Colima & Comala

Each bus trip we take from one town to the next seems to be three hours. From Tapalpa to Colima we took two slow moving buses that stopped in each little town along the way and anywhere along the two-lane road where someone wanted to jump on or off. The last section of the trip here to Colima was quite beautiful over modern bridges straddling spectacular river gorges. Colima is near two volcanoes, one active and one inactive. There is national park surrounding these mountains, very beautiful green country.

 

Colima is a nice peaceful town. We stayed the first night in a seedy hotel that was Rough Guide’s choice for the city, their second poor choice so far on this trip. I guess rough means rough and I’m now too old (let’s say experienced) to think that’s cool. We changed for the second night to Hotel La Merced, which the previous hotel management warned us was for ‘lovers’.  Of course that’s what we are so it was great for the Brownings. 

 We walked our feet to the bone yesterday visiting Piedra Lisa, a park with a giant piece of obsidian used as a slide. The legend has it that this is part of an asteroid that landed in the crater of the new extinct volcano in the distance. This intrusion upset the volcano causing it to explode sending the huge black rock many miles away into the pueblo. Around the slick rock today you will find families having fun in the various lush parks and eating in the many cafes under the flowering trees. A Casa de Cultura (museum) is across the street, which we also walked through. It was full of archeological treasure from prehispanic times.

 Our big venture yesterday was our trip to Comala, another Mexican ‘Pueblo Magico’, magic village. Here all the buildings were whitewashed adobe structures. It is an artisan town though, luckily, we didn’t find any piece that called out to us. It’s much too early to be collecting souvenirs to display; we don’t want to carry anything extra for two weeks!

Last night at dinner we had a lovely conversation with our waitress. The restaurant was empty so she had time to chat with us. We have yet to meet any Mexican who has seen as much of their country as the two of us have. Their pride of Mexican heritage and culture is remarkable; they are beautiful people with a grateful attitude!

Tapalpa... what a great day!

 Today was perfect! After a great night’s rest in our cozy room we walked to the plaza for breakfast. Keith has had carne asada for nearly every meal, this morning in a yummy burrito. I always have Huevos Mexicanos, eggs with chopped tomato, onion & peppers served with beans & tortillas.

We walked around town with full bellies stopping to watch tortillas being made and carpenters moving bricks. We looked unsuccessfully for a pair of sunglasses for Keith to protect his eyes from the intense Mexican sun. We stopped by the Casa de Cultura and had a great visit with the director. We have found the people in the small town of Tapalpa very friendly.

 Around mid-day we returned to the hotel to meet up with the young woman who wanted to show us around her town. Keith napped while I read in the sunshine on the porch. When she hadn’t stopped by at 2 pm we decided to walk around the city and enjoy the beauty of the day.

As we came around a corner a woman asked us if we wanted to look at some beautiful woolen goods in a small store where her friend was looking at sweaters. In less than five minutes she had invited us to lunch, we readily agreed to join them and how glad we are that we did!

 Alicia owns a home in Tapalpa that she inherited from her ‘nana’, her nanny, not grandmother. She had it beautifully restored. Alicia and her life-long friend, Genoveva, live in Guadalajara where Alicia is owner/director of a Kindergarten (ages 2-5) and Veva arranges flowers. Both women are a bit older & much more distinguished than the two travelers they ‘picked up’ today; we loved spending time with them!

At the end of our lunch Alicia took a sip of her refresco and a bee stung her lip, poor woman, her lip was swelling quickly while her dear friend pulled out the stinger. After paying our bill we all stopped by a homeopathic pharmacy where she was given a tincture, which helped a great deal.

 She invited us to her home, which is full of beautiful wood and many antiques! Keith had found a quick friend. Alicia was anxious to introduce Keith to the best carpenter in town so we loaded into her 4X4 and off we went to Ramone’s workshop. The ladies were very patient while the two carpenters talked.

Ramone made some phone calls and before we knew it the five of us were driving to a very upscale development some fifteen minutes out of Tapalpa to see some of the multi-million-peso homes Ramone had constructed, very nice work and an interesting tour.

