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Here we are back in Puerto Vallarta after three months travelling by bust hrough Central Mexico. We spent five weeks in Guadalajara and from there visited Zacatecas, Tapalpa, Tlaquepaque, Tonala, Zapopan, Tequila, Chapala and Ajijic. Leaving at the beginning of July we went to Mazamitla, Quiroga, Patzcuaro, Morelia, Taxco, Cuernavaca, Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Leon, and back to Guadalajara. Nineteen places in all, day trips to some but staying four to ten days in all the others. We had intended to go as far east as Puebla, but decided to skip it so as not to short ourselves on time in the remaining places. All in all a really good trip with no big traumas. Everywhere the Mexican people were friendly and helpful. They are delightful to interact with, but our limited Spanish skills didn't allow us to have any in depth conversations. They really do appreciate us trying to speak their language and are very patient and tolerant when we mess it up. Almost all the people we met were very poor by our standards, but they are proud and honest. Once a deal is made, they always stick to it. On a very few occasions we didn't get the correct change in a transaction, but once pointed out "it was just a mistake" which was immediately corrected. The inter city buses all were smooth, comfortable and on-time and the hotels O.K (only once did we pay more than $20.00 per night, always had a private bathroom, but nothing luxurious). Even though it was the rainy season, the weather was great. It didn't rain every day and when it did it was mostly in the evening and during the night. We saw some spectacular thunderstorms, but only got soaked a few times. All the places were between 5000 and 8500 feet above sea level, so the temperatures were very pleasant. Here are a few highlights of the places we visited: Zacatecas: One of our favorite places, a mountain city six hours north of Guadalajara, silver mines, beautiful colonial mansions and cathedral built by the silver barons. The mine is no longer operating, we visited it during the day and it is a disco at night. You take a train down to the third level, below that it is flooded. The city is clean and, at 8500 feet, the highest we visited. It is little frequented by Gringos. A resident, now deceased, had collected a lot of art, including 3000 masks from all over Mexico and other parts of the world. His collection is housed in a Museum that used to be a convent in the 16th century. Both the collection and the building were very impressive. Tlaquepaque is a town that is now a southern suburb of Guadalajara. It is pretty much all stores selling "stuff", some of it very high quality, all of it at very high prices compared to anywhere else we have been in Mexico. Tonala is the town next door where most of the "stuff"is made, especially pottery. There is a huge street market there twice a week where seconds are sold. Prices are better, but quality is poor. (Every town has a street market that sell just about anything you can think of: fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, chickens, clothes, kitchen stuff, TVs radios, cameras, tapes, shoes, cosmetics, leather goods, car parts, stove parts, electrical parts, bicycle parts. Every stand has to be set up in the morning, stuff unpacked from boxes and laid out meticulously to attract the eye. There are many stands selling exactly the same merchandise. At then end of the day, it is all packed away and carted off. (Amazing.) Tapalpa and Mazamitla: Both small towns high in the mountains about an hour out of Guadalajara up in the pine forests, heavy visiting on weekends by people getting away from the city. Hiking up the mountain trails, admiring the views and vistas, sitting in the Zocalo drinking beer in a outdoor cafe, visiting a few craft shops and people watching are about all there is to do. The Zocalo is the center square in every town and city. The church, cathedral or basilica is always on one side and the city hall on another. The other two sides have shops and hotels. There are trees and benches all around and a kiosk (bandstand) in the middle. The Mariachi bands gather around three in the afternoon, each band in its own fancy uniform. They prop up their instruments and stand around and talk. Sometime one will pick up an instrument, tune it, play a few bars and put it down again. None of them seem interested in drumming up any business until about 10:30 at night. By that time we have usually gone to bed, only to be awakened by the music we waited around for hours to hear. Patzcuaro: Another of our favorite cities, compact, clean, beautiful architecture and interesting museums. Originally governed by a Spanish Conquistador call Guzman, who was known for his cruelty to the Indians. Guzman was pulled out and replaced by Bishop Quiroga, who was much loved and respected. He set up a cooperative system based on the book Utopia (was that Thomas More, I have forgotten?). Each village around the town was taught a different craft, skill, or farming technique and all was shared. There is a local soup here called Tarascan which was quite the best we have ever tasted. Here we met a gringo lady, ex hippie, environmentalist, budding Buddhist, drives a 1970s VW bus, left the U.S. some years ago and lives in Mazatlan. She attached herself to us. She has a small income andlarge credit card debts. She goes up to people eating in fancy restaurants and offers to pay their bill with her credit card in exchange for them giving her the cash. We were amazed. We had to pay her breakfast and lunch tabs a few times. I think she was a little chagrined when I told her I expected to be repaid, which indeed she did, but not with a smile. The last we saw of her was when she headed of to England to