Stone streets
Old houses.
Rafael Saldaña — CC BY 2.0 · Antonio de Jesús Pérez Cruz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Antonio de Jesús Pérez Cruz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wasquewhat — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wasquewhat — CC BY-SA 3.0
Real de Catorce is an old stone village on a mountainside in the desert of northern Mexico. Cobbled streets, half-ruined mining-era buildings and a church with a white dome and bell tower sit among bare mountains and cactus. It was once a thriving silver-mining settlement; most people later left, and it became a near «ghost town» with fewer than a thousand residents today. It lies at more than 2,743 m in the Sierra de Catorce, one of Mexico's highest plateaus. It has long drawn Catholic pilgrims and the Huichol people, who hold the surrounding desert sacred, and now attracts travellers from around the world. You enter the village through the narrow Ogarrio tunnel, wander the stone streets, visit the church and the ruins of the old mint, and ride horses or old jeeps to the abandoned settlement and the hills. It is about 25 km in a straight line west of Matehuala, reached by a 27 km cobbled road. Nights are cold at this altitude, so bring warm clothes.
Old houses.
White dome.
To the hills.
Sierra de Catorce, northern San Luis Potosí
By car or bus from Matehuala.
Yes, there are small hotels.