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jadasan

Oct 28, 2002, 10:41 AM

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Real de Catorce

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I want to visit a town called Real de Catorce while I am in Mexico. I have herd that it is like SMA, but not as much going on. Does anyone have any info about this place? I haven’t been able to find too much in the books. Are there any books on this town?

Thanks Jadasan

manzana

Oct 30, 2002, 10:16 AM

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Re: [jadasan] Real de Catorce

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Catorce is a fascinating place to visit but hardly comparable to SMA. It is very small, very remote, and primitive. It is in the silver district in the extreme north of San Louis Potosi state near Zacatecas. You have to drive through a long tunnel to get there. It is an old silver mining town and the scenery is spectacular. The motels I saw there were "very basic". There is a famous cathedral and the town gets mobbed once a year by religious pilgrims. It is well worth a visit. If you like to hike, maybe spend a few days. I think most of the travel books mention it. The nearest big town is Matehuala, a few hours south of Monterrey on 57.

Bret in Portland

Oct 30, 2002, 11:40 AM

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Re: [jadasan] Real de Catorce

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Jadasan,
I'm surprised that there isn't any information on Real de Catorce in the travel guides.
Try this webpage, the links to photos and history are pretty good.
Bret

http://realdecatorce.tripod.com/inde.html

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jerezano

Nov 1, 2002, 7:05 AM

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Re: [manzana] Real de Catorce

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Hello,

Real de Catorce is at an altitude of over 8000 feet. Consequently, if you have heart or breathing problems, be careful.

During the days of the Porfiriato (before 1910) Real had a permanent population of over 10,000 people most of whom worked in the mines or serviced them with materials and supplies. At that time they had a mule car system that entered the town through one of the mining tunnels. That has now been replaced by a one way automobile road through the same tunnel. Telephones arrange the one way traffic.

Nowadays, Real is a ghost town of perhaps less than 200 people, including the flower children and hippies who have taken up residence there because of the Peyote. At one time, the city government was permitting people to move into abandoned houses at no charge provided they would make attempts to restore the buildings. I don't know if they are still allowing that, but that too encouraged the protest generation to move in.

There used to be (10 years ago) two very small hotels for emergency overnighting. However, the nights are usually very cold, and the lack of good restaurants forced most people to overnight in Matehuala about an hour down the hill.

The large church dedicated to San Antonio has been restored and is very well worth while to visit. At one time, people were buried beneath the church floor (lack of available space in the confined town) and the wood flooring is in sections for easy removal. If you can, try to find the sexton. He used to give a guided tour through the church including the rooms and passages behind the altar, up through the choir loft, around the maintenance balcony, and up through the bell tower.

During the novenario to St Anthony (sometime in middle September?) the town is invaded by 2 or 3,000 people a day visiting the famous church and its reliquario. If you like crowds that's the time to go.

To spend more than a few hours there you should be young in both body and spirit. Otherwise, it can rapidly become an "I've seen everything, let's go, type of place." It is not in any stretch of the imagination, like San Miguel de Allende. It is a must see location, but once seen, there is no reason to stay or to go back. Although I have been there three times. Enjoy yourself. Jerezano.

raferguson

Nov 1, 2002, 8:09 AM

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Re: [jadasan] Real de Catorce - hotels

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REAL DE CATORCE

Real de Catorce is a mining town in the mountains of northern San Luis
Potosi State. There are about 1000 residents, compared to 20 or 30
thousand during it's peak, in the late 1800s. There are no longer
active mines in the area. It is a sort of ghost town, with many more
empty buildings than occupied ones.

The road in and out is 25km of cobblestones, built in the 1970s,
including a one-lane tunnel that dates from the turn of the century.
There are a few busses a day from the town of Matehuala, SLP.

We enjoyed a guided tour in Spanish from Felipe, which lasted about 2
hours, and cost 20 pesos ($2.50 US) per person.

We stayed in the somewhat surrealistic hotel Quinta La Puesta del Sol,
a relatively recent construction, near the cemetary, at the far end of
town. It looked fancy but run down. The first room that they showed
us was relatively poor, but we asked to see a better room, and ended
up upgrading twice to get a room at the end of the new wing. Our room
had a phone that did not work (the hotel does not have a phone), a TV
that did not work, a jacuzzi that did not work, and many electrical
outlets that did not work. The working parts of the electrical system
appeared to be held together with tape. There is no heat in the
rooms. Although the employees were helpful, the hotel did not appear
to be run in a businesslike manner. The owner was away, but there
were photos of him at tourism shows and with Mexico's ex-president
Salinas. The food was adequate, but limited. We have never stayed in
a stranger hotel.

We had an excellent meal at the hotel Meson de la Abundanica, which is
near the center of town. We looked at a room, and were favorably
impressed. This is an old building recently refurbished as a hotel.
It appears to be run on a professional basis. We would recommend
visitors stay there.

There are few telephones in town. Both of the above hotels use the
town's public (caseta) phone office, (488) 23733. Rather than try to
leave a message at the phone office, I suggest that you make
reservations by fax, which is also at the caseta, 24733. If you come
in the off season, reservations are probably not necessary.

(Note, the above phone number has changed, due to the conversion to ten digit dialing in 2002).

The town is relatively empty most of the time. We were the only
guests in our hotel when we arrived. The busy times include
Christmas, Easter week, July and August, and the feast day of
St.Francis, October 4th. We were there during the week in late
January; there are more visitors on weekends.

There are some resident hippies, perhaps looking for the peyote, which
is part of the Huichol Indian religion. Our guide said that the
townspeople did not look at the foreign hippies as a problem, but that
the Mexican hippies were sometimes not as well behaved.

Real de Catorce is an interesting place, and worth a stop if you are
in the area.

Richard Ferguson
January, 1998

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com