Aventuras Mexicanas con El Esposo y Hijo Dos: Tamasopo de Nuevo, y…Adiós

Posted on April 14, 2025 by gretchenwing

As I described last entry, we survived 40 degrees Celcius–that’s 102 for us!–in Jalpan by hiding out in its clear blue oases. But there weren’t enough of these within a reasonable drive (on unreasonable roads).

So we decided to spend out last 2 days (1 night) where we started, in Tamasopo.

We had a couple of adventures getting back there–one on purpose, one not. The purposeful one was a visit to a tree Hijo Dos had found mention of online: a 1,000 year-old cypress, in a small town right off the main highway.

1,000 year old tree? Sí, por favor.

If this thing looks big, please know the picture doesn’t come close to showing how MASSIVE this ancient goddess is. And since cypresses are deciduous, we got to enjoy the sight of this building-sized tree sporting tiny, fresh baby leaves. Circle of life!

El Arbol Milennario’s secret, I think, is this spring, right at its base. This part was fenced off (luckily), but I was able to sit in the clear water just downstream.

Adventure #2 was Google’s fault. Well, maybe it was ours…for taking the route as Google directed, even though the road appeared not to have a name. It started nice and paved, but when it abruptly turned to rutted dirt, it was too late to turn around.

At a maximum of 15 mph, I had plenty of opportunity to take cactus photos out the window.

Luckily we got through 45 minutes of potholes without damage to the car, and after regaining pavement, we were back in Tamasopo in no time, and back in that incredible river.

Early next morning, Hijo Dos y yo paid one last visit to the Puente de Diós we’d first met the week before. But there was a guide nearby, so no illegal swimming this time…plus it was a little chilly anyway.

Next morning, on our way back to the city of San Luis Potosí (as opposed to the state of the same name…it’s not that confusing; just thing New York, New York), we stopped at one more aquatic wonderland still on our list: El Trampolín. I’m still baffled why it’s called this, but…

…honestly, who cares? This photo is now my computer’s wallpaper.

A lazy part of the same blue river that starts at the Puente de Dios, El Trampolín has the added feature of being PUBLIC. No entrance fee, no guides, no nothing…just hop on in and float!

And look up at the Spanish moss while doing so.

The only disadvantage to the public part of this gorgeous oasis was…garbage. Not a ton, but enough to be noticeable. And disappointing. Sometimes people suck.

Back in the city of San Luis (or the outskirts; after all our beautiful blue-green experiences, we weren’t in the mood for touring a hot city), we took ourselves out to dinner at a place close by our airport hotel. Hijo Dos picked it out. “It’s famous for grilled meat,” he said.

If you’re thinking, “Wait–is The Mate eating a cheeseburger??” you are not wrong. What a gringo! (But he said it was one of the best cheeseburgers he ever had. The he helped me and Hijo Dos eat the big meatpile)

Next day we were up EARLY, flying back to Dallas. (My seatmates were two lovely women going on their own, Northern adventure; I had the pleasure of apologizing to them for my current wretched government.) In Dallas we said Adios to Hijo Dos, who flew back to Seattle, while we flew on to…

…guess where?

But before this travel blog switches gears, can I just say this about the part of Mexico we saw? The people were LOVELY. The food was DELICIOUS. We felt SAFE. And we still feel humbled to have spent such happy time in a region that no one in the U.S. seems to have heard of. So…thank you, Aussie bloggers, for steering us there!

Next week: back down on the farm with the fam. Thanks for traveling with me!

Aventuras Mexicanas con El Esposo y Hijo Dos: Días 5-8, “Pueblo Mágico” Aquismón

Posted on March 31, 2025 by gretchenwing

I’ll be honest: I’d never heard of a Pueblo Mágico. Apparently it’s a special designation conferred in Mexico by the government–though state or federal, we never learned.

All I can say is: Aquismón fits the bill of Magical Town.

You could quibble with the colorlessness of their sign…but the rest of the place made up for that.

Word of warning. You know those really talky blog posts I sometimes do? This one isn’t that. I have pics to share!

Like this one, showing how picturesquely steep the village streets are.

Our first day there, all I really did was walk around and revel in the beauties of the place.

If my neighbor HERE painted their house like this, I’d hate it. But here? Fits right in.

Ditto. And you gotta love that hillside behind.

Not only the houses, but the yards themselves spoke of people who loved color and design.

Yes, that is a “bush” made of deep blue glass bottles! (Ukrainians would love this backyard.)

Oh, and the gardens???

Nothin’ much…just your average 4-colored bouganvillea vines…

Carved out of the base of the jungly cliffs of the region, the village still hosted what looked like some magnificent old growth.

We stayed one night in one teensy little hotel, directly above an alley bustling with vendors…

…and two more in another small place, even more modest, with a very sweet courtyard. Pretty sure we were the only guests in both.

