Pico Licos , A Short rock climbing , rappeling adventure in La Huasteca

It was May 20th, my last day of stay in Monterrey , Mexico as i was having flying back to India on the next day afternoon. I was having mixed feelings on it. Sad because i had to leave a lot of friends and colleagues whom i gathered for the last one year and happy because i could see my other friends whom i earned since my childhood ! Last day at office was emotional as well as many colleagues were about to cry when they were bidding farewell and i was feeling the same way :-( It was 5:30 in the eve and had to leave the office seeing the same Alestra building for one last time with a heavy heart.

But Day did not end there as i was aware told about a surprise hike plan by my trekking guides with whom i covered many of the peaks in Monterrey. Got to know later that they were equally sad that i was leaving from there and had decided to take me into something which i could not do in my 1 year of stay in Monterrey ! Talking about guides i should not forget to mention about Carlos Javier whom i met in my first Hike in Monterrey with any guides and he was helpful to take me to Pico Norte in Serro De La Silla and La M in Chipinque some day later. Next come my popular guides Andres and Maricela whom i met first in Pico Perico and Pyramides in Cerro De la Mitras and continued to meet in hikes like Las Aguilas in Chipinque , La Meseta in La Huasteca, El Musgo in Arteaga.  Next person to remember is  Israel Morales , who happens to be the founder of Alpek Adventures( a famous hiking/trekking company based in Monterrey) with whom i traveled till Matacanes an another adrenaline wonder and by whom i got to know about so many places around Monterrey which i could not visit and not listed in any of the blogs/travelogues ! I wish i could meet you a bit earlier man so that i could cover more :-(
Nevertheless it was great meeting you all and am happy for whatever i could cover :-)

A Surprise: 
I had been to La Huasteca 3 times before that day and had done Cycling, Visiting by TT and walking inside the dark cave and going to the other side of the Dam, hiking to La Meseta. But never done Rappelling for which the La Huasteca is known for. There were few occasions where i could have done it. But i had to choose the better plans i had for those days. Andres and Maricela were contacting my trekking Partner Nancy on what time my flight was on Tuesday and i have updated that it was on Thursday afternoon. But i need to leave in morning to  catch it. So, they were asking if i was interested in some very short hiking in La Huasteca which would end by 10 PM. Initially i was not ready for it as i had to finish my packing. As i never say no for any trekking/hiking plans and over thrilled by the thought of some one organizing something for me in some strange country i agreed for that plan and decided to start packing on Tuesday night itself loosing most of my sleep that night :-)

Further Surprises: 
That day evening when i was preparing to leave for Huasteca, have noticed a whatsapp group created for that and could see many strange people in it. Nancy was asking if i knew them and i was not knowing any of them except Andres, Maricela, Israel and guides like Luis, Christian whom i met in Matacanes Trip. So, was surprised on this change of plan. We reached the La Huasteca Entrance around 06:45 PM as planned and i was further surprised to see Israel distributing the rappelling and mountaineering gears to many guys who had come there ! I was not knowing what is happening and are were going with the same set of people ! By this time, Nancy revealed the secret that we were about to do some serious rock climbing and rappelling over there that day and she thought i may like the surprise ! I was bit furious initially as i did not wanted to injure myself doing some crazy stuff and end up affecting my journey on next day ! But I believed Nancy and Alpek guides i have seen in trips like Las Aguilas, Mitras, Metacanes which were damm crazy and the amount of care they take to avoid some untoward incidents. So, I relaxed myself and decided to wear the gears and enjoy the plan instead of backing off from the adventure at that moment.

Briefing by Israel about the day's activitiy

Beginning of Hike: 
Got to know that We have to Hike and do some rock climbing to reach the summit known as Pico Licos which is seen in the next pic and you can also see the route to reach there

Infront of Pico Licos which is in the shape of Triangle wihch starts from the head of Nancy and Ends at the head of Venky

Initial 200 meters were easy and then the ascent started to increase.

Increase of Ascent towards Pico Licos

 It increased further and we had to start climbing small rocks initially and later bigger ones to keep moving.


Challenges increased further when we came across points like below ones where we had to make use of our mountaineering gears  and pay close attention to the instructions of the guides.



