Mi Coche: Mi Salvador

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What a ride it's been. Ole Mae is my savior, my guardian angel, my muse. She has miraculously stayed intact for this crazy drive, which would tear a lesser car apart. She's old dirty and beat up, but does the job well. Just like your mom!! :D I woke up with the sun in Real de Catorce to find myself right next to a church surrounded by a stone wall beneath a little mountain. I walked up most of the way for amazing morning landscapes. I saw a few people who barely seemed to care that a random gringo had been sleeping in his car by the road. I spent a few hours walking around "the town of stones and dust" I call it. It sits in a valley between mountains, and everything is stones: the walls, the streets, most of the buildings. Even the people eat a handful of rocks for breakfast. They seem at peace, happy, humble and industrious, always moving the stones and building with them, and keeping the buildings from crumbling into the valley, opposing the effects of gravity without the use of most "modern" construction equipment. Crazy-steep streets in some spots (I think Guinness needs to re-evaluate Baldwin St in Dunedin, NZ, the "steepest street on earth"; I've been there, but I believe some of these roads are steeper), many of which I didn't even attempt in the car. I bought some Mezcal here, my new favorite drink. It's like tequila 2.0. It's made using a more traditional process, including being cooked on hot rocks for days, giving it that smokey goodness. The public restroom is five pesos to use; the man hands you toilet paper and paper towels when you pay; it's one of the cleanest public restrooms I've ever seen; no toilet seats but... meh. And 35 pesos for four gorditas. Awesome.

I drove south from Real de Catorce (another haphazard meander replete with random speedbumps and including a 2-hour traffic jam leading us through a blindingly dusty off-road) to see the largest monarch butterfly congregation in the world. Maps on my phone doesn't fully work and I haven't been able to find a paper map, so when I knew I was close to Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve I pulled over by a farm and crashed hard in the backseat. I got up and had some hiccups actually finding the reserve. Lots of fucking hiccups, due to my almost complete inability to understand any Spanish. I went around and around Ocampo until I was sure I was on the right path. Then up. Then more up. Then over, then up and up. Then finally I found the parking lot. Then I walked up more. Sylvia, a lady who knows no English, took me the entire 3km (round-trip, I think that's what she said) up to the top. I did almost no research about the place beforehand, other than how to get there. I knew there would be monarchs. There were many flying about and drinking out of tiny streams. Kinda cool. Then as you approach the very very top top there are millions. Like a brown and orange blizzard, almost silent except for the very quiet sound their wings. Very zen dude. It was a challenge to reach this place. Rewards tend to be more rewarding when you have to work for them. I'm very eager to reach Agua Selva in two days.

Including all of the missed turns and distractions, I've driven well over 700 miles in the last two days. I'm sitting in a hostel in Mexico City at 4:30 am, pondering and reeling from the experience. Finding a hostel to check in to after midnight while being introduced to Mexico City traffic on a Friday night was... insane. Insanely awesome. Or maybe awesomely insane (it's the largest metropolitan population in the western hemisphere). The hostel community saved my ass tonight. The third one I looked for actually existed. It was full, but the lady directed me a block away where I was welcomed. Considering all the circumstances, I got lucky tonight. Within minutes of stepping out of my car here, I was greeted by a five women walking around giving free hugs! It's all about hugs.

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Photos

Syvia
I don't think she knew wtf I was doing with my little plastic cube here (gopro)