Ruta Vertigo: The most terrifying--and exhilarating--five hours of my life...

 

Two lessons I learned in Monterrey when I found my chicken-shit self at the top of a steep mountain about to zip line across a huge chasm in the middle of the night while terrified for my life: (a) be careful what you say yes to, and (b) be critical of your sources. 

The moment of reckoning.

So how the hell did I end up here? That is the exact question I, too, was wondering before I went screaming into the dark.

Cue: Vertigo, by U2.

Here's how it all went down. 

We were getting ready to head to the US and chose our last Mexican stop at the La Huasteca National Park just outside of Monterrey. Driving into the park was a dramatic experience--it was like we were traveling through the folds of a giant origami-ed earth. The mountain peaks towered to the sky in thin slabs that rose near perpendicular to the earth. You got vertigo just looking up.

A typical view in the ecosphere

Vanny, for contrast.

Hiking the nearby Guitarras Canyon (so-named because the mountains rise like guitar strings here).

Close up of the mountains.

Went looking for the petroglyphs that were supposed to be here, but never found them.

We stayed in the gated backyard of a gallery owner's mountain property, the hills rising behind us. The Primitivohotel was under construction, a thousand small projects underway, and served as a sometimes-DJ-party-place as well as a casual drop-in for the owner's friends from the city. 

These locals often stopped by, beer in hand, weed ready to roll, to hang out for a few hours before heading back to the city. Sometimes they were "pre-loading" for a party, even applying a most beautiful rose "perfume", as one near-silent, he-man-sized Mexican man explained to me when I said I smelled flowers. Other times, they were bracing themselves to go to the hospital where their mother was recovering from an operation, or simply to head back to the city.

 

Our van at Primitivo

Our terrifying guard dog:)

Chatting on the half-finished stage, the mountains we will climb behind us.

Nighttime fire

Always, though, our visitors were friendly, generous and hilarious--it was a great way to meet people. They were also very experienced climbers, so when they mentioned doing the via ferrata of the mountain behind us, I said that I'd done one once in Switzerland and it had damn near killed me. They assured me that no, this one was easy. Way easy. And too good to miss.

The peaks hosting the via ferrata.

Then they offered to hook us up with their guide. He'd do it for cheap, they said. A favour, you know.

I have no idea why it never occurred to me to google for more information, or to question what an "easy" scale meant for people who had grown up and climbed these mountains since they were children vs me, who has lived on one of the flattest cities in the world for most of my life. But I didn't. 

It wasn't until afterwards that I even knew the name of the route, "the Vertigo Route", and that it is considered the "most extreme" via ferrata in Mexico.  (When our guide kept repeating "extremo" on our walk up towards the climb, I thought was just some Spanish expression, like "cool" or something. My mistake.)

Our date and hour of departure (a 4:00 that turned into 6:00 pm) was set. And it was only as we were chatting, waiting upon our guides' arrival, that a newly arrived drop-in visitor to Primitivo mentioned: "Well, there is this crazy part about a ladder...." 

That got me a bit nervous, I will admit. 

But within minutes, our guides arrived and we slowly made our way to the old doctor's house, where we would begin our climb up the first peak. We'd been told the guide spoke English, but ... turns out that wasn't quite true. I would have to rely on my (clearly overconfident) Spanish comprehension to scale the biggest mountainside I had ever seen in my life. 

The communal dog house in the village.

Standing at "the doctor's house", an abandoned clinic built into the hillside in the style of the evil villain's Piz Gloria lair in James Bond's In Her Majesty's Secret Service.

First, it was a good twenty-minute slippy scramble up the 45+-degree slope to the base of the cliffs where the via ferrata begins. I was so busy looking at my feet on the climb up that I didn't realize we were at the location until we stopped and I looked up. 

And saw THIS.

The climb begins...

The first three hours were scaling up the cliff in the descending dusk, grabbing onto steel rebar drilled into the mountain, inching our way around the rock face, and doing all sorts of crazy shit that I can barely remember.

On the slope, pausing on a rare ledge.

Up the steel bars.

Peyote - our guide pointed it out on our way upwards. God knows how they harvest it from this cliff.

