Adventure in the Mountains!

For weeks we have been asking everyone we know whether it is safe to hike in the mountains close to our house. One of our favorite family activities in Colorado had been hiking together. We never went skiing or climbed a 14er, but throughout the years we have a lot of wonderful memories of going on hikes together. Apparently this is not a common activity in Taxco so we got varying reports, none of which seemed extremely well informed.

Tarantula just outside my kitchen pantry on the kitchen patio!

 I suppose what sealed the deal was finding a tarantula only inches away from my kitchen pantry. One of the warnings of the mountains had been the tarantulas that we would find. Well, if they are right outside of the kitchen, we may as well enjoy a hike because we're not avoiding them in our house! Besides the tarantula's terror is their "creep factor" and not any real danger that they pose.

Yesterday as we sat around in the early morning groggily sipping coffee and talking together, Nathaniel said, "Can we go hiking today?" I looked at Gary and we decided that today would be a fine day to set out on a hike!

We had a breakfast of whole-wheat flax seed pancakes and grilled smoked pork. We wanted to make sure that we started out with a good source of energy because we find it a pain to pack much food in on a hike.

It had rained the night before so the day started out with low "foggy" clouds, cool temps and high humidity (at least high humidity for our Colorado acclimated bodies) from the rain.

Nathaniel, who is the most enthusiastic hiker, set out with his backpack, walking stick and his Indiana Jones type hiking hat! The rest of us just made sure we had our hiking boots on and jeans to protect us from snakes and tarantulas!

I will admit, although I am usually a person who thrives on adventure and plows ahead without thought of danger, I was a bit nervous on our first trek into the mountains of Mexico. For one thing, we could not find any reliable information as to what the tropical animal and arachnid threat might be. There are no signs at the trail head stating that this area has mountain lions or rattle snakes and how to prepare and look for these dangerous things. There is nothing but a rugged, barely used steep trail heading down the mountain towards the river. Another thing is the obvious drug cartel activity in the mountains of Guerrero. Would we find dead bodies from a drug cartel massacre? Would we run into a cartel camp? Would a boa constrictor be dangling from a tree as we walked by ready to wrap itself around our children? Would we fall down a steep precipice and, without cell phones, not be able to get help? Would we meet "lions and tigers and bears" (oh my!)???

 We had planned on praying together as a family prior to leaving but in all the scurrying around we had forgotten. As we were walking I quietly began to pray for God's protection and most importantly wisdom in this new land where we don't know what to expect or what we might run into. We don't want to live in fear but we also want to be extremely wise as we explore our new country!

The beginning part of the trail is gently sloped downward as the sight and sounds of people began to disappear. There were only cactus, flowers and occasional donkeys as we left the human population behind!

One of the first things we began to discover is an incredibly new flora and fauna. Nathaniel and Bethany spotted a whole field of their beloved "sensitive plant" that was $4 a tiny pot at the local green house in Loveland! They had such fun discovering the plant growing naturally in the tropical climate of Mexico!

We also discovered beautiful and very unusual bugs. Everything in Mexico seems to be colorful and the bugs are no exception. This bug is gorgeous in its amazing colors! We haven't a clue what it is but we enjoyed watching it for awhile.

The descent towards the river was very steep and I was very concerned that someone would fall. We all bought some of the best hiking shoes before leaving Colorado but even so, the trail was covered in wet fallen leaves, loose dirt, and rocks! At some places it was so steep and so narrow that we couldn't put two feet together on the trail but had to inch forward with one foot always in front of the other! We slowly climbed downward as we heard the rushing river below us!

Along the way the path widened a bit and we were able to enjoy the hike a bit more as we trekked onward. As we headed ever downward we saw the remains of a large stone wall on our right, so we veered off our main trail and went to explore the ruins of some ancient building!

At this point Bethany was beside herself. For one thing, for Bethany and me as writers, our imagination is vivid and active wondering what adventure and ancient story is beyond every bend in the trail! When we saw these ruins we instantly thought, AZTEC ruins! Gary and Nathaniel brought logic into our thinking as they inspected the materials and said that they weren't ancient enough to be Aztec ruins. Regardless, it was incredible to find huge stone remains from some type of several century old building.

Bethany kept saying how incredible it was and how this was the greatest, most amazing hike! Typically Bethany is the one who is less than enthusiastic about expending unnecessary energy and therefore, hikes don't appeal to her very often.

One thing that struck me, as both Nathaniel and Bethany nearly shouted with joy, is the fact that most people thought we were "torturing" our children to take them away from the comfort and affluence of America and move to Mexico! I mentioned this supposed "torture" to them among their screams of delight! They emphatically stated that they absolutely LOVE living in Mexico! As if it weren't obvious by their enjoyment of every moment of our life here!

As soon as we began exploring the remains of the stone wall, Bethany also discovered massive groves of her "polka dot plant" that she had a small version of in Loveland! This pretty pink spotted plant was totally surrounding the trail like rose petals surrounding a bride's walk up a church aisle! It was so amazing to see these large plants that again, we paid $4 for a tiny one in the Loveland greenhouse! Living in a tropical country is incredible!

Along the path there were huge bushes of bright and beautiful flowers as well as very interesting smaller wildflowers.

We left the ruins of the stone wall and headed back towards the river. When we finally went over the last and most narrow part of the trail we found ourselves among the rocks and cool air of a breathtaking river!

The rocks were colorful and had been made smooth by centuries of river water rushing over them.

One of the first things that we did was take our shoes and socks off and wade in the river.

Nathaniel and Bethany found a section by a water fall that was waist deep and as they were exploring this area, Nathaniel fell in! He then proceeded to coax the rest of us to experience what he did so Bethany and I followed him into the area below the waterfall and enjoyed a little mid afternoon swim in our jeans! (We discovered that it is not the most comfortable thing to hike back up a mountain in soaked and heavy jeans!)

We stayed at the river for a while, enjoying the serenity and the beauty of the area. 

There wasn't any sign of human exploration just the peace and beauty of God's creation!







After our time at the river we headed on another trail that went up the mountain on the opposite side from where we had gone down.  As we hiked on the opposite side of the mountain than we had come into the river, we were on such a steep precipice that at times we had to crawl up using our hands to grasp at rocks and climb up inch by inch. It was the steepest hike that we have ever been on and much more mirrored rock climbing at this point than hiking!

After what seemed like hours, we emerged onto the highway and were able to walk the long way back to our house on steep but stable ground!

Once we walked into our front door we all rushed for the showers and then relaxed with a bowl of coconut ice cream! What a fun adventure!

As far as dangers, we did not see anything remotely dangerous. This does NOT mean that the risks do not exist and that we can just go romping through the forests willy nilly. But it did prove to put to rest some of our fears and helped us to realize that the mountains in front of our house are accessible to us as exploration and hiking grounds! This is such a joy and blessing to our family!