Cobbles

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While we were avoiding the rain in Doctor Arroyo, we discovered a physio / sports massage centre just round the corner from our hotel. We treated ourselves to an hour long massage each as a late Christmas present to ourselves. It involved a heated blanket over the back, electrode simulation of the back, massage gun on back and legs, hands on massage of back and legs, a wonderful neck manipulation and a compression device on the legs. Brilliant.

We left town as the grey skies were breaking up and making way for sunshine again. We had not gone far before we came across a vehicle waiting for us at the roadside. Their family has spotted us a few days earlier. They were keen for a selfie to report back on our progress. They kindly gave us a bottle of Pepsi and some snacks.

We enjoyed the downhill profile of the morning and stopped at the first snack stall we found. It was bustling inside and was quite a destination for people to stop off at on recreational drives. 

Whilst eating our fill we chatted to a couple who recommended that we visit Real de Catorce; an old Spanish mining town. A quick check of the map revealed that it would not be too far to detour to visit it. The first part was a dirt road that quickly made its way into tarmac. 

We were feeling very pleased with ourselves until we reached the turn to Real de Catorce itself.

The road up was rough cobbles. Uphill. For 25km. Unrideable on our loaded bike. Our morale took a nose dive. We had already detoured to reach that point and were depressed at the idea of missing out on visiting the town and an even longer detour to get past it.

A motorcyclist came down the hill and we confirmed with him that it was cobbles the whole way. He had excellent English and we had a good chat with him. While we were talking, a pickup truck turned into the road. I stuck my thumb out and the motorcyclist negotiated the lift for us. We took the bags off and threw them in the back and lifted the bike in - amazingly it was a perfect fit diagonally in the back. We climbed in with the bike and off we went. We were quickly at the top and could not believe our eyes when we went through a 2.5km tunnel to reach the town centre. From the depths of despair to high elation (and elevation) in the course of 30 minutes.

Next day we explored the town. Full of narrow, steep cobbled streets. A fantastic church devoted to St Francis of Assisi. There is a whole room full of painted messages of thanks for interventions that 'panchito' had made on their behalf.

Great museum / cultural centre with unbelievable embroidered Indian artworks. As well as some interesting b+w photos from the town's days during the mining era.

(Zoom in if possible to try to see the level of detail)

Our route from the summit went down a gorge westwards. It was steep and cobbled. We walked 7.5km bouncing the tandem along being passed every few minutes by jeeps carrying tourists. These were filled with families including seats on the roof and standing room on the back. All on a rough road with a steep drop off on one side. Health and safety was not in evidence.

Eventually got down onto tarmac again and started getting south towards San Luis Potosi. We kept having to talk about what had just happened over the course of the past 36 hours as we could hardly believe it was real. 

We had a great camp among the cacti and continued southwards.

The highlight of the day was arriving in Charcas which looked like it was going to be sleepy (as it was the morning of New Year's Day). How wrong we were. Firstly we met Pedro who invited us into his home, filled our water bottles, let us use his bathroom and showed us his delightful walled garden. Next up, we did some shopping and Hector, the store owner, was delighted to meet us as he had seen us on Facebook! 

We found a gordita stall in the town centre and ate our fill. As well as the customary selfies as we left they presented us with three free gorditas to take with us. 

Finally, we were entranced by the town square with its church, Christmas decorations and town name which wasa work of art.

The fun did not stop there as we passed through two other towns which had a significant church and bustling town square where we met some great folk.

We had another camp in the cacti before heading into San Luis Potosi to stay with Alonso who is hosting us for 2 nights.

We have started a shared Google Photos album where we will put additional photos that we don't use in the blog or on Instagram. The link to it is: https://photos.app.goo.gl/p8J9ERd7iN2bGiZy9

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