Valle de Juarez (Day 4-Sunday)

Well, we slept off the wedding and woke up to the alarm so we could get up for our hike up the "big" mountain, and it was BIG!! Sal drove us over to the town nearest the mountain and then we started walking up, and up, and up!!! Exciting thing was that, not only did we survive, but that we actually hiked from one state into the next, from Jalisco to Michoacan and then back!! Pretty neat (Of course, we were right on the border, but still....) We started at 9:30 a.m. What a beautiful day it was!!

Not all the trail was quite this nice!!

We started off at pretty much the same level as this town - San Jose....

A maguey plant, relative of the blue agave plant, but it makes mescale instead.

Can you see the town, way down there?

Definitely a part of Mexico that most people never think about, mountains and valleys!!

We made it to the cross on the top of the mountain!!

You can see the town behind us!!

Now, we are going to head down the other side!!

Kevin, the jungle guide, discusses which is the best route to take...

Me, I will just wait for someone to tell me where to go!!

Kevin & Ruth...

The view coming down the mountain, another way...
We are walking down to this valley, nearly to the first lake you see!!

Rock slabs that were in a big pit. Not sure what it was all about,
but these slabs were pretty big!!

Looking back UP at the mountain we climbed, but you can't see the cross from here.

One of the many fields we crossed, only this one had thousands of these stones all over it!

We made it to civilization!! Next small hamlet over from us...

This donkey actually had an amazing wooden saddle - WOW!!!

Oh my gosh, another exciting day. We were pretty happy to have done that hike. It was alot of fun but we never would have done it without Kevin & Ruth to guide us - thanks again guys!!!.....but where WAS that taco stand at the top??!!

Anyway, that was our day. I wanted to add this photo of the "main" building here at Hacienda Contreras. All the other shots show this building so far away. Here you can see the new suite on the top right corner. Sal & Barb stay in the bottom corner when they are not in their other house in town. This is also the building where the bathrooms, laundry are.

Talk to you all tomorrow!!

Cheers!!