Real de Catorce


Where in the world is Real de Catorce?

As I didn’t spend nearly enough time outside of Mexico City last time (with the slight exception of over two months in South America… and a week in Panama), I had resolved to spend my weekends venturing out of the Distrito Federal and this week headed up to the old mining town of Real de Catorce in the north-eastern state of San Luis Potosí. Getting there involved an overnight bus ride of about 7 ½ hours up to the town of Matehuala about two hours south of Real and then a cold four hours waiting in the bus terminal until the first bus to Real left Matehuala at 7:45am.


Daybreak in Matehuala

The final stretch involved transferring to a smaller bus that could fit into the tunnel that serves as the only entrance to the town for a final stretch that resembled the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland as the bus bumped and jerked through the tunnel, except on this adventure the seats are unfortunately hard plastic rather than being nicely padded for the guest’s comfort. One further note about the bus journey is that I was reminded once more of the fact that you let anyone exit a bus before you at your own peril as chances are you'll then be left standing in your seat waiting for the entire bus to empty out.



The story of Real de Catorce is that it was a barely accessible town that sprung up around a silver mine beginning in 1779 and enjoying its heyday during the late nineteenth century into the first decade of the twentieth century. Around the time of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 when silver prices collapsed and people began to leave the population wound down from around 15,000 at its peak to roughly 250 residents, turning it into a virtual ghost town. In recent years the population has begun to grow again as visitors started showing up, first for the peyote which apparently grows around the mountains in the 1970s and now for slightly more wholesome pursuits.



On Friday when I arrived it still felt very much like a ghost town as the visitors don’t seem to turn up until the weekend and as it’s still the slow winter season a lot of places such as restaurants were closed. The army did show up at one point during the day and I ended up being a lone güerito surrounded by army officers when they ended up picking the same tiny place to have lunch where I was having my gorditas which was something of a unique experience. I did hear one begin to say something about Güeros before another person told him to cut it out.


Capilla de Guadalupe up in the old cemetary

As well as the silver, a cult has developed around the image of Saint Francis of Assisi in the town for reasons I don’t know which has brought people to the town for decades. The whole town in fact is pervaded with religious imagery.


Notes and pictures all for St. Francis's consideration.

The old graveyard is divided into a San Francisco and a Virgin de Guadalupe section which pretty much goes for the whole town, as both the Virgin and San Francisco are everywhere you turn.


The Virgin of Guadalupe is naturally the focus inside the Capilla de Guadalupe...


... but she also makes plenty of appearances around town.

In the main church, the Templo de la Purísima Concepción, there is a fascinating room displaying all the various retablos that people have offered up to either Saint Francis or the Virgin over the years going back to the early 20th century. The retablos are a particularly Mexican form of religious devotion where people create little images representing favours they have asked of a particularly religious figure with a short message as a way of giving thanks. The following pictures and translated inscriptions give some insight into the kinds of favours people around that part of the world have been asking over the years.


"I was caring for my livestock when I noticed that said livestock were suffering from a strange illness. Seeing them in such a state, I offered them up to the care of Señor St. Francis who gave them back their health and as a sign of my gratitude I dedicate this retablo to him."


"Thank you St. Francis,
When I lost 28 goats they were found healthy the next day. In thanks I offer this retablo.
Ernestina Martinez"


"We give thanks to St. Francis for the grace of having allowed that our daughter emerge safe and sound after falling down a well on the 6th of November, 1969."


"I give thanks to St. Francis for a great feat when I asked him, my car already being in the hands of the Federal Transit authorities as I did not have any documentation, that he have mercy on me and it was returned to me without any charge."

There are not a whole lot of sights in Real de Catorce, but the idea is that you can occupy yourself by picking a trail and basically walking (or horse riding) in any way that takes your fancy into the surrounding mountains. As wandering aimlessly is a favourite past time of mine, it seemed like a good spot to go for the weekend and it turned out that indeed it was a good place to head out in the fresh air for a bit of exercise.


The great open spaces of San Luis Potosí state

The surrounding countryside is quite stark and you basically just walk until you get tired of it as there isn’t much in the way of destinations as such, but I was glad I got out of the big smoke for a few days and saw another part of Mexico. After a long time in Mexico City, the change in how people looked, dressed and what they ate was indeed quite noticeable.


View from behind the Capilla de Guadalupe


View back toward town

Mexico has been going through a cold snap lately and just as one cold front had passed another was due to roll in precisely on Thursday night as I headed up to Real de Catorce. As Real is further north, at a higher altitude and in the desert I probably should have realized that it would be colder than Mexico City, however I wasn’t quite prepared for the inability to ever find anywhere that was warm. After a fairly painful night freezing away in my hotel room, I awoke to find a fine layer of snow covering everything.



After one night, I decided two days in Real de Catorce might be enough and to do some more walks before taking the afternoon bus to a warm bed in the state capital of San Luis Potosí from where I had to catch a flight back to Mexico City on Sunday evening. I ended up walking up the mountain above town to the “ciudad fantasma”, or ghost town, which is basically just a set of ruined old buildings. It was a nice enough walk, with the frozen desert scenery making it all a little more unique as half the town seems to look not unlike the abandoned old buildings!












Icy walk up to the Ciudad Fantasma featuring frozen cacti.

I did end up making it to San Luis Potosí in the evening and, after a warm night’s sleep, headed out to see what was around the town. In all honesty, I was scratching my head looking at all the tourist information as to what I actually wanted to see as there are a few local museums but nothing you’d really go out of your way to visit. I was a little surprised at this as the city is both the site of the alternative capital of Mexico under Benito Juárez during the French occupation in the 1860s and where and imprisoned Francisco Madero drafted the Plan de San Luis Potosí, thus initiating the Mexican Revolution, with the date he set of November 20th, 1910 still the date upon which the Revolution is commemorated. This all seems pretty much ignored around town and the museums tend more toward things like the National Mask Museum and regional museums dealing with the local pre-Columbian population.


Plaza de los Fundadores


Plaza de Armas


Plaza del Carmen. Thus concludes this brief tour of the plazas of San Luis Potosí

While I’m not sure I’d advise anyone to make a special effort to see it, San Luis is a nice enough city with an attractive historic centre comprised of a series of plazas linked by narrow streets which have been converted to pedestrian walkways. As the town was founded on local silver mining wealth, it naturally took its name from what was at the time the wealthiest silver city in the world, Potosí in Bolivia. While time seems to have been a lot kinder to Potosí’s Mexican shiny, well-scrubbed offspring, both cities are very similar in that they are dead on Sundays when most things are closed. Still, at least it was relatively warm!


Not too busy

I guess now the only question is what to do next weekend.