Stacked Rocks (Orizaba to Texas)

Continuing on our way to Texas (March/April), we spent a few days camping at this incredible park in the state of Puebla. There are thousands of these stacked rock formations throughout this beautiful valley.

The valley is up at 8,000 ft......

We were the only campers... and how you could feel the stones staring at you...

 We almost had the place to ourselves...

 We did some great hiking and were blown away by the many forms one can see in these ancient rocks..

...many thanks to our camp hosts....

night-time was peaceful yet eerie, and the dreams we had!!! bye for now...KnJ...

Orizaba to Texas

Still high in the mountains, our 950 mile trip from Orizaba to Laredo, Texas started out slow with a road closure after only 25 miles! Luckily, we were very close to a nice town called Coscomatepec de Bravo, where a few weeks before we had gone to their huge Monday market. Here, people sold everything from pigs to pineapples. (Click pics to enlarge)...

So, we decided to camp out in the center of town and get a fresh start in the morning. The historic town has cobblestone roads and a beautiful plaza. After a fresh hot cup of java we moved on....

 Our next stop was Jalcomulco on the banks of the Pescado river. This is white-water rafting and eco-adventure country. After checking out the town we picked a nice spot on the river near the long, swinging bridge to set up camp. Remember the film "Romancing the Stone"? Well, some of the scenes were shot right here in Jalcomulco.

We took a hike outside of town along the river and among the thousands of huge mango trees here.....

 The town is opposed to the idea of a dam (presa) being built up river and so have fish painted all over. We heard that the paintings were done by a foreign woman, I think from Europe. Kudos to her and we hope the idea of the damn dam goes away!

 We went river rafting one day and it was a blast. Quite a bit of white-water and incredible scenery.

Our zip-lining tour was killer, as we whizzed over the river gorge on 4 different lines.

 Being very fond of burros, I was impressed to see so many here in the town. Many of the men ride off on them in the morning to tend the mangoes and you can hear the "hee-haws" everywhere.

 

 About a 5 mile bike ride away we find these excellent thermal water pools/falls. They were a bit of a challenge to find, but along with a guy from Holland we met, we had them all to ourselves!

 After a fantastic week in Jalcomulco it was time to move on to our next stopping point... the capital city of Xalapa. We rented a furnished apartment here for our one week stay. Xalapa is a rather large city, but has a big university and many parks and botanical gardens. But for this post we're just going to highlight the incredible Museum of Anthropolgy. We were thoroughly impressed with this museum. Here they have a collection of the mammoth Olmeca heads found in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Veracruz. These date to about 3,000 years ago!

and here's the colorful apartment we had for the week.....

Hope you enjoyed our little adventure this time and stay tuned as we will be catching up with our stay in the Hill country of Texas and the return trip to Orizaba!
bye bye now....

Oaxaca - Part two

Welcome back to Oaxaca Part Two......

Jane and I have been on the road again and keeping very busy in the state of Veracruz. I'm finally getting back to posting some incredible pics of our side trip to Oaxaca, Mexico at the end of 2015.
We did have a great day trip to the ruins of Monte Alban and will hopefully set aside a dedicated post to that impressive site soon.
For now I'll continue with our trip to one of the most unique places we've ever seen. It's a huge petrified waterfall with natural pools from various springs. The petrified effect is caused by mineral build-up in the water. (Click on the pics to enlarge)...

The view from the edge was like standing on top of the world! (Well I guess that's what we are doing anyway...;-)

Not far from the edge, we had one of the best campsites EVER....

 

 

 Early morning shot before the hike down....

 huge Maguey plants....

a natural infinity pool....

and the falls from below.

As we made our way from these incredible formations, the locals went about their business.

 The next leg of the trip was a spontaneous decision to drive up into the Sierra Juarez mountains where we push the limits of the Vanagator. Not knowing much at all about this area we were fortunate to wander into the first Pueblo Magico in the state of Oaxaca; Capulalpam de Mendez.

A picturesque mountain village with incredible vistas...

mud brick homes...

fresh air, hiking....

and rustic beauty.

 We found our spot high in the mountains at just under 7,000' surrounded by pines...

with Oaxaca's finest juice to keep us warm....

Saludos y Felize Año Nuevo!