It is impossible to miss the Peña of Bernal upon arriving in this little pueblo only a short bus ride away from the capital city of Queretaro. According to signs around the base of the giant rock, it is the third larges monolith in the world. Other sources have it coming in 13th after another slab of stone I came across once upon a time, the Rock of Gibraltar.
Hopping off the bus as it slowed around a curve, we were greeted by a statue of the intense image of Saint Sebastian used for target practice. We bought a big loaf of sweet bread still warm from the oven to eat for breakfast the next morning after camping out on the side of the huge natural monument.
We ate gorditas, not any better or any worse then others I had thrown down before though they may have been better garnished for what we paid. The church looked like something off a television baking-to-the-death reality show so we didn't tarry but headed up to set up camp before night fall.
I don't know, to be honest, exactly how far up this rock we camped. I can point out the cramped pebble covered ledge that we scrambled around on for about 16 hours and it is funny to imagine how our little bonfire looked lighting up the top half of the peña.
The view was breathtaking. We were at the level of the clouds and able to retrace our route from the bus stop, to the bakery, then for gorditas and to the market. We had loaded our backpacks with cantaloupe, bananas, water, oranges, croissants and other things that added about 11 kilos extra that we had hauled almost vertically only to eat almost everything before the sun went down.
At one point around dusk I thought we were going to be forced to jump off the face of this rock because of all the birds that began to swarm around us. It had to have been roosting time, I did't see many trees that high up, but it seemed to last forever and I didn't much enjoy the thought of giving up the little food that we had left nor my eyes a la Hitchcock.
Being that high up gave us the advantage to enjoy the sunset for a couple of extra hours. The cloud formations and how quickly they moved around us was hypnotizing. I couldn't tell for a moment if it was the twilight, but a storm had appeared out of nothing and it was eye level and getting bigger. I began to get annoying and nervous... mainly about getting wet, then cold. I remain, a cat. The storm, for whatever reason, decided to stop directly over the pueblo then turn right along its merry way, lightning and purple flashing.
We heard the roosters of the town echoing and expanding with the sunrise. The air is the coldest and man seems gentle at the quiet hours of the morning. Glitter and stillness, purple light.
