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.

Guanajuato, México

The second place I got to visit on December was Guanajuato. In my opinion is a MUST visit when you come to Mexico! I loved it, it was one of my favorite places to go. First of all, the way the houses are built in here is just lovely and original. Lots of alleys, garages on top of the houses and definitely FULL of colors, which makes a colorful view with that "mexican-rustic" touch.

It also has one of the most beautiful views. I got there at night but still looked beautiful though. This is a monument representing "El Pípila".

 Guanajuato at night

There's also a museum about the mexican inquisition, its called "Palacio de la Inquisición" which was a religious place where priests used to torture people as a consequence of their sins. Some reasons of punishment would be lies, betrayal, unloyalty, homosexuality, pregnancy before marriage and even special conditions such as Down Syndrome or epilepsy. 

This is a representation about the way priests used to torture people. Arms and legs tied, and everytime the person doesn't tell the truth (or if they don't believe them) they used to spin that cross that you see on the left so it would stretch his extremities to the point of separate their bones. Those skulls you see on the red background (prison cells) represent another way they used to torture people. Honestly, this was the most terrible thing they used to do: psychological torture. Story tells people in there usually tend to be relatives of the person being tortured on the wood bed and they would watch and hear their screams. The only way they would let them out is taking the victim's fault. 

Chair of torture full of spikes all over it

This is the outside of the palace. The walls were supposedly built with material that prevents any scream or sound to be heard. 

These were a few things that captured my attention in Guanajuato. 10/10 Would recommend! And don't make me start with the mexican candies that they sell ;) 

-Alexandra

Querétaro, México

Querétaro was definitely one of my favorite trips too. It's food, people, places, just everything about it makes you happy. But the place I loved the most was Tequisquiapan, a small city where they sell the most delicious cheese-bread and they sell many handmade crafts. You'll see a lot of dogs (<3!) walking around with their owners and people playing mexican soft music, many restaurants and a beautiful church. It's a very calm city and it just makes you love everything on there.

 I ordered spaghetti cause I got tired of tacos heh

After Tequisquiapan we went to see la peña de Bernal, in San Sebastián Bernal, which is one of the tallest monolits in the world! You have to walk a lot though but definitely worth it (also there's a lot of vendors who sells the prettiest crafts).

Last but not least! We spent New Year's on La Corregidora street, it was just amazing and their food too! The place was crowded but the fireworks and the ambient was reeeeeally nice.

Mexico City, Mexico

On December, I had the chance to visit several states of my country as a christmas gift. The first place where I went -as the title says- is Mexico City, which is considered the capital of the country. Usually lots of people from other countries come here cause it's full of beautiful architecture and history (oh and also lots of business). Mexico City is where the so mentioned and famous couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera used to live in a house that's now a Museum called "Museo Frida Kahlo" or "La casa azul". And speaking of museums, definitely the one that caught my eye was "El Palacio de Bellas Artes".

Look at that roof though! This is an art museum that not only includes exhibitions of paintings but also includes any type/form of art such as theater, music, dance and even opera. Of course on vacations the lines to enter are just insane, but totally worth it and a must-see if you ever come to Mexico City. Now, speaking of architecture just look at these pictures:

But not only it has contemporary buildings, it also has an old ones. This is called Plaza de la Constitución where many tour buses stop to give you a ride for a small amount. I really liked this one cause somehow the small buildings and windows look very pretty and on christmas they decorate it beautifully.

After being back and forth buying food from near here, we went to Xochimilco. I had been there before but this time we went at night. Soooooo I didn't really take pictures of the trajineras, which are small and really colorful canoes with a lot of chairs and a large table. You get in and enjoy a ride through the lake with beer, food, music played by mariachis on another trajinera! and at night, they give you candles. 

Let's just not pay attention to my awkward face (it was the only picture I had of some trajineras!) each one has a specific name, sadly there's no one with mine -as always-. It is important to know that every thing on them is handmade and painted with dedication.

So it's well known that us mexicans are somehow "attracted to death" and we're full of scary legends and stories. Of course Xochimilco isn't the exception, these dolls that you see here sticked to the trunks are part of a legend called "La isla de las muñecas" (the island of the dolls). There are two versions of this legend, the first one talks about a man called Julián Santana whose daughter died drowned on the lake, so he hanged dolls on trees to scare away his daughter's ghost. The second one is supposedly told by his niece who assured his uncle was "tired and disturbed" from the spirit of a woman who drowned on the lake, so he hanged the dolls on the trees to scare her away.

From my personal experience I remember seeing these dolls years ago when I went to Xochimilco, but it was during the day and I was just curious but still scared. But oh boy, at night it seems way scarier lol.

The next and last day we went to Teotihuacán (which means birth place of the gods) to see the pyramids. The day was just beautiful and later it began to get warmer. The first time I went there I climbed aaaall the way up both Sun and Moon pyramids, but this time the line was just ridiculous so I thought I'd just stare at them and take pictures haha.

Sun Pyramid

Look at THAT line! 

Moon Pyramid:

You can't climb all the way up to the Moon's pyramide now though, they just let you go half the way.

I got a keychain and my brother bought this awesome handmade lion that whistles like a chimera when you blow:

A funny fact about this trip is that where I'm from, we call "quesadilla" a taco with only cheese on it, and in Mexico City, a "quesadilla" is a normal taco! So I felt really weird saying "quesadilla with cheese" cause it felt like a redundancy hahaha. But I loved Mexico City and would definitely visit again. 

I hope I didn't bore you all! Thank you for reading.

-Alexandra

Welcome to whoever it's reading

I don't consider myself a person who travels around the world really often. In fact, it's the other way around. I haven't been on Europe or Asia, but I've visited some states from USA and I'm currently discovering my country, Mexico. As I like to take a lot of pictures that I can't upload to my instagram account (they're too many!) I thought that it would be a good idea to make a blog about the journeys I've made. 

You see, when us people say we want to travel, the first thing that comes to our mind is "London. Paris. Spain.", but we don't realize that we have so much to wander in our own country. Specially in Mexico who has so much places to know and different cultures. Like I mentioned before, I'm discovering some parts of my country and I'm LOVING it, so I want to share with you some pictures with smalls reviews about them. 

If you're from another country and are planning to visit Mexico or at least you want to, this might help you. And if you're from here too, take a look to see what you're missing! 

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” (Lao Tzu)

―Alexandra M.