Exploring Huasteca’s wonderful waterfalls
Guadalajara has several very well organized clubs specializing in outdoor activities like hiking, camping and mountain-climbing. These clubs offer excursions every single weekend of the year and their members get to see natural marvels that most tourist guidebooks never mention (except my book, Outdoors in Western Mexico, of course!). Some of these groups have been around for a long time, so today’s members benefit from discoveries of little-known sites made by other members decades ago. This year, three of the biggest clubs are celebrating their anniversaries. CEO (Cuerpo de Exploradores de Occidente) is 75 years old, Grupo Montañista Colli is 50 and Club Excursionista Huicholes Jalisco is celebrating its 41st anniversary.
A mere 23,000 years ago, the Primavera Caldera housed a big lake and was the site of frequent volcanic eruptions and pyrotechnical explosions. Today the lake has been replaced by woods, but the Primavera’s hot rivers remind us that there is plenty of thermal activity just below the surface.
Recently my canyoneering friends – members of the group Jalisco Vertical – decided to rappel all the waterfalls of the Jalpa River as it passes through Aquetzalli Canyon, close to the town of Chiquilistlán, located 65 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara. Although I’m not a canyoneer, I decided to tag along hoping to catch up on my writing in full view of a spectacular cascade where I could periodically cool off in a deep pool of deliciously refreshing, clean water. After all, the word Aquetzalli, I was told, means “crystal-clear water” in Nahuatl.