Crossing the canyon on a single wire. The guide is yelling at me to stop for a photo opp, and all I can say is "Nope." Then he tells me that in Spanish they have an expression that essentially translates to, "in the face of fear, never stop." Yeah, I echo that.

The infamous hanging ladder. You have to turn around and look out from the mountain into the valleys below to climb up, stopping every few feet to adjust your clamps. The ladder (or rather five separate ladders attached together with steel cables) is free hanging, so moves as you do. 

Once at the top, I felt bad about how terrified I had been. But then one of our guides (the main guide's wife) told me that she had climbed the via ferrata 11 times. And every time she got on the ladder she cried, she was so scared. I loved her.

We paused at the peak to share some granola bars and Gatorade, watching the stars come out over the mountain.

Then came the hard part: we had to get down. The good news? It wouldn't take as long as getting up. The bad news? We'd be descending into the dark. Specifically, we'd be riding a zip line 200 metres from one cliff top to another, landing on a 2 by 4 ledge, then rappelling down 200 metre drops in the pitch darkness to another 2 by 4 ledge (feeling for it in the dark), only to rappel ANOTHER 200 metres, then navigate our way down (mostly on my ass, admittedly) that same 45-degree slope covered in scree.

Pushing off the rock face...

Screaming all the way.

Rappelling down into the blackness.

It was after 11 at night by the time we made it back to the campsite and shared a beer with our amazing guides. And it was hours more before we could fall asleep after all that adrenaline. But I can tell you, as scary as it was, I was riding high for days afterwards.

Then we were rocketing it home. Not much to report on the return. One memorable moment in Texas, was when we stayed under an ancient tree and the Mexican farm hand brought us fresh eggs and okra, just because we spoke Spanish. So if for no other reason than making a Mexican farmer happy, it pays to learn at least a sprinkling of Spanish if you're travelling these parts.

Parked under a tree at a regenerative cattle farm.

Our gift of eggs and okra

We've now been home for awhile and are figuring out our next move. Vanny has been repaired and is running steady, but the price of diesel has made long drives much more expensive. 

I'll spend the next week or so summarizing the best books we read/listened to on our travels, and those I'd recommend you look into if you ever plan on visiting central America. I meant to do it while traveling but there were too many adventures to tell you about! I should also have an update on our next travel plans by the next post as well, so stay tuned.

Take care, and thanks for reading. If you're curious about any links or places where we stayed and want to know more, please contact me directly at nerys@nerysparry.com. 

Happy fall!

Motoring to Mexico City

 

Second to final post on our Central American return trip! Then.... it's off again in October/November for a new adventure (yet to be confirmed), so stay tuned.

Music pick: La Carancia by Panteon Rococo. English translation is "the shortage" and its a great song about the pressures of globalization on the poor in Mexico an how sometimes, you just have to dance it off because that's one thing that's free.

After El Salvador, it was a quick return through our favourite cities: Antigua and Oaxaca before hitting Mexico City--a real highlight.  I already covered a lot of our adventures in our previous posts (click here for Christmas in Antigua and my top 10 for Oaxaca and Chiapas), but here's few highlights from our return trip.

1. Seeing the world's oldest mariachi band in Antigua 

When we stopped by Antigua we went back to the old Vagamundo campsite where we caught up with the old regulars. The campsite now feels like our "home" in a way. 

There was, of course, a festival going. I believe it was a celebration of the birth of the patron saint of Santa Ana (Fiestas Patrias Santa Ana 2026). But I also think that there doesn't always need to be a reason to celebrate in Latin America.

Streets and floors were decorated with petals, recently crushed during a procession. 

Team of twirlers preparing for the upcoming parade.

Street food! Lots of meat now it's no longer Lent.

Just down the street from our campsite is the small village of Santa Ana. The band that was playing was a Mariachi Band that went by the name Los Conejas (the Rabbits). They were established in 1885 and have been going ever since. Check out this single for a taste of Guatemalan heritage.

Ivan also bought his long-coveted machete. Then had to build a duct tape sheath, because we were told it is illegal to drive with an unsheathed machete in Guatemala. Kinda makes sense...

