Park Chipinque has several viewpoints. After I had been there once with a friend for practically nothing because it was cloudy and we simply couldn’t see anything, I went back again on my own. I had seen online that there is another viewpoint in Chipinque that is relatively easy to climb. My actual goal was the Copète el Aguila – which has a really great view according to Google – but to avoid another disappointment, I started my trip with a Pan B in my luggage – looking back I did well. The Copète el Aguila can only be climbed with a guide, who has to be booked in advance with some kind of assurance that you are suitable to climb the peak. So it’s not that easy.
Therefore I went to the viewpoint ‘El Pinal’ and made the short and somewhat steep climb up to the lookout platform. Admittedly, the view up there isn’t the greatest, but it’s still real sweet. Especially when you would otherwise have had to turn back without a view.
On the way back, I saw a squirrel, a lizard and even a deer in the forest. Really cute.
Go or not? I think that a visit to Chipinque is worthwhile. That’s why I would try both lookouts when I’m there. The only problem is that they are quite far apart. Means you have to be there quite early and carry a bit of endurance with you.

Tiny, but somehow really cool. And by tiny, I mean one room. And a relatively small one on top. I still wonder how they managed to fit so many cool classic cars into a small space and somehow make the museum look really cool despite its size.
But from the beginning: I still had a bit of time left towards the end of my time in Monterrey, so I dug a little deeper for things to do in Monterrey and came across this museum. I’m not a car fan or anything, but classic cars… I mean, who doesn’t think they’re kind of cool? So I went – warning to all the women out there, the vibe of the area where I arrived by train is… a bit… I don’t know… deserted, run-down, sketchy. Like not bad bad, but you don’t really feel comfortable. So I left pretty quickly and only took out my phone once to orientate myself.
The museum itself is located in a park – unfortunately only a regular one – and costs 10 pesos? It was really not much, but it did cost a minimal amount. And inside you can then see old plaques and signs on the walls, really cool vintage cars, a wooden carriage and all that sort of thing. Of course you get through pretty quickly, but I thought it was really nice 😊
Go or not? Um…. Because of how I received where you arrive, I would if actually go with another person, because there was just no one there and the vibe just wasn’t cool. Whether it’s worth it or not…. Only if you have time to spare, because it’s a bit further away and you either have to take an Uber or the metro.

No, I’m usually not really interested in Museums of steel. However, this museum looked quite interactive online and I confess I was interested in the view. 😀 Cause you online can see that you can go up via lift. And as Monterrey is surrounded by mountains – including the Cerro de la Silla – I thought “interactive museum and viewpoint together, why not”. The museum was also reasonably priced, so I just went for it.
Admittedly, I hardly remember the museum itself. But I am pretty sure to remember that is was cool so far and also quite interactive.
The view however, I remember very well. Also taking the lift up to the top, walking between all the steel pipes and the entire structure and watching the sun slowly sink lower on the horizon. That was…. And the view… let’s just say I was right 😀 You have a direct view of the Cerro de la Silla and the surrounding area and park. A really great view. So for me totally worth it 😊
Go or not? Yes and no. If you’re interested in museums of steel or steel construction or you’re crazy about viewpoints, yes. Otherwise, no 😉

The biggest and most positive surprise for me in Monterrey. 😊
The Parque Fundidora starts at what I assume is an artificial river with a bridge over it and cool mosaic pictures on the wall. Then you walk along waterfalls on a really chique, clean and beautifully made path that takes you past various opportunities to chill and is lined with shrubs and trees. Eventually you arrive at the entrance to the real Park Fundidora, where there are now also boat trips on the widened river. Here you basically walk along the path of the park until you reach the end of the river, in the middle of which there is a viewing platform from where you have a great view of the Cerro de la Silla. If you walk further down the park, you will pass various other things – such as a pretty cool museum. But more to that in another post.
And then, when the sun goes down and you walk back again and it slowly but gradually gets darker and darker, you realise that you still haven’t seen the most beautiful thing about this park: the trees at the entrance to the park are decorated with lights. Have you ever walked along a river that was lined with trees full of lights? Beautiful and incredibly romantic.
Go or not? On second thought, definitely one of my highlights in Monterrey and definitely the biggest surprise. Especially the lights in the trees. Not to be missed 😊

