Reserva Biosfera
I woke up before the alarm. "You both snore," I said, and Shurik, on my right, made an disapproving sound. "Yeah?" mumbled Sergey on my left. Last night, in this town of Gomez Farias, we made plans with a man named Saul to take a ride in his 4x4 to the start of a hiking trail in El Cielo Biosphere, and as part of the deal he gave us a place to park, and sleep, in GreenGo. "I tried to nudge you as gently as I could when you did. Shurik though pulled one of his stamping-out-the-snake routine to go with the 'music'. Something in his dreams he says." I dragged myself out of the van stretching. Sleeping in a threesome like this is not most comfortable of the ways we could spend the night, but paying for a hotel when today's shaky ride was going to cost us $70 was even less appealing.
The air smelled rotten-sweet. "Plump," said a ripe mango joining his buddies on the ground. If you get to those before the bugs will, they are finger-lickn' awesome! I never liked mango, but then tried this salad at a friend's house and my reproduction of it turned out, I believe, quite well:
1 mango, 2 avocado (hard, but not stone-like). Cube and mix with a table spoon of olive oil, and a douse of lemon juice. Beteavon!
Saul came at eight. Not the Mexican eight-ish, that is also known as two-hours-late, but 8am, and we thank him for it. He took us to the village of Alta Cima. In anticipation of breakfast I watched the local children try to contain a whole family of cats in an already full chicken-coop, on the roof of which was sunbathing a topless Barbie doll.
We hiked from here. The Biosphere is beautiful! On the ride here I was snapping pictures of moss hanging high above us, and now the forest with its Tarzan vines is all around us.
"Uhh!" said Sergey. "Ahh!" I reciprocated when saw that his excitement was towards a red and green snake that was just as startled and quickly slithered into a rock.
In 6km (a bit less then 4miles) we reached the village San Jose and from there led by a fourteen-year-old girl - our respectable guide, hired on the spot with the permission of her mother, continued to the Cuevas (caves). "Weren't we going to see El Elephante," a large, moss covered, rock wonderfully resembling a mammoth. "Why?" said the guys "You've seen it in Saul's photos." Many tourist transportation providers carry with them a little picture album with the local sights. "The caves seem more interesting". I disagreed. How could a hole in the wall be more interesting than a sculpture by nature? However, there is no other way, but the way up when majority rules. Here the jungle was thicker, more intricate, and when we got to the cave I happily admitted how wrong I was about it. "Auuu!" we called into it, and the stalactites, or maybe the stalagmites, replied with he same. We entered it and the darkness almost swallowed us whole. Still, the light from the entrance was enough for us to see. It was like walking inside a petrified coral reef swarming with medusas, octopi, icicles, and mountains of molten ice-cream. The main lobby was more than enough, but Leticia took us further down. She shined her flashlight downward, into the darkness, and there, bolted to the both slippery and rough wall was a rope with knots about every foot. Terrifying memories of rappelling 60m canyon drops in Midbar Yehuda (Israel) flashed through my mind, but when I saw fourteen-year-old Leticia easily climb down curiosity kicked fear out, and one after another we followed.
*Clicking on the pictures will take you to the photo galery for more images.
All rights reserved.
The air smelled rotten-sweet. "Plump," said a ripe mango joining his buddies on the ground. If you get to those before the bugs will, they are finger-lickn' awesome! I never liked mango, but then tried this salad at a friend's house and my reproduction of it turned out, I believe, quite well:
1 mango, 2 avocado (hard, but not stone-like). Cube and mix with a table spoon of olive oil, and a douse of lemon juice. Beteavon!
Saul came at eight. Not the Mexican eight-ish, that is also known as two-hours-late, but 8am, and we thank him for it. He took us to the village of Alta Cima. In anticipation of breakfast I watched the local children try to contain a whole family of cats in an already full chicken-coop, on the roof of which was sunbathing a topless Barbie doll.
We hiked from here. The Biosphere is beautiful! On the ride here I was snapping pictures of moss hanging high above us, and now the forest with its Tarzan vines is all around us.
"Uhh!" said Sergey. "Ahh!" I reciprocated when saw that his excitement was towards a red and green snake that was just as startled and quickly slithered into a rock.
In 6km (a bit less then 4miles) we reached the village San Jose and from there led by a fourteen-year-old girl - our respectable guide, hired on the spot with the permission of her mother, continued to the Cuevas (caves). "Weren't we going to see El Elephante," a large, moss covered, rock wonderfully resembling a mammoth. "Why?" said the guys "You've seen it in Saul's photos." Many tourist transportation providers carry with them a little picture album with the local sights. "The caves seem more interesting". I disagreed. How could a hole in the wall be more interesting than a sculpture by nature? However, there is no other way, but the way up when majority rules. Here the jungle was thicker, more intricate, and when we got to the cave I happily admitted how wrong I was about it. "Auuu!" we called into it, and the stalactites, or maybe the stalagmites, replied with he same. We entered it and the darkness almost swallowed us whole. Still, the light from the entrance was enough for us to see. It was like walking inside a petrified coral reef swarming with medusas, octopi, icicles, and mountains of molten ice-cream. The main lobby was more than enough, but Leticia took us further down. She shined her flashlight downward, into the darkness, and there, bolted to the both slippery and rough wall was a rope with knots about every foot. Terrifying memories of rappelling 60m canyon drops in Midbar Yehuda (Israel) flashed through my mind, but when I saw fourteen-year-old Leticia easily climb down curiosity kicked fear out, and one after another we followed.
*Clicking on the pictures will take you to the photo galery for more images.
All rights reserved.