In Turn to the Origin: Volume III: Witches' Night in Coatepec Veracruz

Coatepec Veracruz, a town located in the southeast of Mexico, has an enviable natural environment, especially in the cloud forest area, where a variety of flora and fauna species are born and grow on the banks of the rivers that bathe the town. That is why the little mermaids of the river chose to camp that witches' night on Saturday, October 31st, in the surroundings of the waterfall called La Granada, which is located approximately 5 kilometres up from the centre of Coatepec, along the route, the grandmothers told us, where the old cemetery of Coatepec Viejo was located.They started the journey from the Coatepec park, went up Lerdo street straight ahead until they reached the dock and continued towards the Trianon, passing by the mascot until they reached the Zaragoza Bridge. There they stopped to wait and rest before climbing the steps.Once they had all arrived, they began to climb the 999 steps, which represent walking another 2 kilometres, on the path that leads to rancher as and communities they saw people pass by carrying their food, dead man's flowers and a jar of branch on the back of beasts, with whom they walked together for a while.The walk was somewhat tiring, but with beautiful scenery, although they also found trees strewn with edible mushrooms and in the distance among the thickets they heard the singing of birds. In this area of the mesophilic mountain forest they observed tree ferns that have existed since ancient times, as well as lychee, oaks and walnuts.In the rural landscape the most common thing to see was domestic animals such as cows, goats, chickens and dogs that looked after them. There were many flowers and a splendid view in the middle of the road, but they still did not imagine what awaited them and the tiredness made a dent in the little mermaids of the river so they decided to take a rest on the wooden benches that are there for that purpose.Some went ahead a little and others stayed behind watching two squirrels running happily on the guava branches. They could also appreciate the beauty of the blue butterflies flying in the sky.They drank hibiscus water and ate bean packs with goat cheese, before hastily resuming their walk as the sky turned black.They climbed up, down and back up the steps, losing track of time, not even knowing how long it was before they reached their destination.The forest was getting thicker and wetter as they walked between two rivers and in the distance they saw the birth of the majestic pomegranate waterfall.They still had to go down to the river bed when they saw the lightning flash that illuminated them and heard the thunderclap that deafened them, giving rise to the strongest storm ever witnessed by them in this life.Luckily a little mermaid from the river knew a family living in the glens and asked permission to take shelter from the rain, so they entered an old stable that had been destroyed by the passage of time but no longer housed any dairy cows.When they saw that the storm was not letting up and that it was getting dark, the little mermaids from the river made the decision to camp there, so they took out their tents to set them up and some of them started to gather wood to light the fire.Sitting in a circle around the fire, they roasted chocolates and sausages, boiled water to pour on the coffee, and everyone heated and shared the food they brought.