Last weekend I went to Nevado de Toluca
with our dog, Zorro. Nevado de Toluca is the 4th highest mountain in
Mexico with 4680 meters above sea level. The mountain is great to have an
experience in the thin air of the high altitude as you don´t have to climb a
lot to get there.
There is a road all the way to the crater and you only have to walk 2kms from the parking lot in order to get to the crater lakes. And from there, you can walk for kilometers (to the peaks of the crater which is about 400ms difference in altitude comparing to the lakes which lay on 4200 meters).
There is a road all the way to the crater and you only have to walk 2kms from the parking lot in order to get to the crater lakes. And from there, you can walk for kilometers (to the peaks of the crater which is about 400ms difference in altitude comparing to the lakes which lay on 4200 meters).
As it was January, there was some snow on
the hillsides. As in Mexico, such tall mountains is the only place when one can
see snow, the place was full with people. However, not necessarily the
mountaineer type people, so the whole place was transformed to a “Mexican
tourist spot”; there were horses to take the people to the crater who wouldn´t
be able to walk 2kms in this altitude, sly people sold snacks and drinks (I
guess for triple price than the usual).
The people were crazy about the snow, sliding on the hills with nothing more than a piece of cardboard taped all over so it wouldn´t get wet. I´ve seen people even taking home the 50cm tall snowmen they made. (I wonder how long it lasted…)
The people were crazy about the snow, sliding on the hills with nothing more than a piece of cardboard taped all over so it wouldn´t get wet. I´ve seen people even taking home the 50cm tall snowmen they made. (I wonder how long it lasted…)
It was interesting seeing how people are
crazy about the snow – I guess for a Mexican it is just like going to the sea
for a Hungarian. (We are an inland nation without sea nearby.)
As we bought Zorro, a Welsh Corgi here, in
Mexico, this was the first time for him as well to see snow. As every dog, he
really enjoyed it! I think what he liked most was that it is opportunity for
him to drink anywhere – he was eating the snow like crazy (btw. he loves to
chew ice cubes at home as well), digging in the snow or just lying and cooling
himself. But he seemed to enjoy the snow very well.
We went to the lakes first (where Zorro
took a bath in the half-frozen lake) and then continued further to the peaks of
the crater.
This was the first time we went so far, but despite that the way was quite tough in this altitude (only walking about 2kms and climbing 400ms in altitude it took about 1 hour), the weather was beautiful and the view from above was spectacular!
This was the first time we went so far, but despite that the way was quite tough in this altitude (only walking about 2kms and climbing 400ms in altitude it took about 1 hour), the weather was beautiful and the view from above was spectacular!
As we reached the peak, we (I, because the
dog was running around not caring about such things as thin air and less
oxygen) took a little rest (it was quite cold when you didn´t move), had a
sandwich (of course, Zorro had his own treats as well) and headed back to the car.
By the end, even Zorro got tired (i.e. he
didn`t run that much to the front) and fell asleep immediately we hit the car...
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