The ghost town of Mineral de Pozos

We actually had a pretty good sleep in the hotel parking lot. There is a lot of heavy truck traffic in that area on the outskirts of the city of San Luis Potosi, and we had been hearing a fair bit of it prior to going to bed. But then in the morning, we each mentioned that we had woken up at some point during the night and it had been perfectly quiet.

We got up and hit the road right away to try and beat some of the traffic, but I'm thinking that the north - south highway 57 never really quiets down.

It's not what you would call a relaxing drive...

Lots of truck traffic.

We laughed at this guy. 

I think it was a fairly light load though.

A little bit of clear sailing through this stretch.

We crossed from the state of San Luis Potosi to the state of Guanajuato.

Then we pulled off the main highway, and drove another 20 kms (13 miles) or so to the town of Mineral de Pozos. I had read that campers are allowed to use the parking lot of the town museum, and when we arrived there, it was empty.

Igor is the only vehicle in the museum parking lot.

Mineral de Pozos is an old mining town that dates back to the late 1500's. At the time, the locals in this area were fighting back against the Spanish colonialism, and so the Spanish built a fort in the area to protect the mining assets. 

By the 1800's, the mines had been depleted, and the town was mostly abandoned. There had been 8,000 people living here at one time, so of course there are a lot of abandoned ruins and that is part of the attraction for visitors.

But oddly, the town still doesn't get many visitors. You can see that they have tried, and are still trying to make it a bit of a touist destination, but even with the nearby expat community of San Miguel de Allende, it doesn't seem to be working. 

We set off on foot to do some exploring...

I don't think there was a cloud in the sky all day!

Corn fields.

This nice little fixer upper is for sale.

Lots of cactus and maguey.

This area looks like it could be a botanical garden.

The maguey plant only blooms once... at the end of its life.

The stalk can grow up to 10 meters high.

Here is one fully in bloom.

We saw a few of these big prehistoric looking grasshoppers.

And a cute burro.

Our destination was the Santa Brigida mine. This is the main mining area where they built the hacienda and fortress, as well as the ovens where they processed the silver. 

The ovens were built in 1595.

The hacienda and ovens are now private property.

I took this photo through the locked gate.

A guy came out to greet us.

He asked if we needed parking, but we told him that we had walked. He directed us around the outside wall, saying the entrance is at the back.

There are a lot of abandoned structures in the area.

I had read that the admission price changes regularly depending on who was there. I was expecting it to be 100 pesos a person, which we thought was too much. A girl came out and said it was 80 pesos per person, and I offered her 100 pesos for the two of us. She asked the guy, and he said no. Okay, no problem. We were quite happy wandering around outside.

There are a lot of very deep mine shafts and tunnels, and none are marked off. 

You have to be careful exploring!

There are a lot of piles of waste rock left over from the mining.

Kevin, with two of the big flowering maguey plants.

We're not exactly sure what this big structure was.

We took the long route heading to the center of town. At one point, I noticed that I was a little out of breath, and we had only been doing a very slight incline. Curious, I checked the altitude app on my phone and was surprised to see that we were at 2,200 meters (7,200'). We haven't been this high up for a while, so it takes some time for your system to get used to it.

This guy must have spent so much on the grand looking entrance gate that he didn't have any money left over for the house!

Church ruins on the outskirts of town.

Church in the center of town.

More ruins.

Side street.

We had done 10 kms (6.2 miles) non-stop so we had a little rest when we got back to Igor. Afterwards, we decided that since we were using the museum parking lot, we had better visit the museum.

I think we were the only visitors today! The last signature in the guest book was from three days ago. We paid the 40 pesos ($2.75 CAD, $1.95 USD) each entrance fee to the young girl at the desk.

Is this the Survivor immunity necklace??

The Spanish arrive to build the ovens.

A little display about the indigenous locals.

The museum is actually quite modern.

They built it expecting lots of visitors, so they have a bunch of small stores available for rent.

Unfortunately they are all vacant because they simply don't get enough visitors.

It's a real shame.

Igor, in his spot for the night.

After dinner, we decided to walk back to the central to see what was going on, if anything. Had to put sweaters on because once the sun goes down it gets a bit chilly. In fact, they are calling for a low of 2C (35F) tonight. That's due to the totally clear skies, and the altitude. In our opinion, it's perfect during the day with a sunshine and a high of about 23C (73F).

The dome of the church is well lit.

Looking in a doorway.

Scenery along the way.

Ruth, and the Mineral de Pozos sign.

Little old lady on the street.

There are a few fancy restaurants on the central plaza.

And another.

There are also a couple of fancy hotels.

Ruth, and some tall cactus.

Arrived back to Igor to find one other vehicle in the parking lot. The local municipal police! I guess we'll be safe here, which I think we would have been anyhow.

Today, we will drive into the city of Queretaro to visit a guy who hosted us in Mexico City in 2012. We haven't seen him since then!

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