Tierra Nueva
A striking little town in the desert still serves the best seafood in the area thanks to the giant dam and reservoir that sets the town for the entire landscape.
Tierra Nueva is a tiny desert town in southern San Luis Potosi. People visit for the cobblestone streets and the charm of the surrounding desert, but more than anything they come for the dam and resultant lake just south of town. La Muñeca Dam began saving water only in 1970, but it transformed much of the landscape. It even supports a popular annual sport fishing tournament.
Today the town of just 5,000 residents is an oasis of culture and food within a desert that is striking and exhilarating. Founded in 1863, the territory was long disputed among non-sedentary tribes who battled the Spanish throughout much of the colonial period. Named a Pueblo Magico only in 2023, since then the austerity and calm of the desert have proven alluring.
The town is laid out around the old Sacred Heart church and the newer Church of San Nicolas de Tolentino. But arguably even more famous is the so-called Lost Chapel of Señor de la Piedad. It was flooded in the 1970s and only the tower appears above the surface of the Jofre River.
The lake supports a surprising trade in seafood, although Tierra Nueva cuisine is decidedly Potosino in character. The cold climate also supports a fair amount of artistry in wool blankets and weaving. The town breaks records for attendance during the long feast of Saint Nicholas Tolentino. It gets celebrated every September 1 through 10 with fairs, rodeos, and communal dancing.
People get to Tierra Nueva via the little town of San Luis de la Paz, in Guanajuato. Only about an hour southeast of the state capital of San Luis Potosi, there are some direct buses from there. The Futura bus line, in particular, runs buses through Tierra Nueva.
