Santa Rosa
My French friend William invited me to go camping and horseback riding in the Sierra Rosa mountain range which surrounds Guanajuato about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday, we met at Starbucks to go over some plans for the trip. We haven't been able to find much information on the place, so we decided to hop on a bus and do some hands on investigating in the small community that is up there. After the hour and a half wait at the bus stop, we were finally on our way. We were both pretty giddy on the 20 minute bus ride up. Stepping off that bus automatically put me in victory dance mode. The air was crisp with a hint of pine and that minty freshness that you can feel throughout your whole body when you inhale. The town of Santa Rosa was tiny, rural, and beautiful.
The girl at the tourism booth back in downtown Guanajuato was born in Santa Rosa, and had given us some names of Santa Rosa locals that might be able to help us. We asked the first people we saw if they knew where "Urua family" lived, and they pointed their fingers down the long winding road with nothing but a cow on the side of it and told us to just keep walking that way. Eventually we reached a small dirt trail that led to some houses. Everything was lined with aromatic rose bushes, fruit trees, and humble looking street dogs. At one point on that trail we came to the conclusion that "Finally! We're in Mexico!" The first family we met (we were greeted by about 12 dogs!) did not rent horses, only rooms, so we went on our way from there. We decided to look for a "Reyes Gutierrez" who lived in the community uphill called "La Puerta." We got estimates ranging from 15 minutes to an hour of how long it would take to walk there, so we decided to grab some lunch before we went up. We found a small cafe and I ate rabbit meat for the first time! Kind of a mix of chicken and bacon grease, it was pretty good. If I'm ever up there again I want to try their rabbit stuffed with corn and mushrooms.. they only sell it by the entire rabbit so I definitely did not have the guts for that yesterday. Of course this was all served with soup and tortillas, and along with William's serving of roasted chicken still cost us under $5 US total. The walk up to La Puerta was really scenic, with a beautiful vista of rolling green mountain on our right the entire time. The road was really crude cobblestone though, and not too fun to walk on. We eventually came across two men and a women (pretty sure they were drunk!) and asked them if they knew Reyes, they did and they told us to continue walking uphill and ask around once we reached Puerta. We thanked them and about 30 feet up the road a car passed us and one of the villagers we had talked to was yelling for us to turn around. Reyes was in the car with his family, about to go down to Guanajuato! What luck. He doesn't have any horses, but he said he has experience guiding and is an ecologist. He is extremely familiar with the environment, and can tell us all the scientific names, functions, etc... all about the Santa Rosa! I bit my lip in excitement as Reyes and William made plans for us to all meet on Tuesday at Plaza de Baratillo (downtown, right next to where I live) to discuss the trip. Horses or not, I am really excited for this trip - it's starting to really come together! I hope that Rebecca will join us, and then otherwise theres 2 other French kids, 1 person from Salamanca, and 1 person from somewhere else in Mexico. Should be a grand time, I will let you know how Tuesday goes!
We decided to finish the walk up to Puerta even though we had (miraculously) caught Reyes. It was nothing spectacular, which made it SO spectacular. The church was quaint and simple, a basic rectangle with a fresh paint job. The streets were empty except for the dogs. The stores and homes seemed empty until we would walk by and see come curious eyes glaring at us. It took us about 5 minutes to walk the entire "downtown", and we ended at an interesting looking dirt trail which we decided to follow. It ended up being a nice little hike to a clearing at the top of the hill where we got a beautiful view of the Santa Rosas. Afterwards we walked down to catch the bus back downtown. It was a great day.
I really learned an important lesson from the little day trip yesterday. I was originally a bit bummed out to be spending the weekend in town after last weekends exciting ventures through Michoacan. I was sick all last week, and completely lost my voice on Thursday and Friday, so I really did need to take it easy. But I realized..Santa Rosa is only 20 minutes and 9 pesos from here! I don't need to take a 4 hour bus ride to the a different state to see something new, I am surrounded by new experiences and opportunities every day no matter where I am. My thinking before yesterday was starting to turn into a long list of opposite corners of this country that I want to visit before I leave, but that really is a bit unrealistic. I don't even know my surrounding communities yet. I'm here to get the authentic experience of living in Mexico, not traveling through Mexico. Huge difference.
