The Servilleta Canyon located in the state of Tamaulipas is just a short distance  from where the Boquillas or Comandante River crosses the Cucharas Mountains in an easterly direction, coming out upon an agriculture plain where it joins the Rio Frio (Cold River), which is also a tributary of the Guayalejo River. It is 1.5 miles long and her canyon walls reach to a height of 393 feet (at these points the mountain range has a maximum altitude of 721 feet). The area invites the eager visitor to get to know its natural scenery and to enjoy the swimming in its tranquil and refreshing pools in the springtime, the exploration of the caves on the northeast side of the canyon and her waters falling from above, where one can discover along the swampy river edges the recent tracks of the raccoon, badger or mountain cat that came there to satisfy their thirst. The more adventurous of spirit can cross over the river in the basket cable car that is used during the rainy season and enjoy the magnificent landscape that is predominant from this elevation. The arqueological visitors can investigate the small mounds and cúes (queues) that are found along the river's right edge and the waters flowing down to the mouth of the canyon where there are still the remains of an ancient settling in the earth. This buttress of the Eastern Sierra Madre is known as the Sierra of Abra-Tanchipa in the Huastecan portion of the neighboring state of San Luis Potosi. The element that makes this place so fascinating is that it is an authentic window through which one can view the geological past.

  TESTIMONIES FROM THE PAST

Upon walking along the huge river bank made up of white calcium carbonate rock on the river's right edge, we are attracted by the series of geometric figures disseminated over the surface underneath our feet, which seem to have been sculptured by the gross hands of a primitive artist. What is this before our eyes? These strange figures are what are commonly known as fossils and are nothing more that the fragments of petrified animals or plants that are found in the diverse antique geological earth. Millions of years ago, these organisms, upon dying, remained buried beneath the caps of mud, sand and silicate sedimentary rocks, that through diverse chemical and physical agents were transformed into rocks. This rocky strata is present in virtue of the great structural changes and eroding processes to which the earth's crust has been exposed through the course of time. Upon a more detailed study of these organisms, whose whose forms are clearly seen in the exposed rocks of the canyon, we are surprised to discover that they are of marine origin, and 93 miles from the sea!  How could this be possible?

  THE ORIGIN AND FORMATION OF THE SIERRA DE CUCHARAS

According to the investigative accounts recorded and published by INEGI, the calcium carbonate sedimentary rocks of marine origin that constitute the greater part of the land in the state of Tamaulipas were formed when the Atlantic covered this area of the country during the Mesozoic era, approximately 230 million years ago. At the end of the Cretacico period, probably 80 million years ago and at the beginning of the Terciario period, some 50 million years ago, there was an orogeny process that affected the Mesozoic sedimentary rocks which folded and dislocated them, thus producing the Sierra Madre Oriental.

For this reason we find mollusk fossils that originally habitated the ancient marine bed in the folds of the canyons, river banks and mines in this region. In his interesting book, The Tamaulipeca Huestaca (La Huesteca Tamaulipeca), Joaquin Meade tells us that it is in the Sierra of Cucharas that the Tamasopo calcium carbonate, rich in marine fossils pertaining to the lower Cretacico, is exposed on the surface, although there are existent also some of the San Felipe calcium carbonate pertaining to a more recent period, the Terciario, which contain the greater part of the mamiferous fossils such as molars and eye-teeth. As additional data, I can affirm that I have found marine fossils at 3280 feet en the Biosphere Reserve of "El Cielo".

Tangible evidence of this are the great rocks that rise up high on the right bank of the new road that goes from Gomez Farias to Alta Cima, approximately halfway, and whose surfaces are totally covered with great quantities of the fossils of these organisms. Also, I have photographed an infinite number of the fossils that retain their original structure, and that were made available to me by private individuals that found them in this area of the mountain range many years ago. If you would like to know how to get to this paradise, look at our map in order to get there without difficulty.

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