Trip Report - Mexico

[k-valve]

OK, I just got off the phone with Zinc and we decided I get this thing started and we'd add to it as we go. We were in Mexico for about 9 days and did a helluva a lot, so there's a long story to tell.

The Border
We drove and hauled all of our gear with us. I imagine we ended up putting about 2k miles on Brandon's Avalanche, which turned out to be a great rig for this kind of trip. Of course, we started in Austin and left around 4 a.m. Saturday morning. By the time the morning sun was up we were close to where we wanted to cross the border in Colombia (just up river from Laredo).

The border crossing was empty, so we had no wait time in line. Unfortunately, the check point was closed until 8 a.m. so we had to wait a few minutes for the employees to arrive. It seemed everything was going smoothly until one of the folks there told us we needed a copy of Brandon's registration paperwork for the truck. We drove to Laredo and Brandon got his roommate to fax us a copy of the registration. Of course, when we presented that to the rep at the check point it wasn't good enough. Brandon finally had to give the guy a $50 (not pesos) to give us the thumbs up so we could get our little sticker.

My advice to anyone crossing the border for more than a one day visit: find out exactly what is required and bring your paperwork.

Real de Catorce
This was our first official stop. Real de Catorce is an old silver mining town in the high desert mountains. It is a very cool place. It is also where several films have been shot including The Mexican, and Banditas. If you ever find yourself near there make the stop. Spend the night in one of the vintage hotel rooms...they're spacious, clean and inexpensive. Food is also cheap there, and delicious. Brandon and I had a great breakfast there for $1.40 each. The room was $39.

We spent time looking around town, had a couple of drinks in a local cantina, and checked out the sights. Be sure to drive to the old church on the outskirts of town. We drove well past that and found an old silver mine that we explored a little as well as some cave shelters that clearly had been used a lot. We figured the caves had something to do with the peyote smokers spending time there, but for all I know the local Boy Scouts camp there on the weekends.

Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, MX
From Real de Catorce we headed for Rio Verde. BTW, take the toll roads when you can. The free high ways pass through lots of little towns, are covered with speed bumps, and have lots of military check points. Don't let the guys with the 50 caliber machine guns, uzis and M-16s scare you though. They are super cool and there for the public's protection. I wouldn't want to cross them, but if you're on the up and up you won't have a problem.

We arrived in Rio Verde around 6:30 pm and immediately went to Ossiel Martinez's dive shop on the corner of the highway and the road to La Media Luna. Ossiel is a TDI instructor and very knowledgeable about area diving. Next to his shop is the family hotel with a second dive shop. Saul Martinez, Ossiel's brother, runs that shop. The guys dad...we'll just call him Mr. Martinez...is there some too. There's a picture of Mr. Martinez and Jacque Cousteau on the wall of the shop. Both shops are super nice, but I'd have to say the shop in the hotel is better equipped and a little less expensive. Ossiel is just getting his up and running, but I bet in a year it'll be just as nice. You can get fills at either shop, including nitrox. They say they can get helium too if you need it and give them some advance notice. Tank rentals are $9/tank at Ossiel's shop and $8/tank at Zaul's. Most everything related to dive gear is expensive though, so don't come without your equipment unless you are prepared to pay a lot for something you forgot. Rentals are available also.

We spent two nights camping at the park (La Media Luna) and one at the hotel. The hotel here, as with the one in Real de Catorce, is very nice and inexpensive...$35/night.

We mostly ate dinner at La Cabana, which in Saul's and Ossiel's opinion is the best food in town. It turns out that the Martinez family has some kind of ties to the restaurant. We aren't sure what, but it was interesting that they all suggested the same place, Mr. Martinez walked out of the kitchen one night when we were there, and Ossiel used the phone and got the royal treatment when we took him to dinner there one night. The bottom line is that the food is excellent and inexpensive. If you want to try something a little exotic, like goat fajitas, they have that too. They were darn good, by the way.

