Just a few Photos,And Little Talk…Concluding the Mazamitla Visit.

Yesterday was an all day excursion to the Volcano Paricutin,near the city of Uruapan,and I’m tired and sore with some frustration thrown in for good measure.So I’m saving the blog post of that trip for after Christmas,when I can get it and myself back together.

I just wanted to show some photo’s I took on my first excursion into the resort town of Mazamitla.I was blown away when I came across this new little subdivsion on the edge of town,called Villas Mazamitla.I’d like to share my walking tour through this pine covered settlement still being built.

  I see European Alpine styling.

I have some good friends back in Canada who are Mexican,and they used to tell me of the beautiful homes in their area outside of Mexico City.In fact I saw pictures of their home and was impressed.They always told me to search out the REAL MEXICO.

Travelling the west coast beach roads all the time,I never got to see subdivisions like this.Or maybe I just didn't look hard enough.

And finally an all wood house for rent.I looked inside and its all wood also,even the walls.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

 

From The Waterfall To The Town Square…A Busy Day In Mazamitla Mexico.

First off I have been negligent in welcoming the new followers to the blog for several weeks now,so welcome to the Happy Campers..Ruth..Rod and Connie..Fred and Wilma…Jake and Barb…and Pharmbouy,who’s own blog from last season,I've been using to research new places to visit here in Mexico.If I have missed anyone else I apologize.

I have to also apologize to my trusty steed in yesterdays post as I misspelled his name.Its Chorizo,not Choriso.

 

Carrying on from yesterdays trip to the falls,I want to show you around this pretty little Colonial town with its (strange to Mexico) architecture.At least I've never seen anything like it.

Berragan,Mexico’s greatest architect,fell in love with this town,calling it a place where simple things can be splendid.

This is the church in the main plaza…Note the oriental look.

  

The centro plaza is the place to be in Mexico’s cities and towns.I just enjoy the ambiance.

 

I spotted a fellow taking his girl friends photo on the bandstand and asked him to take a photo of me.

 

And this is what I got,making sure his girlfriend was in the picture too.Hey! she looks better anyway than a 73 year old grouch.He did take a close-up of me first, but I thought that was a cute move.

Here are some of the buildings around the central plaza.Note the architecture,which is why Mazamitla is called the Switzerland or Austria of Mexico,taking in the fact that its high in the forest covered mountains,and much of the construction uses wood, and all the buildings are painted white.In fact I've seen whole wood houses here,which I don't think you would see anywhere else in this country. 

Sort of an oriental flavor thrown in for good measure.

The back of the church.

And here below is a nice little downtown home tucked away behind a nice iron fence.

It was now late afternoon and I was getting tired and had missed lunch,so as I was heading back to the truck parked at the edge of town when I spotted 2 familiar faces sitting at an outdoor eating spot having some liquid refreshment.It was my next door neighbors at the RV park.

 

Americans, Rob and Kathy Gillin,great people to talk to.They have spent quite a bit of time in Mexico and Kathy is fluent in the language.We sat and chatted for awhile then they drove me back to the truck.

As I was driving back through a small village I spotted them stopped at a little Chinese restaurant.Kathy had checked out the place and found it to be clean and they were making the order fresh from scratch as she watched,so I left telling her to let me know how it was for future reference.

I had just settled back into the trailer when Kathy showed up at the door with a big plateful for me…..AND IT WAS SO GOOD!….Poor Rob,I wonder if he got short changed on his supper.

A final note.You may notice that you don't see any mountains in the picture backgrounds because the town pretty much sits at the top of a forest covered mountain at over 2200 meters.(7218 ft)

The Mazamitla Waterfall,(An unforgettable Horseback Ride)

I wanted to add this little piece about Mazamitla,which I think is a good explanation of this town,(city)to me after trying to drive through it.The town is just 5 miles away from the RV Park Hacienda Contreras,where I’m staying.

Its a beautiful colonial town listed among Mexico’s (Pueblos Magicos.)Only a few select places in Mexico get this title.I will feature this beautiful little town in my next blog post.But today I want to feature my search for the popular but difficult to find,waterfall, in the hills.

With a Google search and the aid of Miss Garmin my trusty GPS,who by the way murders the Spanish language a lot worse than me,I was able to find this place.

The search took me through the narrow streets of town in what I thought was a trip that was never going to end ,until finally down in a wooded gully on the western outskirts,I came to a point where you cannot drive anymore,says the sign and the nearby toll booth.So I parked expecting maybe a 5 minute walk down a trail after paying an entry fee.

Soon as I parked the truck and got out,I was surrounded by guides with horses.I said no thanks,I will walk,but they insisted it would be difficult as its an 8 kilometer round trip that is up and down and very steep.So Senor Contreras,the (el jefe) (boss)of the group,talked me into climbing onto one of his steeds called (Choriso)(sausage) and with my young guide Jorge,we set off down this rough cobblestone path through the pine forest.

