Santa Rita

We started out the day thinking that we would like to do a little hike to the area north of Mascota called El Malpais, to find a petrified field and an old volcano called El Mocajete. We walked to the archaelogical museum and asked the lady there if she could tell us how far away that area is and what would we see if we went there.

She responded by telling us that it is private land and we would have to get permission to go there. But she had an idea. She could phone a lady who could arrange a 3 hour hike with a guide to petroglyphs that are nearby for $14 Cdn! And the guide could meet us in 15 minutes in the square. Wow! That’s service.

We met Carlos Fernando, a young man with a love for archaeology, who did a great job passing on his knowledge of the ancient history of Mascota.

We started out by walking towards the dam that we had visited about a week ago, but then took a left turn on a dirt road that passed corn, squash and bean (the 3 sisters) fields and cattle farms. The views were beautiful.

Passing a big tree, we heard some birds making a racket high in the branches and were surprised to see Magpie Jays! The only other place that we have seen them was in Nicaragua. Magpie Jays are blue, black and white but they are much bigger than our Blue Jays and have an incredibly long tail. We were not able to get a good photo of them though. A farmer told us that they were called Urracas.

A ranchero (cowboy) was rounding up his cattle and kindly let us follow a trail through his
property to the petroglyphs. Chris took a photo of him and he asked for a peso, tongue in cheek. He looked pretty well off.

At one time, the river that flowed through the valley must have been really big. There are high rocky cliffs that must have been at the shoreline. Petroglyphs covered the big rocks in that area. It was so easy to see them. Carlos had brought some chalk so he could make the designs clearer for the camera.

Apparently, some of the places were ceremonial sites. A place where shamans made the engravings as prayers for sun, water and fertility. Spirals symbolized water and concentric circles with rays symbolized the sun but other interesting designs. There were designs with scorpions that are the guardians of corn and two hunters carrying a bag of deer blood that would be used in ceremonies. On the rocks, there were also pictures of shamans, footprints, animals that had human characteristics and monsters.

Some rocks had shallow bowl-like indentations on them where small fires would be lit. Once again, this ritual was used in praying for rain. The indigenous people here were farmers so sun and rain were vital.

In one sheltered spot, there was a crack in the cliff and way back in, the rock wall was white. During the summer solstice, the sun shines into the crack and lights up the white inner rock. Two rocks had been carved as thrones for the shaman and his helper. There were many petroglyphs in this area.

We walked on to another area. The land is private but the farmer gave Carlos a key to open a gate so we could see more petroglyphs. We had to walk through a milpa (cornfield) to get there but it was worth the effort and the scratches on our legs, from all the thorny plants. Scrambling over a rocky pile, we came to an area that at times is still used by the Huichol Indians as a ceremonial site.

There we saw clearly the Snakes and Ladders-type game that I mentioned in the museum blog -
Patoli. The game board is engraved right into the rocks and four people played this Snakes and Ladders-like game. We saw several of these game boards in the rocks in this area.

While we were there, we must have disturbed a vulture who was sitting very close to us in the
shade. He was a big bird and startled us somewhat as he flew right beside us.

We walked about 8 or 9 km and by the time we got home, I was aching a bit. We weren’t walking
on nice level ground but up and down through farmers’ fields. Great exercise!

As mentioned, Carlos did a great job of answering our many questions, in Spanish. He was patient and kind. We may hire him again if we have time.

It was amazing seeing those ancient engravings that aren’t mentioned in any guidebook. It was hard to stick to only putting on 10 photos. All of the pictures were super!Read more