Where to start?! For starters, I don't have swine flu. The scare is nearly over. I haven't had work in two weeks. Okay, I haven't had work in the schools since the 24th of April. I have been working with a welder, helping fabricate and install windows, doors and tin roofs. Yesterday I cooked a shish-kabob buffet for 50 complete with a rainbow gelatin salad and fruit spread. Then, another most alluring invite: swimming in a freshwater pool. Sounds simple. Not quite. What they failed to tell me: the pool was 20km. away. No biggie. Oh, and we were going to walk it. Not so bad, a nice trail and on to swim. It turns out that the path was actually a 2 ft. wide aqueduct perched some 250ft. on a canyon wall. We got to the entrance of the aqueduct and a most brutal hike to the trail. We reach the trail in no time and are soon seeing cars the size of matchboxes. Let me backtrack. The potable water for the municipality of Temascalcingo is piped in from a very small community called
Pastores. The water from Pastores is all fresh ground water that is basically hijacked by the village and travels the 20km. route by a cement channel. This cement channel travels about 250ft. above the canyon floor, as to ensure water pressure and to avoid tampering. The channel is capped by 2ft. square flat rock tiles. So here we are on top of this two foot wide "trail" meandering through the mountains. Actually the hike was quite nice: the aqueduct is level and the sun was shining. We walk for about an hour until the trail stops a three foot high opening in the mountain. A tunnel! Not having a flashlight or Raid, we decide to switchback up the mountain
side to find inlet of the labyrinth. Atop the mountain and all is revealed! We see that we are not even a quarter of the way to the pool. We quickly find the trail once again and enter a new canyon. Stunningly picturesque. It's about this point when we find a moulted snake. (note the extremely manly, snake skin-wielding picture of yours truly) After the first snake skin found we come to a portion of the trail where its to all fours. So, here we are crawling on this most narrow ledge when we are overcome by a most rancid smell. Quite curious. Looking over the edge we find the source: a most twisted horse carcass. It seems that the horse was grazing another 150ft. above the ledge and slipped. As you can see by the picture it still had on its reigns. (please note that the horse is zoomed in on and that it was actually 200ft. below us.) Hmm macabre. No time to stare its back to the crawl. About fifteen minutes of crawling and we're past the rock face. Another hour of walking and we start to see the lush trees of the freshwater springs. This is the point where things get adventurous. We come to the trestle where the aqueduct crosses the river. There are two ways to
go. One is crossing the 75ft. high trestle (see picture, and yes it is that trestle, and yes it is
that high) or adding another kilometro to the agenda and walking to the next bridge. By this point we're famished and ready for a dip. Trestle it is. Now I've never thought of myself as an Indiana Jones type of guy, but cross a 200ft. long trestle some eight stories above a river and you fell pretty damn adventurous. It turns out that there's a ten foot wall blocking the other side of the trestle, so we have to re-cross the river and go the extra mile. I had a nifty video of me crossing the river and almost slipping and swearing in spanish, but it didn't upload. We get to the other bridge, cross, and climb up to the pool. The pools are about waist high, and slippery as Kenickie's hair. The absence of chlorine makes the pool a haven for algae. The water is most refreshing, even if the guy next to me was bleeding. Good ol' hygiene. We spend a
buen rato in the pool, then it's on to eat. The rest of the family of my friends have arrived and are grilling steak and
longaniza. We gorge ourselves. After the food session, we wander past the pool and stumble across a 60ft. waterfall. The
Rio Lerma is terrible polluted. They say that 25 years ago the water was clean enough to drink, not so much now. The waterfall is stunning (see picture), even if the water is a teal-beige color. The sun is setting and we watch it fall behind the mountains. The group has grown to 19 people, we all get into the back of a Dodge and head home. What a day for Michigan Jones!
Where to start?! For starters, I don't have swine flu. The scare is nearly over. I haven't had work in two weeks. Okay, I haven't had work in the schools since the 24th of April. I have been working with a welder, helping fabricate and install windows, doors and tin roofs. Yesterday I cooked a shish-kabob buffet for 50 complete with a rainbow gelatin salad and fruit spread. Then, another most alluring invite: swimming in a freshwater pool. Sounds simple. Not quite. What they failed to tell me: the pool was 20km. away. No biggie. Oh, and we were going to walk it. Not so bad, a nice trail and on to swim. It turns out that the path was actually a 2 ft. wide aqueduct perched some 250ft. on a canyon wall. We got to the entrance of the aqueduct and a most brutal hike to the trail. We reach the trail in no time and are soon seeing cars the size of matchboxes. Let me backtrack. The potable water for the municipality of Temascalcingo is piped in from a very small community called
Pastores. The water from Pastores is all fresh ground water that is basically hijacked by the village and travels the 20km. route by a cement channel. This cement channel travels about 250ft. above the canyon floor, as to ensure water pressure and to avoid tampering. The channel is capped by 2ft. square flat rock tiles. So here we are on top of this two foot wide "trail" meandering through the mountains. Actually the hike was quite nice: the aqueduct is level and the sun was shining. We walk for about an hour until the trail stops a three foot high opening in the mountain. A tunnel! Not having a flashlight or Raid, we decide to switchback up the mountain 
side to find inlet of the labyrinth. Atop the mountain and all is revealed! We see that we are not even a quarter of the way to the pool. We quickly find the trail once again and enter a new canyon. Stunningly picturesque. It's about this point when we find a moulted snake. (note the extremely manly, snake skin-wielding picture of yours truly) After the first snake skin found we come to a portion of the trail where its to all fours. So, here we are crawling on this most narrow ledge when we are overcome by a most rancid smell. Quite curious. Looking over the edge we find the source: a most twisted horse carcass. It seems that the horse was grazing another 150ft. above the ledge and slipped. As you can see by the picture it still had on its reigns. (please note that the horse is zoomed in on and that it was actually 200ft. below us.) Hmm macabre. No time to stare its back to the crawl. About fifteen minutes of crawling and we're past the rock face. Another hour of walking and we start to see the lush trees of the freshwater springs. This is the point where things get adventurous. We come to the trestle where the aqueduct crosses the river. There are two ways to 
go. One is crossing the 75ft. high trestle (see picture, and yes it is that trestle, and yes it is that high) or adding another kilometro to the agenda and walking to the next bridge. By this point we're famished and ready for a dip. Trestle it is. Now I've never thought of myself as an Indiana Jones type of guy, but cross a 200ft. long trestle some eight stories above a river and you fell pretty damn adventurous. It turns out that there's a ten foot wall blocking the other side of the trestle, so we have to re-cross the river and go the extra mile. I had a nifty video of me crossing the river and almost slipping and swearing in spanish, but it didn't upload. We get to the other bridge, cross, and climb up to the pool. The pools are about waist high, and slippery as Kenickie's hair. The absence of chlorine makes the pool a haven for algae. The water is most refreshing, even if the guy next to me was bleeding. Good ol' hygiene. We spend a buen rato in the pool, then it's on to eat. The rest of the family of my friends have arrived and are grilling steak and longaniza. We gorge ourselves. After the food session, we wander past the pool and stumble across a 60ft. waterfall. The 
Rio Lerma is terrible polluted. They say that 25 years ago the water was clean enough to drink, not so much now. The waterfall is stunning (see picture), even if the water is a teal-beige color. The sun is setting and we watch it fall behind the mountains. The group has grown to 19 people, we all get into the back of a Dodge and head home. What a day for Michigan Jones! 
1 comment:
amazing! That horse is wild.
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