Etzatlan, Mexico (day 5)

What a busy day we had yesterday! We had the use of Bonnie's car for the day, and we were going to the ruins at Tuechitlan. But near there was the road turning off to Piedras Bolas, so Ruth came up with the idea that we should return there to complete the hike we tried to do last Monday.

The signs say it's a 5 km (3 mile) hike each way to the boulders. We arrived at the parking area at 10:50am and set out. Won't post any pics from the first part of the hike because you can see them in last Monday's post.

No, she didn't go any further than this!

On Monday, we had made it as far as the first zip line. It turns out there's another zip line, and then a cable bridge. You're supposed to have a harness attached to the cable bridge, so Ruth didn't go any further than where she is in the pic! 

Arriving at the "interpretive center", although this looked more like a caretakers building that hasn't been used in years.

Ruth at the amphitheatre.

We still had to hike a ways to get to the boulders. There are approximately 80 of these large boulders that were apparently formed when volcanic lava was shot high into the air and then cooled before landing. However there are other possible explanations, so the geologists remain uncertain as to their origin.

We finally made it to the Piedras Bolas!

There are apparently several more of the boulders supported on a bed of compressed volcanic ash like this one, but you have to hike another half hour to get to them, and we had seen enough.

Starting on the long hike back. You can see part of the road we are on near the top left corner.

Too funny. The things you see in the middle of nowhere!

Made it back to the car at about 2:40pm so we were gone three hours and fifty minutes. It was a pretty strenuous hike and our legs were tired! But we still wanted to go see the ruins at Teuchitlan. These ruins are different than most in Mexico because they are built in a circular patter. There is a museum in town related to these ruins, but I had read there is a new museum closer to the ruins themselves, so we went there first.

The new museum...but it doesn't open until December!

But the new museum wasn't open yet. We spoke to one guy who said it was supposed to open LAST December, and there hasn't been much progress since then so everybody we spoke to said they'd be surprised if it did actually open next month. We ended up visiting the ruins, and then going back into town to find the museum there.

Kevin in front of one of the circular structures.

The Guachimontones ruins site.

This is what the circular structures look like BEFORE excavation!

Some of the figurines found during excavation at the ruins site. These are actually replicas, with the originals now on display in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

We walked around the town of Teuchitlan. It's a nice town, very clean and with a pretty central plaza. We had an ice cream for 10 pesos (78 cents) each, and it cost 5 pesos each to enter the museum. The ruins site was free. A pretty cheap day!

Ruth in the central plaza of Teuchitlan.

The church itself was nothing special, but we thought it had an interesting steeple.

We were tired when we arrived back at Sherman around 5:10pm, and we were in bed asleep just after 10:00pm. I think today will be a relax day!