It's an awe inspiring rock, rising straight out of the ground for almost 2,000 feet. Geologists claim that in mass, it is second to Ayer's rock in Australia, and in height, third behind the Rock of Gibralter and Rio de Janeiro's Sugar Loaf. From in front of the Iglesia de San Sebastián in Bernal, the Peña provides the perfect backdrop to the bright oranges and yellows of the church. In fact, it's hard to find a spot in Bernal where the Peña doesn't provide a dramatic backdrop for a building, street, square or other scene.

The Iglesia de San Sebastián, one of the most brightly colored churches in Mexico

Standing at the base of thePeña, it's easy to understand why legends, old-age and new-age, surround it. It's an awe inspiring rock, rising straight out of the ground for almost 2,000 feet. Geologists claim that in mass, it is second to Ayer's rock in Australia, and in height, third behind the Rock of Gibralter and Rio de Janeiro's Sugar Loaf. From in front of the Iglesia de San Sebastián in Bernal, the Peña provides the perfect backdrop to the bright oranges and yellows of the church. In fact, it's hard to find a spot in Bernal where the Peña doesn't provide a dramatic backdrop for a building, street, square or other scene. People come to Bernal to admire it, climb it, watch other people climb it, bask in the new-age energy said to radiate from its core, or to walk along the streets, enjoy the local food and buy hand made wool sweaters and blankets.

As you drive toward Bernal from Querétero, you begin a gradual climb up into rolling mountains--large, but still hill-like mounds. As the road curves around toward Bernal, the sun-lit Peña breaks above the highest hill and thrusts itself into the sky. It's as if it wanted to surprise you, not giving you time to contemplate it, but rather confronting you with its size and mass. It's probably the sheer audacious nature of this jagged rock, totally out of place among the gently rounded mountains, that has given rise to the centuries old legend of theTreasure in the Peña. It is said that under exactly the right circumstances of season and time of day, on the northern, most dangerous side of the rock, the sun creates a shadow shaped like a giant arrow. The point of the arrow reveals a perfectly circular opening to a cave, inhabited by a giant snake guarding a treasure. If found, this treasure will bring its discoverer knowledge of the origin and destiny of humans in this world. A more recent legend, with a different flavor says that the core of the rock is a massive crystal emanating positive energy that can be felt and absorbed by anyone with an appropriate open mind-set.

Expert climbers ascend the shear face of the Peña using ropes and pitons

The rock itself is inspiring enough to beckon climbers and hikers. The walk up to it's halfway point is a challenging hike that takes an hour and a half. Continuing on to the top is only for rock climbers. The real experts take a completely different route and can be seen as spots of color hanging by threads on a sheer vertical face, making their way to the top piton by piton. The hike to the halfway point is hot and dry, but every few hundred yards, an enterprising burro owner has enlisted his animal to supply an ice-filled cooler of bottled water and soda for sale to the thirsty hikers. Once at the halfway point, the destination for non-rock-climbers, you can observe the distinct browns and greens near the base of the rock blending together as the valleys stretch north toward San Luis Potosi and south toward Pachuca. A small capilla, or chapel, barely large enough for one person to enter and kneel nestles in a niche against a rock wall. Wait in the line that forms and step inside. The tiny alter is covered in flowers and lighted candles carried up by the devoted.

Walking back down seems more precarious than going up, since, in the steep sections of trail, you see just how far you would fall if you slipped.

Hikers wait to enter the capilla at the halfway point on the Peña

While a Bernal author, Edgardo Cabrero Delgado, reports being able to see the opening to the treasure cave in 1994 and many new-age believers come to Bernal for energy transfusions, most of the residents of the town have focussed their energies on providing good food, high quality woolen goods, "openwork" lace and sweets for sale to the visitors who come to see and climb the rock. Bernal is a town where, on weekends, you will find a lot of tourists--Mexican tourists--and a few Americans or Canadians. During the week, you are likely to have the streets and the views to yourself and are guaranteed the undivided attention of shopkeepers, food sellers and vendors.

On weekends, the pedestrian street that leads from the main square north is lined with crowded tables and cooking stands offering gorditas (fat tortillas) that match the colors of the corn they are made from. Try one of the blue ones. Two restaurants on the north side of town offer a local specialty--beef, peppers, onions, and nopal cactus cooked in a hollowed out stone and served with salsa and tortillas. One stone-full feeds four.

The hundred-plus kilometer view to the south

While Bernal is not without it's trinket sellers, the absence of Americans seems to have driven the shops to offer not only unique, but useful things to buy. Bernal is known for its wool. Rugs, sweaters, pullovers, shawls, rebozos, and jackets, most hand woven and hand sewn and made from 100 per cent pure wool are sold in numerous shops. Hanging along the street outside the shops are rugs, brilliantly colored with local dyes, and sweaters in natural shades of gray and brown. The geometric rug designs are are often based on designs taken from tile floors of old Bernal buildings. The prices are good and the quality is high. A wool pullover can be purchased for about eight dollars.

Handmade "openwork" tablecloths, with complex lace-like designs are also a Bernal specialty. One tablecloth can take up to a year to make and is priced accordingly.

For sweets you can get an assortment ofdulces de leche de cabra, caramel-like candies, made from goats' milk that melt almost before you can get them unwrapped and into your mouth.

Tourists on the main shopping street in Bernal (The umbrella is to protect from the sun.)

The town paints its buildings in bright colors. The saturated yellows and oranges of the Iglesia de San Sebastián, make it one of the most brightly colored churches in Mexico. Covered by crimson bougainvillea and dark green vines, with the Peña behind it, all set against white afternoon clouds in a blue sky, it is possible for anyone to take postcard quality pictures.

In Mexico, a high peak without a religious monument seems incomplete. The capilla halfway up the Peña is charming, but not imposing enough to stand out on the rock. Every May, Bernal underscores this religious statement with it's festival of the Santa Cruz. For five days, the town celebrates, culminating with a three hour march of dancing and music up the trail to the capilla. From there on, sixescaladores, a very select group of Bernalise, carry a one-hundred-plus pound cross to the top of the rock, passing it from one to the other and mounting it on what is certainly one of the most impressive natural alters in the world.

Wool rugs lining a wall outside a Bernal shop

On March 21, at the Vernal Equinox, when the earth is vertical on its axis, a different sort of festival occurs. Thousands of new-age believers gather, dressed all in white trimmed with red kerchiefs, early in the morning around the base of the Peña, absorbing the energy emanating from its crystal core. The residents have a adapted to these outsiders in pragmatic ways, creating friendly restaurants, making tasty sweets, and developing a crafts industry to produce high quality wool and hand sewn lace.

Bernal is an easy visit from Querétero or San Miguel de Allende. The Peña is truly inspiring, both from the ground below and from the viewpoints at the top of the hiking trail. Bernal has all of qualities and the charm of a tourist town, but its mostly Mexican tourists don't make you feel you're part of a bunch of Americans overrunning the local culture. Unless you decide to come on March 21, climb to the Capilla in the morning, have a midday meal of beef and cactus cooked in a stone, and walk along the shopping street. And if you're there when the sun is casting unusual shadows on the rock, look for the arrow. In addition to taking home a sweater, some sweets and great photos, you might learn the origin and destiny of mankind on Earth.