Ciudad Valles is a city near many attractions. 
In terms of history, there’s Tamtoc, an ancient Huasteca city from 600BCE. 
If you want to see animals, there are the birds flying in and out of this Sótano. 
Penis-shaped. 
Circular houses. 
The city itself isn’t anything interesting. This the cathedral. 
You could climb out to see the hole, tipping the staff in the end. 
This is the sixth deepest hole of its kind. 
It’s near the magical town Aquismon which is closer to some of the sites. 
Burial grounds. 
The city’s river. 
The main river in the area. 
One of the two artificial elevations in the ancient city. 
Tamul is the most famous waterfall, but the major fall dried up while I was there. 
So it’s just the Curva de Agua. Not worth visiting. 
People would row the boat under a small waterfall and splash water at each other. 
The swifts in the sky from the hole. 
Only small waterfalls remained. 
Going alone was quite a hassle, I took a taxi colectivo to the road outside Aquismon ($50 – 1hr), then another taxi to the city ($10 colectivo, $50 individual – 15m), then another taxi to the waterfall ($400 – 1hr). The boat tour cost $150 and took 3 hours in total (half an hour of rowing, 2 hours just in Cuerva de Agua). Going back I took the combi to Aquismon ($60 – 1.5hr), the taxi to the station, then the combi back. 
I would stay in Aquismon instead of Ciudad Valles (pictured here) if I was going to the hole and the waterfall on my own again. It’s also close to some other things. 
Archaeologists working in Tamtoc. A Spanish-speaking guide walks with you there for around an hour. 
Remains of a giant sloth (extinct) 
Only example of it in Mesoamerica. 
Month: November 2019
León, Nicaragua
León Viejo is a UNESCO heritage site. 
It was abandoned in the 1600s after a volcanic eruption triggered an earthquake. 
They moved to what is now today’s León after a referendum. 
The old city is special because it’s the only example of a Hispanic city without modification from after its founding. 
The pattern apparently represented power. 
Personally, I didn’t think it was worth visiting considering the fact that one would need to get a bus to La Paz Centro first, before getting another bus there. 
The small town housing old León. 
Where the indigenous person was killed. 
The church. 
The volcano that scared the Spaniards. 
León. 
La Paz Centro. 
Artefact found there from Perú. 
Arriving León, it’s necessary to take transport to the centre. 
Had to wait for it to fill up. 
No more buses from old León going back, so I had to get a motor taxi. 
León centre. 
It’s the capital of the conservatives (Wikipedia is wrong). 
Second-oldest city. 
A very big cathedral. 
Managua, Nicaragua
Managua is the capital of Nicaragua. 
The park is very cool and a lot of people were having fun there. 
The old church, already abandoned. 
Pretty avenues. 
The new cathedral. 
A military base. 
It’s next to Lake Managua. 
For St John Paul II 
San José, Costa Rica
San José is the capital of Costa Rica. 
The park, around half an hour on foot from the city centre. 
It’s not a very big city, the downtown area could be done in like 10 minutes. 
There are some pretty colonial buildings. 
The pre-Columbian gold museum is definitely worth it – it’s 4 museums in 1. 
There weren’t many souvenirs to buy. 
La Quiaca, Argentina
The small towns leading to it…These were the true antitopes of Hong Kong.
The northernmost point of Argentina, it’s roughly the antitope of Hong Kong. It’s not a very big or interesting place. It has a big native American population though.
jagged little earth 