After some time, we reached at a point near the peak and had to wait for the first set of people to come down as the summit was narrow and not more than 4-5 people could sit there.

Nancy and Aman were struggling a bit to reach this place initially . But Thanks to the guides they could make it till here.

You can see my youtube channel for the videos from the Summit and Monterrey lights looks like below one from the summit

A Pic at the Pico Licos Summit

After spending some time a the Summit, we started to descend and had to come in 3 rappels. First was few meters which was a makeshift rappel to ease our descend down instead of getting down on rocks as it was getting dark. 2nd one was 50 meters which is the longest rappel i have done so far !

50 meter Rappelling !: 
I have never done Rappelling in Night and not for a distance as high as 50+ meters ! So, was bit nervous initially . But decided to go ahead anyhow.

Initial Few meters were OK. But after some distance i started  feeling like distance is never ending . Luckily i could hear the sounds from bottom and they were motivating me and guiding me on right direction to take (left or right) to avoid going to the wrong destination

Guides at the bottom of 50 meter rappel

To Get an Idea on how high was the descent, look at below picture !

A View from the bottom of 2nd Rappel of 50 meters

There was one more rappel of 15 Meters which was last rappel.

Last Rappel:

Views from the Last Rappel

But compared to the previous one, it was a piece of cake and we could get down within minutes. 

We reached the bottom of La Huasteca around 09:45 PM as they mentioned earlier.

Pico Licos at Night

We Waited for the rest of the guides to descend and have a group pic

Pic with our Guide Andres and Lady in blue dress who came here alone (without any guides) ! 

Coincidentally it was birthday that night for one of our guides Luis. So, we wished him happy b'day and all wished me happy journey. With Lots of joy and hope to keep in touch with these amazing guys and to see them sometime later, i bid farewell to La Huasteca and later to Monterrey...

Our Guides Mau Quiroga(First in Right),Nestor(First from the Left and Luis (b'day boy) 3rd from the right

La Meseta in La Huasteca

La huasteca Entrance

La Huasteca has been my next favorite in Monterrey after Chipinque as i happen to see it in multiple trips. I visited there for cycling , in a vehicle and ended up visiting the La Meseta in a nocturnal trek. The post is a throwback memory about a nocturnal hike to a place by name Meseta which is one of the easiest hikes in this region preferred by people in the evening.

At the Entrance to La Huasteca with my trekking partner in Monterrey 

How to get there: 
unlike other places in La Huasteca which are inside or near the entry gate of La Huasteca park, this place is located at a distance outside the park. You need to travel in the road parallel to the highway towards Saltillo for about 600 meters to find a bridge . You need to walk across the bridge to find other bridge under which you can walk to cross the Saltillo Highway and start hiking towards the Summit.

Beginning of the Trek:
We assembled at the Entrance of La Huasteca at the designated time and we were the first set of guys to be there :-) EcoBikes near the entrance which rents the bicyles for huasteca reminded me of my first visit here. Gradually people started coming and once all the people came we started towards the beginning point of our trek

Guides briefing us about the Hike

Benti Minutos/Twenty Minutes: 
We started walking towards our summit and guide was saying its just around 1 KM of walk and would take 20 minutes :-) This "Benti Minutos/twenty minutes" is an Epic in Monterrey as i noticed as all guides use it :-) Those 20 minutes does not mean that actual route is 20 minutes . Instead it means that there is a long way ahead :-)

A walk for some time before taking the hilly route

We came across 2 bridges and went under the first bridge to cross the saltillo highway and start the hiking in hilly route

2nd Bridge from where the hiking begins. Zoom in the picture to see the board behind which you can consider as a Landmark

 The Views of surrounding mountains and Sunset is quite good here

Views during the hike to Meseta

View of Huasteca during the Climb

First View Point: 
Within 20 minutes of Hike(actually :-) ) we came across our first view point and were doing some photoshoots before heading ahead

A Panoramic View near the first view point

 Climbing gets a bit tougher after this and sunlight starts to fade. Unlike India, here sunlight would be there till 8 or 8:30 in June which makes it easier for evening hikes for smaller distances like this

Hiking Path getting bit tougher

 2nd View point: 
In 30 minutes or so we reached the final destination which is known as Meseta. Its a kind of flat base with may rocks and our group of around 35 people could sit there in different rocks over there.
It's a good place to enjoy the Monterrey city lights

City Lights when sunshine is about to End

City Lights after Sunset

After some pics and enjoying the city lights at the peak, we started descending down. After getting down and walking in the same track, we reached our vehicles. We headed back inside La Huasteca Park to have our dinner in moonlight and enjoying the mountains of La Huasteca. Even in midnight you would see many cyclists here and don't feel unsafe which was a good experience in the last days of my stay in Monterrey. See you again when i pen down my next memories.

