Hike To Presita El Pretil - San Marcos de Begoña

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I haven't posted yet about Aguascalientes although it was a fun two days.  I will put up some pictures soon.  When we arrived to SMA, the skies were clear and the weather was warm during the day.  Kind of tired from the drive from Aguascalientes, we stayed home and went to bed early.  The next day we decided to go for a hike.  I am attempting to locate small towns nearby to visit.  We did that last month.

I took a look at the map and saw a town called San Marcos de Begoña.  It is 16km from SMA on the road to Queretaro.  What caught my eye was Happy Valley.  It appeared to be a trail and we decided to go for it.  Sometimes a little town like that may not even be a town but just a collection of small homes with vegetable gardens or a couple of farm animals.  

We hopped in the car and took off.  Not really, we watched the news and had coffee and a shower.  We arrived 15 minutes later only to find some very rocky dirt roads.  We followed Maps which sometimes can be misleading, and it was.  We finally stumbled across the placita where there is a kiosk and a small park.  It had been inaugurated in 2019.  

There was a woman talking on her cell phone and it appeared she was going to sell something. How did I know?  There was a kindergarten next door so it was obvious she would be selling food.  We asked her how we could find the small press or reservoir and she shrugged us off.  Bitter woman! 

Across the road was the local church.  The gate was locked so we couldn't go in.  Juan jumped on the wall to take the picture.  One thing we have noticed more and more over the years is that many of these churches are locked and have no access unless there is an event.  A sign of the times as there are fewer local police and patrols and crime has more than doubled.  

Juan set Google Maps in walking mode and off we went.  We passed a lot of small homes, most very rustic and others that were large and under construction and some abandoned.  We passed horses, burros and egrets which were looking for seeds in the excrement from the animals.  We knew then that the water was nearby.  It was quiet and we didn't see people but the Maps app didn't seem to be taking us anywhere so instinct kicked it.  It had been foggy earlier in the morning we could see fog or in reality, steam rising and we headed toward it. 

Sure enough, we found what we had come for.  There are many very good pics of the dam on the internet.   I'm still looking for information on the construction and how old it is.  It is three-tiered and the water goes over the top.

There is a walkway on the side down below.  We would have had to come from the other side and walk through the canyon.  We'll save that for another day now that we know where we are going.  

We had several appointments for minor repairs and the installation of lights. Later in the day, we took off for a walk into SMA looking for some steel wool.  Not easy to find and I didn't have any success.  Not only is it steel wool but the fine grade 0000.  I want to use it on the car and SUV windshields and also to clean the stainless steel kitchen sink.

Since so many ex-pats walk around with their noses in the air or their heads buried in the calles empedradas (rock roads), I decided to always look at passersby and smile.  A woman was coming down the street and she looked at me and I gave her a big smile.  She had a scowl on her mug and I said to Juan, "sourpuss".  He turned around and said to me, "and she looked at you and thought, "cheerful bastard".