 After returning to town we stopped for a ponche and discussed both politics and religion before parting ways in the moonlit night.

How I hope our paths cross again somewhere in the world with our new friends!

Christmas Eve through Boxing Day

La Chata Restaurant is worth the flights here! What a delicious meal we enjoyed for Christmas Eve~ Carne Asado, frijoles, arroz, guacamole… We spent the night at Hotel Regis where we had stayed on our previous trip to Guadalajara before our week in Ajijic & Puerta Vallarata with Shana Jan.

The hostel I had lined up didn’t work out well; the room was barely larger than the double bed. The manager was very nice to watch our bags while we set off to find a more suitable room at an inn. I was able to find Hotel Regis right off and while it wasn’t anywhere fancy it is central with large rooms. In the morning I got online and booked a super deluxe room on Hotwire. I was gambling for the Hotel Moreles where we had stayed with Shana three years ago (another Hotwire find).

While it was a short walk to our new digs, the streets were completely empty. The tradition here is to have Christmas Eve dinner very late, midnight, and then stay up until morning light. No one was up and about but us! There was no place open for breakfast, luckily our Hotel, Casino Plaza, had a lovely restaurant where we enjoyed a bite after settling into our room.

We spent Christmas morning walking around the colonial center of Guadalajara. In one of the four plazas on each side of the huge cathedral, a temporary ice skating rink had been constructed. It was fun to watch the Mexican families attempt to ice skate. The gloveless ‘skaters’ went several times around the rink without letting go of the railing on the sides. Braver, more experienced skaters ventured into the center. Every hour the rink was emptied out and new skaters tried their luck & skill.

Since day bus rides are a tradition with us we boarded a city bus for the fun of it! Our destination was close so we decided to make a day of it and ride the bus as far out as it went. Guadalajara is 100 square miles, over 5 million people; I’m not sure where we ended up, but it was a different, very dusty world.

On our return trip we stopped off at a most beautiful church full of stained glass windows. We walked around the neighborhood waiting for mass to end so that we could venture inside. A procession was being organized and we were invited to join the hundreds of parishes represented by flags, but we decided to walk back to the center to find dinner.

The biggest adventure of the day was the fact that our credit cards were not working and we were unable to get any pesos! We first encountered the problem at the airport but we had some dollars to exchange. But on Christmas Day there were no banks or any currency changing shops open so we were down to less than 100 pesos for the day, right around $8.00. One ‘funny money machine’ stole my card so then we were really out of luck! With very few restaurants open because of the holiday, and even fewer that take credit cards for payment, we were forced to eat at Sanborns. This chain of high-end department stores is a Mexican tradition. It is a pricey Denny’s located in Macy’s. But we did have a nice Christmas dinner and happened to meet a friendly family with whom we had a chance to speak Spanish and discuss the political problems with the U.S.A.

We woke early this morning with a single task in mind, get money!! The bank returned our credit card but told us that the only way we could get pesos in the city was by using an automatic cash machine, which wasn’t working. Thank goodness for Skype. I was able to call Tyson, my man at Jordan Credit Union. I had his name & number saved on Skype from our time in Argentina when all the credit cards went missing. He did some work on his end, and after trying a couple of different machines we found a winner! Hopefully, we won’t have issues again. It’s an uncomfortable feeling having no money in a foreign country. At least we know we have resources in the states that would pull together and wire $$$ if we got in a really tough situation, though how & how long it would take is a problem I’d love to avoid!

Today’s change of scenery required a three-hour bus ride out of the city high up into the mountains. We are now at 6,850 feet above sea level in a most delightful small town. There are pine forests and a lake here, it’s a bit chilly tonight but we have the clothing, and each other, to keep warm.

We have been invited to go with the young woman who was tending the hotel, Meson Luna Sacra, on a tour of the area tomorrow. She was very kind to ask us out and we are looking forward to a full day here, it’s lovely, quiet & the air is fresh!