Xilitla, San Luis Potosi - Salvadore Dali meets Indiana Jones

[andyc740]

Violence along the border with Mexico has escalated in the past few months due to friction between the Gulf Coast Cartel and the Zetas. We intend to keep going to Mexico. This trip was made 2 years ago, but I've never posted a trip report on it, so here you go...

Lefty's and my second bike trip to Mexico again started in Corpus Christi in February 2008. This time we wanted to avoid larger cities like Monterrey and Saltillo and explore farther south along the eastern Sierra Madres. When we reached the Rio Grand Valley, we swung by Lefty's office in McAllen, then ran a couple errands, including buying a stuff sack for my sleeping bag. I don't carry the sleeping bag any more. Hotels are usually pretty reasonable and easily available. Though it did make a nice sort of backrest.

We crossed the border at noon at the Pharr-Rio Bravo bridge, didn't have to stop at customs (our paperwork was still current from the previous trip) and headed south. We made a gas stop at the "Y", about 80 miles south of Reynosa and visited a bit with the crew of window washers.

This fellow was scraping the spines off prickly pear pads so he could sell the pads. Mexicans use them in cooking. They're called "tuna". Really.

I took the wrong highway out of Ciudad Victoria after supper (in my own defense, the map was missing a road), added about 30 miles to our trip and we rode into Ciudad Mante about 8:00 at night after more than 500 miles of riding. Really flat, pretty boring. We found a pretty decent hotel in downtown Ciudad Mante. No, Lefty didn't sleep on the couch. There was a second bed in the room.

 

[tricepilot]

Bring on the Mexico stories

 

[andyc740]

Day II - Ciudad Mante, Ciudad Valles, Xilitla

In the morning, we walked around the park before heading out. I think the lady in the background didn't want to be in the picture. I always feel bad that I didn't even try to talk to her.

The next day, riding south toward Ciudad Valles, things started looking up. We were approaching the foothills of the mountains. Vegetation was getting greener. Some of the houses had thatched roofs. Trees were flowering.

We stopped in Valles at the park, talked to some police and they showed us the local visitors' center. These cops were ones we met on the way in, who directed us downtown. I've said it before, the cops on the street in Mexico are different than they used to be. No one hassles you just to try to get a bribe.

Downtown had a really nice central fountain.

The center had maps of the area with local attractions; a lot of waterfalls, caves and mentioned a town called Xilitla with some sculpture gardens. We decided to visit Xilitla, about 60 or 70 miles south of Valles, making a side trip along the way to see a spring-fed river.

 

[andyc740]

Still Day II - South from Ciudad Valles

Lefty liked this Coca-Cola delivery van we saw as we were headed out of Valles.

The mountains in the area are mostly layered limestone, resulting in some spectacular scenery, lots of waterfalls, springs and caves and some nice tropical trees and vegetation. The area is working hard to promote ecotourism. The side trip to the river was nice, though we gave up on getting lunch at the local restaurant after waiting about an hour to get served. Continuing the loop back to the highway was a grind, trying not to bottom the bikes on all the speed bumps in the local villages and trying to find the road out of town at some of the villages. No traffic signs, just follow the cars and trucks. Next time, I think we'll just backtrack back to the highway.

I liked this stretch a lot. The fence posts were flowering.

At a coke break, we visited with the shopkeeper a bit before heading on. He was speaking something besides Spanish to his family. According to the internet, it was probably Huastec. A mission church was under construction next to his place.

 

[andyc740]

Day II - River Break

The area definitely had a tropical feel to it.

But you still can't get away from rush hour traffic.

There were several busloads of people at the river. We wandered up to the source, then took pictures of the vegetation. It reminded me of Honduran lowlands. Here's a big ceiba tree:

The larger trees supported their own ecosystems.

 

[andyc740]

Day II - Xilitla

Once back on the highway, we headed on south, passing an orange processing plant. Trucks full of oranges parked on both sides of the highway, waiting to unload. It smelled like a giant jar of orange marmelade.

