Peyote Madness and Steamy Jungles

Day 72 to Day 73

Wednesday, May 19th to Thursday, May 20th, 2010

San Miguel De Allende to Xilitla, San Luis Potosi

Xilitla to Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas

This morning I was going to leave early. I didn't feel like riding in the afternoon heat and wanted to get to Xilitla earlier rather than later. When I awoke, the temperature in San Miguel De Allende was 11 degrees. So I went for some breakfast and a double serving of good coffee. While in Mexico one must savour the good coffee when it's available. Nescafe instant coffee is the norm in Mexico's non-tourist towns. Just last night I figured out why it's called Nescafe ...No ES CAFE! (It's not coffee). Then back to my room for some lazing on the bed with the laptop. At the crack of 11:00am I was ready to be on the road. The eldest son of the family that ran the hotel was keen on taking photos of me and my bike after I rolled it down the hotel hallway's ramp from its' storage space inside a little nook near the foyer. He's creating a website for the hotel and wanted pictures of whacky guest, I guess. It's pretty neat how rolling a bike into a hotel lobby is not considered unusual in these parts. Even in a tourist town like San Miguel De Allende.

Today I rode 319km's. Starting from San Miguel the temperatures were pleasantly cool and the high flat plateau was basically clean and pretty farm country. It might as well have been somewhere in Ontario. The narrow and beautifully paved side road went through more farm country and small towns. The relative wealth was quite apparent in the well kept sidewalks and lack of garbage on the streets. Soon the lush green farm scenery gave way to stunning desert scenery. Reddish brown rocks and earth were sharply contrasted with large green cacti reaching for the sky. Some were starting to be in bloom, adding a nice little splash of yellow and while colour to the whole picture. I was now on a Guanajuato state road. Beautiful pavement and beautiful desolate scenery with every turn and twist of the road and throttle.

Now the stunning desert scenery changed into yet another type of desert treat. The scrubby type of desert, that is. The road twisted and turned like never before and little ravines, valleys, nooks and crannies were beckoning below. The good thing about these roads is that pretty much all vistas will be seen from all angles since the roads follow the natural contours of the landscape. Now you're facing it, now it's to your left, now it's behind you. Hey! now it's once more in front of you.


The sign said welcome to Queretaro. What was a nicely kept road ...it was just too good to be true, turned into a pityful excuse for a paved road. I was wishing it would turn to gravel where at least there wouldn't be as many rock hard potholes. I guess for the State of Queretaro this road wasn't as high a priority as it was for Guanajuato.

I made a little stop in the squeaky clean and well kept town of Penamiller. The temperatures had gone from "gotta put on some more layers" to "get those damn layers off me right now!!" But it was a dry heat. The shopkeeper, Javier, a very pleasant middle aged man, had a bit of a puzzled look on his face when I showed up. But we both enjoyed talking for about 20 minutes about our countries, the USA, poverty and much more. I was a bit freaked by the fact that I was able ...somewhat, to hold a conversation in Spanish about some deeper subjects beyond my source of beer and Internet access ..in no particular order. These are actually my special moments when travelling. Yes, Barrancas Del Cobre is awesome; Yes, almost having a head on collision with some dumb b**** is a good conversation topic; and yes, reaching Yaviza and feeling the emotions of having reached my half way destination are all absolutely wonderful.

But these little encounters with regular people in non-tourist towns, having regular conversations about regular things, and just enjoying the company of a stranger in a different country is what makes the cherry  on my sundae.

From here the road climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed so high that I swear I caught a glimpse of some bearded dude and some comely winged females with harps somewhere in the clouds. I couldn't be too sure since I had to pay attention to the endless series of kickass curves with gnarly, bone splintering dropoffs many hundreds of feet down. Soon after Penamiller the scenery had changed back to the reddish brown cacti dotted landscape from before. This didn't last very long as the temperatures cooled to the point where I considered stopping to put those layers back on. But you know how it goes when you're in the groove and there really isn't much space to pull over anywhere. So, on I went into my always favourite pine forests.

From here the road drops down towards some towns in the hotter valleys where the wealth of the region is once more quite apparent. Pickup trucks and cars with US licence plates are all over the place. I'm not sure if that means they belong to people who've worked in the US; they're stolen cars; they belong to members of the local drug cartels who prefer the benefits of US registered vehicles, whatever those might be. The scenery has once more changed to hot scrub desert and the road starts climbing skyward for the final assault towards Xilitla and Sir Edward James' peyote influenced art creations.


All of a sudden, or so it seemed, the dry air had changed to the humid, stick to your lungs, kind. The vegetation and scenery had gone from stereotypical Mexico desert to lush, green broad leaf jungle. Banana trees were sticking to the hills and colourful tropical flowers decorated the modest properties along the way.


Here I am coming into Xilitla and a sharp whistle is heard. Someone with a gun, I can only assume he was a cop, was giving me that look and that stance. You know the one! Arms out to the side with palms facing up while shrugging one's shoulders and putting an annoyed look on one's face ...yeah! that one! After trying to pretend I didn't speak Spanish and after making the assessment that he wasn't going to give me any real trouble, I relented and spoke Spanish. It turns out I had gone the wrong way down a one way street. He politely told me to turn around and do it all properly. On the way back I made a point to check for one way signs ...nope! not a one!


My $15 hotel has a great view from in front of my room. Local youth are playing soccer and the breeze is making a valiant yet futile effort at cooling me down.


Tomorrow I'll head off to Las Pozas to view Sir Edward James' peyote fueled creations. I'm not sure if I have to be on peyote myself to experience it but I'll inquire locally before paying my admission.


I can certainly believe that Sir Edward James was on peyote when he created his wild and whacky art structures. They’re really quite trippy to see. The jungle setting only adds to the incredible experience. Tropical birds flutter about, chicharas chirp away, a sheer cliff rises up, covered in jungle plants and lianas, sweat drips from all parts of the body as the jungle heat and humidity make your clothing stick to your body. The pictures will have to suffice since words cannot really describe this place. Just think Escher meets Picasso, meets directionally challenged jungle wanderer.