Real de Catorce

Real de Catorce is a near-abandoned silver mining town at 2,700 meters in the high desert of San Luis Potosi, reached through the Ogarrio Tunnel — a 2.3-kilometer single-lane cobblestone passage blasted through the mountain that operates on alternating traffic windows and deposits visitors directly into the 19th-century town. At its silver-boom peak in the late 1800s the town had over 40,000 inhabitants; collapse of silver prices drove almost complete abandonment, leaving an extraordinary frozen landscape of ruined stone haciendas, empty plazas, and a surviving colonial church. Today around 800 residents and a small bohemian community of artists occupy what remains, while the surrounding Wirikuta desert is sacred to the Wixáritari (Huichol) indigenous people, who make annual peyote pilgrimages to this territory across hundreds of kilometers. Horseback rides into the desert, stunning stargazing above the plateau, and the atmospheric echo of a lost boomtown make Real de Catorce an experience with almost no parallel in Mexico. Visiting requires effort — the nearest hub is Matehuala, served by bus from San Luis Potosi or Monterrey — which largely accounts for why the town remains off most tourists' radar.