We arrived in Xilitla after a very nice run up the mountain from the highway, about 2,000 feet climb in about 10 miles. Lefty's Harley was panting. I hit the gas station just as a motorcycle tour group was leaving. They were yelling at me, "What kind of bike is that?" so I lifted up the flap on my tank bag, letting them see the Triumph logo. "Nice!" it got a thumbs-up from them. I still don't know the correct pronunciation for Xilitla. That "X" at the front could be pronounced with an "Q" sound or a "Ch" or even an "H", who knows?

Getting into the center of town presented its own set of challenges. Xilitla is built on top of a hill and the streets leading into the center of town are VERY steep. Lefty and I eyed one street that ran straight up into town, wondering if we could pull the hill. I finally just dumped the clutch, grabbed some throttle and powered my way up. No problem. Lefty was more cautious, but got lucky. While he sat there wondering what to do after I disappeared up the hill, another fellow rode up and asked if he had a problem. Heladio owned a local car repair shop and a BMW F650. He showed Lefty the back way into town that was not near as steep. I met them at the square and we wound up doing a bike blessing for Heladio and his Beemer.

We spent the night in Xilitla at the picturesque, but cheap, Hotel Guzman, admired the balcony views, talked with the locals in the park. One little girl with a winning smile sold us some beaded bracelets made with dried coffee beans. Later we joked, if we got too worn out during the trip and needed some energy, we could just eat the bracelets.

The next day we we had breakfast at a cafe across the street from the house built by Edward James (more on him coming up), known locally as El Castillo (the castle). It's now a bed and breakfast. I think it would be a fun place to stay.

 

[andyc740]

Day III - Las Pozas de Edward James

We then visited Las Pozas de Edward James, just outside Xilitla. Edward James was a very wealthy, British patron of the arts who built some surreal sculpture gardens in the jungle outside Xilitla. Most of the place was built in the '60's and '70's. Las Pozas is privately owned [since sold to a conservancy group], inadequately maintained and attracts a few tourists from the US and Europe. Sort of a grown-up jungle gym. There were a few people wandering around the place, but we mostly had it to ourselves.

This is the main structure at Xilitla.

 

[andyc740]

Day III - Heading Home

After touring the gardens, we headed down the mountain and I watched a Nissan pickup run off from me, (in my own defense, the road was damp and he knew those blind turns a lot better than I did), hit the highway and turned north toward Valles. We stopped at a hot springs for a dip, but it wasn't open yet and we weren't too impressed. We had lunch in Valles (Popeye's Fried Chicken) and continued north.

A bit later, we caught up with the tour group again about an hour north of Mante. They were going to spend the night in Victoria, while we were going another 120 miles north to Linares.

Terrain became flatter and dryer but we were riding through orchards and roadside stands selling fruit (the orange harvest was on) and shrimp cocktails (not bad, but Lefty doesn't like raw onions).

We spent the night in Linares, found a restaurant that served Cabrito for supper and an Internet cafe to do our nightly e-mail.

In the morning, we rode on to Montemorelos, then right through China (the town, not the country), stopping for breakfast along the way in General Teran. We turned in our paperwork at the border, exchanged some leftover pesos back into dollars and were home by about 4:30. Total mileage for the trip was about 1250 miles. Costs were about $250 each.

I really enjoy these Mexico trips. Mexico has a poor reputation with all the battles between police and drug traffickers, but we feel safe. The government wants to encourage tourists and the police these days are helpful, instead of hassling us for bribes. If we get stopped at checkpoints, it's because the cops want to ask us about our bikes. The only papers required are driver's licence, birth certificate, and title for the bike. If the bike has a lien, you need a notarized letter from the lien holder. [Ed: Passports are now required.] Mexico insurance is available on-line. Major roads are generally well-maintained (better than some of the roads around Corpus) and the signage is pretty good. It helps to have a good map along. We're not too worried about theft, leaving the tank bag and helmets on the bikes when eating or sightseeing, though we do try to find secure parking at night.

