Our flight to Mexico City was a tad late leaving Cancun, but that was only the start of it. We had to wait 45 minutes for our rental car transport before it dropped us off literally 600m down the road. We then had to navigate 45 mins across town to our hotel for the night – because we had landed at 8, we had booked our hotel on the outskirts of Mexico City. Logic being that travelling across Mexico City after 9 would be less stressful and we could get away easily in the morning. I got ejected from the navigator’s seat within 5 minutes due to excessive volume. Deryn was far more composed but it is without doubt the most insane journey we have driven. From heading up tiny laneways to try get back on route, to having to dash across 4 lanes in a roundabout to get to the needed exit and most importantly avoiding buses and trucks that took no prisoners. But we made it against all expectations. This was with a GPS – there is no way anyone could do it with just a map.
We got away late morning on our trip to Toluca to avoid the worst of the traffic. The motorway system being built linking Mexico City to Toluca is really impressive. Their height makes me wonder how earthquake proof the are though. Our hotel Doubletree by Hilton was a lovely hotel but located in the worst part of town. Awful. We grabbed an Uber to take us to the town square – about 4km away. The centre of Toluca was surprisingly lovely. However the first thing we really noticed was that there were no tourists. It was heaven! The main cathedral was really impressive – it would have been a great gig to be a cathedral designer in South and Central America post the Spanish conquest. We then visited the Cosmovitral Jardin Botanico – a glasshouse with stained glass windows and some incredible flower displays. The cactus garden was also really impressive.
On a whim we decided to visit the Museo de la InquIsicion – a museum with lifelike dummies being put through all the forms of torture as happened during the inquisition. Some of the stuff they did was appalling, particularly what they did to the women that were accused of being a witch is beyond belief. We were not allowed to take photo’s but of course Dit’s took a couple. They simply do not do the place justice. People think ISIS are barbaric! We grabbed a cheap feed then headed back to our Gulag. The next day was chore day – planning(Deryn) and recording(Sean). We managed to find a Walmart on an attempt to get some air so stocked up on a few essentials. They sell everything – from toothpaste to motor bikes.
It was an early start to the next day as we wanted to get to Nevado de Toluca – a 4900m volcano nearby – before the expected weekend crowds. It took about an hour, partly because speed was limited by the number of speed bumps and potholes. every town in Mexico is entered by travelling over at least 1 speed bump on entry and exit. You can be travelling 80km/hr so you need your wits about. It was 50 pesos ($4) each to get in to the car park before clambering into the back of a Ute (another 50p each) for the last 30 minutes up the mountain. You get dropped off at a small car park at 4300m before climbing the last 300m (about 1.1kms) to see the luna (lake). The place was packed – we passed quite a few locals who were cycling, running or walking the 7.5kms to the top. Impressive at that altitude. The view at the top was great but spoiled slightly by the fact that we could not see across all the plains because of cloud. The walk down was a lot easier, we jumped straight into a Ute for the return journey. A breeze.
It was an hour’s drive to Valle de Bravo one of Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos. Valle de Bravo is a weekend bolter for folks from Mexico City, so while it was touristy it was for local tourists. The town is located on the shores of a very large man made reservoir, providing 20% of Mexico City’s water. It’s basically an outdoor adventure capital. Heaps of quad bikes, 4 wheel drives and aquatic activities. We had a bit of fun finding our Airbnb as the address was basically a neighbourhood with the only clue being photo of a bush in which our host has hidden the key! We gave up after an 30 mins and ensnared a friendly English speaking local to call our host and try get more direction. It was still 15 min before we found the key. The house was a lovely little cottage in this communal courtyard behind a locked gate. It was a bit smelly and damp but once we had all the windows open for a while it was fine.
We had a burst of energy so spent the next 2 hours walking from end to end of the town. The most attractive part of the town was up the hill away from the waterfront. The main square and cathedral (go figure) were lovely. It was also a lot less touristy. We headed home for some cards before heading back into town for a bit of beer and tequila bender. The size of the tequila shots were impressive – a quad me thinks back in Aus. We still managed to have a game of cards when we got home so thats a win – impressive effort from Dits keeping up with the wolves. The next day was a struggle, made far, far worse for me after skulling about 150ml of straight alcohol. We thought it was water because it was a 4l bottle. We asked the check out girl if it was water – Dits had a suspicion it could be booze – but she gave us the impression that it was water. Anyway, the hair of the dog does not work with that much hair. I made it out for a quick breakfast and then dinner, but that was it.
The next morning we hiked to the paragliding launch spot. Valle de Bravo is world famous in the sport of para and hang gliding arena. The hike was an interesting walk through different parts of the town before heading into the pine forested hills. It was basically a non-stop climb for about 500m. It took us about 90m to reach the top; it was well worth it. A bunch of paragliders arrived at the same time as we did so we got excited that we could see some launches – unfortunately we did not see one until we were half way down. None the less it was a lovely spot to spend an hour chilling in the sun and feeding the local blue blackbirds. For the last night meal we headed to a rooftop restaurant to watch the sun set over the town. We can understand why the locals love this place. The shopping was incredible with a lot of top end local artisan shops.
It was another early start to the day as we needed to drive nearly 4 hours and spend possibly up to 3 hours doing a horseback ride to visit the nesting site of Monach butterflies. The butterflies fly The 2500kms from Canada at the end of summer to spend the winter in the warmer climate. What’s amazing is that it takes 2 lifetimes to reach Mexico with the ones arriving here being born in Texas on the journey down. Dits picked El Rosario Reserve (El Rosario Santuario de la Mariposa Monarca) as the spot because it was close to Morelia and supposedly one of the least touristy. The drive there was lovely through thick woods – it was incredibly mountainous – reminded us a lot of the Guatemalan topography. We arrived at the El Rosario Reserve, it was literally a one horse town. There was a sign pointing to the reserve but the place looked deserted. A local leant out of a nearly house and told us to head in. He came over and explained the journey – he had 3 large holes in his shirt which already was in a challenge to constrain his rotund belly. It was 250p each for the horse and another 290p for the guide and park tickets. We were warned that if it rained we would not see any butterflies. We thought it would still be a nice ride in the forest. We had a horse each but our tubby guide was on foot. It was a 5km hike with over 550m of climbing. He only required one breather – and to be fair so did the horses – about 3km in after a particularly long climb. Never judge a book by its belly. Unfortunately it was really cloudy so we saw only 1 butterfly. Rather than 10s of thousands. A bummer really. The ride down was a bit more challenging but we made it with no more than sore legs. On to Morelia.
