WF MD Jonny continues along the Central Mexican Horse Ride...
The trail did become somewhat precarious as we left the town and headed into the hills. Travelling as we are just after the rainy season the foliage along the narrow path was thicker than the vaqueros – our accompanying cowboys – had expected and required a fair use of the machete to make a route viable. Not only that but the wind had whipped up, which swirled around us with persistent ferocity. If we had been in any doubt we were in for an adventure, this first ride had made it very clear we were in for an interesting time.
But as is often the way on such trips, little by little both the group and the team providing the back-up settled into the rhythm of the trail and pretty soon we were all loving the adventure. The horses were among the best I have ever ridden, sure-footed and responsive, the camps were comfortable, and the landscapes majestic.
On the third morning, with the wind long gone and a brilliant sun shining down from a clear sky, we rode up through a forest of oak towards El Misterio del Chorro. As the highest point in the state of Guanajuato from the top wild views over the whole of central Mexico can be gained. We rode up to the nearby pass where we stopped to explore an old coral and adjoining cemetery that 200 years ago had been used by revolutionaries as a hideout and place from which to launch their attacks and bury their dead. It’s a spiritual place that is also said to be the hiding place of buried treasure.
From here we rode on down the other side, had a beer in a small homestead (that looked like somewhere out of Breaking Bad: broken cars, scrawny chickens, a donkey) before continuing on to the campsite. Here we swam in a nearby stream and then had dinner by the campfire under a star-studded sky.
One of the unexpected highlights of the trip has been the inclusion of Don Lois, a tiny mariachi – or wandering troubadour – who has been travelling with us from the start. Each night as we sit around the fire he sings us songs about horses, about love, about Mexico. He’s a dead ringer for a pocket sized Lee Marvin, with a huge moustache, raggedy cloths and a giant sombrero, and he has become the much loved mascot of the trip.
Horse riding adventures are wonderful anywhere in the world, but here in Latin America where the culture of the cowboy – the Gauchos in Argentina, the Chagras in Ecuador and the Vaqueros here in Mexico – is so strong they are even more special. Just for a week, by travelling with them and getting to know them we learn something of their lives which haven’t changed much in a hundred years or more.
And that’s a real privilege.