a Buddhist experience there. Morelia is a state capital and has some of the best colonial architecture in Mexico. There is a magnificent cathedral that is very spectacular, but the gem is the Church of Guadeloupe, a mile or so distant. Many of the churches in Mexico are so ornate as to be overwhelming, mixtures of baroque, churriesque and classical styles, many taken to extremes. Gold leaf covers everything and there are statues galore. There are many beautiful crystal chandeliers, some of which actually have light bulbs in them that work. Often, however, there is just a single bare bulb hanging beneath the chandelier. Sometimes it is hard for us to identify what makes one place more attractive than another, but Morelia was not one of our favorite cities. It had lots of history (Hidalgo was born here), museums, beautiful architecture, magnificent churches and more. We had no problems, other than doing e-mail, but we just didn't warm to it. Taxco: The silver center of Mexico, still has working mines, but the major business is wholesale and retail jewelry. An amazing town built on the side of a mountain. There isn't a flat or straight street in the whole place, in fact there really aren't any streets at all, just narrow alleys. There is nowhere to park a car near the center. White VW taxis and VW Combis are the only way to get around. Both the zocala and another smaller square are often literally jammed with them, especially if a truck is trying to make a delivery. It is a very pretty city, reminds me a little of an Italian hill town, and there are spectacular views over the city and surrounding hills as you climb higher. The church was built by a silver baron called Borda to thank God for his good fortune and is one of the most ornate in Mexico. We met people from all over the world buying and selling jewelry. One young man from Wales lived in Thailand and made a trip every year to sell Thai silver and buy Mexican silver. He said he could make 100% profit on the Thai silver and $400% profit on the Mexican silver. We also met an American, Robert, who lived and did business there. Patricia bought a few items. The number of businesses is staggering, we have never seen so much silver in one place, store after store of it. Evidently they are all making a profit. During the week it seems to be mostly dealers and then on the weekend there is a big influx of Mexican tourists. Cuernavaca: Dubbed the City of Eternal Spring, it is the capital of the state of Morelos. Cortes built a fortified castle and a fortified cathedral here. The castle is now a very good museum. Borda, the silver baron from Taxco, built a huge house and beautiful gardens here. The Emperor Maximillian and his wife Carlotta liked to stay there. Later Maximillian built two palaces here, one for himself and his wife and another for himself and his mistress. At the edge of town Barbara Hutton build a house that is now a luxury hotel. It is not just in the Japanese style, all the building materials, furnishings, sculptures and even the rocks were imported from Japan and the house was built with Japanese labor. Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Dolores Hidalgo and Guanajuato: These cities are the heart of the Mexican Revolution, it all started here. We liked Queretaro a lot; beautiful, clean, historic, not touristy. We met an American artist who lived there. He was a very entertaining character. He accompanied us on the bus when we moved on to San Miguel de Allende and spent the day there with us. San Miguel is very different from anywhere else, it has a large resident Canadian and American population, many of whom are artists. They have set up a whole infrastructure there with a library, theater, bookstore, movies, newspaper and active social activities. It is different from a "tourist" city because the gringo population actually live there and contribute to the community through many charitable activities, including providing schools is the surrounding rural area. We enjoyed it here and met many interesting people. Dolores Hidalgo is officially proclaimed the Cradle of Independence, it was from here that Miguel Hidalgo, a local priest, issued the "Grito" in 1810 that rallied indigenous peasants to join the struggle. The equivalent of the 4th of July is celebrated all over Mexico next week, on the 16th of September. Before all of this Hidalgo founded industries in the town, one of which was ceramics. We bought enough tiles to redo one of the bathrooms in our house in Seattle. They will be shipped to the boat when they are ready in another month. Guanajuato was the last city we visited before returning to Guadalajara. During the 17th and 18th centuries it became one of Mexico's richest cities after the discovery of rich silver deposits in 1548. It has wonderful architecture, winding cobblestone streets, a well respected university and interesting museums. In the "It's a small world category", we found an Italian restaurant that contained racing motorcycles and associated memorabilia. Turns out that the owner, Todd, had moved there from Totem Lake near Seattle, where he has a similar restaurant now run by his daughter. We made a day trip to Leon, city of leather goods, and bumped into him again at lunchtime. I hope I haven't bored you with all of this. Of course there is no way to detail all of our experiences in an e-mail, but we had a really good time and are glad we did it. Now that we are back at the boat we will have to decide what our plans will be when the hurricane season is over at the beginning of November. The weather will be better then too, the rainy season should be over and the humidity and temperature more moderate. Best regards to all, we would love to hear from any of you. Colin & Patricia, |
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