I’m going to Real de Catorce, Mexico in July. Have any fellow Dopers been there? What can you tell me, advise me, and recommend to me. I’ve traveled in Mexico before (Yucatan) but I’m not a kid anymore (59 and holding for a while now). I’ll be traveling with a group and a guide.
Bump
I can’t believe that I have found a place so close to the USA that no other Dopers have been to. Come on, tell me about Real de Catorce.
it so happens i have family there and in the town right below it, cedral. it is a very small town that used to be a silver mining town til it all dried up. there are still many mining caves. most of the people that live in real de catorce subsist on the tourism as there in not much of an economy. not counting the hippies that seem to flock there for the peyote (which actually grows at the base of the little mountain real sits on). i have not been there in a few years ,but last time i was there it was getting “gentrified” for lack of better word. lots of foreigners , especially germans, buying up old dilapidated houses and fixing them up. new little restaurants opening up etc. like i said it mainly a tourist destination as any other sort of economy seems unfeasible. it lies in the middle of a canyon between mountains and the main way thru is a tunnel about a mile long. it is a very peaceful place. i used to spend time there for a few summers til my uncle sold his place and moved down to cedral. i remember going up there in my early teens and the place was a literal ghost town with just a few food vendors and the hippies now it seems more populated. ask me about anything in particular. there is a pilgrimage from many oulying towns to the church of st franciso asisi every year around october. people come on foot all the way and some even go thru the tunnel on their knees all the way up to the church. i have been a several times from cedral.
Since you’re looking for advice more than hard facts, I’ll move this thread to the IMHO forum.
bibliophage
moderator GQ