High and Dry

A fun descent took us to El Rosario where we filled up with water at a library before heading off into the hills. We were carrying ~12 L of water, and knew that there were some ranchos along the way where we could buy food along with more filtered water, but it was still daunting to be heading into such a dry place with so little for services. We climbed up and up, finally deciding to stop and camp on a hilltop near what we hoped was the top of our climb. From our perch the sunset was beautiful with the hills in the distance and such a variety of cactii in the foreground. While we were a bit off the road, we could see the lights of trucks and cars off in the distance winding their way up into the hills, and sadly we could still hear the trucks chugging up and engine breaking down the closest hill late into the night and early in the morning. The stars were also quite bright and beautiful, as Holly unfortunately found out since she was up and sick much of the night - perhaps something she ate, dehydration or just the exertion in the heat. We didn't really have much choice but to keep going though, so after a little breakfast and lots of electrolytes we set off again the next morning. We passed open and closed ranchos throughout the day, the difference between the two not readily visible at first to our untrained eyes (if there is a sign, regardless of whether the place looks abandoned, there will be some kind of minimal services). As we were starting to feel a bit stressed about how little water we had left early in the afternoon, we finally found an open rancho and filled up our bottles for the last 40 km to Cataviña.Read more