El puente de Dios" (Bridge of God). The only way to get into the water is... jumping! This manantial is 7 meters down to the ground, imagine having to jump from where I stand, I'm terribly scared to heights and I stood there for like 10 mins wondering if I should jump or not lol. Later I discovered an entrace where you only have to jump 3 meters so, better than nothing right? Anyways, this is a funny picture for me cause all the people you see hanging on the rope are the ones who don't know how to swim lol, then you can see a few people on the right who knows. I think you enjoy it the most if you know how to swim because you can dive and discover everything on there.

So why is it called "the bridge of God"? well, I couldn't take picture of it because it's located between two rocks that you have to cross, that's supposed to represent the bridge. Then on the inside it's all dark but the water! The water illuminates the cave taking a blue-fluorescent color, which is caused by a small hole on the roof that reflects the sunlight into the water, that sunlight represents God.  You can see a picture of what I talk about here.

While we were on our way to this place, I noticed there were trees with really pretty pink flowers:

Are they blossom trees like in Japan? Not really, this kind of tree grows here in San Luis Potosí and it's called Palo de Rosa, it only flowers on spring and takes a lot of time to grow. Lucky me I got to travel to see them! Every 5 trees you see on here, three are Palo de Rosa, so the view is really pretty and reminds me a lot of Japan.

Xilitla

We went to see the Tének people's ceremony and it's culture. If you have visited Cancún before, this kind of ritual is similar to the ones that do it on Xel Ha's night show (voladores de Papantla). However, the only difference is that people from Tének don't like their ceremony to be considered as a "show" or as an entertainment, since it's part of their culture and really sacred for them. This man in the picture is 79 years old and was part of the ritual after 20 years of not doing it.

For those of you who haven't seen this type of "ritual", five people climb on that trunk and four of them sit on that small square made of wood, the fifth one dances in the tip of the trunk while playing music! Then when the music finishes they jump and fly while going down thanks to the ropes on their feet. Everything they do is handcrafted: their  clothes, hats, etc.

El jardín surrealista de Edward James

Edward James was a rich poet and sculptor who was really interested in surrealist art. When he discovered Xilitla, he bought some hectares in order to make his "surrealist garden", the place he would visit when he wanted to relax and create. Everything he could think of, he would put it on paper and then, build it.

The interesting thing about visiting this garden is that, to understand his art, you have to use your imagination. At the entrace there were four columns, which were champagne cups upside down.

This arc where people are crossing is a ring, it has arrows where the diamond is supposed to go. A representation about how beautiful marriage can be, but also hurtful.

"My house has wings... And sometimes in the dead of night, she sings". -Edward James

There were seven snakes on the right are supposed to be the capital sins.

James dedicated this sculpture to his close friend Plutarco Gastelum, those are his hands.

This was my favorite sculpture, it's called "stairway to heaven". The bottom of it represents earth. That roof on the middle represents death (the entrace is a sarcophagus) and the stairs and cloumns represents the way to heaven. The number of stairs are also the number of keys a piano has.

I really enjoyed this trip and honestly didn't want to leave. Mexico has a lot of beautiful places to travel and this is just an example of what we have in our country. I like the idea of knowing your country first before knowing your neighbour's. If you're planning to travel somewhere on summer, any state of Mexico is the perfect place! 

-Alexandra M.