Iztaccíhuatl-Popocatépetl Zoquiapan National Park

This National Park is part of the Sierra Nevada and one of the oldest protected areas in Mexico as it was created by President Lázaro Cárdenas on November 8, 1935. The visitor center is situated at an altitude of 3,690 m. It is located at the Paso de Cortés, a mountain pass between the Popo and the Izta. Its name comes from the conqueror Hernán Cortés who passed the mountains with his men in 1519 after the battle of Cholula to continue his conquest in the valley of Mexico. We paid a little entrance fee for the National Park and continued our trip in the car to an even higher point of approx. 4,000 m. From this point we were hiking, though we didn't gain much height as the altitude was a problem for both of us.

In the Mexica mythology, Iztaccihuatl was a princess who fell in love with Popocatepetl, one of her father's warriors. The princess's father sent the warrior to a battle in Oaxaca, promising to deliver his daughter if he returned victorious and with his enemy's head in the spear. Some time later the warrior returned with his rival's head bleeding on his spear. However, he saw that his deed was in vain because the princess had died. With a broken heart he took the body of his beloved to a mountain and the gods turned it into an inactive volcano. Afterwards, the warrior took a torch and promised that no hurricane, no matter how strong it carried its waters, would extinguish the fire with which he watched over the body of his beloved. For this reason, the gods gave him eternity, turning him into a volcano in exchange for guarding Princess Iztaccíhuatl.

During this season of the year the volcano smokes very often. We were lucky to be at a very beautiful viewpoint when it smoked heavily this day. One day after our tour to the National Park there was a heavy eruption of the volcano and it ejected lava and gases up to four km in height.

After we left the Izta-Popo National Park we had lunch in a nearby restaurant. I had mixiote, a typical Mexican dish, consisting of steamed meat, wrapped in a film that comes off the stalk of the maguey. On the way we were listening to music of the 60's like Barry White, Diana Ross, Commodores, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Tavares, Earth, Wind & Fire, Marvin Gaye and Viola Willis. The next day Cynthia's father prepared frijoles charros for me, named after the traditional Mexican cowboy horsemen, or charros. The dish is characterized by pinto beans stewed with different kinds of sausages and meat. During the day we were watching a little bit of the Race of Champions, an international motorsport event which took place in Mexico City a few days ago. It is the only competition in the world where stars from Formula 1, World Rally Championship, IndyCar, NASCAR, sportscars and touring cars compete against each other, going head-to-head in identical cars.

In the afternoon Cynthia and I picked her son Dani and one friend up from school. Opposite the school building pepinos locos were sold. It is a very crazy but typical Mexican dish: Hollowed out cucumbers, filled with peanuts, chamoy, tajine, limon, sauce and some other stuff. In the evening we were invited to celebrate the first birthday of the daugther of one of Cynthia's brothers. I did not stick to my original plan to take a late bus to my next destination Pachuca, approx. two hours to the east of Mexico City because sometimes it happens that buses are attacked at night. As we stayed a little bit too long at the party my next host in Pachuca recommended to better take a bus the following morning. So I did and stayed for one more night with Cynthia's parents.