The tree shading El Esposo in this picture was bursting with blossoms. Hijo Dos assured me that, yes–that’s a mango tree, meaning that these…

…are actually the TEENSIEST baby mangoes ever!

You could tell that the citizens of Aquismon had a lot of pride in their village. I saw zero trash, and this sign on a public wall explained why:

“If you have culture and pride, don’t litter”

We made two excursions from Aquismon. The first involved getting up before daybreak, and driving up, up, up a twisty road into the mountains behind town…in order to walk down, down, down 600 steps to a giant hole in the ground.

Not just any hole, though. This is El Sotano de Los Golondrinas, literally, Cellar of the Swallows.

Photo courtesy of Hijo Dos, who got himself roped up to peer into the depths from the edge. Eek.

Gazillion birds spend the night there, and at daybreak, come swirling out again. If you’re lucky. Sometimes, if it’s cloudy, they decide to sleep in, and you’re left just staring at their giant hole. Which is, admittedly, pretty cool: 1600 feet deep (512 m); the deepest cave shaft in the world, and the second-largest cave in Mexico.

Fellow tourists waiting to photograph the birds. Not a very comfy seat, that limestone.

We were semi-lucky: enough birds swirled out for us to be able to ooh and ahh and call it a swirl (though not exactly sky-blackening).

Next day’s excursion was a little further afield: Cascada Tamul, the highest waterfall in the region. We learned we could either hike to it–with instructions that sounded a bit iffy for folks like us with rental cars and bad knees–or rent a spot in a lancha and paddle up toward it.

We chose the lancha, with a half-dozen fellow tourists, from Mexico City.

The trip wasn’t far, maybe 30 minutes of paddling, but it started spectacular and stayed that way.

We all got out and walked around as our boat captain hauled the boat over the only rapids on this stretch.

When we got to the actual falls themselves, so many other boats were there, full of people taking photos, it was actually an anticlimax.

A very pretty one–don’t get me wrong. And imagine what it looks like at high water season!

Truly, though, I was more captivated by the journey than the destination. Especially the fluted limestone…

…which I couldn’t stop taking photos of. Even though I was supposed to be paddling.

Such shapes! Such colors! OK, you get the idea.

But probably THE COOLEST part of the excursion was the Cueva de Agua (Water Cave) we stopped at on the way back downstream. Our captain pulled the boat over to let us all troop up some rough steps, then even more steps, up the bank…

This isn’t the river. Where’s all this water coming from??

…to this. Exactly as advertised: it’s a cave full of water sprung straight up from the earth. And warm.

Just don’t think about any of those giant stalactites dropping on your head.

I wish, oh how I wish, we could’ve seen it without anyone else there, as we did the Puente de Dios at Tamasopo. But being part of a group, we didn’t have a choice. Luckily folks were nice, and gave each other plenty of space in there.

Afterwards, waiting for everyone to have their swim, we enjoyed sitting in the cascading creek from that magical cave.

I am LITERALLY sitting in this waterfall pool to take this photo of Hijo 2.

This photo of that creek pouring into the river captures the whole experience better than I can describe.

But, lest you can’t quite believe what that photo is showing, here’s the same waterfall, looking up from the river.

(with El Esposo’s hat in the lower corner)

And one more:

Back in Aquismon, I walked around some more, soaking up that cute little town. I even found a few ugly things, like these drying intestines at a carniceria (butcher’s):

…but for intestines, they’re still pretty cool-looking.

But the sunset from our hotel balcony was right on brand.

Next up: Jalpan (another Magic Town) and La Sierra Gorda. Thanks for traveling with me!

Aventuras Mexicanas con El Esposo y Hijo Dos: Día 4, Selva Teenek Ecopark

Posted on March 25, 2025 by gretchenwing

Let’s take a break from waterfalls for just a sec.

That’s what El Esposo, Hijo Dos, y yo did on our fourth day in La Huasteca Potosina. Because sometimes you just need to stare a jaguar in the face.

Or a tamandua: an anteater–with the coat of a skunk, the charm of a sloth, and the agility of a monkey

After reading about Selva Teenek Ecopark in the blog I consulted for our itinerary, Sallysees.com, I immediately booked us a night there. Turns out Sally knows her way around wildlife rehab facilities endowed with gracious hospitality, as well as she knows waterfalls.

The whole place was built in traditional-looking Huastec (or Teenek) style

As soon as we arrived, our host (and co-owner) Eduardo met us in a structure like this to go over expectations–stuff like no wandering off trail; nighttime feeding of the carnivores happens at 8:30 pm; oh, and coffee or tea for breakfast? We learned we were the only tourists staying there at the moment (ooh, a private tour!), but that there was a large contingent of conservation biologists on site for classes. Turns out Selva Teenek (pronounced Teneck, meaning Jungle of the Huastec people) is no cheesy “come pet a creature” place, but a beacon of true wildlife rehab and conservation.

They just happen to be very good at taking care of people there too.

