Admiring Lady’s Legs on top of The Old Man’s Hump, Cerro Viejo is Jalisco’s second-highest peak
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- Published on Friday, 21 March 2014 11:09
- Written by John Pint
For years I’ve heard stories about the difficulties and rewards of hiking to the top of Cerro Bola del Viejo, which – at 2,960 meters above sea level – is Jalisco’s second-highest mountain after El Nevado de Colima (4,240 meters and, by the way, not in Colima).
Those stories all had to do with awesome views, pristine forests, freezing-cold temperatures and exhausted hikers fainting along the trail. It sounded like a wonderful place, but a bit more than my old legs could handle.
Then I got a message from a friend, Franky Alvarez: “John, there’s now a road going all the way to the top of Cerro Viejo – Wanna check it out?”
The result? Here I am in the Casa Ejidal of San Miguel Cuyutlán, located 26 kilometers south of Guadalajara and 15 north of Lake Chapala.
The President of the Ejido and other officials welcome me warmly. They tell me that Cerro Viejo is a place of extraordinary beauty and they are dedicated to keeping it that way. “It was recently declared a Protected Area,” they tell me, “and now, rather than exploit it, we want to preserve it.”