all good things must come to an end

...only to be followed up with a lot more good things. But more on that later...

Our time in Mexico came to a close on February 28th.  I am well aware that we are a bit behind on our postings, but still wanted to give you all a glimpse of what our final days at the Potrero were like.
We have abstained from posting any photos or making much comment on Mexican culture thus far; however, to gain a better sense of where we spent our seven weeks south of the border, I wanted to share some photos from the public market that comes together every tuesday in the small town...

From fresh fruit to push-up bras, the market had what you didn't know you needed until you saw it, and even then you weren't sure if you needed it or if you were simply hypnotized by the display...

A young proprietor cleans prickly pear cactus...

Though we still aren't entirely sure what was being fried in the vat, this gentleman was extremely enthused to have his picture taken to promote his mystery fried meats...

With average temps coming in between 95 and 100, the weather took a serious swing towards the uncomfortably hot and motivation levels plunged to an all time low in our final days.  Even the locals began to find the heat intolerable...

The heat did not however prevent them from coming out to the canyon on the weekends to enjoy the scenery, compete with friends as to who has the best system, drink and spectate the crazy gringo climbers...

In this photo, Nyssa, Josh and Mitch acted as models to illustrate some of the less desirable aspects of the potrero, i.e. grid bolting.  Though we certainly benefitted from the unregulated new-route development that takes place in the potrero, the lack of oversight has negative effects as well.  Climbers who have bolts and a drill, but lack the motivation to seek out new lines that are worth developing will often squeeze new routes in between old routes, making for potentially unsafe and most certainly unnecessary routes.   

Though technically on different routes, Mitch and Josh are climbing in the exact some crack in order to progress up the climbs.  Both of them are clipped into seperate lines of bolts, and if so desired, they could have been clipping one another's bolts. 

But don't worry, we were still doing plenty of safe and extremely enjoyable rock climbing. Below Nyssa is standing up and reaching up on nothing to the miracle hueco on Milk Cow Blues (5.10c)

Nyssa embracing the space between bolts on Mugre Mugre (5.10d)

Nyssa approaching the chains on the top pitch of Mecasuit (5.11a).  Leading 5.11 was Nyssa's goal for this trip and clearly she had success!!!

Rich trying to fight the excruciating pump and prevent the vertigo in the crux corner sequence of Don Quixote (5.11d).

The really fun thing about limestone is sometimes lucky climbers have the opportunity to pull on tufas! This makes for really fun movement and represents very well the drastic potential that exists for the features on limestone.  You will certainly not find anything like what I found on Tufa the Price of One (5.11c) in the Gunks of the Dax.

Rich trying to stay as tight as possible and embrace the really teenie tiny holds on XL Puff Sneaker (5.11d)

We were fortunate to have our friend Josh Potter come down and spend our final stint with us in the Potrero.  Josh is a very strong climber and came down to crush...here he is only having to try a little bit on El Balota (5.12a).

And because it seems appropriate, here is one final Mexican wildlife photo...

until next time...