Next post...Diving La Media Luna

 

[scubashawn123]

OK, .......

Next post...Diving La Media Luna

Can't wait



Shawn

 

[Mack Diver]

Welcome back. A good start to what I'm sure is an interesting story.

 

[k-valve]

The saga continues....

La Media Luna
Half Moon Lake located near Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, MX, La Media Luna is fed from several underground springs much like Aquarena Springs. Also, like Aquarena, La Media Luna is home to many archeological finds. To get an idea stop by the dive shop in the hotel and ask Saul or Mr. Martinez to show you their collection of artifacts. They are in a small room right off the main store. They have several Mayan artifacts and bones from mastadons including the skull of a baby mastadon and the teeth from an adult.

The visibility at La Media Luna varies from gin clear to 20'. The variance is most likely due to the fine sediment at the bottom of the main part of the lake being disturbed by divers and the spring water flowing from underground into the lake. There are lots of tropical freshwater fish, especially at the shallow edges of the lake. Water temps were in the high 70's. Air temps ranged from cool nights to very warm days. A cold front blew through on our last day. Otherwise, shorts and t-shirts were the appropriate attire. Brandon dove his 3mil full wetsuit. I dove my drysuit with only a lycra dive skin underneath. I was a bit too hot. Brandon only got cold once or twice on the entire trip. I saw some guys diving in 3 mil shorties too.

Once you get to the lake you have to park. There is an entrance fee as well as a fee to dive and another fee to camp. If you aren't camping just pay the diving fee. You don't have to pay the diving fee and the entrance fee. If you're camping you have to pay the diving fee and the camping fee. Be careful to get a receipt. Some of the guys collecting money will pocket your pesos and not give you a receipt. No biggie unless you leave and come back later and some other guy is at the gate. No receipt...no entrance. Brandon and I have personal experience with this so trust me on this one. Rules in Mexico are made to be bent. Anytime something weird happened Brandon would just say "T-I-M." Which stands for "This Is Mexico." It became a commonly spoken acronym during the trip. Ha!

We arrived here Sunday night and the place was still packed from weekend visitors. La Media Luna is popular with locals, although I don't think there are tons of divers. The locals and tourists (mostly Mexican) go there to swim and picnic...like Austinites going to one of our lakes I suppose. There are bathrooms at the lake. On the weekends they cost 3 pesos (30 cents). They provide you with a bit of toilet paper and keep the bathrooms very clean. During the week the bathrooms are open and clean, but there is no toilet paper to be found so bring your own. BTW, some of the commodes have seats...others do not...choose appropriately.

There is a small food court that is completely open during the weekend and has several places that are open during the week. There are also plenty of retaurants in town and a nice grocery store/WalMart too. Food is not a problem in Mexico. There's always a taco or gordita stand around the next bend in the road.

Once you park at the entrance to La Media Luna you pay your entrance fees and take your gear to the lake. There is a path and then a boardwalk that leads to a dock that you can easily make giant stride entries into. They have ladders up and down the dock for exits. If you're a big guy the ladders are a little tight with dive gear, but they work. There really isn't any other way to enter or exit the lake. Be prepared to haul your gear, because it is a long way from the entrance where you pay your fees to the water. On the weekends there are kids around with wheel barrows who will help you, but during the week they are off somewhere else since there aren't a lot of people hanging out there except on the weekends.

Near the water they have plenty of shade and concrete tables and benches to place your gear and suit up. Your stuff is pretty safe, but Brandon and I did have a few pesos stolen from us. No gear went missing though. If you're camping put your stuff in your tent, if not don't bring anything you don't need and put anything not going in the water with you in a bag and stuff it under a bench...out of sight, out of mind you know.

In the lake there are several things to see. We were getting bored after a couple of days, but we did do a lot of diving. Our first dives were at night right after we got there, set up camp and grabbed a bite to eat. Our first dive was around midnight and we finally got out of the water after our last dive around 3:00 a.m. The water is clear enough that you can see things above the water from beneath it. You can even shine your light on the dock, etc to see where you're headed prior to surfacing.

