If you're not part of the solution you're part of the precipitate

This bicycle tour so far has been destination-based; there are so many Sites To See in this area, that we choose ones and then set out towards it, even if it's not on "our route". Other trips my partner and I start at point A and push towards a distant point B, setting blindly out often times, not as willing to leave our route to see something. But this time, I suppose, everything is on our route, because or route is designed for Seeing not for Distance. 

Yesterday our destination was Hierve el Agua (literally, "the water boils"), a true wonder: a waterfall now solid and stationary because it was made from spring water so concentrated with calcium carbonate that it precipitated out into its own form. 

It was only about 24 kilometers away, but across mountains, so we spent half the day riding and climbing a total of 3,700 feet. 

If I'd come there in a tour bus, sat for all that time, I feel there would be all this pressure for the destination itself to be worthwhile. But on a bicycle, taking half the day to arrive, the destination was occuring continuously all morning. The grinding climb, the sweeping mountain views, admiring the cacti, staring at the goats and cows and burros crossing under the highway with their wide-hatted keeper. Stopping toq eat guavas (for the price of what I usually leave in the Take A Penny Leave A Penny cup at the pharmacy), throwing my arms wide at the valley mountain vista spread out after a climbing curve. "I could be in an OFFICE right now at a COMPUTER," I crowed, as a small truck drove by and gave me strange looks. W

The last bit before Hierve el Aqua was a dusty descending track abundantly studded with hunky stones and gravel. I'm usually a road biker, so I feel especially sensitive to anything less smooth than velvet. But I gave into the gravity, even though it was like riding on Legos, and trusted in my fearless wide tires. There was no scenery gazing during that time, just concentrated focus on staying upright. The experience was so jouncy I felt my triceps flapping and I was amazed I still had any screws left in my bike

The super-saturated now stationary waterfall

The intestine-like formations near the pools

The top of the waterfall was a series of teal pools for swimming, set starkly against a steep drop into the valley. The Sierras loomed behind. Around the pools it appeared like someone's intestine, all with curved nooks and intricate cilia from the deposited, curving calcium bright against the teal water. It was surreal how beautiful it was. Like some brighter-than-life Pixar movie, set on another planet. 


I sat by the shade tree and was delighted to find a brigade of leaf cutter ants working on it. They zipped along the tree, the empty ones touching heads with the ones coming down hefting leaves, "tell me where I'm going again?" Regarding the whole scene, it was more like green shapes trundling along, the ants themselves barely visible. I felt like David Attenborough was right there with me, and I was so happy to be there. 


Along our ride there and back there were Agave crops growing roadside, for mescal yet. It is dry and dusty feeling here, like Arizona perhaps, cacti and blistered rock outcroppings. The Sierras rest in the distance, framing our passage into a desiccating wind. This place feels so foreign to me, from cold be-treed NY state.