Prismas Basalticos

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Prismas Basalticos

  Last weekend we went to see one of Mexico`s 13 natural wonders (see the other 12 at the bottom of my letter): the Prismas Basalticos (Basalt Prisms). These formations are about 1,5 hours drive away from Mexico City, in San Miguel Regla (state Hidalgo).

Humboldt`s sketch

  Looking at pictures on the internet, I thought these rocks are in the woods, but actually the place is very "touristicated" - a park is built around the rocks (entrance fee is 50 pesos) with nice lawn, swimming pool, boating lake, horse riding and of course, souvenir shops.
  The Prismas Basalticos is actually a revine with 30-50 meters high hexagonal basalt columns on both sides. This strange rock formation was created millions of years ago by the slow cooling lava. It is interesting that Humboldt visited this place when traveling in Mexico in 1803 and made sketches of it, that can be seen today in the Natural History Museum in London. Until Humboldt, these unique rock formations were known only to the local people. Today, the Prisms and its municipality town, Huasca de Ocampo are the part of "Pueblo Magicos" (Magical Towns) - a campaign founded by the Ministry of Tourism to develop and propagate less known, but charming places in Mexico -, and 4,5 million (!) people are visiting annually.

   And we were two of these millions this year... from the parking lot, we found a bridge going over the ravine, giving an overall (and breathtaking) view of the prisms. From the bridge, there is a paved road going around the souvenir shops which led us to a staircase going down the ravine. Before going down, we took the Tyrolean over the ravine. I haven`t had Tyrolean since high school, it was so much fun and the rocks looked amazing from above!

The prisms from the Tyrolean

   In the ravine, there is not only these rocks, but there are 3 waterfalls as well, making the scenery more divine. Down in the ravine, among the 30-50 meters tall rocks, one can really feel their size! It was quite hot (28 C), so the water spray of the waterfalls felt nice.

The ravine

   As that weekend the swimming pool area was closed due to a party or wedding, we walked around in the ravine and then took a horse to go around. We saw a path down the ravine and wanted to go there, but on the way the horses bolted (there were blasts in the near silver mines), so we decided to go back.

One of the waterfalls

   Although it is close to Mexico City and the excursion can be made within one day, we stayed for the weekend and stayed in Huasca de Ocampo for one night. Huasca de Ocampo is only minutes away from the Prismas Basalticos. This small town (the population is less than 1000 people) is very charming with its cobble streets, the main square with full of green and the houses around it. Coming from Mexico City, the prices seemed ridiculous - our lunch (trout with salad, tacos and sincronisadas, juice) for two was 130 pesos! Also, we found a good leather shop, where we bought cowboy boots and leather belts very cheap. The town is fun to walk around, there are many handicraft shops, a mercado and some restaurants. Although tourism seems to be a great part of the economy here, it is not yet really "touristicated", the people are not pushy to buy things etc. The whole town felt like a real countryside town and we could experience it without feeling ourselves as tourists.

The town of Huasca de Ocampo

With a puma @ Tuzoofari

 On the way back on Sunday, we stopped by at a safari (Tuzoofari) near Pachuca. (We saw a promotion of it at the prisms on Saturday.) The entrance fee was only 50 pesos, so we thought we couldn`t lose much. The safari was surprisingly fun! As it turned out, the animals here were held privately first, and it became open to the public only a few years ago. Considering it as a private collection, the 250 species and 1000 animals were an astonishing collection! The fun of this safari was that the animals were much used to the people (and cars) and weren`t shy to come close. It is called Tuzoofari I think, because it is a mix of zoo and safari - the carnivores (lions - there were 3 white lions! -, tigers, mountain lions etc.) were in railed off places so people had to get off the cars to see them. For one, it may seem nice to get off the car sometimes, for other, it may be troublesome... but definitely it was a unique structure.

First they are nice...

...but then they demand their share of carrot.

  This was our first time in Hidalgo state, and the scenery was very interesting - especially on the way back (when we didn`t take the highway) we saw a lot of cactus (Mexicans eat not only the fruits of cholla cactus or opuntia, but its leaves as well) and agave fields.

Typical Mexican scenery - donkey with agaves

 (For more pics, click on the main title above!)

*The 13 Natural Wonders of Mexico:

1) Barranca del Cobre /Copper Canyon (Chihuahua)

2) Biosfera del Cielo /El Cielo Biosphere Reserve (Tamaulipas)

3) Canon del Sumidero /El Sumidero Canyon (Chiapas)

4) Cuatrocienegas /Cuatrocienegas oasis (Coahuila)

5) El Arrecifal /El Arrecifal  coral reef ecologial park(Veracruz)

6) El Pinacate /El Pinacate desert (Sonora)

7) Sanutario de la mariposa Monarca /The Monarch Butterfly sanctuary (Michoacan)

8) Paisajes Agaveros /The agave landscapes (Jalisco)

9) Pantlanos de Centla /The Centla wetlands (Tabasco)

10) Pena de Bernal /The Pena de Bernal monolith (Queretaro)

11) Prismas Basalticos /Basalt Prisms (Hidalgo)

12) Sotano de las Golondrinas /The Sotano de las Golondrinas sinkhole (San Luis Potosi)

13) Xel-Ha/ Xel-Ha marine park (Quintana Roo)
 (more details in this HP: http://www.explorandomexico.com/about-mexico/5/9/)