Time to say Adios 

Chipinque , The beginning of my hiking in Monterrey

Getting in..
It was July 1st , one week after i came to Monterrey. As i Landed on a Friday i.e on 23rd of June and had nothing else to do than sleeping that weekend, wanted to see if i could go somewhere in the next weekend. But my room mate had seen almost all places near by and was not sure about the interests of others over there and wanted to explore some place which was pretty much safe. After spending so much of time in google reading the reviews, multiple blogs , forums and asking the local colleagues , decided to go for a place near by and that was Chipinque.

Entering the Park: 
Did enough research to know that park has an entry fee of 20 pesos per head and we can reach till the gate till Uber. So, had the morning breakfast and reached Chipinque casually around 10:30 AM with 2 liters of water and 2 slices of bread to eat somewhere if i would get hungry. With the little English the driver knew he tried to tell me that he can take me till the top of the park if i pay him 1.5 times the Uber. As i wanted to explore the park myself, i refused and asked him to stop the uber at the gate itself till where i have booked it. He was bit surprised and was asking me on how would i go inside with signals now. I signaled him that i would go walking and he gave an admiring look and terminated the Uber. My Saga in Chipinque started from there.

Chipinque Entry Fee for Hikers

The Land of Butterflies and flowers: 
I was  bird spotter , Butterfly lover and interested in varieties of Flowers and animals. So, i had all reasons to visit Chipinque as i have seen 4-5 different species of butterflies, around same species of birds,animals and so many varieties of flowers on the first day.

My day started grandly with spotting so many colorful flowers and butterflies at the entrance of the park

An Unknown flower and butterfly spotted near the entrance to Chipinque

Vereda 1,2,3: 
When you continue further on the road, you would get the above board which marks the distance to Meseta as 2.2 Kms.

Above one is Vereda 1. You need to walk 500-600 meters in that to get Vereda 2 which would lead you to Another place by name Canoas on the way to meseta

Entrance to Vereda 2

Vereda 2: 
It is one of the great place to hike as you have high chance of spotting few Coatis and other birds here.

Way in Vereda 2

My First spotting of Coati in Chipinque 

One more Coati

In between, you get a point from where you might think that trekking has ended as steps end there and fresh set of steps start ! I thought the same and thought of returning. But wanted to continue anyhow and took the steps shown below. There is a water station just before this point. So, in case you did not bring sufficient water or did not bring any water, you can refill here. 

2nd set of steps in Vereda 2

You would also get path to reach Brecha Del Chile which is another path to reach the peak "El Pinar" (as seen in other post ) and La Floria which is another popular hiking trail in chipinque

Canoas: 
Is one more place where Yoga Sessions are held every Sunday and many people come to do some exercise or start their trek. There is a path to Go to El Pinar from here as well .

From here the Vereda 1 takes you down and Vereda 3 takes you up to Meseta.

I found one more water station at this place with some mini gym instruments and places to sit and relax. It is above Canoas and written as Paraje Canoas which can mean Place Canoas.

you can take Brecha Del Chile , Vereda deslavada, coati , Don tono, Moras from here . Moras is the one which Me and Aman did in next trip to Chipinque

I decided to take Vereda 3 instead to reach Meseta

You would find further interesting flowers and insects on the way as the below one

Explanada: 
After hiking for some more distance, got into this place where families can sit together and have some lunch or snacks. It also has places for kids to play/exercise. It is the starting point for many treks as well and has one more route to El Pinar !

