La Chole Archeological Site

I visited Xihuacan,  "a Mesoamerican archeological site located on the Costa Grande of the Mexican state of Guerrero, near the small town of La Soledad de Maciel, and the larger towns of Zihuatanejo and Petatlán." ~wiki

I started my journey at the bus station in Zihautanejo on Las Palmas Avenue.  As luck would have it the bus station was right next to my hotel.  When I got on the bus I told the driver I was going to La Chole. Some locals informed me that no one would know what I was talking about if I asked to go to Xihuacan.  I got off the bus where the driver told me to and paid my 30 pesos.  

At the bus stop I was going to catch a local truck to the museum.  But while I was waiting a man came up on a motorcycle and offered his guide services. 

My "guide" tried to take me to the site on the back of his motorcycle.  I declined that ride.  Then he came back in a car and offered to be my tour guide and ride for 400 pesos. I declined again but eventually I got his his price down to 250 pesos.

The guide first drove to the ball pit and then to the pyramid site.  He gave me some good information but spent about half of time telling everyone who would listen how much I had paid him.  He must have assumed I could not understand his spanish. He was in a big hurry and wanted to take me away from the pyramid too soon,  so I paid him and agreed to meet him down at the museum where he would give me a ride back to the bus stop on highway 200 where he had picked me up. 

Once he was gone I had the pyramid to myself for a little bit.  I took lots of pictures then started my walk to the museum.  I turned the wrong way on the road but I soon figured it out and got myself headed in the right direction.

When I reached the area of the ball pit again, I met a lovely family who is building a house right next to the ballpit.  They offered me a seat and some ice water.  I had a brief conversation with the woman they were building the house for. It was hard to communicate due to the language barrier and google translate was not much help.  Still it was so great to meet that lovely family. 

Eventually the dusty road led me to the museum.  A lot of cars and motorcycles that were going very fast passed me during my walk to the museum.  I felt like I was out in the middle of no where and did not know how safe I was, but everything turned out just fine. 

I toured the museum by myself as my "guide" was working on his car.  The car he was supposed to drive me back to the bus stop in.  He said he would have it running soon.   Soon it was running after being started on compression.  As soon as the car was started the guide saw more people headed to the museum so he turned off his car and rushed into the museum to try to sell souvenirs.  

 

When he was done trying to sell stuff he motioned me to his car got in and tried to start it.  The car would not start.  So I took the local truck bus back to the main bus stop instead.  The truck bus took 20 pesos, that seemed a bit quite high and I wonder if i was charged a gringo price for that short ride.

It was an interesting ride anyway.  The truck was packed half full with toilet paper and there was very little room to sit.  Two nice people moved over to let me sit down. Two people on the truck were wearing uniforms that said "neeto" or something like that on them.  It is the name of a store.  I took a could of photos of the view out of the truck but it seemed to annoy the locals riding the truck so I stopped. 

The Bus station 

My ride to the bus stop where I waited for a truck to take me to La Chole

My ride to the pyramid

My ride to the to the pyramid broken down outside of the Museum. 

My ride back to the bus stop

My ride back to the main bus stop

 

Kamilchee Ridge

 

My first time back to this area since we got back to the states.  This was the first hike I did with my new handmade backpack and also the last hike I did before my husband died.  I also got bit by a dog on that hike, my husband was confused and I could not convince him it was a dog bite and not a tick bite.

So lots of memories here.  I put track logs and fresh batteries in my GPS(r) a day or two before.  I was not sure if I still new the way after all this time.  I must have left my GPS(r) on so when I got to the start of my hike the batteries were dead.  

I thought about  going back home to get batteries but,  I opted to use my phone and I had no trouble with navigation.  My phone battery went almostdead very fast, before I knew it, it was down to 20%.   I had upgraded to IOS 16 the night before and it was hogging up my battery indexing stuff I determined when I got home and did a web search.

When I got the the top of the hill, I suddenly was hit with another memory.  I had been sitting in my lunch spot up here when Air New Zealand called me to finalize some details of my second flight to New Zealand to be with the love of my life.  My love who dumped me after I gave up EVERYTHING to be with them. 

 It was one year ago last week that I saw her for the very last time.  I'm still not sure what happened. The more I think about it the more I realize she had some issues with OCD.  I still love her, my heart is still broken.  I'm still bitter and angry.  I want to move on though.

Bella had a good time but she was ready to get in the car and go home at the end of the hike.  She devoured the dogfood I gave her at lunch time.  I'm glad she will eat dogfood instead of just begging for my food.

Bella likes to cuddle at lunch time and that would be wonderful except she won't sit still, so I have to push her away after a bit. 

10 miles 1,000 feet elevation gain according to my phone.

My phone records more miles than my GPS(r) does. 

I use the phone ap Topo GPS.

This road has been widened, that probably means logging in the area soon

Road ends here.  I brush crash to get the the next
road up.  This is a shorter route.

I think these are fried chicken mushrooms Lyophyllum decastes

Lyophyllum decastes I think

She just won't sit still when she cuddles

I was expecting way more snow than this

December days are so dark and dead and dreamy
The sun never really comes up

Lyophyllum decastes I think. 
The mushroom in the above photo is different

Tired dog at the last coffee break

Next are photos from the last hike I did before my husband died and the first hike I did with this pack.