Too bad our guide wasn't better...Here's the deal: Having the chance to climb la Peña de Bernal was awesome! Many many people visit this natural site (particularly on the weekends) all year round, but most of those individuals don't have the equipment or knowledge to climb the face of la Peña. Thus, a day in Bernal can certainly include a very nice hike up to the 2/3 mark of the monolith, where visitors could enjoy a nice view, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Exxi Challenge however offers visitors an opportuntity to really get to the top. After paying via PayPal ahead of time to make the reservation, they even picked us up at our hotel in the city of Querétaro. Unfortunately, our guide was pretty terrible. No doubt, he was experienced and pretty friendly. However, as soon as we arrived at the small "storefront" at the base of la Peña, he seemed to be rushing...? Don't know why. He got us in our harnesses quickly without explaining exactly what we'd be doing with them, packed his own bag, and we were off! At a pretty brisk pace he pushed us (just my wife and I) to make the steep hike. We're pretty fit (both of us recently ran the marathon in D.F.), and yet the abrupt uphill over uneven rocky terrain was difficult. Our guide leading the way, rarely looked back to see how we were doing. IF, at this point, the pace had been slower, and our guide had been more communicative, working to gage our abilities and comfort level, perhaps the rest of the day could have been salvaged. Alas, by the time we reached the end of the hike (under 30 minutes - much faster than other hikers we saw), we weren't really in the best of spirits. Then for the first time he started talking about our equipment. Apparently, we were going to be doing some serious climbing?! Even looking back at the advertisements on the company's web page, I still feel like this point is not clearly stated. The tour is described as a "summit ascent" and there are many photos of people who appear to climbing up over large rocks, but there are zero photos of people who are climbing a cliff face. Personally, I have some experience with climbing, and thus I was able to make the full ascent on that morning. Unfortunately, my wife, having had zero experience with vertical climbing was not really prepared for this and had to wait for more than an hour for us to climb the rest of the way and return down. I have climbed other monoliths and structures in which I was harnessed to a cable for general safety, but I had no idea that I would be truly climbing. I felt really terrible that my wife wan't prepared to make it the whole way. She probably could have done the whole thing, as it wasn't the most physically challenging climb out there, but our guide would have needed to do a lot more instruction ahead of time, and simply been more understanding. He never seemed to make an attempt to read our ability levels. I hope that many more people get an opportunity to climb la Peña de Bernal. I just hope that they have a better guide. Perhaps Exxi Challenge is not the way to go... read more