Okay, so I’ve never been a big fan of horses (still aren’t), I find them big and scary.. so when my friends suggested going to La Marquesa I couldn’t imagine what I’d be able to enjoy about it.
La Marquesa is a national park in Mexico State in Mexico and known for it’s beautiful landscape, rolling hills, and horses. Most people love horses, I think. I have so many friends from Scotland who are horse riders, and have raised their horses since ponyhood(?), foalhood(?), whatever it’s called, and talk about the amazing magical bond between human and horse. My husband grew up in rural Mexico and his grandparents owned a ranch so he (like most Mexican men) learned to ride a horse when he was a boy so he could help out on the ranch. I, on the other hand, prefer to avoid horses like the plague. They’re big, bigger than me, and I’m very tall. They’re unpredictable (at least to a horse novice like myself), and they’re powerful, I’ve seen some of my strongest friends thrown off or kicked and the bruises alone are terrifying.
However, my husband loves horses and I know they’re an important part of Mexican culture, so I agreed to go. La Marquesa is about an hours drive from Mexico City; a beautiful, scenic, desert drive. When you pull up you’ll find several entrances to choose from, I don’t know which is the best but I do know that there are some where they’re likely to try to gouge money from tourists. There are local people living on the land, who provide food and bathroom services to visitors. The toilets are what you’d expect of a rural area, not like in the city, they’re very basic and you kind of just have to embrace it. You also have to pay a small fee to the owners.
We brought a picnic, which I highly recommend, to make sure we were properly fed and watered. It’s a hot place with very little shade from the sun and you’re likely to be there for a good few hours as most people visit as a full day trip. There are BBQ facilities and wooden gazebo structures with chairs and tables set up that you can rent. You’ll also be approached by locals offering horse rides, food, drink, kites, footballs and other goods. I personally prefer not to haggle because honestly they’re just trying to make a living and nothing they offer is going to be that expensive anyway, but if you’re watching your pennies then it’s worth wandering around and speaking to different vendors to find the cheapest deal.
If unlike me, you’re into horseriding then you can rent a horse from one of the men and be lead on a pony treck around the hills and fields - the views are spectacular. If you’re a competent rider they’ll let you take the horse on your own. If you’re new or not very confident as a rider then someone will walk in front and lead the horse. The group is lead by one of the Campesinos (the men who rent and lead the horses). Please tip your Campesinos well because it’s not an easy job. They walk for miles and miles, several times a day, up and down steep terrain, breathing in a lot of dust that comes up from the ground. Some of them are just young boys, some are old men. This is their livelihood and way of life and none of them seemed to be complaining but I think it’s important to pay them well for their services, at the end of the day, they’re there to keep you safe.
If riding a horse isn’t your thing (many people object to riding any animals for moral reasons) then don’t think you can’t still visit La Marquesa. The national park itself is full of beautiful lakes and fields to walk around. There’s other activities like motorbike and dirtbike riding. It’s even just a nice peaceful place to spend a day admiring nature, kicking a football around, and soaking up the sun.
It’s not somewhere I’d visit regularly, but it’s a nice place to go to have a picnic with your friends or family and enjoy a break from the city. It was definitely a better day than I was expecting.