The Cerro de la Silla is definitely one of Monterrey’s most majestic views, because it is part of Monterrey’s skyline like no other mountain and really overlooks everything. That’s exactly why I wanted to go up there. Unfortunately, I got really unlucky and that’s exactly why this hike will be a lesson to me for forever.
I have hiked up many different mountains in Mexico and Central America for a view and although it mostly was max modreatly difficult or slighlty exhausting, it was still always within reasonable limits. That means the climb was of course sometimes tough but not fucking eternal and seemingly endless. At Cerro de la Silla, I looked at my online map on my phone so often – and was shocked every time at how little further I had come in the overall course – that I honestly only kept going because I thought to myself ‘if not now, then when?’ Admittedly, I was going up alone, but that never really wore me down (except for the Chipinque. You think you’ll never get there on that eternal road). The ascent to Cerro de la Silla is really exhausting, very long, sometimes felt too long and to be honest I was afraid at some point that I wouldn’t make it down before nightfall. Meaning: you need good shoes, plenty to eat and drink and company!
Let’s move on to reason number two why this mountain will forever remain a negative memory for me. When I finally, after what felt like ages, a hundred thousand thoughts about turning back and just letting it go – damn me for always having to finish everything! – and, to be honest, I was really exhausted when I reached the top, I simply gazed into a sea of white clouds. And no, I didn’t faint or anything like that, but it was fucking cloudy! Meaning that I didn’t get to see the incredible and fantastic view that was supposed to pay me back for this really long, really strenuous, super winding and simply arse-long climb. Simply because the Cerro de la Silla was shrouded in a thick blanket of clouds. I had a wonderful view of the place where everyone sits down and from where you can admire the view. It was nice and sunny and everything was fine, but the entire view – everything – was swallowed up by a thick blanket of white clouds. That was the moment I swore to myself that I would always check three times in the future that the weather would play along and that the conditions would be fine.
And yes, of course I saw the clouds on my way up. But I didn’t connect it and so I felt like I had gone to my limits and beyond for nothing and nothing again to get up this stupid mountain.
Well, that’s the story of why this hiking trail and this mountain almost burnt themselves into my memory like a nightmare. But the view in between is really beautiful though! 😊
Go or not? I’m biased here. So, if you like views, are wellprepared concernign food and drinks for the way up, enjoy good physical activity and also like running up steep paths – because the curves in particular (and it’s very winding) are really tough and steep at times – then grab a group of people who are also up for it and get up there in good weather. Otherwise no, because I was really pissed off when I got up there…

I’ll be honest. Monterrey is neither particularly pedestrian-friendly, nor really beautiful outside the tourist zone. Meaning: Barrio Antiguo and the centre and its surroundings. That may sound a bit direct and harsh, but I’ve never liked beating about the bush.
As background knowledge: I was definitely warned in advance. I was told beforehand, including by people from Monterrey, that Monterrey is not friendly for people who like to walk – unless it is close to the Barrio Antiguo – and also that there is not much to see in Monterrey apart from the well-known attractions. As I am a curious person, a bit of an adventurer and also a bit stubborn, I thought to myself ‘let’s see’ and was then obviosly proven wrong.
Nevertheless, I discovered two places on my walk through the streets that I thought were really cool. To my mind the highway in Monterrey has something special about it and even has a slightly hypnotising effect, and I also thought this train station with the pictures etc to be really cool. So I did find something. Unfortunately, there’s not much more.
Go or not? Well, what I found was really cool, but it’s really difficult to stroll through the streets in Monterrey – simply because of the structure of the city. And you can explore the Barrio Antiguo in 5 minutes. It’s full of cafés, hostels and honestly looks pretty similar everywhere. It’s pretty, but you’ll have seen it after just one walk.

There is a really large ecological and mountainous park in Monterrey called Chipinque. It is an absolute paradise for nature lovers, has really beautiful viewpoints in various places as well as challenging hiking trails and also a lot in store for mountain climbers. And although it is really far out of town, it does form part of Monterrey’s skyline.
You can get there either by car or, if you don’t have one, by bus to a certain point and then on foot. As a little warning: the walk is relatively long, because apart from the stretch to the Chipinque driveway, you also have to climb the winding road to the park, which is really long. And Uber drivers will cancel your journey – I tried it once for the way back – because it’s just too far and it’s simply not worth it for most Uber drivers. Lastly there were hardly any cars passing me at the time. In other words: it’s going to be a long day, mostly on foot, and the first break can easily be taken when you finally arrive at the entrance to Chipinque.
As already mentioned, the Chipinque is a really beautiful and great oasis of nature, where you can hike and climb mountains and have viewpoints. There’s also a rock slide somewhere – where me and a friend had a lot of fun when we were there – and just a lot of nature, coming down and the feeling of being in another world.
An advise for the park: go in good weather. Otherwise you won’t enjoy the views – that’s what happened to me on my first visit to Chipinque.
Go or not? The question of all questions. To be honest, I can’t really answer it, because on the one hand Chipinque is really beautiful and has great viewpoints, but at the same time you have to be really dedicated to get there and back, because it’s a really long walk to get there and back. To be honest, my feet were aching at the end of both visits and I was really glad when I got back to where a bus was going. So I would say this is something for real nature fans or people who are just really keen 😊 At the same time, I like nature, but I’m not a nature fan and I was still there twice….