We went diving again the next morning and explored the place in the daylight. The bottom is extemely soft. It's covered with a fine silt (except at the most shallow depths. Stay off the bottom. I say keep at least 4-5 feet off the bottom and use a frog kick. Otherwise, you're probably going to stir it up.

The bottom of the lake is formed in conical shapes, the tip of the cone being where the freshwater spring enters the lake. The soft bottom, when disturbed moves down the conical bottom toward the spring. The spring is blowing water out and into the lake. Once the sediment falls into the spring it's all over. Vis will go to nothing in a New York second. No worries though. Just swim to another area and come back in 15 minutes when it has had a chance to clear again.

The cavern that you might have seen pictures of isn't a true cavern. It's more like a spring that has a very thick layer of vegetation over it...enough so it certainly appears to be a cavern. In fact, my new avatar is a picture of me in this "cavern." The cavern is a little long, but there are openings every 100' or so. Eventually it leads to a gin-clear pool with lots of plant and fish life. It's very shallow, but beautiful nonetheless. Don't touch the top of the cavern. It's basically made up of plant matter. Once you touch it you're going to ruin your near-perfect vis. Same with the bottom here as in the main part of the lake. It's made up of fine sediment, so a silt out in the cavern is easy to do. Not to the point where you can't see, but definitley enough to ruin your chances of taking great picts. The flow is from the lake to the pool, so if you're going to kick it up do it on the way out.

Be sure and check out all the little springs feeding the lake. Some are small and others are pretty much gaping holes. The flow varies from slight to enough to knock your camera out of your hands. One spring that feeds the lake and is located at about 45' comes out of a real cavern. It's one of the bigger holes in the bottom of the lake too, so if you see a big hole check it out. Here's the cool thing. When you go into the cavern and follow it (15' or so) there's a smaller opening to the left. The water is rushing out of this hole. Look into it as there are two mastadon tusks sticking out of the rock wall in this smaller opening. Very, very cool!

That's the main points of the diving. Great vis, warm water, and cool stuff to see. It's not large, but there's enough to keep your attention for several dives.

A couple of last points about the dive shop at the hotel. Outside of the shop is an authentic full US Navy Deep Diving Suit. Everything is there...helmet, gloves, suit, and lead-weighted boots. Saul let us try on the helmet...and we thought our current gear was heavy!! Oh, and Mr. Martinez, who no longers dives, has a really nice Harley out by the fill station...another must see.

Next up...Puente de Dios and Xilitla, SLP.

 

[ReefHound]

Excellent description. The water temps you got surprise me as I recorded 88 - 90 degrees last March. In the vegetation "cavern" you can often spot big turtles. The petrified wood logs and roots are interesting.

How was the camping at the park? Do they have hot showers there? I've never camped there so didn't pay attention but I'm thinking about it this time. I'll be there in less than 3 weeks. I don't know if it's the time of year I go but I've always noted the park is packed like sardines on weekends with tents next to each other.

 

[Zinc]

How was the camping at the park? Do they have hot showers there? I've never camped there so didn't pay attention but I'm thinking about it this time. I'll be there in less than 3 weeks. I don't know if it's the time of year I go but I've always noted the park is packed like sardines on weekends with tents next to each other.

The camping was nice, but only because it was a weekday and not a holiday. Any other time it's probably packed like you said. Saul told us our timing was perfect, just before Easter when they expect thousands in the area.

Personally, I'd see how close you can camp and then weigh out your options... It's a long walk from the parking to the water, so it really depends on where you want to suit up, how much stuff you have, and how crowded it is. After the first few nights camping, it was nice to stay in a hotel and just suit up on the tailgate in the parking lot and simply walk down to the water.

