Nevado de Toluca

Last weekend we went for a little walk to a mountain close to Mexico City. 

The mountain is called Nevado de Toluca and located about 80 kms to the southwest from the capital. Nevado de Toluca is a vulcano with an altitude of 4680 m, and so it is the fourth highest mountain in Mexico. (After Pico de Orizaba (5636m), Popocatepetl (5426m) and Iztaccihuatl (5230m).) 

It is said that this mountain is a great place to practice for hikers aiming the Himalayas, because it is easy to approach and climb (since Mexico City is already 2200m above the sea level, there is "only" 2400m to climb). There are trails going up from the bottom of the mountain (a trail of 17kms hike), but you can go up to the top by car as well - in this case, there is a fee of 20 MXN and only a 2km walk from the final parking spot to the crater of the vulcano.

There is also a small "shop" on the top, selling water, juice, coffee and snacks for the returning (or leaving) hikers.

The food and drink can be solved so, but it is recommended to bring raincoat and warm clothes to the top, because it is cold over 4000 meters, and the weather can be quite unpredictable in such altitude.

Because we left quite late in the day (noon), we had not much time to walk, so we took a ride all the way to the top. Even the "small" 2km walk was however exhausting with thin air of 4000 meters. It is said that the view is stunning from the top in nice weather. Unfortunately, since this is the rainy season, it was cloudy and too humid to see much of the view, but the view of the mountain itself was still beautiful. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to reach the crater before a huge rain cloud would reach us: there are two lakes on the bottom of the crater, Lago del Sol (Lake of the Sun) and Lago de la Luna (Lake of the Moon). And these lakes do resemble their names: one is almost a perfect circle, such as the Sun, while the other has the shape of the old Moon.

It was also interesting to see in real what we have learned in school: how the fauna changes with the altitude. When we entered the mountain, we could see pine woods all over, but over 3-4000 meters, the trees suddenly disappeared and there was only grass, which as well got thinner as we reached the top.

This time we just "discovered" this mountain, but I`m sure we`ll go back there for more hiking. The road up the mountain is beautiful, with little villages, sheep herds and meadows. And if the weather is nice, I`m sure the view from the top is beautiful. There are also trails down to the lakes, so one can make a good one- (or more) day tour on this mountain.

For more pictures, just click on the main title!