February 2020
Now this is an excursion that you won’t find often… an mining for Opals.
This excursion is near the town of Tequisquiapan, in that state of Querétaro Mexico.
If you have your own car and you speak some Spanish, there is no need to hire a tour guide.
The “main guy” for the opal mine excursion is Héctor Montes. His excursion business is less than 30 minutes from the center of Tequisquiapan, Querétaro, in the small town of Trinidad.
The is location is: Calle Dos de Octubre 1 La Trinidad, 76774 Tequisquiapan, Qro., Mexico.
We were spending a few days in Tequisquiapan as a home-base and took day trips to points of interest in the area.
Exploring for opals sounded fun. We packed up the dogs and head to Hector Montes Opal Mine Excursions.
Once we arrived we were greeted warmly by Hector and his family.
We asked if we could bring our two dogs along on the excursion and they said “yes!” because their dog comes along on every tour also.
We purchased tickets directly from the office.
We waited around a bit until there were enough people who also wanted to take the excursion.
The office area sold cold bottles of water. There were clean restrooms to use and a small store to purchase opals.
Once we had enough people, we got into the back of a pickup truck that had bench seating and a roof.
We drove out of the small town of Trinidad and headed for the mountains.
The road was not paved. It was a rutty rock-filled road.
We kept climbing higher and higher into the Sierra mountains. It was a jerky slow ride up the mountain.
There were some amazing views the higher we climbed.
About 20 – 30 minutes later we finally arrived in a big open area.
Once we got off the truck, Hector gathered us all around and gave a short talk about the history of the area.
He spoke Spanish slowly and clearly. I really appreciated that since I am not a native Spanish speakers. He was easy to understand.
After the talk, he had us select our hand tool. He showed us how to take a rock and chip away at it to find an opal.
After the lesson we were sent off to look for opals.
Hector went around to each of us to helped us find rocks to crack open for opals.
We spend about an hour up there, which was just enough for all of us to find one or two small opals.
The ride back down was just as bumpy and steep.
I hung onto one of my dogs with one hand and used the other to hang on to the bars to keep from sliding into the person next to me.
The trip back down seemed to be a bit quicker.
Once back in the office we could have our opals polished.
I recommend taking this day trip from Tequisquiapan. Bring your furry friend along too.
If your dogs are the type to wonder off, I suggest bringing a leash. There are some very steep cliffs in the area. Happy Tails!
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