Real de Catorce

For the long week-end, Ina, Mitch, Eric and me thought we should explore the inland Mexico a bit. We had heard from several friends that Real the Catorce was supposed to be really nice.

We took a night bus (2.45) from Monterrey to Matehuala and from there next bus to Real de Catorce. Last bit we had to change into a special bus to take us through the

 2.3 km tunne

l to arrive in Real, a city that has almost died out after their prime time of silver mining (that finished

about 60 years ago) Therefore, it is also called "ghost city".

Arriving, we noticed that our planned three days would probably be more than enoug

h for this 1,500 people village... The main attraction - horse riding in the desert mountains - was what we spent our afternoon with. 5 hours horse riding in the mountains

 of Mexico, with Cactus trees everywhere! GREAT! no noise, perfect air, riding on the b

ack of very secure horses that took us down steep slopes... very nice!

We visited a ritual/religious mountain, where a special group of people come once a year to eat mushrooms (peyote) that give them hallucinations and dance around a fire!

After we visited the famous "ghost city", where a hundred years ago, the Spanish people dug for silver.

After a very nice day, we ended up in an Italian restaurant with two bottles of red wine and early bed time. :)