2. Oaxaca prepares for La Guelaguetza 

When we hit Oaxaca, the city was preparing for its biggest celebration - La Guelaguetza, where the 16 cultures from the 8 traditional nearby regions get together for dancing, craft shows and theatres. We were too early to see the actual shows (huge regret, biggest of my travels), but here's a few shots of the city getting ready for this event.

One of the many giant statues in Oaxaca featuring one of the many distinct cultures of the region.

Banners over a square

Dance mural!

Just....wow.

Local getting ready for the festival

So happy to be here!

I just found this gynecological clinic advertising hilarious. Had to share.

Preparing for the parade.

All the traditional street food was for sale around the city. Ivan's new favourite snack - fried ants and grubs. Quite tasty!

3. Mole, Mescal and Tortilla Tasting in Oaxaca

While passing through, we returned to Casa Crespo to try their new mole and mescal tasting. Seven different moles, seven different tortillas, seven different mescals. I won't bore you (or rather torture you) with all the photos, but here are a few just for a "taste". You can see the full list of each unique mole, tortilla and mescal tasted on the website linked above

Mole and mescal tasting! .

This is your classic mole with a plantain and ceremonial tortilla.

Just a cool one - this is made with a base of ground up flying ants (chicatanas)! 

Desert is one heck of a chocolate ice cream.

4. Exploring La Roma in Mexico City

And finally...we landed in the big city. Chingolandia! We had always been a bit nervous to go here. It's just so darn big--over 9.2 million people. Blows your mind. But the city turned out to be one of the safest places I visited during this trip.

I was expecting slums, crammed streets, endless traffic. But instead, we parked an hour away near the pyramids (more on those later), took a cab through the highway and landed at our fancy Air BnB in the La Roma neighbourhood with no problems, or fears, at all.

As seen from the highway. If you look closely, you'll see Tim Horton's! Proof we were getting close to home.

Though we never got to ride one, the city has loads of gondola services (Cabelbus) as part of their public transportation system.

Turns out that we landed in a very trendy neighbourhood. 

La Roma

The La Roma neighbourhood is crammed with eateries and restaurants. Choosing what to eat was honestly the hardest part of every day.

This was Raku Cafe, directly across the street from us, which offered Japanese specialities like this Tamago Sando. I had wanted to try one of these for years. Just never thought my first chance would be in Mexico City!

For those who don't know, our family are serious mushroom foragers. So you can imagine how excited I was to learn there were three mushroom-focused restaurants within a few blocks of our Air BnB. The most famous one offered a tour of the lab before dinner, but it was in the middle of a move so was closed. Still, you can read about the experience and history here. 

Pictured here, where we ate, is Los Loosers, a former biker gang hangout turned vegan restaurant and brewer whose menu focused on mushrooms.

Here's a shot of their beer infused with mushrooms. Surprisingly tasty.

And the mushroom store down the street where they made me a smoothie with mushroom powder. 

View from our rooftop. Note that strange light in the sky. It appeared for about half an hour, then disappeared. Looked like a frozen comet. Next door, they were doing a photo shoot of a person standing on the edge of the building in an angel costume, lit up alternatively in red and blue. It was all a bit surreal. If you look for quotes about Mexico City, you'll see everyone talking about the crazy skies--and they are something to see.

Chapultepec Park

Our neighbourhood was a short walk from Latin America's second-largest park, Chapultepec Park. It's over 2,000 acres and is full of monuments, fountains, restaurants, ruins and museums, and endless paths. We visited here almost every day. 

Welcoming monument at the park's entrance.

The Canadian monument in the park, donated by the Canadian government to Mexico. It's hard to find, tucked away in a quiet field. But they have set it up so you can hang your hammock and just chill, which was kind of nice.

Frieda Kahlo's "Two Friedas" painting in the Museum of Modern Art within the park.

Art display in the garden

Little known fact: Mexican City residents LOVE their dogs. Over half of residents own one. There's a real dog culture here--check out the video. Adorable and adored mutts are everywhere in the city!

5. Visiting Museo Soumaya

After several days walking the park on foot, we realized that we'd see a lot more if we rode a bike. So we picked up a city bike from a nearby Ecobici stand only to discover the park gates were closed. A security guard told us that the park was closed on Mondays, though she'd let us through if we promised to drive straight to the exit. So that's when we decided to cut through and bike to Museo Soumaya.

