Cueva del Raton May 2021

Yesterday we took a day trip to Cueva del Raton in the San Francisco de la Sierra area. It is about 2 hours from La Bocana and the real beauty is precisely the drive! Canyons and vegetation and gorges, simply jaw dropping!



Photos: view from turn off and getting closer and closer to the part where the asphalt ends and the dirt begins. This is NOT a trip for the faint of heart as there are parts of the road that are ever so narrow, quite rocky, with sheer drops down a very deep canyon! I do not have a fear of heights, no worries for me.

At one point we had to drive slowly behind goats being herded! Such is life in the country and how lucky are we to see it.




















There are stairs leading up to the cave, takes about 10 minutes. Les and I were both huffing and puffing (so out of shape!) and my 87 year old Mom literally SPRINTED up. The guide asked me 3 times to confirm her age hahahaha








Our guide was Jose Jesus Arce Ojeda







Mom and I








The cave art itself. Read Harry Crosby's book for really good information on all the paintings around Baja. We have been to this cave twice before, the first time easily 14 years ago and I notice they have really faded.






These are various grindstones they have found.









They told us that there has been a year long drought that has really made life for the animals difficult. No vegetation and cattle are really suffering.

The ranchers themselves have plenty of water from a spring/river that they can pump up water from.

The restaurant was not open but a picnic there would be wonderful.

We invited our guide to come visit us and stay at the hotel... he says he will and I believe he will! He wants to bring cheeses to us. He told a story about a local rancher who went to Spain to learn how to make a cheese with chiles but he still has not made any since he came back.

The guide said he had nlot taken anyone to the cave in a a year but we were the second group recently. We saw others headed up as we were headed down.