Real de Catorce

A Mexican Ghost Town (sort of)

What better place to go on Halloween than an old mining town... a semi-ghost town.
We left Monterrey on Saturday morning, and less than four hours later, we reached what we think is the world's longest cobblestone road. Using our odometer, we believe that it was over 24 km of really nicely paved cobblestone. Why? We're not sure, but we were pretty much "shaken to death" (a direct Chinese translation!).

The cobblestone road.


It kept going and going...

and going (I'd put more photos, but looking at them was as boring as driving on it!).

We then reached what must be the world's longest one-way tunnel. We were stopped for a bit outside of this tunnel because of the one-way-ness of it, and people hounded us with their wares - including one little girl who basically stuck her face to our "haven't-been-washed-for- 3-months" car! The businesses that were on this side of the tunnel mainly consisted of the use of their "banos" for 3 pesos. It seemed very lucrative.

Right before the tunnel - Welcome to Real de Catorce!

The start of the tunnel.

Waiting at the tunnel.
They finally got bored of our car and went to ones behind us.
The girl in pink was the one who almost licked our car clean...

Yay! Bathrooms WITH water. Only 3 pesos!

In the one-way tunnel!

Yay! The light at the end of the tunnel!

At the other end of this never-ending tunnel was a hodge-podge of chaotic noise and people and cars. It was really the first time we felt like we were really in Mexico. We had reached Real de Catorce.

This cop was there the whole day directing the VAST amounts of cars
into the tiniest parking lot.

We stayed in Hotel Real, which is owned by an American couple. It was a pretty little place with courtyard space, and free movies! We found another place up by the old bullring that looked really nice too - maybe we'll stay there next time.

The Hotel Real

It was REALLY cold, and only October. We walked around, ate at an AWESOME Italian place - we had FRESH fettucine and good but cheap wine!!!! We met a lot of sheep, cute donkeys, and also some strange folk selling lots of voodoo-ish things. Luckily Kris was with me when some guy tried to sell me peyote - I just thought it was pretty! :)

There isn't much going on in this town - there are a ton of people hawking a lot of junk, but it seems like a popular destination, maybe because of the church where someone saw St. Francis de Assisi's image.

It's this popular that truckloads of people are basically shipped in.
There were about 20 of these trucks when we left on Sunday.

Buy! Buy! Buy!

Video games in a tent.

Anyone want some *fresh* meat from this butcher's shop?

Some of the many "dulces" that are sold in the market.

Of course, you also have to have elote (corn) with chili!

Sunday morning breakfast at the local taco stand.
(We were asked about 50 times whether we wanted gorditas.)

The famous church in town - apparently this side altar is quite popular

cause the image of St. Francis de Assisi appeared here one time.

I think this dog watches over the town.

There are also plenty of chances to ride horses, but driving the car on the cobblestoned, narrow and steep roads was enough for us. We spent the night trying to keep warm in our room, watching The Mexican. Yep, we watched Julia Roberts & Brad Pitt in a movie in the town it was filmed!

I guess no one else was coming down this street.
Notice Kris' awesome parking job.

"Want to go horseback riding?" (We must have been asked that about 50 times.)

The narrow and steep cobblestone streets of Real de Catorce.

They were REALLY steep streets!