Chasing Waterfalls in Xico

January 29, 2020

After sleeping in, we caught a local bus in Coatepec down the road 25 minutes to the little town of Xico for some waterfall hiking.

We got off the bus at the main plaza and took a moment to admire the Church of Santa María Magdalena. I most enjoyed the variegated dome on top.

We each ate a banana in Coatepec, but thought we might want a little more, so we found a bakery, chose a variety of interesting looking breads, bought juice boxes, and had second breakfast sitting on the edge of the road. We had entertainment in the form of watching buses not meant for small streets trying to turn the corner in front of us.

Second breakfast over, we walked down through town towards the path to the waterfalls. Cascada de Texolo is the main one, and we could take a short trail from it to Cascada de la Monja nearby.

The road down to the waterfalls was paved with cobblestones and on either side had banana and coffee farms. Dad was tickled to see real bananas growing in real trees.

It took a little over a half hour to walk down the road to the waterfall area.  From there a path took us through the jungle to Cascada Texolo. We crossed a massive canyon on a sturdy bridge, right next to a not so sturdy one.

A bit farther along we came to El Sendero de Ocelote (Ocelot Trail) which we could go down for a small fee.

Wooden stairs wound down the far side of the canyon to a much better view of the falls.

Its 80 meters tall and an impressive sight. We finished off the last of our breakfast bread on a bench enjoying the view before steeling ourselves to head back up the stairs.

Back at the top, a short walk down another path took us to La Cascada de la Monja.

The safe path, and the dangerous path. They really laid it out for you to decide. Turns out the dangerous path was just skinny and next to a water viaduct. Nothing as dangerous as I imagined.

It was smaller, but still lovely. There were guys fishing in the pool, but we never saw them catch anything.

The walk back up to town wasn't bad. I asked directions from a couple people and we found a bus back to Coatepec without too much trouble. We showered off, rested tired feet in the hotel for a bit, then headed out to dinner, tired but satisfied with the day's adventures.