 

[k-valve]

Excellent description. The water temps you got surprise me as I recorded 88 - 90 degrees last March. In the vegetation "cavern" you can often spot big turtles. The petrified wood logs and roots are interesting.

How was the camping at the park? Do they have hot showers there? I've never camped there so didn't pay attention but I'm thinking about it this time. I'll be there in less than 3 weeks. I don't know if it's the time of year I go but I've always noted the park is packed like sardines on weekends with tents next to each other.

The park is nice. We started camping Sunday evening, so we missed the biggest crowds. I definitely wouldn't show up there on a weekend if I could avoid it. The showers aren't hot, but the water isn't ice cold either. We only stayed there the beginning of the week and it was super nice with just a few tents scattered about.

I did forget about the "Petrified Forest." It's cool...just slipped my mind. We did see one turtle scooting out of the cavern too. I don't know if Brandon got a pict of it...I didn't.

 

[Zinc]

Puente de Dios

After a good nights sleep, we got up early Tuesday and made another quick dive in Media Luna, then packed up our camping gear and checked into the Hotel. From there we headed east out of town towards Tamasopo where we would dive a waterfall and cavern system. These overlooks above pools of water are called, Puente de Dios or Bridge of the Gods, and there are many around the state of San Luis Potosi.

On the way out of Rio Verde our stomachs were growling so we stopped to eat at a little place on the side of the road. From the outside it didn’t look like much and the wind was blowing dust everywhere, but once inside we found a nice clean place with a friendly owner, proudly ready to serve up some delicious food. We cleaned our plates, thanked the owner and continued on down the highway past a military checkpoint, and through some beautiful Mexican countryside.

Once in Tamasopo, it took a bit of driving around to find the parking spot near the train station and entrance to Puente de Dios. After parking a young fellow asked if we needed help carrying our gear down the long trail to the waterfall and I requested two people to carry our tanks. These guys have been trained over the years by Ossiel and know how to correctly put on a BC/Backplate harness w/ tank strapped on. What I regretted later, on our tiring climb back to the truck, was not requesting more ‘sherpas’ to carry the rest of our gear… but I can say we got our exercise that day!

We began by hiking up the railroad track a bit and then down a trail with many steps to the falls edge. When arriving, the falls are on the right where people could jump in to the pool below from high up on the ‘puente’, however we headed left for a more suitable place to suit up and enter the water. Once wet (water temp 79f), we dove into the cavern and on through to the other side where we surfaced just below the waterfall. The force of the water is swift just beneath the falls and is a great place to take some pictures and have some fun. We took turns kicking straight up into the waterfall only to be swept quickly downstream, tumbling through the turbulent water. They call this the “blender." It was a really fun ride, just hang on to your mask, regulator, and anything else that could and most likely will come loose… like Johns lift bag

We next swam behind the waterfall and up into a little cavern opening where we removed our gear, setting it securely on the ledges of the cavern. We were then able to climb up (suits only) and out of the cavern to a point above the lower waterfall and beneath some higher cascading falls. There is a large boulder in the middle of the stream which you can carefully cross to for some excellent pictures. We fooled around the falls a bit more and then climbed back into the small cavern, geared up, and headed back into the large and very clear pool.

Inside the pool are many interesting fish to see as well as some holes and tunnels leading back into the larger cavern. At the bottom of one, John came across a very heavy, black nylon bag with no zippers that was leaking some type of white powder… never did figure out what that was, even after John gave it a little underwater taste test, hehe

We returned through the cavern back to where our sherpas were waiting patiently watching over our remaining gear. We let them have our harnesses and tanks for a head start up the hill while we got changed and followed shortly behind, silently cursing myself for not asking for more help… $50 pesos per person is nothing, especially on that climb – here’s to more sherpas

It was dark when we got back to the truck, so we loaded up and made the hour long trip back to Rio Verde.

