This weekend i felt the need to get away by myself. I'd had a bit of a stressful week and the idea of heading out to the countryside of La Huasteca appealed greatly. So early on Saturday morning I headed out to Ciudad Valles - a town about 5 hours east of San Luis which is meant to be a good base for exploring la Huasteca. The journey took me through Rio Verde (close to Media Luna) and then after that the desert started to give way to trees and green green countryside! A different mexico!
When i arrived the first thing that stuck me was the heat - i have never been anywhere so hot - i was drenched in sweat within minutes of arriving. I found my hotel and then went to the tourist office to ask about buses. I had wanted to go to some ruins at Tamuin but having found out it was rather difficult to get to wirthout a car and being extremely hot, I decided to head for some waterfalls about 30 mins outside Ciudad Valles. So I grabbed a torta for lunch and spent ages finding the bus station for Micos, but finally i was on my way.
The journey to Micos was like nothing i've ever seen before. We travelled through farming areas where people still live in mud huts and have pigs and animals running about outside. It was an eye-opener cos I hadn't seen anything like this before. There was no indication of where to get off for the falls and i only got off at the wrong place cos an old man spotted me as a tourist and asked if i was heading for the waterfalls. Then he said go tell and the driver and get off in one minute! So i did and then had to walk down loads of steps into the valley where the waterfalls were.
Walking down was stunning, the first time i caught a glimpse of the azure water below i was so excited and couldn't wait to get down and get in the water! I walked around the site for a while looking at the different places for swimming and canoeing. Firstly i stopped by a shallow bit of stream where the river was running quite fast and you could just sit in the water and feel it rushing by you. After that i decided i needed some deeper water so i headed to another part with small pools, where i swam for a while but underfoot it was a bit sludgy so i moved on.
I really enjoyed it there, even when i was just relaxing and reading a book in the shade and so i was quite excited about going to tamasopo the next day which was meant to be even better! I left at about 7pm and chatted to some people at the bus stop in (my still terrible) spanish until the bus came. When i got back to Ciudad Valles i headed straight for the shower as i was a bit sweaty and smelt of ponds!
I decided to head out and see what i could find for dinner instead of just going to the hotel restaurant. The city was dead, no people, hardly anything open. I found a chinese restaurant where the man said he could do me some vegetables and his little girl wanted to practise english with me. They even brought me extra food and put an american film on the tv for me, but i couldn't eat all the food, and forgot to leave a tip cos they were talking to me at the end when they brought the bill - so i felt bad.
The next day I had breakfast in the hotel. The biggest hotcakes ever and the wateriest cappucino ever! I decided to have a quick wander round Ciudad Valles, cos it seemed strange to stay there and not to really see the town itself. Ciudad Valles is never going to be a tourist attraction, but it was interesting to see a normal Mexican town. There was a park along the side of the river, but it was quite run down. The highlight was maybe watching people wash their cars in the river! There's also a small plaza with a strange parrot sculpture thing in it.
I didn't spend much time looking around and headed on to Tamasopo. The journey wasn't as interesting as the one to Micos, and was longer. We passed through a few pueblas on the way but none of them were anything that interesting. It took and an hour and a half to get to Tamasopo and te bus dropped me off right outside the waterfalls. It was more spectacular than micos but a little more commercialised. It was easy to get away from that though and feel like i was in a beautiful tropical place. It was the first time i really thought of Mexico as tropical in the 7 months I've been here, so it was nice to see another side to the country. I saw mango trees and a hummingbird and i swam in the deeper pools and lay back against the rocks in the river where the mini waterfalls were. I sat by the side of the river and read my book and watched the word go by which was very enjoyable indeed.
Soon enough though it seemed like time to be finding my way home. I ended up taking a taxi to the main road and then getting on a direct bus to SLP and got back a bit earlier than expected, wolfed down a pizza and headed home so i could get an early night before my 7am class on Monday!
