Volcanic Hiking This Week, Pyramids Next

We continue to hike the Guanajuato area, and when our volcanologist friend Dave Tucker visited, we learned a lot more about the volcanic nature of our surroundings.  Now the kids know breccia from ignimbrite, and we see a little more of the geologic story in the mix of rocks.

Last weekend, with Noah at home recovering from a cold, we hiked with Dana and her friend Danae to a feature on our horizon that we call the Balanced Rocks.  The uphill was rather pokey from spiny plants, but once we cleared the ridge it was a wide open traverse to the rocks.

A highlight on the last uphill section was a scattering of bleached white cow bones.  The girls were very scientific in their explorations of them, and very impressed with the thickness and depth of bovine teeth.

Once at the rocks, there were some scrambling opportunities, peanut butter and jelly roll-ups (on tortillas) and a symphony of burro voices discussing who knows what across the hills.  We

 admired more wacky rocks and wished we had Dave with us to explain, then wandered down via a different route which brought us into town and

 our favorite shaved ice vendor before heading home.

Next weekend we're going to climb the pyramids of Teotihuacan north of Mexico City.  The guidebook says the Pyramid of the Sun there is the third tallest pyramid in the world.  With our almost weekly hiking here, we hope we'll have the stamina for that pyramid, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Plumed Serpent as well.  Noah has checked them out on Google Earth, Tom has rented a car and found a campground there, and the kids have Monday off school, so it will be a long weekend of adventure in a new area for us.