Santa Rosa
clothesline and a sunny sky.. classic!
Couple dogs of the MANY we saw that day
(photo by William R.)
William on the left, and theres me eating rabbit (conejo)!
OH! and one last side note - check out my apartments new guest bedroom!
The girl at the tourism booth back in downtown Guanajuato was born in Santa Rosa, and had given us some names of Santa Rosa locals that might be able to help us. We asked the first people we saw if they knew where "Urua family" lived, and they pointed their fingers down the long winding road with nothing but a cow on the side of it and told us to just keep walking that way. Eventually we reached a small dirt trail that led to some houses. Everything was lined with aromatic rose bushes, fruit trees, and humble looking street dogs. At one point on that trail we came to the conclusion that "Finally! We're in Mexico!" The first family we met (we were greeted by about 12 dogs!) did not rent horses, only rooms, so we went on our way from there. We decided to look for a "Reyes Gutierrez" who lived in the community uphill called "La Puerta." We got estimates ranging from 15 minutes to an hour of how long it would take to walk there, so we decided to grab some lunch before we went up. We found a small cafe and I ate rabbit meat for the first time! Kind of a mix of chicken and bacon grease, it was pretty good. If I'm ever up there again I want to try their rabbit stuffed with corn and mushrooms.. they only sell it by the entire rabbit so I definitely did not have the guts for that yesterday. Of course this was all served with soup and tortillas, and along with William's serving of roasted chicken still cost us under $5 US total. The walk up to La Puerta was really scenic, with a beautiful vista of rolling green mountain on our right the entire time. The road was really crude cobblestone though, and not too fun to walk on. We eventually came across two men and a women (pretty sure they were drunk!) and asked them if they knew Reyes, they did and they told us to continue walking uphill and ask around once we reached Puerta. We thanked them and about 30 feet up the road a car passed us and one of the villagers we had talked to was yelling for us to turn around. Reyes was in the car with his family, about to go down to Guanajuato! What luck. He doesn't have any horses, but he said he has experience guiding and is an ecologist. He is extremely familiar with the environment, and can tell us all the scientific names, functions, etc... all about the Santa Rosa! I bit my lip in excitement as Reyes and William made plans for us to all meet on Tuesday at Plaza de Baratillo (downtown, right next to where I live) to discuss the trip. Horses or not, I am really excited for this trip - it's starting to really come together! I hope that Rebecca will join us, and then otherwise theres 2 other French kids, 1 person from Salamanca, and 1 person from somewhere else in Mexico. Should be a grand time, I will let you know how Tuesday goes!
We decided to finish the walk up to Puerta even though we had (miraculously) caught Reyes. It was nothing spectacular, which made it SO spectacular. The church was quaint and simple, a basic rectangle with a fresh paint job. The streets were empty except for the dogs. The stores and homes seemed empty until we would walk by and see come curious eyes glaring at us. It took us about 5 minutes to walk the entire "downtown", and we ended at an interesting looking dirt trail which we decided to follow. It ended up being a nice little hike to a clearing at the top of the hill where we got a beautiful view of the Santa Rosas. Afterwards we walked down to catch the bus back downtown. It was a great day.
I really learned an important lesson from the little day trip yesterday. I was originally a bit bummed out to be spending the weekend in town after last weekends exciting ventures through Michoacan. I was sick all last week, and completely lost my voice on Thursday and Friday, so I really did need to take it easy. But I realized..Santa Rosa is only 20 minutes and 9 pesos from here! I don't need to take a 4 hour bus ride to the a different state to see something new, I am surrounded by new experiences and opportunities every day no matter where I am. My thinking before yesterday was starting to turn into a long list of opposite corners of this country that I want to visit before I leave, but that really is a bit unrealistic. I don't even know my surrounding communities yet. I'm here to get the authentic experience of living in Mexico, not traveling through Mexico. Huge difference.
Santa Rosa
clothesline and a sunny sky.. classic!
Couple dogs of the MANY we saw that day
(photo by William R.)
William on the left, and theres me eating rabbit (conejo)!
OH! and one last side note - check out my apartments new guest bedroom!