Next stop… on to Xilitla

 

[k-valve]

This leg of the trip was quite an experience. One thing folks don't always consider when they think of Mexico is how mountainous certain regions are. The drive from Rio Verde was beautiful and, at times, pretty exciting. I often looked into a deep valley to see not only the splendor of the environment, but a sheer drop off starting right where the road left off. Not as many guardrails as I'd like, but TIM, right?

Our first stop on the trip was by happenstance. We saw a sign that looked like a Mayan temple and pulled off the road to find it. We didn't find the temple, but we did find a family who was willing to show us where it was. The bunch of them piled into their truck and took us right to it. Good thing too, because it was nowhere near the sign and there were no other signs pointing the way. I'm not 100% sure I can find my way back. The structures turned out to be in the middle of some Don's cow pasture, hidden by trees, and blocked by fences.

Once we finally found our way there it was pretty amazing though. The structures were obviously worn down...probably no more than 20' tall at this point and falling down. There were three in good condition and a 4th that looked more like a pile of rubble than a recognizable structure. Someone had found a couple of mortar and pestel type tools that looked to be used to grind flour or something similar. They were just sitting out in the open instead of being in a museum...which is most likely where they belonged.

After our little tour we found our way out and heading on to Xilitla. There we had planned to find another architectural wonder called "El Castillo de Engles." Instead we ended up going right through Xilitla, which is a small town anyway and not finding it. Between taking pictures, missing turns and miscellaneous stops we decided to go on and try to find "El Soltano de las Golondrinas" which is the deepest pit in the world and a place that the Discovery Channel had done a show about. You might have seen base jumpers parachuting into this pit on video before. If not check out this link: YouTube - SOTANO DE LAS GOLONDRINAS @ HUASTECA POTOSINA or just do a Google search for the place.

Well, we thought we knew where we were going...which was up a narrow, dirt road through the mountains. Unfortunately, we missed a turn and ended up way off course in a little village at the end of the road and far into the mountains. It was a cool drive, but we were batting 0% on finding the spots we were looking for.

On our way back we decided to hit another pit we saw on the way to nowhere called "El Soltano de Huahua." Not nearly as cool as what we were looking for, but pretty impressive nonetheless. Unfortunately, with all our wrong turns we were out of daylight and ended up finding this pit around sunset. It was a long hike, but we were jsut glad that we were finally able to find something!

After our little hike to and from the pit (with a guide, of course) we decided to postpone our return to the states by a day and head back to Xilitla where we would spend the night. We found a decent hotel right on the town square, unpacked, locked up the truck (bring a steering wheel lock like The Club, btw...it won't keep your car totally safe, but it will discourage theives from stealing it), and headed out to find a place to eat. We ended up at a little restaurant off the square. The owner (and chef) was there along with her sister, Litza, and a friend. I think the owner was ready to close up, but the sister...who I think had already had a beer or two...was ready for some more company and a chance to practice her english. In fact, she was a hoot!

Dinner and conversation were both great. The steak was actually cooked medium rare instead of burnt through like most of the meat we'd had to this point. It was still cheap...a big ribeye, mashed potatoes, fresh cooked broccoli and cauliflower and a couple of beers for $17 each. Not bad. Litza's friend was an American from Houston I believe. He now lives in Xilitla.

After a good night's sleep we were determined to find the castle we missed yesterday. We did find it and it was spectacular. I have never seen anything quite like it and can't even begin to describe it in words. It is like no other "castle" I have ever seen. In fact, I'd say it is more a work of art than any of the castle fortresses you'd normally think of. Ya'll are just going to have to wait for pictures on that one.

The funny thing about that little side trip was there were 4 hippies...with dreadlocks, piercings and all...that we originally met at La Media Luna. Brandon ran into them again at El Castillo de Engles. Apparently, they were a little more cleaned up and missing their fourth companion, but you'll have to ask Brandon for the details.

Next stop...El Soltano de las Golondrinas (Cave of the Sparrows)...

 

[texdiveguy]

This is FUN, and I was not even there!!!