Journey through Sierra Gorda mountains

SIERRA GORDA, Queretaro--We've been through this kind of harrowing journey before. The kind where in order to get to the destination we've had to drive through hours of sharp twists and turns, climbing higher and higher along Mexico's mountainside. Each time has been an adventure, but this time was definitely the most scenic.

Perhaps the other times (on a bus with a weak stomach and in the back of a truck driven by two cops with machine guns) I was a little distracted to look out the window.

But in the Sierra Gorda region, I was stunned by the beauty of all the ecosystems we passed (desert, jungle, cloud forests, etc.) I kept wanting to stop to take photos, but sometimes the shoulder-less winding roads by the cliffs made it hard to pull over. Whenever we had a chance, though, we jumped out and soaked up the magnificence of the mountains. Each mile became more beautiful, more surreal.





As the sun went down and a fierce rain came, the drive became even more of a challenge. Temperatures dropped and suddenly we were driving through a cloud forest with about 10 feet of visibility (it also didn't help that our rental car had weak headlights!). I kept shrieking to Jeremy, "Don't look to the sides!" If he had looked to the sides like I did, he would have not been able to see anything but a white thickness. The scary part was that I knew we were right by the edge of the mountain.

Just as we thought we couldn't last much longer on the crazy road, a sign announcing our hotel popped up. We made it, and the breathtaking views definitely made the wild trek and my mild motion sickness :( worthwhile.