Fall in Love with Real de Catorce

Real de Catorce is a magical town (pueblo magico) in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where you can hike, ride a horse, or ride in a Willys to explore its surroundings. You can visit old mining ghost towns, visit holy places for the huicholes, or simply stroll its streets.

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Maybe you’ve heard of Real de Catorce. Maybe you haven’t. Either way, it is definitely time to get on board.

Visiting Real de Catorce, simply put, is an amazing destination where you get to travel back in time.

Real de Catorce is an enchanting, charming, and exhilarating adventure visit. You will be transported back to its mining roots when walking its stone streets, riding a horse to a ghost town, hiking around the area, or riding a Willys (WWII-era jeep) to search for peyote, the mystical plant used by the huicholes for their rituals.

To reach this town, you need to drive several kilometers in the highway, ride a rocky road for almost an hour, and venture through a 2Km long tunnel that serves as a time machine that dials you back in time.

So if you want to visit a truly magical town in Mexico where you can breathe in its history, with opportunities to hike to some amazing places, ride a horse, or go on a wild Willys ride, then keep reading and start booking your tickets to San Luis Potosi!

The town of Real de Catorce is embraced by the mountains

Real de Catorce was a silver mining town founded in the middle of the mountain range. Its decline started once a flood precluded the miners from extracting the precious metal, converting this place into a ghost town.

Years later, this place started to flourish again thanks in large part to tourism. Nevertheless, there are still parts that remain a ghost town which you will get to visit and relive its life through your imagination.

Real de Catorce by Horse

One great way to explore Real de Catorce is by horse. Walking in its main square you’ll find guides asking if you’d like to take a ride.

This is a great option since there are many hills to get to most spots. You need not be an expert: pulling the reigns left/right will tell your new travel companion to turn left/right, respectively. It’s as simple as that 😜.

You will get to see some amazing views while riding. Keep in mind that you’ll be going up or down hill, and hence you have to hang on tight to the saddle.

The ride to the ghost town was $350 pesos (~$18USD) per person, and it took about 1.5 hours.

You get some amazing views of the town embedded in the mountains when riding to the ghost town. Make sure to ask your guide to stop at the hacienda view on the way back.

Travel Tip

There are several options of rides on horse:

• Around town: old bull rink & cemetary
• Ghost town
• Cerro del Quemado: sacred hill (1-hr each way + 1hr in the mountain, approximately $500 pesos/$25USD per person)
• Combo ride: two mines, ghost town, Wuirikuta desert (5-hrs approximately, $1500 pesos/$75USD per person)

The exhilarating Willys ride

Horse riding not thrilling enough for you? Get this: In Real de Catorce you get the unique opportunity to ride in a Willys. This isn’t just a very unique experience as you won’t see a Willys every day, but it is also an opportunity to experience a thrilling ride by optionally riding on top of the vehicle!

What’s a Willys?
“It was a brand name used by Willys–Overland Motors, an American automobile company, founded by also diplomat John North Willys, best known for its design and production of World War II era and later military jeeps (MBs), as well as civilian versions (Jeep CJs), and branding the ‘jeep’ military slang-word into the ‘(Universal) Jeep’ marque, during the 20th century.”

WIKIPEDIA

The Willys ride will take you to the following stops:

• Socavón de la Purísima (more about this below)
• Ride into the desert to find the mystical peyote
• The Real de Catorce train station

What makes this a thrilling ride when you ride on top is that the road is bumpy, in some areas it is very narrow with some amazing views (and corresponding drops), and hence you have to hang on tight at times!

Not interested in such a big thrill? Don’t fret. You can most certainly ride inside the Willys 👍.

One very interesting stop in our Willys venture through the desert was getting to see the peyote plant.

The peyote (called hikuri by the the indigenous people in the region) is considered a plant with special powers by their culture. Locals say that, through it, they are able to speak with their gods and heal some illnesses.

Note: the peyote should not be touched or consumed by tourists. It is a protected plant!

Exploring the timeless town

Lets most definitely not forget about the town itself! I personally found it to be quite charming. It is a bit hilly, so you’ll get a slight workout. It will be worth it, as you’ll get to see the main church, its small square, several small shops, and opportunities to eat street food.

You will be able to find several spots selling gorditas (literal translation is “chubby ones”, but it is a basically a stuffed tortilla). Vegetarian? You have to try the nopales (cactus) gorditas. If you’re not in the mood for cactus gorditas, there’s a wide range of other fillings such as potatoes with chorizo (a spicy type of sausage), egg, cheese, pork rinds, and few types of beef.

Out in left field tip: It is in Real de Catorce where I’ve enjoyed one of the best tasting burgers ever. Try the gourmet burger at La Porfiriana, Fusion Mexican Cousine.

There are a couple of streets blocked to traffic so you can enjoy a stroll through the shops.

Our visit was during Christmas. The town was adorned, and it made for a very memorable holiday.

If possible, try to avoid traveling to Real de Catorce during weekends. Although this is an ‘off the beaten path’ destination, several local tourists tend to visit.

Travel Tip

The ghost town and the Socavón de la Purísima

One of the must-see spots in the outskirts of Real de Catorce is the ghost town. Here you can feel how life worked during the climax of its mining past.

To get here, you can either hike or ride a horse.

During your stop in this ghost town, you get an opportunity to go into one of the mines. The short walk inside of it is only a few yards, but a great spot to see as it will get pitch dark in there.

Another must-see stop is the Socavón (or sink-hole) de la Purísima. You recognize the place by a chimney that is a vestige of the splendor of the time. The chimney remains almost intact despite the time, considering that the mine started out in 1770, together with the construction of the hacienda de beneficio (benefit hacienda), which surrounds the mine. In addition to being the place where the silver was processed, it was the residence of their owners.

This place really shows off Real de Catorce’s beauty: the old walls of the big house, the chapel, the warehouse, and the mine’s ovens. In addition, there’s the entrance to the mine, where you can feel cold air blowing through when you step up to it.

The place has a royal seal with the initials of Virgen de la Purísima Concepción as well as an image that has been venerated ever since.

The grand entrance of Real de Catorce

To enter Real de Catorce you need to drive through a tunnel approximately 2Km long. Túnel Ogarrio cuts through the mountain, and was built at the end of the XIX century…mostly by hammer and chisel! It is a one-way tunnel, so radio communication is used to let traffic go through in a given direction.

Logistics

Going to Real de Catorce is not very straight forward. We started out of the city of San Luis Potosi, and drove about 3.5 hours north. After driving on a well maintained highway for most of the trip, the last 45 minutes are driven on a rocky/bumpy road which will limit your speed.

Furthermore, once you reach the tunnel, it is very likely that you will have to wait a few minutes for the oncoming traffic to finish exiting before traffic in the opposite direction is allowed to cross. It costs about $20 pesos ($1USD) to go through the tunnel.

We drove our rental car into Real de Catorce. Parking can be limited in busier days. Our hotel had offsite parking, about a 5-7min walk away.

We stayed at Hotel Mina Real, and we highly recommend it. It is very centric, and the rooms are comfortable.

Note that Wi-Fi and cell reception (low coverage 3G) are subpar in Real de Catorce, unfortunately.

Spending 2-3 days feels about right to get the full experience.

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I’d love to hear what you think about Real de Catorce! Please feel free to drop us a comment at the bottom of this article.

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