Hope
Within the northern Mexican cordillera, you will find a hidden town. Ojo Caliente.
On the Monterrey – Saltillo highway, right after we passed the first set of mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental, we began to notice a series of food joints right off of the highway, as you can see in one of the photos, it literary means right off of the highway. One these food joints particularly caught our attention; Los Parientes. Los Parientes had an unusually high amount of traffic compared to the other food stalls in the area, so by default, we decided to check it out. After overcoming the odyssey that it was to find parking, we discovered we were in for a treat.
Traveling on the cheap is our specialty, in every blog we write, we try to give you tips on how to do this. Here’s one, if you are ever traveling through Mexico’s highway system, the chances are that the less mainstream, and less marketed places you see off the road are cheap, with some of the best food you have ever tasted. Los Parientes was a prime example of the latter. An all you can eat meat buffet for 70 Mexican pesos, which is the equivalent of approximately $ 4.00 USD
We could write and share a lot more about our experience at Los Parientes, but there’s more to this story than just great culinary taste.
Being the adventurers that we are, we decided to venture into the rocky area. It was then, when we ran in the community of Ojo Caliente. Somehow it was not on the map, we looked on our paper map, we looked on every mapping app we had, Ojo Caliente was nowhere to be found, but it was there in front of us, so there we went.
At first sight, Ojo Caliente is nothing more than just a conglomerate of little low-income houses (some abandoned) a gravel road, and an outdated forgotten play park. Yes, you guessed it, there is a twist. This community hidden between the Cordillera has a lot offer. We quickly began mingling around, and it was so evident that for the community, it was ok to not have all commodities that often trap people in a cage of debt and unhappiness. This is not to say that we had suddenly discovered the happiest people on earth, but they were surely content with the simplicity of their lives. This concept reinforced the starting idea of this blog. The experiences in our lives make us richer, and not necessarily stuff.
However, we also discovered, that there was a particular person injecting hope into the community. In an apparently neglected town by the Mexican government, after you pass the ¼ mile rocky entrance, turn left, and right after the abandoned playground, you will find a small medical clinic run by the Social Security Mexican Institute.
The clinic provides free basic medical care to the community of Ojo Caliente and other neighboring towns. Inside the clinic we met a young and bright Doctor running the clinic. Dr. Danya Flores. In all of our adventures, we have never met such an intelligent, kind, smart, clever, able, competent person such as Dr. Flores. Hidden among the northern Mexican Cordillera, there she was, implanting hope, prescribing encouragement, and curing failure, in a seemingly forgotten town.
We witnessed many miracles that day, as we witnessed patients walk away with more than the usual antibiotics. Patients left the clinic filled with hope and encouragement to move forward and create progress in their lives. Dr. Flores was welcoming, polite, and soothing calming, as she taught us more about the work they do daily in rural communities such as Ojo Caliente. Thanks to Dr. Flores, Ojo Caliente had hope. Progress is built on hope.
Ojo Caliente was not a destination we had originally intended to explore, but after visiting, we felt this experience was truly a life-changing experience, and as Rick Warren once wrote: “Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with that happens to you. Don’t waste your pain, use it to help others."
El Migrante
Explore Saltillo. The capital city of one of Mexico's most northern states.
We often wonder, what does it take for a person to leave everything behind? - It takes everything, the wholeness of their body, mind and soul. We must commence this particular adventure with what we perceive the most important item in it is. La Casa del Migrante.
We often link immigration to political debate stages across The United States, however, immigration issues affect several countries around the globe. By default, if The United States is dealing with complex immigration issues, Mexico is as well. Many of the migrants coming to The United States from many countries around the world, often jumpstart their crossing through Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila, one of Mexico's bordering states. La Casa del Migrante's concept is a simple humanitarian idea; help those in need.
If you think about it, the irony is somewhat bizarre. Allow us to elaborate in this incongruity. In one of Saltillo's trendy district, the statue of Mexico's 37th president and legendary revolutionary leader Venustiano Carranza stands tall.
Venustiano Carranza was a great military leader, who is well known within historian circles, for being the one who held the North Americans and kept them out of Mexico. Many would argue that history has a funny way to repeat itself. It is now the North Americans who are trying to keep others out.
As we continued to venture deeper into Saltillo, two things became evident to us. First, the automotive industry has a significant presence in Saltillo and drives the economy. Mercedes-Benz and General Motors both have assembly plants here, and Chrysler operates a truck assembly plant, a sedan assembly plants, and two engine facilities.
The Second was the heavy influence of The Roman Catholic Church. This is not entirely uncommon when traveling through Mexico. It is the norm.
Everywhere we went, it was impossible to see someone who lacked faith. We sat there for a while, as we admired the devoted persons who came through the central cathedral’s door. The Virgen de Guadalupe’s altar was the most visited.
The Colonial streets in the city’s old town are always mesmerizing. In a way, it feels like going back in time. Who walked where we are walking? Who stood where we are standing? – These are some of the questions we asked ourselves while navigating through Saltillo’s time portal.
Of course, no trip is complete without a great culinary experience. And what a great experience this was. Handmade tortillas were standard at every place we visited. We also discovered that there was no need to scroll down a menu because the taste of freshly-made-from-scratch was phenomenal, so our food choices were always the same; “bring us whatever you want. We’ll eat it with pleasure “Nonetheless, as we talked to the locals, they didn’t seem to appreciate the simple things in their daily lives that we were amazed at. Many of them are always worrying and planning their odyssey to The United States. Our farewell message to them was sincere: You can’t get so hung up on where you rather be, that you forget to make the best of where you are.
