Real de Catorce- October 25-29

Real de Catorce was a small mining town built in the late 1700's high up in the mountains and on the edge of the desert. The mine was built in 1773 and there is a small ghost town right above the existing town. The first day we arrived there we met the guy (Cruse) so looks after the old mine in one of the little restaurants. We started talking to him and he offered us a tour of the old mine and of course we accepted. We got to see the mine itself, plus the old office building just outside the mine and some of the old carts that were used. Inside the office building we found a bunch of old documents. He said there were tons of them and if we wanted to keep one we could!
The next day we went on a desert tour on horseback. It took the whole day to go down into the desert from the mountains, wander around for a few hours and ride back up.
We ended up camping the last two nights on Cruse's land right beside the old office building. We also walked up to see the old ghost town that looks more like archaeological ruins then a ghost town but still interesting. It also had some old mining caves that apparently go deep into the mountain and meet up with the oldest one. So far I think that this has been my favorite town to see!

Xilitla- October 22-24

After we left Toluca we travelled north first to Mexico City to transfer buses. When we got to Mexico city, we had to wait 10 hours in the bus station for our next bus. We passes most of the time playing card games so it went pretty quick. We took an overnight bus to Xilitla and arrived there at around 6am. After wandering around for a bit we managed to find a small hotel that let us check in then and didn't charge us any extra which was awesome. We were all pretty tired and in need of a nap.

When we woke up we went to go see a park outside of town that was designed by a French architect. The buildings were really strangebut beautiful and reminded me of the Goudie buildings in Barcelona. There were all these little paths through the forest that lead to deferent little hidden structures. We spent the whole day wandering around and caught a free ride back to town from a friendly local.

The next day we wandered around the market and got some really cheap food and snacks then went to find a cave that was suppose have parrots that fly in at night. It took us a long time to find it, but when we did we felt a little sully because we were basically walking around on top of it. We climbed around inside for an hour or so and then headed back to the mouth to watch the birds. Right before dusk about 40 parrots started gathering outside and circling around the mouth of the cave. After a few rounds they all flew in at once right above us. It was definitely worth the hike.