Waterfalls and butterflies in Xico

A few weeks ago, Ragnhild and I tried to travel to Xico, a little town surrounded by mountains located not too far from Xalapa. Key word here is tried – as we mentioned in our blog post about this trip, we never quite made it due to roadblocks and crazy storms. With under a month left in Mexico, I felt it was about time to try again and so I got back on the rusty Xico-bus with our AidCom colleague Ely.

Luckily, we made it all the way this time. Despite a rather cloudy morning in Xalapa, we were met by wonderful sunshine in Xico. We spent some time strolling up and down the charmingly colourful streets, including a visit to a local bakery selling traditional treats for the near-approaching Day of the Dead. Neither of us had managed to get up early enough to eat breakfast before setting off, so we decided to go for brunch at a lovely restaurant with a courtyard filled with parrots and plants under the open sky. It ended up being the perfect late morning meal – delicious coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice served with the best mole I’ve had in Mexico so far (here’s a recipe by the way, just in case anyone reading this might feel tempted to try to give this spicy, chocolaty sauce a go).

Bakery treats!

Already ready for the Day of the Dead (some interesting choices of attire)

Yummy enmoladas (enchiladas with mole sauce)

Happy and full, we continued our walk through Xico and headed towards La Cascada de Texolo. I had already heard and read that this waterfall was beautiful - but wow, it really is an incredible sight. Instead of the usual pesky flies or mosquitos, Xico is also covered with butterflies, further adding to the beauty of this amazing place. I even made a new little friend, who happily landed on my hand and refused to fly away! We walked across a slightly terrifying suspension bridge (heights are not my thing…) and down a path that included more than enough steps to make our legs feel it the next morning, taking a few moments to relax on a bench/tree-trunk while taking in the view as a rainbow formed at the bottom of the waterfall.

By the time we got back to the top again, we had been walking for several hours in the hot sunshine. Not surprisingly, we were therefore ready to enjoy a cold Indio beer before returning to Xalapa – tired but very happy after finally getting to enjoy a wonderful day in Xico!