San Luis Potosi

From Grutas Tolantongo I continued through the surreal landscape of La Huasteca, where presumably by this point our band of intrepid explorers have discovered that their arch nemesis, professor Heinrich X. Nazi-face, is on their tail and getting dangerously close to discovering the secret artifact thing.

I reached Xilitla, which was a letdown. In the early 1900s, eccentric Englishman Edward James decided this was the place to blow his family fortune doing drugs and just, like, totally vibing. Where I saw a cacophony of concrete masquerading as intention, the others on my tour praised his genius as they tumesced with interdimensional energy, decrying modern society as they took a million selfies with their shiny new iPhones.

But the next day, I did see something truly spectacular. Half a kilometer deep, the Cave of Swallows is the longest cave shaft in the world, such that people actually base jump inside it. Well I guess that's not so impressive - you can base jump into anything once - but here you can threaten to prune your family tree as many times as you'd like. I was the only person in sight, visitor or otherwise, so there was nobody to dangle me over the edge for 20 pesos, which is frankly an alarmingly low price for that. So I snuck over the barrier and peeked over the edge, just a little bit.

Another day of riding through majestic scenery took me to Monterrey, where I camped in the national park which abuts the city. Stealth camping is type 2 fun, at least for me. It's exciting to discover a secret spot to call home for the night, but it is also stressful, worrying that you might be discovered and possibly harassed - by humans or wildlife. So when I heard several dirtbikes ripping around, followed by the raucous chatter of a few men, I grew nervous. But nobody came my way, and soon I heard the familiar sound of failed kickstarts. I decided to help, and brought my jumpstarter to send the friendly father and son on their way. I'm sure they were surprised to see a gringo emerge from the underbrush with a full toolkit, and I just hope there is now a myth about a ghost in the park who rescues stranded motorcyclists.