We Hiked up the Mountain in Ajijic
The morning was warm and sunny -- no big surprise here in Mexico -- and we went and picked up our friend Rebecca and went up to do our hike up to see the chapel and the views and get some exercise. The trail was steep and slippery with rocks and scree, which made for some interesting noises and gestures -- and only a couple minor falls. Rebecca had the foresight to print out a map of the area and the trails, lucky for us. We still hiked a different trail than we intended, but that was okay. We weren't going anywhere in particular, so how could we be lost?
All the trails are on the same mountainside overlooking Lake Chapala and Ajijic anyway. Oh. And none of them are marked except the foot of the mountain where we started. If we hadn't met a lady at the first major fork, we might have just hiked ourselves straight across to another "parking area." Quotes because it's just neighborhoods across there.
The stations of the cross up there were interesting, decorated long ago and now deteriorating. We came to the chapel. It was more like a shrine, which is where we thought we were since we didn't know the Spanish name for chapel, which was on the map -map mistake numero uno.
So we headed on up to see if we could find the indigenous ceremonial area, higher up. Of course, we weren't anywhere near it, since we weren't at the shrine but the chapel, so it's no surprise we never found that. We just kept going because we didn't want to think if we'd only gone 20 more yards we would have found it! But we did find a plowed field -- by horse or mule, no doubt, since no machinery could get up there. We saw a couple cotton trees (yes, cotton makes trees eventually if not plowed under!), a huge prickly pear tree or two, nice views, and got really nicely sweaty.
All in all a good hike -- we all made it back in one piece and no blood!
For the pic album click here!