The Grutas de García are actually much cooler than I expected – or than I expected them to be. But from the beginning.
A good friend of mine, who comes from Monterrey and was still living in Monterrey at the time I first visited, wanted to show me something of Monterrey I hadn’t seen yet and wanted to surprise me. As I’m a super curious person, but had never heard of the Grutas de García, I didn’t expect much, but just went for it – my luck, because I probably would have never gone there otherwise.
The Grutas de García are quite far out and when you’re there you take a gondola up the mountain to the entrance of the Grutas – the ride up is really cool and offers a great view of the surrounding mountains. Once we got to the top, we went inside and… I had all sorts of things in my head, but the Grutas de García are really big! Like really really big! It’s a whole system of caves connected by stairs so you can go up and into other rooms/caves and see everything. Really cool. And then there are stalacmites and stalactites ‘sculptures’ called organ or theatre, many ceiling constructions that are really impressive and in one place – my friend and I had to laugh to much – a stalacmite or stalactite (I always forget which ones grow up) is displayed as a Christmas tree. With lights and a star and everything. The reason why we had to laugh, however, was that the thing did rather look like a penis, than a Christmas tree. It really had something 😀
And if you’re following a guide – I mean why not you might actually be afraid of getting lost in a cave this size – you’ll eventually come to a spot on the wall that the guide claims looks like the Virgen Guadalupe (the most sacred figure in Mexico and legit represented everywhere in some way – no matter where you go). I fully respect Mexico’s for it’s almost obsession with the Virgen Guadalupe because Mexico is a very religious country. But that spot on the wall… It didn’t even remotely represent anything. And well… I really had to hold back my laughter. Especially when the rest of the group stood there and just nodded in agreement.
Now jokes aside, go or not? Yes, definitely. I mean, apart from the cool Grutas – and I obviously had really great company in form of my friend – I also found the Grutas de García really worth seeing, really big, very funny at times 😀 and the view up there of the surrounding mountains is really not to be dismissed either. Therefore absolutely recommendable 😊

The Cerro del Chupón is a hike that I remember very well for two reasons. Firstly, my shoes have never been so muddy and dirty after a hike as when I went up the Cerro del Chupón and secondly, despite everything, I would really recommend going up to anyone. Like the view is really beautiful and there is like a cool rock formation up there that you can take great photos with. They are a bit like the trademark of Cerro el Chupón.
The ascent to the Cerro del Chupón is not necessarily close to the Barrio Antiguo or the centre of Monterrey. However, as there was another view (Copete del Águila in park Chipinque) that I due to circumstances couldn’t go to see, I had been looking for other opportunities to hike up somewhere and have a similarly great view.
When I arrived at the ascent, I not only first had to enter a private property – or at least climb through the fence right next to a house – which made me feel like an intrudor, but I also very quickly came across earthy and really slippery and muddy ground on the way up. Like even though I didn’t think much of it before, it had rained the fay before. So I guess a could’ve anticipated that. Of course I tried to minimise the damage, because as a backpacker you don’t always have a lot of good footwear with you, but no chance. My shoes were muddy and ready for the washing machine within a couple of meters. Apart from that, I only made very slow progress because it was really slippery and – I’ll be honest – I wasn’t sure in that moment whether I would push through because… a) it’s exhausting and possibly all the way to the top? And b) is the view really worth it?
Luckily for me, it got a lot better shortly afterwards and the majority of the path that followed led mainly through dense, wild green forest and over only a few muddy parts
Once I reached the „top“ – eg the point where it didn‘t go any further up, but simply continued straight on towards the viewpoint – things got interesting because… I don’t think I’ve ever walked along such an overgrown hiking trail before. And not that the path wasn’t clearly walkable, but the bushes were so high and so dense that you couldn’t see the path at the bottom, only feel it. My legs really smooched a lot of grasses and bushes that day. Once the path was really no longer visible at all, I just kept going because I’d already come too far to give up now 😀
Eventually, I fought my way through and actually arrived at the point where the special rock formation is and you have a view of Monterrey. And what can I say? The somewhat adventurous climb, during which I almost turned back more than once, was well worth it. Because the view was really great, the rock formation a special ad-on and I was really happy to have achieved this view. So Happy Kat 😊
And on the way back, I knew that it was possible to find my way through and that I would arrive safely, so it was only half as bad. Except for the slippery part. Slippery downhill can be even worse than uphill… My shoes looked like….
Go or not? Funnily enough, I would highly recommend the Cerro del Chupón. The hike is a bit of an adventure – at least under the conditions I had at the time – but! It was really worth it! And the view was really beautiful! I don’t regret a second of the trip and was very glad that I didn’t turn back, but continued to the top. And if you look at the photos: the view and everything is cooler than it might look on the photos 😊 😉