Many of you may know my cousin Chato.  His mom is from a small town in Mexico called Huichihuayan, in San Luis Potosi (Mexico's largest state)  My cousin invited us to go to this town and on our way there, Chato tells us a little family history about his mom; my aunt.  From what teh family knows, my aunt is one of around 60 kids!  Holy Cow.... Her dad had some money and went from place to place; evvery where he went, he had a wife....9 wives total.  When we got to Huichihuayan, we met Chato's wonderful and welcoming family; we got to talking and the photos began to come out.

We saw photos of my aunt's dad; Chato's grandpa.  Very tall, pale skin, and big boned; he also had a number of some sor on his forearm shich mad us assume he was in the Holocaust/Jewish concentration camp.  This man is a man of mystery; no one knows his full story, but it's even said that he was friends with Pancho Villa.

Chato's family were so incredibly sweet and made sure we were well taken care of.  Their humble house is steps away from the clearest river I have ever seen. 
This is the river by their house

                                                                                          The man of the house




We made a day trip to a near by town, where we made our way to serenity and creativness.  Edward James from England, bought property in the 80's, in Mexico (in the 80's, if you weren't from Mexico, you couldn't buy property there.)  We think that the property he bought and began to build a castle on, was being taken away, so he donated half of it to the people of the town.  Because he had to give it away, the entire castle was never built, but just so you get an idea of where he built this castle:

There are no other houses by the ruins, the closest house by foot, is around 45 minutes.  So you can imagine how deep in the jungle the castle ruins get, and it goes on and on and on.  There are waterfalls going through the ruins and the place is not a huge tourist attraction, so it's touchable, like a big playground.  You climb up the waterfall to a lookout tower; in the summer, kids go down the slippery rocks like a slide, and you can even climb the stairs that Edward James named "Stairway to Heaven."  These ruin, in Brendan's words "are like an art project."  There are lot and lots of stairs, everywhere and when sitting by the waterfall, the leaves on the nearby tree flutter in the sunlight and as small as that may seem within the big scheme of nature, in this place, it is magical!



Chato's Cousin

Where I showered - You had to make sure you the water you boiled mixed well with the cold water, to get the right temperature.

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