Now that’s a big hole.

June 11, 2021June 17, 2021 Donnie Meals

Read Time:2 Minute, 42 Second

June 7 – We left Rioverde fairly early and set a course for Jalpan de Serra, smack in the center of the Reserva de la Biósfera Sierra Gorda. It was another series of roads along mountain edges with little or no guardrail and the occasional loose cow. As we entered Jalpan, I took a random right turn. The road got steeper and curvier. About an hour later a left turn took us down a rutted dirt road to the waterfall of Chuveje.

We spent a good hour and a half getting to and from the fall. This was thick jungle and the variety of birds were having a serious conversation.

We slinked back to Jalpan and decided to continue on to Xilitla. Curves, mountains, loose cows, repeat. We’ve been to Xilitla a number of times. It’s the home of Las Pozas, a surreal garden created in the 50s or so. Xilitla is also hugging the side of a mountain. There are no straight roads and most are quite steep, REAL STEEP. From here we’re going to make day trips.

June 8 – The hotel we stayed the night at (La Aurora) left us a nice tray of breakfast outside our door; black coffee with fresh mangos and litches (pronounced like leeches but with a “t” in the middle). We decided to visit the colorful village of Aguacatitla Axtla. This town is all about curanderos and in particular Dr. Domingo Ramon.

Upon leaving Aguacatitla Axtla, Sharon took over the driving and decided to get creative. We stopped at a few roadside shops then noticed a sign for “grutas” (caves). The road led us through tiny indian villages with names that would give you tongue cramps upon pronunciation. We never found the caves but we did discover we were in route to Sótano de Las Golondrinas, (The Basement of Swallows). We’d always wanted to go there so… onward!

Sótano de Las Golondrinas can best be described as a vertical cave or a very large hole in the ground deeper than 900 feet. It is the home of all sorts of birds and millions of them, however none of them are actually swallows. Who ever named the hole in the ground was mistook swallows for swifts. It’s a lot of stairs down to the hole but it’s worth the hike. We let the locals strap a rope to us just to get a closer look. This was way outside of Sharon’s comfort zone but I talked her into it.

By the way, to say the walk back up to the car was difficult, arduous or intense does not imply the right level of adversity we experienced. Fun fact though; if you turn left right outside of Sótano de Las Golondrinas, you’re back on the main highway in a mere 10 minutes instead of the hour and a half through tongue-twister land.

So, before I go, you gotta check out this hotel we found. It’s outside the city, in the jungle and that’s where we enjoyed a fabulous thunderstorm, plus each other’s company.