Her Late-Night Bathroom Trip Became a Viral Sensation. See More of Woman's Life in a 500-Year-Old Hacienda (Exclusive)

Yahoo

22-05-2025

Wendy del Real's TikTok showing her eerie trek to the bathroom in the middle of the night racked up nearly four million views
She lives alone in a 500-year-old hacienda that once served as a town hall and battlefield during the Mexican Revolution
From frog-filled toilets to hidden underground tunnels, Wendy is documenting life at the hacienda while preserving its past for future generationsIn the dead of night, the only thing separating Wendy del Real from the bathroom is a centuries-old courtyard, where the silence can be as unnerving as the howls of distant coyotes.
That's the reality that captivated nearly four million TikTok viewers, who watched Wendy document her midnight trek across her family's 500-year-old hacienda — a sprawling estate in rural Zacatecas, Mexico that's equal parts history, legend and home.
'I never thought that going to the bathroom would generate almost four million views, so that's cool,' Wendy tells PEOPLE, still amused at how her late-night routine became an internet sensation.
The TikTok clip that launched her into viral fame opens with the text overlay, 'it's 2am. you're living alone in a 500 year old hacienda and you have to go to the bathroom,' showing Wendy braving the darkness, crossing the open courtyard to reach a rustic toilet.
Each morning, Wendy wakes to rooms so dark and thick-walled that sunlight barely penetrates, making it hard to rise without an alarm. 'It's really hard to wake up because the rooms are so dark. Like even when there's complete sunlight out, the rooms are so dark,' she explains.
Her days begin with simple, grounding rituals: 'I just get up, brush my teeth, go feed my horse,' Wendy says, adding that her caretaker Anita, a beloved ranch woman, is usually up before her, nudging her to start the day.
Life on the hacienda is a blend of solitude and community. Wendy's neighbors — many retired, some recently arrived from Los Angeles — form a tight-knit circle in a town of just eleven residents.
'There's only 10 [others], I'm the 11th person living there,' she shares. 'I love just visiting the neighbors. I'll go around, and usually in the mornings, I go over to my neighbor Rocio's house. She milks cows.' That daily visit earns Wendy fresh milk and cheese, while Anita's chickens occasionally provide eggs — tiny, but treasured.
Yet, the rustic charm comes with quirks that would test even the most adventurous. 'The morning bathroom trips are the worst, actually, because overnight, frogs come through the drain,' Wendy laughs.
'In the morning, they're always just hanging out there, so I have to like scoot them out in the morning to use the restroom.' The hazards don't end with frogs — scorpions, bats and spiders are regular visitors, and Wendy has learned to shake out her boots each morning to avoid surprises.
The nights are their own adventure. 'When I'm crossing the courtyard, bats will fly into my home. One time I was fighting this bat and Anita came running out from her house,' Wendy recalls, painting a vivid picture of the unpredictable nocturnal life. '…she grabs like a branch, rips a branch off the tree, and she's like smacking the bat… and I'm over here screaming and she's just like smacking the bat with this.'
Despite the critters and the darkness, Wendy finds beauty in the quiet. 'Stargazing at night is a must. Every single night, I like to go on a walk and look at the stars,' she says, describing the courtyard as both eerie and enchanting. 'The courtyard, although it can be spooky for most people, you live there, and you get used to it.'
Living in a house built in the late 1500s comes with constant challenges. 'It's constant fixing of roofs, there's leaks. And it's very expensive to fix because we could do patchwork on it, but we always want to keep things original to the house,' Wendy explains.
The family insists on preserving the adobe walls and wooden beams, resisting modern shortcuts to maintain authenticity. 'Sometimes I'm walking into my dining room and like a chunk of rock will just come down. So right now there's a couple parts of the house that are a little bit dangerous.'
The hacienda's history is as layered as its architecture. 'Some history records have it being built in 1580, others in 1597. So it's an old structure, I mean, the main parts of the house,' Wendy says.
Over the centuries, it has served as a town hall, a livestock association headquarters, and a home to hundreds of families. 'This house was at one point a town hall,' she shares. 'And then it was sold to the Aldana family… They kept it for a really long time until it was sold in the 1950s to my grandpa.'
Her grandfather, Alejandro, was a municipal president known for fair wages and employing entire indigenous families — a legacy Wendy is proud to continue.
'Every single person that you talk to in town has a good memory of the hacienda because good things happened there,' she says. 'A lot of people remember my grandpa's time in La Hacienda as being like a really good time. A lot of people benefited from this.'
The estate is also shrouded in legend. In 1916, during the Mexican Revolution, a significant battle took place on the grounds, leaving behind stories of hidden trenches and possible buried treasure.
'There was a really, really important battle that happened in the house… They dug trenches under the house that we found,' Wendy reveals. 'There's supposedly trenches all throughout the ranch that lead out to different areas of the ranch to escape, to hide.'
While her parents reburied the tunnels for safety, Wendy dreams of reopening them to share the history with visitors — safely. of course.
Stories of treasure hunters abound, including one about a roofer who allegedly found a small cauldron and vanished, leaving his tools behind. 'There's a lot of cool little stories like that,' Wendy says, but for her, the real treasure is the house itself.
'For me, I'm like the house is the treasure. Like look at this place… Look at the views that it's generating just from me being there, and to me, that's more important.'
Living in such isolation has taught Wendy about self-reliance, but also about the unique warmth of the rural Mexican community.
'The sense of community is different because even though I'm technically alone in the house, I'm not because... everybody knows everybody,' she says. 'It's a different type of solitude because although my daily routine is technically all by myself… I don't feel by myself because everybody in the store knows me and everyone says hi to me.'
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Privacy is a rare commodity in a town where everyone knows everyone's business. 'There's this saying… 'Pueblo Chico Infierno Grande.' Because it's a small place, but everyone knows everything,' Wendy laughs. 'My private moments are inside my house with my doors closed because everyone knows what's going on.'
Yet, Wendy wouldn't trade it for anything. 'If you're trying to have a celebrity private life or something, do not go to a small town, everyone will know everything, but it's… so nice,' she says. 'When it comes down to it, we'll defend our people.'
Raised in America but shaped by years spent moving between countries and cultures, Wendy sees her life at the hacienda as both a tribute to her family's legacy and a chance to carve out her own path. 'I would like to continue the legacy… It's important for me to keep a very positive light in this house because of its history.'
'So for me, it's about educating not just myself, but people who are like me,' she continues. 'The people who live here but are from there. The people who don't know about this type of history.'
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