 

[andyc740]

Recap - Go see Xilitla

Xilitla is a great place to visit. It also has a highway running southwest from there that provides some spectacular riding. I was back in Xilitla February this year with my wife. The conservancy group that bought it is beginning to do some maintenance and restoration work at the site.

We were on a car trip; down the coast to Huatusco, Veracruz, visited some local pyramids, crossed over to Michoacan to see the Monarchs in their winter home, then returned through Xilitla. I've got some good pictures from the trip but haven't posted a ride report because we were in the cage, not riding. I do have pictures on-line at: http://picasaweb.google.com/andyc740/ButterflyTrip0210#

Lefty and a friend just returned from an epic 7-day bike trip, riding the Devil's Backbone, attending a bike rally in Mazatlan, then to Guadalajara and back home to Corpus Christi. Total distance about 2400 miles. Maybe I can prod him into doing a ride report.

Our next planned trip to Mexico is to attend the Motohermandad bike rally in Tampico Memorial Day weekend. We went last year and had a great time. You can read my trip report at: http://www.triumphrat.net/ride-trip-reports/112452-grumpy-goes-to-tampico.html

Happy trails!

 

[sharkey]

Cool trip report.

 

[Tourmeister]

Like Tricepilot, I love the Mexico ride reports Thanks!

 

[hardybaker]

And I too enjoyed your trip. Thanks from me too. Hardy ps, It's been a tear and a half since I went to the Natioonal Rally in P.V. and I am having "withdarwls." I need a fix.

 

[47wing]

Beautiful. Great job with the pics.

Can you load a map of your route?

 

[cdc]

Nice report.
Thanks!

 

[tricepilot]

And I too enjoyed your trip. Thanks from me too. Hardy ps, It's been a tear and a half since I went to the Natioonal Rally in P.V. and I am having "withdarwls." I need a fix.

The cure is called Oaxaca

 

[NitroRoo]

that was cool - thanks for taking us along. I've been wanting to visit that guys place in Xilitla

 

[andyc740]

Can you load a map of your route?

Sure. This doesn't include our little excursion to the spring-fed river (Yahoo doesn't know those roads exist) and I'm not sure it has Xilitla located correctly, but this is pretty much our route down. On our return, we went further north from Victoria, spent the night in Linares, then came home through Montemorelos, General Teran, China and Reynosa.

There's gotta be an easier way to do this. Google maps has fits south of the border and it won't do US-Mexico border crossings at all, so I use Yahoo maps. Yahoo won't let me copy the map from their web page, so I print it to an Acrobat file, copy the map from the Acrobat file, paste it into Paintbrush, save it as a .jpg file, upload it to Picasa (my picture server), then put it in the post.

Go ahead and laugh. Anybody have any better ideas? I'm open to suggestions. It is nice to have maps with the ride reports.

On a side note, the Mexican Department of Highways and Transportation (DGDC) has a great site called Rutas Punto a Punto at http://aplicaciones4.sct.gob.mx/sibuac_internet/ControllerUI?action=cmdEscogeRuta. It even has an English version. It will give you distance between towns (in kms), choices between toll roads and the free highways and any tolls along the way. If you give it an estimate of your gas mileage, it will calculate the gas costs (in pesos) using current pricing. It just doesn't do much with the route graphics. I use it frequently.

 

[miltonotto]

Re: Day II - Xilitla

I still don't know the correct pronunciation for Xilitla. That "X" at the front could be pronounced with an "Q" sound or a "Ch" or even an "H", who knows?

Say "hee-LEET-tla". This always works for me.
I think the "X" is pronounced like our "H".

Nice report, BTW.

 

[miltonotto]

There's gotta be an easier way to do this. Google maps has fits south of the border and it won't do US-Mexico border crossings at all, so I use Yahoo maps.
Anybody have any better ideas? I'm open to suggestions. It is nice to have maps with the ride reports.

Google maps and SnagIt work for me.
Check out SnagIt, it does a screen capture of whatever is on the screen. Default save is .png but easy to right click, save to .jpg.

