Concrete flowers, stairways leading nowhere and gothic arches dripping with ferns: Las Pozas, just outside Xilitla, is one of the strangest places in Mexico. It was built by Edward James, an eccentric English poet and patron of the surrealists, who came to this jungle-covered mountainside in the 1940s, fell in love with it and spent decades building a dreamlike garden of concrete sculptures among the waterfalls and pools of a mountain stream. Today it is open to visitors, and wandering through it, half lost in the vegetation, is unforgettable.
Xilitla itself is a small town of about six thousand people perched on the slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental in the Huasteca region of San Luis PotosÃ. It is a coffee town, with plantations on the surrounding slopes, and the climate is warm, humid and often misty. The town has an old Augustinian convent from the sixteenth century, one of the oldest buildings in the state, and a lively market. The local food includes zacahuil, a giant tamale cooked in a wood-fired oven, and coffee grown on the hills nearby.
For riders, Xilitla is the reward at the end of one of the great roads of central Mexico. Federal Highway 120 climbs from the dry plains of Querétaro into the Sierra Gorda, a biosphere reserve of mountains, canyons and forests, passing through Jalpan and its baroque mission church before descending toward Xilitla in an endless sequence of curves, often tight and steep, with dramatic views and sudden changes of climate. The road is generally paved and in reasonable condition, but landslides, fog, rain and slow trucks can make it challenging.
Xilitla has fuel, food and small hotels, including some near Las Pozas. The roads around town are narrow and steep, and the cobbled streets in the centre can be slippery in the rain, which falls often. The rainy season runs from June to October, bringing heavy downpours and fog, while the dry months are more pleasant for riding. Visit Las Pozas early in the morning, before the crowds and the heat, and take your time to explore the paths and pools.