When we arrived Urique was dark. Urique was dark because they were having a black out, they had had no power for 6 days before our arrival. However, we were dropped off at a small hotel in the middle of the village, stripped off our soaken, mud splattered clothes, had a semi-warm shower and slipped into our nice clean bed. No dinner as all the restaurants were closed and no water other than the small amount we had left with us (most if not all tap water in Mexico is not potable). The rain often poured heavily during the night but as we had planned to stay two nights this wasn't a problem, for now. The next day we awoke to clear skies and the rim of the canyon covered in a fresh layer of snow. There is not much in the way of tourist activities here which was fine by us as our main focus in travelling is just to see how other people live. You can go hiking into the mountains or to other villages but there have been robberies and incidents with drug cartels.... There were a number of soldiers in plain clothes patrolling around the town armed hand guns and semi-automatic rifles.

I'd have say that Urique is probably the cleanest village we've been to in Mexico, almost spotless. It was a Sunday morning and we found out that on this day every week the Town President leads a gang of volunteers who clean the village from one end to another, they have a break at noon when the President shouts them all a basic lunch at a restaurant. We spent a great day walking around the village, talking to people and finding out as much as we could about the place. In summer it is hot, very hot in Urique - up to 550 C (1310F) and often there are blackouts so no air-conditioners and no fans. I can't even begin to imagine that sort of temperature.

All in all I would recommend visiting Urique but whatever you do DON'T GO WHEN THE ROAD IS WET !!!!!

The photo : the lady on my right (whose name now escapes me) had run the Ultra-marathon four times before and was planning to run it the following month. So, as the saying goes, never judge a book by it's cover.