Potrero Chico Day 1: 25 Dec 2015

Christmas Day in Mexico!

Arriving at interpret airport we were already pretty exhausted but with the anticipation of entering a whole new place a childlike excitement began to stir in our hearts.

I always like to watch our bags unload from the airplane window. Commentating on how the luggage handlers throw our stuff around and what they’re probably thinking. In this case our Northface bag came out third and we imagine the airport personnel saying “oh there’s a climber” and then the Patagonia bag after us “oh that’s probably another climber.” We all seem to have very trademark tastes when it comes to gear.

Once we deplaned and entered into the customs area, Adam starts playing “spot the climber.” Within a few seconds we spotted about 10 climbers from our flight. 3 of which were a family that we are actually friends of our friends that we came to meet.

Finding a Ride

Our friends Adam and Andrea had arranged a pick up for us because getting to Potrero Chico can sometimes be hit or miss with the drivers. Even though Potrero Chico is noted as a common vacation spot for Monterrey big city people, it’s still a small town and not easy to navigate to. Andrea told me they gave a $200 peso deposit for the driver so we didn’t want to just grab a random cab so as not to lose the deposit.

We started chatting up other climbers that were also waiting for rides or friends. Thus began the elimination game. First there was Todd, but he got a ride pretty quick so he abandoned us.

Then we moved onto Mike from LA- he had a snowboard – so obviously we had to talk to him.

WHO BRINGS A SNOWBOARD TO MEXICO?!

Someone interesting – obviously! He was waiting for a couple friends from Indiana who were doing a 17 week road trip, and they coordinated their trip to rendezvous in Mexico.

GO time

By the time his friends, Mark, Emma and their dog Misha (he’s like a stripper: you can enjoy his company just don’t touch him – especially his face) had arrived, our ride still hadn’t come… And Mark offered to drive us so….. “OK! Let’s go! ”

It turned out to be the awesomest find- your- own- adventure ride ever! We did pretty good in terms of navigating. Thanks to Emma.  We only had a couple of missed turns which was really easy to backtrack because every 5 ok had its only unique smell. First there were sulphur under tones. Then that of a earthy horse manure kind. Transitioning into sewage and finally burning tires. We were able to turn around just past the smell of burning tires where we missed out turn somewhere between the sewage and horse manure smells. It was an olfactory experience!

We finally arrive in hidalgo after about an hour and we stopped to get so carne Assad in tortilla wraps. Amazing. For 35 pesos each. But somehow it went up to 140 pesos for 4 which he came me 20 pesos in change… I am now realizing my math was off and I was short changed. Oh well it’s Christmas?

It was so awesome to finally reach our camp ground La Posada! Where Adam and Andrea were waiting for us! Apparently the cab they sent and pre paid never actually went to get us so they felt really bad but were able to get their deposit back. Lucky for us we ran into Mike, Mark and Emma! (which we offered gas money but they held our friendship ransom via future promises of beer.)

Good Night Potrero…

Adam and Andrea fed us some tortillas with a bean and egg and veg filling and local hot sauce and we all called it a night as it was nearing 24:00hrs. Tomorrow when we awake…. We shall see the mountains of Potrero Chico.