Mexico Journal: July 5, 2010

Iván, Pedro, Manuel and I went for a hike up into an ecological reserve, past an old molinero to the "Peje de oro" caves. About 10 minutes in, it began to rain and was pouring with rage and fury within minutes. It made for delicate foot-holds, but was a grand adventure nonetheless. On the first part of the river (creek) that we had to cross, we all bit it on the last rock across, and then squished soggily the rest of the hike, which was, in fact, quite a liberating experience because there was no more worry about trying to stay dry. In fact, after exploring the caves a bit, I opted out of crawling into small spaces with only 2 headlamps for 4 people. (Earlier I had conquered my vertigo climbing out onto an old aqueduct ruin, that was enough risk-taking for my day). The creek had swelled considerably and was coursing with café con leche brown water. We just carefully waded through, cutting back and forth to follow the trail, steam rising from our hot bodies in the chill. After trying to warm myself with a hot shower (Iván and I started a reprise of the caldo tlalpeño from last night, this time adding cabbage, potato and mushrooms), I curled up to snuggle in the bed that Jorge and Karla had abandoned.

The afternoon and evening slipped away into card games and checkers and our clothing is now drying in the sun.