Yesterday we woke up at 5am and headed out on a hike to Cerro Chivo, one of the highest spots on this side of the lake.
We met our friend in La Zarzamora, who wanted to help us find a cave that is somewhere near Cerro Chivo where a bearded serpent lives (or so they say…).
We drove up the mountain until the road got too bad for the van, and then started out on foot. It was about a four mile hike to the top of the mountain, through beautiful green forest. The climate at this higher elevation (10,650 feet) was just different enough to allow it to be much greener than the Bosque throughout the rainy season. Tall oaks and pines mostly, with a few tempanos (sp?). We need to head back when the tempanos have seeds so we can try growing that near-native here.
Some maps of where we hiked:
We also discovered this cool plant (fideo, or noodle):
We need to head back in a month or so to get seeds for that plant. Is good to use as a decoration! And it looks really cool crawling up the plants.
Unfortunately, we never found the opening to the cool cave that’s supposed to be up there. But we were thrilled to find such amazing views of the lake and surrounding towns. It was a bit hazy, so the photos aren’t as spectacular as they could be on a clear day, but we got some good shots. Lots of Mexican grass to tromp through on the way up to the summit, and probably the best view we’ve found yet on this side of the lake:
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