Before the special nighttime tour, we were given one in daylight, featuring some VERY cute rescued margays.

Basically a teeeeeensy little leopard! (Fun fact: my aunt once kept a pet one. Don’t tell.)

The focus on the Teenek/Huastec people was as striking as the animals. This mural in the open-air dining area, for example, which cracked me up because…

…can you see it? My Mate’s legs almost look like they go with the girl on the wall! (who looks like she’s spray-painting my head)

But no lie–we were there for the animals, especially the two big cats on the nighttime feeding tour. The puma (who’d been raised as a pet till that idea went sideways) greeted her keeper by walking back and forth, tail high, purring like…well, like a big cat. I didn’t bother with a picture because, honestly, it was the purring part that was really striking.

But the jaguar? That girl was NOT tame. She appeared out of the darkness, into the keeper’s red light…and CROUCHED. I’d never felt like prey before, but those huge eyes glaring from a few feet away…they made me very grateful for that fence.

What’s really missing from this photo: the CRUNCHING sound as she chomps bones

We did, in fact, visit a nearby waterfall on our way in, Cascada Micos. I couldn’t take a very close-up photo because we had to SWIM to this one.

Believe me, those falls are farther away than they look! Hijo 2 & yo swam to that little island which, yes, somebody had actually decorated with a heart for Valentines Day (sigh)

I don’t know if anyone reading this will ever actually get to La Huasteca Potosina, a region toured mostly by folks from Mexico City. But if you do…definitely spend the night here! And tell Eduardo (and his jaguar) we said Hola.

Next post: More blue water…and caves! And caves full of blue water!

Aventuras Mexicanas con El Esposo y Hijo Dos: Días 1-3, San Luis Potosí y Tamasopo

Posted on March 18, 2025 by gretchenwing

Sometime this winter The Mate allowed that he wouldn’t mind a little break from splitting firewood and running our wood stove. So, with our family obligations cleared, our thoughts turned to Mexico, where lately it seems a good half of our (retired) acquaintance has been sojourning in the cold months.

When it came to Mexico, we quickly found out our knowledge fell into two categories .
1. Things we don’t know about Mexico: almost everything
2. Things we do know about Mexico: any place where we are likely to meet lots of fellow Americans is a place we don’t want to visit right now.

With that in mind, I bought a Lonely Planet book and started checking out regions. That’s when La Huasteca Potosina and the Sierra Gorda caught my eye and held it. I started doing some reading, and stumbled onto the most helpful travel blog I’ve encountered, written by an intrepid pair of Australians. Sallysees.com helped me create my own itinerary, and I strongly recommend their blog for many areas of Mexico and some other places they’ve traveled.

Following Sally’s advice, I planned to rent a car in the city of San Luis Potosi and drive a big circle. My Spanish has been improving, and I was looking forward to testing it.

Or I thought I was. But when Hijo Dos (Son Two), who’s fully fluent, offered to accompany us, I think I was relieved as my Mate in saying ¡Sí, por favor! So we all flew together from Seattle.

Our plane got in late so we spent the night in a hotel near the airport, but next day we drove about three hours through increasingly impressive desert…

…to La Huasteca, a region named for the Huastec people, a place of lush, jungly green oases with magical blue rivers and waterfalls. Our first stay was the small town of Tamasopo.

Apparently these cute town name signs are a big thing now, and not just in Mexico. Instagram Effect?

The Rio Tamasopo ran right past our first accomodations–such a relief after hours of desert driving!

The cypress trees there are as impressive as the water; in fact, they shape the water’s flow with their roots.

Another huge plus of our cabaña was its proximity to what could well be the top attraction of the whole area (except that it has so many competitors): el Puente de Diós (Bridge of God).

It’s less a bridge than it is a roaring waterfall which comes to rest in a magical, dark blue cenote—ringed by drapery of ferns and more tiny waterfalls—from which the river somehow disappears through the cliff and comes out the other side.

Those fan-shaped “rocks” are actually stalactites formed by the mineral-laden water over millennia.

Tourists can float through this underwater cavern with lifejackets on…

…watched over by a lifeguard in the world’s coolest natural lifeguard tower! (Note rope to help floaters exit)

My family never opted for the boisterous-seeming life-jacket-cave-float option, preferring to hang out in the sunny water just downstream…

…and (Hijo Dos y yo) to sneak back in next morning before the guides and tourists arrived.

Being there alone with only the roar of the falls, steaming in the chill air, was magical.

He swam; I took pictures. (In my defense, it was a pretty chilly morning!

Another nearby attraction, just a couple of miles by car, were the Cascadas de Tamasopo. Having been warned by Sally’s blog that these falls had been curated into a kind of waterpark, we saved them for the day we left Tamasopo.

Note the jumping platform on the left. Salvavidas (life jackets) required for that.

Because we got there early we were still able to fully enjoy the natural beauty of the water without being too distracted by The surrounding eateries and lounge chairs.