Meseta:
If you go further above, you would find the last point known as Meseta which has car parking , chipinque administration office and a restaurant. I Was lucky enough to spot many birds here that day

Also found a squirrel by name Allen's squirrel which is native to Mexico

We also have an Insect/butterfly musuem here with free entrance and has information about various butterflies found here

The sliders near by attract almost all kids coming here and also the adults :-)

You would start spotting butterflies here as well

It has some place to rest with canopies


and of course, some pics as well

A Selfie at Meseta

There is a viewpoint by name Mirador La Penita near by and you can enjoy the views from there as well

Views from the View point

Towards El Pinar: 
I had one of the breads and a banana i brought and came back to Explanada from where i could catch vereda 3 to go back .


But i saw the other board of Pinar which was at 6 KM from there and thought of going there as i had plenty of sunshine left for that day.

View of Mountains on the way to El Pinar

 El Empalme: 
There is a view point by name "El Empalme" where you can enjoy the views of surrounding and also do some birding

Mexican Jay found at El Empalme

ParaJe Delicias: 

After walking for 1.5 KM, you would get a place by name Delicias which has a house or store kind of thing which is no longer open. 

Casa Del General Alhazan/ General's house: 
From delicias , i took right and walked for 800 meters to reach the Casa Del General or General's house.


It is not a great place But you can cover it on the way towards other hikes as it is just 800 meters from main road.

Casa De General

One you come back and continue in the route, it divides again. 1 route which goes to the left and downhill which is known as San Agustin. Other one is Mesa Del Epazote towards right and uphill. Third one is towards El Pinar which divides into a short cut for walkers and longer path for cyclists known as "Del Aire"

El Pinar: 
 When you are walking towards El Pinar, you get another trail by name "Vereda De Cabras" which is 900 meters. There is one more path for cyclits which is 2.4 KM. But this 900 meters is kind of steep and needs more energy than you might think normally.  There is a water station before this as well to refill yourself. So ,i was OK to start hiking from this again

Way towards El Pinar

El Pinar

Me at El pinar

With set of other trekkers i met on the way to El Pinar

Views from El Pinar

Mesa Del Epazote: 
I ate the second slice of bread and the banana i had bought and had some water to continue my journey. Although legs were getting tired after this much of walking, i was eager to see Epazote which i did not see before and decided to see on my return. So, hurried my steps down and saw the board which i have seen before which lead to Epazote.


It was marked as 2.4 KMs. But based on my experience with walking since morning, the distance in the boards don't match with the fatigue you feel in mountains. So, i have set a hard target that i would walk till 3:30 PM and if i don't find the Epazote, i am going to come back without it and venture it some other time.

I was walking for 20 minutes or so and did not find it and found route to Las Aguilas instead which was 3.5 KM ahead. but i was neither having energy nor time to visit this and decided to visit it some other time. Which i did in next year as i explained in other blog post.

As this was kind of diversion, i thought of continuing further towards Epazote. I found some people who were walking here and they mentioned that it would take 10-15 minutes more to reach Epazote from that point which acted as energy booster.

Finally i reached Epazote around 3:25 as per the target i had set earlier.

Views from Epazote

A Selfie at Epazote

 After relaxing my legs for a while and enjoying the views of mountains from there, i started back from Epazote . I could not stay there longer as i supposed the park would close by 5 and i had to walk more than 10 KMs to reach the bottom(1.4 of return from Epazote  + 4.5 of the rest of the path from Pinar to Explanada+ 2.9 in AL C.A.V + 2.4 in Vereda 1,2,3).

It was around 4 PM when i reached the San Agustin point and as i was running out of energy to descend around 1 KM and ascend the same path  back, i did not wanted to go there and continued further. There was a Brecha El Empalme of 3.6 KM as well which i did not take due to lack of time

There was a sigh of relief when i reached Explanada which is at an altitude of 1,250 meters as there was tar road after that and i could somehow walk from there even if it gets late.

But I did not wanted to rest there itself and reach the bottom instead. So, continued further and reached the bottom completing my trip.

Hotel Chipinque

Butterfly icon near hotel chipinque

 Could have taken something in hotel chipinque and buy some souvenirs. But they were closing by the time i came down and i wanted to get home as well after the first trip in Monterrey, Mexico. So, booked Uber and started waiting for its 20 minutes of its waiting time in Chipinque :-)