 

[tricepilot]

Re: Day II - Xilitla

Say "hee-LEET-tla". This always works for me.
I think the "X" is pronounced like our "H".

Actually, when it comes to place names, the spanish x is prounounced more like the spanish letter j. It's very subtle, but when it comes to Xilitla, Xico, Xalapa, etc, you can detect the difference between a local and a gringo pronunciation like night and day. For the purposes of everyday conversation for us gringos, you have it right.

 

[ysr612]

Re: Day II - Xilitla

Once back on the highway, we headed on south, passing an orange processing plant. Trucks full of oranges parked on both sides of the highway, waiting to unload. It smelled like a giant jar of orange marmelade.

We arrived in Xilitla after a very nice run up the mountain from the highway, about 2,000 feet climb in about 10 miles. Lefty's Harley was panting. I hit the gas station just as a motorcycle tour group was leaving. They were yelling at me, "What kind of bike is that?" so I lifted up the flap on my tank bag, letting them see the Triumph logo. "Nice!" it got a thumbs-up from them. I still don't know the correct pronunciation for Xilitla. That "X" at the front could be pronounced with an "Q" sound or a "Ch" or even an "H", who knows?

Wife and I were in that motorcycle tour group and thanks for the other ride report you emailed her. She still wants us to try to ride with you some time.

here are some of our pictures from Las Posas

here is a picture taken from one of the lower sections I am afraid of hights

 

[andyc740]

Re: Day II - Xilitla

Wife and I were in that motorcycle tour group and thanks for the other ride report you emailed her. She still wants us to try to ride with you some time.

here are some of our pictures from Las Posas

Cool pictures! I like the overhead shot of the bikes. Las Posas is a photographer's dream - so many things to shoot.

You're welcome to ride along. Our trips are a bit further down the cost spectrum from the tour you were with, but we have a good time. We're still making 3 or 4 trips a year to Mexico, usually to rallies, but we're a bit warier now when we go due to the escalating violence.

 

[gospeed81]

Very cool ride report.

The tunas are actually good chilled, very refreshing. You can eat them seeds and all, or chew through the pulp and spit the seeds, but it's more time consuming that way than a watermelon.

The first time I went to Mexico with my wife's family we were walking through the square in Reynosa when my wife asked me if I wanted tuna. I said "heck no, it's hot out here." Later I see her holding a cold prickly pear in one hand, and a chilled mango in the other and get mad she didn't grab me anything. She said she had offered...

As we're standing there her sister walks up and my wife ask's her "Tu una?" and holds out the mango. "Tu una" is like saying "do you want one, but my sister in law responded: "No tonta, eso es un mango" (no idiot, that's a mango).

 

[ysr612]

Re: Day II - Xilitla

Cool pictures! I like the overhead shot of the bikes. Las Posas is a photographer's dream - so many things to shoot.

You're welcome to ride along. Our trips are a bit further down the cost spectrum from the tour you were with, but we have a good time. We're still making 3 or 4 trips a year to Mexico, usually to rallies, but we're a bit warier now when we go due to the escalating violence.

that is a 4 photo panorama so the effective focal length of the lens is less then 15mm 35mm equivalent or should I say about 0.3 power

PS I loved that Moto-Discovery tour. It did cost more then riding on your own but we stayed in hotels that I would never spend the money to stay in if we weren't on the tour. All in all the tour took us about 2000 miles in Mexico with no day being longer then about 350 miles.

 

[miltonotto]

Correct me if I'm wrong.
Tuna is the fruit, and nopales are the pads. Nopales are cooked like vegetables, Tuna eaten as a fruit.

Once I found some fruit bearing prickly pears near Hunt, Texas and decided to eat the tuna like they do south of the border. They must have different prickly pears SOTB cause I ended up with a mess of thorns on my fingers and lips.

The Mexicans call the spines of prickly pear cactus espinos, but there is another name for the tiny, invisible, no-see-um thorns, but I forget what it is.