Soledad De Maciel: Guerrero, Mexico

High atop a mountain, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, OK, Ok. It’s not that high, and it’s not a mountain, but it is in Mexico.

Can I say it is a tall hill? It is 200 meters high.

It seems like a mountain as it is in the middle of a vast plain.

From atop the hill, after a few minutes of fairly steep climbing, one can view, in all directions, vast fields of coconut trees.

This entire area is below sea level and if you look carefully, you may see, on the horizon, a ship on the pacific Ocean.

This area, which today is lightly populated, and is the largest coconut production area in Mexico, was, at one time, one of the most heavily populated areas of the country.

Thousands of years ago, a tsunami swept away the lip of beach that protects this area from the open ocean and: drowned thousands of people; destroyed’ cities, towns and villages; and washed farms from the face of the planet.

To this day, almost anywhere, in this area, one can scratch the surface of the land and find remnants of; pottery, or building brick.

At Soledad De Maciel the locals use this history as a way to supplement their meager income.

Off the beaten path, for most tourists, there are no restaurants, hotels, or souvenir stands.

One of the locals has attended university and received a diploma in Archaeology. In his home he has started a small museum.

There is no charge to visit the museum, or to have him guide you up the hill, but he will accept gratuities and it is polite to purchase your water from the local store, before you venture up the hill.

Part way up the hill is a huge cactus. It has many arms and towers over your head by a good ten meters. The guide told us, it is over thee hundred fifty years old.

At the top of the hill, after standing atop an immense boulder, and enjoying a nearly three hundred sixty degree view, the guide will take you around and beneath the boulder. On the other side of the hill there is a cleft in the rock, which he calls a cave and he urges that you not crawl into because it is not safe. He does ask you to peer through, and up, and you can see daylight through a hole in the top.

Actually I had no intention of going in. It looked much too narrow for a person to fit.

Below this opening is a partial excavation, about four meters long, two across, and one deep. According to the archaeologist, the excavation was made by thieves. The thieves were caught, as they made off with the goods, in the next town. The two objects that were stolen, to this day, reside near the gazebo, in the el centro, of the town of Petatlan. The museum of Soledad de Maciel is trying to raise enough money to have the items returned.

Now, I am not going to intimate that the guide/archaeologist is leading us astray but I have been to Petatlan and I have photographed the two objects. One is the shape of a huge muffin, covered with ancient writings, the other looks like a giant straw. Both are made of solid rock and the smaller of the two, not being an expert on rock, I would guess, weighs about, two hundred kilo.

There are no roads to the top of the hill and the back side of the hill is too steep for equipment. But who am I to say. They are where they are, and if you want to see them, Soledad de Maciel is only a short drive; North of Petatlan, about 10 Km or South of Zihuatanejo, about 30 Km, which has an international airport.

To my knowledge there is no bus that goes into Soledad. There are buses a plenty, south, from Zihuatanejo, or north, from Acapulco, or Petatlan. Any of them will drop you at the road to Soledad.

From the highway, one could walk but it is a few kilometers, so take water.