Riding our bikes down the ring road that circles the park. 

Very cool statue at the end of the bike path.

At Museo Sumaya. This crazy building houses over 60,000 pieces of art from all around the world, including ancient Greece and the great European masters. And it is always free. It was built by a Mexican Billionaire, Carlos Slim, who realized that the average Mexican couldn't go to Europe to see all the great masters, so he brought them here. Very cool building, truly spectacular--if a bit confusing--inside and out.

Top story full of Greek masters redone in plastic interspersed with ancient statues.

Picasso! I swear, everyone was here. Even Kahlil Gibran, my favourite mystic.

The art organization was strange. Pieces were linked by theme rather than by artist, and so you had a whole wall dedicated to Virgin mother pictures with their nipples out. These were separate from Virgin pictures with nipples concealed. Lots of virgin pictures overall.

Here, for example, are paintings of sacred hearts.

And...weird shit pulled from ship wrecks?

6. Eating Street Food (of course)!

So you could spend a month just covering the restaurants in Mexico City. But for Ivan and I, Mexico is all about the street food. So we dedicated one day to just str"eating" it. Yup, I did just write that.

Tacos outside the museum at this super busy intersection.

Hunted this one down, Quesidillas Elinita, for their "famous" tlacoyos (thick, blue corn taco shaped like a football) topped with nopales (cactus) and huitlachoche (corn fungus). The stand has been going since the 70s!

Here they are cooking my tlacoyo!

Fish tacos!

There are not enough exclamation marks in the world for how much I loved the street food. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of my favourite street food, but some tourist did, so I grabbed this from the interne--a Birria Ramen at Tortas Lolo stall. 

Birria Ramen at Torta Lolo

(In all honesty, though, the best we had in Mexico overall was in a town without a name on our way to Monterrey where they served birria quesadillas with a Styrofoam cup of jus. I still dream of those quesadillas.)

Best taco stand in unknown town 

 7. Fight Night Baby!

We couldn't do Mexico City without visiting the Mexico Arena and watching a Lucha Libre, could we? 

Though we had our doubts at first when we read that it was rough around the arena, we walked there and back safely, never once feeling unsafe. Once there, we found out it was a real family event, with everyone wearing masks, women, children and dads. We even got to do a Mexican wave--in Mexico!

At the bar across from the arena

The evening line up.

So many fans were wearing their own masks.

Crazy jumps from the ropes.

More crazy jumps.

The crowd screaming. Hardest part of the fight is figuring out who to cheer and who to boo. I just ended up going by gut when I discovered you could do both for the same team and no one cared.

8. Visiting the Tiotihuacan Pyramids

After a week in the city, we returned to our van, which we had left parked in a tourist town near the city's massive archeological site, Tiotihuacan. 

The trinkets sold everywhere around and within the site were horribly tacky (think: obsidian penises). They were also overpriced. But the site was worth the jacked entrance fee. 

Fun fact: archeologists aren't certain who lived here, since it was built before the Aztec empire. They only know it was likely a multicultural metropolis, with Totonac, Nahua, Otomi as residents alongside several and Aztec and Mayan migrants. At it's peak, this city was likely the largest in the Americas, and maybe even the sixth largest in the world. All to say, this area of the world seems to be a mecca for metropolises.

Avenue of the dead.

Sun temple

Rebuilt murals showing the motifs

Sun temple is MASSIVE

Close up of heads on the serpent temple

This serpent temple was covered up in later centuries when the god when out of style but was uncovered recently.

And that was Mexico City--truly can't say enough about how safe I felt, and how magical the city was with its phenomenal forests and spectacular skies. One morning, I even had a hummingbird fly up to me while I was sitting on the balcony. The bird paused, looked me right in the eye, then flew on. 

Seriously, Mexico City took my breath away. 

“In Mexico City everything returns. The rains and the past and everything in between.”

― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Signal to Noise (Canadian-Mexican author)

That's all for now. See you in the next post, where I'll share the our greatest (and most terrifying) experience of the whole trip. 

Stay tuned!