Good thing we're not on a schedule!

We have some more visitors here at the campground. A British guy with two girls from Czechia. All of them currently live in Canada, and driving a car with British Columbia plates.

We were all invited by our hosts to join them on a hike up the mountain where the cable car takes you in Orizaba.

The guy and one of the girls were going rock climbing in another area, but Katerina, one of the girls from Czechia joined in along with us.

Our host family has a big passenger fan, so lots of room for the six of us. We left here just after 10:00am and parked beside a big exercise park in town, and walked to the trailhead from there.

Huge exercise park in Orizaba.

We're really impressed with Orizaba. If we hadn't fallen in love with the area around Valle de Bravo, we would have considered here to have a home base. The only downside is that Orizaba does tend to get more rain... as we were about to experience! In fact, I just looked it up... Orizaba rainfall is almost double that of Valle de Bravo.

They also have a treetop obstacle course in the park.

Christian, Kayly, and Ruth heading up the many steps to the mirador.

It doesn't take long to start to get a view.

More steps!

We are heading to the same place that the teleferico (cable car) goes.

As you can see, it is not a sunny day!

This industrial complex is actually a large brewery.

That brewery is actually now owned by Heineken, and it currently produces Heineken branded beer for the Mexican market as well as Sol and Dos Equis.

We walked under the cable cars.

Orizaba, Veracruz.

Still heading higher.

More stairs.

And more!

Made it to the top!

Kayly, Viviana, Katerina, Ruth, Kevin, and Christian.

Ruth at the mirador overlooking Orizaba.

We decided to take another trail that leads further up the mountain to a peak called Cueva del Aguila (Cave of the Eagle), and of course we were expecting there to be a cave there. The route was not marked on any of our maps, but the trail looked reasonably well traveled.

Looking off the other side of the mountain towards Rio Blanco.

We came across hundreds of silkworms.

It started raining. And, it turned into a bit of a mystery tour. We had the actual peak and name marked on our maps, so we knew how close we were based on the GPS. But we couldn't figure out which trail would take us there. We got to within 20 meters of what should have been the destination, but couldn't get to it! It was a bit frustrating. But it had been a steep climb and we were all getting tired and hungry, so we eventually gave up.

Caught in the rain, but still smiling!

Kevin, Ruth, Kayly, Viviana, Katerina, Christian.

It was wet and foggy up there!

We made our way back down via a steep wet path and it was a bit time consuming because nobody wanted to slip and fall! It was a bit of an adventure! Back in town, we headed straight to a food market where they knew of a fantastic lunch spot.

Made with blue corn tortillas.

My choriza and cheese quesadilla.

This is a local type of gordita. Never seen anything like it!

With full stomachs, we took a free local bus back to the park where their van was parked and made our way home... it was after 5:00pm by the time we made it back to Igor!

Our original three night visit here has been extended... good thing we're not on a schedule!

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