Una Paloma Blanca

Carboneras

State of Hidalgo

At the top of a mirador(scenic overlook) about 11k feet we found these 2 guys looking quite confused. Given the presence of rose petals scattered nearby we guess some expression of undying love happened shortly before our arrival.

Unfortunately these boys seemed completely domesticated. Given the population of raptors in the area we figure their future could be measured in hours.

Carol,ever the he artful soul, prepared them what we expect was their final meal, with some saltine crackers. They seemed unimpressed.

Follows is what we believe is the last photo of these guys.

Nice little park

Parque Nacional El Chico 

Minerales de Chico

State of Hidalgo

28-February-2016

Less than 2 hours from Mexico City at almost 10k feet elevation is El Chico national park.

Nearby is the town of Minerales del Chico, a nice little town with a long history in silver mining.

We camped 2 nights, spent another night in a hotel, hiked a bit,and enjoyed the place a lot.

About an hour and a half

Laguna Atzecas

Hidalgo Mexico

25-Feb-2016

We slept in the gunship and woke up in front of the beautiful Laguna Atzecas.

I made some coffee and we set around the lagoon for a nice walk.

Came back our spot and the same Senora in the little restaurant cooked us some eggs,tortillas and quest fresco with a little Mexican style coffee.

From there we were off.

We picked a path off of off the beaten path and after a couple hours on dirt roads we descended on the little pueblo called.

On the way there we witnessed some type of small hawk or falcon streak right past the gunship and almost takeout a turkey chick . Only momma turkey kept it from being the Falcons lunch.

It was the coolest thing but happened too quick for any photos.

The terrain changed from a lush but not steamy rain forest to an arid almost southwest hills to high hills with saguaro and barrel cactus.

As we dropped in to a giant lagoon we found extensive commercial agriculture but it was all a bit too dusty for us. So onward we rolled until we once again pulled in after dark in the town of Minerales de Chico, an old silver mining town in the state of Hidalgo.

We found a hotel but ended up eating bananas and cliff bars for dinner. Again!

Quien Es el mas. Macho ?

One for the ladies here.

Minerales de Chico

State of Hidalgo

I shot this guy from across the street while at an outdoor cafe eating lunch.

My caliente !

A touch of the old Hidalgo..

Atzecas,Maolongo, Eloxochitlan

State of Hidalgo

We put the gunship to some real testing over some tough roads the last few days. But we have slept in front of beautiful lagoons, seen Falcons chase turkey chicks and the times just keep getting better.

Here are some shots from our first two days in Hidalgo

Chorty's not here.

Molango San Luis Potosí

Mexico

Went by this prison

Not only was chorty not there, nobody was.

We will keep looking

Hey Rudy !

Mexico Mike Nelson (mexicomike.com) told us about a fellow in Tamazunchale who was doing good for his people. His name is Rudy and he is a member of the Nahuat people of Central America. 

Rudy spent some time in the US as a youngster and learned English. He currently earns a living primarily by teaching English in Tamazunchale .

His people in the area are mostly poor subsistence farmers. Some grow a little coffee or citrus but incomes are very low.

Some towns are accessible by vehicles,others the only way in or out is by foot.

The people burn a lot of firewood to make their food. The amount of smoke in the average Nahuat kitchen is significant. Tuberculosis and asthma are problems among his people.

Rudy put together and inexpensive stove that reduces smoke output by 90% and burns about 70% less wood for the same heat output.  He works  with the people of various villages to build these stoves. To date he has installed over 1000 of these stoves. 

We spent the day visiting a few villages, doing a little hiking, and crashing through a coffee grove trying to see an elusive mot-mot we knew was there as it answered Rudys calls.

At the end of the day we headed south and arrived after dark in Malongo

Oh Canada !

Naranjito- San Luis Potosí 

During yesterday's trek we met a young Canadian named Dagan who was cycling from Houston to somewhere near the Guatemala border

He has a blog and a website you can check out in one of the photos below

I think it's adollaramile.com and Daganthedragon@gmail.com

Cool,clear, water. Water

Naranjito -Cascadas de Tamul

San Luis Potosí  Mexico

23-Feb-2016

 

After a night in the van in Tanchachin we broke camp and had a few enchiladas and too sweet and too weak Mexican coffee.  I am not saying every pueblo in Mexico should have a Starbucks (although apparently there are a few), but so far the quality of the cuppa joe we have run into has been lacking. Here is to finding a better world.

At breakfast our waitress told of us of a town nearby where we could hike in to the Tamul falls and skip the whole touristy boat ride extravaganza 

We aimed the gunship out town toward the little pueblo of Naranjito. 

There we met Jonni, a youthful Mexican biker entrepreneur ready to take us on our journey.

It was an easy mile and a half walk in to the top of the falls. The river was beautiful as some of the shots should show. The falls were incredible as some of the shots should show.

The hike down to the bottom of the falls and back up was brutal for yours truly but  20 minutes floating around in the river was all I needed to hike back to the gunship and for us to be on our way.

We hit it pretty good  for a few hours, ate dinner at a roadside joint in Huichihuyan and pulled into Tamazunchale well after dark,found a hotel with great air conditioning, good wifi and we called it a night.

Today's photos

Miss Sciency at it again

Top of the falls

Down below

Bob in repose 

A little nature as a palette cleanser

The gunship rolls !

Sleeping in a van..... Down By The RIVER!

Tanchachin

SanLuis Potosi

It finally happened. Our homage to the late Chris Farley.

We rode pretty hard from Tamaulipas and pulled into the small town of Tanchachin  towards the end of the day.

We heard there was camping by the river so we checked it out.

The river spot was just great so we parked the gunship, took a short hike and settled in for the night.

Lots of crazy night noises!

Here are some photos of the hike along the river as well as a photo of the van,down by the river, shortly after dawn,shrouded in fog.

 Cliff bars for dinner again ?

RaptorVille = Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas

South of Ciudad Victoria heading for Ciudad Valles

Talk about birds on a wire

Flying by at 55 you lose track of all the Hawks,Falcons,Kestrels perched on telephone poles.

As you slow down you realize there must be at least a dozen or more species 

Here are a couple I shot from the middle of the road, not even taking the time to pull off the  highway

Above American Kestral

Below Crested Caracara

Quinta de Tesoro de Sierra Madre

Santa Engracia

Ejido Benito Juarez

State of Tamaulipas Mexico

Turns out we have spent the last couple of days in area plagued for years by the narco "cucarachas"

We never even knew it

We had a very enjoyable slow paced stay at David Christian Newtons Quinta kicking back and enjoying  the recovery in the area. 

David is an educated man committed to the succession of Texas from the US,among other things. It would be fair to say he is right of center. 

I'd recommend the place even if you don't like the politics. If you do you will spend many hours in deep conversation as David is an intelligent man with a good vocabulary.

The area was mostly citrus groves and warm weather.

We visited a 300 year old hacienda 

We had a nice parillada with beef ribs,sausage, all the trimmings and beer.

It was very nice

We also found a big lake that had some pretty good birding

Pinnated Bitterns, Kingfishers,Curlews , Kiskadees,etc