 

It didn't take long before I realized that a horseman,I’m not,as Choriso began to trot on the cobblestones,bouncing me up and down with my camera doing the same thing,hitting me in the jaw a few times,Then he moved over of his own accord onto the dirt seen in the photo.Thank you Choriso.

After about a Kilometer and a half,I decided that I’d had enough as my rear end and thighs were in excruciating pain,and my confidence in Choriso was waning as the road got rockier and steeper.So I offered the horse to Jorge for awhile and decided to walk.That's Jorge above as you can see the steep rough path.Finally we reached the spot where the horse has to stay behind and we both walk down another narrow steep path to the falls.

You can see a young lady ahead of us going down.Actually this was taken as we were climbing back up and needless to say,at over 7000ft,this Willy guy was doing a lot of huffing and puffing in the rarefied air.

A really nice spot as we rested and enjoyed the cool clean pine scented air along with a few other Mexican tourists.

Now the climb back up and back to Choriso my trusty steed.I decided that I needed the exercise since I hadn’t been doing my morning routine for the past few days.I had my blistered heels taped up with band-aides so figured a little more walking would do me good.Not realizing the altitude and the steepness,didn't last too long before the thought of climbing back onto Choriso’s back seemed inviting.It was time for my guide Jorge to earn his tip and do the walking for awhile.

Ahhh! That's better.

 

This is a typical isolated casa hidden in the woods along our pathway.You see its for rent.This is typical for this area as it is a resort town.

And we meet more coming in.

After taking this last shot,we arrived back at the parking lot where el jefe was waiting.I paid a nice tip to Jorge my young guide,sadly,I didn't get a shot of him before leaving,as I only got that back shot in the second photo.

Some final thoughts.I don't remember when I last rode a horse,even if I ever did.I knew how to mount and dismount but was so weak and inflexible,that I kept kicking Choriso in the butt every time. But I’ll tell you,the old silver bullet looked pretty good to me as I climbed in to leave.

The rest of the afternoon is another story for another day.

Sunday Morning Ramblings At Hacienda Contreras RV Park

Ever since Marlene and I started snow birding back in 1998,Christmas has always been a laid back no hassle thing,where we didn't even exchange gifts,pooling our money just for travel expenses.So now as I travel alone at this time of the year,I’m even more laid back and rely on my kids and grandkids back in Chilliwack BC to spend some time with Marlene in her nursing home residence.I don't really know how much Xmas means to her with the brain damage that she has,but knowing that the family is there with her, at least gives me piece of mind.

 

When travelling in Mexico at Xmas time,I always look for a quiet place to hunker down for the holiday period.Usually the beaches of Mexico are a zoo at this time of the year,as a large majority of the citizens of this wonderful country love to spend Xmas at the beach.

This year I’ve found the perfect place here at Hacienda Contreras RV Park.With only 7 units here now and room for many more,I’ve found my little piece of tranquility.This park is a big area,in fact I walk the inside perimeter every morning in my 40 minute exercise,”fast walk”and it is exactly 1/2 mile around.I get in 4 circuits in the 40 minutes.Although I’m going to have to quit for awhile as I made a bad choice yesterday of wearing my rubber duckies because my feet were getting wet in the morning frost….Yes frost…and the combination caused me to slip and take a tumble,skinning a few fingers,plus the duckies caused blisters on both heals,so its rest time for awhile.  

Below is a shot of my site.I paced it off to be 60ft wide and 120ft long.I’m standing on the roadway at the site entrance to take this photo.Talk about space,I love it,and all on nice grass.

Geeze! My park model lot back home is only 33X45.

One unfortunate thing happened the afternoon I arrived.As Barb and Sal the owners have planted many nice new trees to line the sites,old Willy was trying to turn around and wiped out a pretty little orange tree that I didn't see.(photo on left)knocking off 2 nice little oranges.Sal was very gracious when I showed him.He thinks it will survive ok and be like the one on the right.It amazes me how such a small 1ft high tree can produce full sized oranges.I have offered to pay for a replacement if it doesn’t survive and will stand by that.

I wandered around the park taking a few photo’s the other day,below is one of many big cactus trees that ring the perimeter wall in an undeveloped area.

And a big Eucalyptus tree in the dry camping area at the back.

And one of many Vermillion Flycatchers that flit about all day.

One of the unusual plants in the park,below.

And for the last 2 or 3 afternoons during the last couple of hours before sundown,I’ve watched this large flock of Yellow Headed Blackbirds,swarm around the field next door in tight formation.They never stop.Its amazing to watch as they swoop down into the grass and by the time the last one comes down,they all swarm up again.I couldn't get them all in one shot but my estimate is that there are over 500 of them.No exaggeration.This shot only shows about 1/4 of them.That's a corn stack in the middle.

And here’s a zoomed shot out to the west of us of someone's home.And I mean the one with the 2 domes.That’s one dandy looking Casa.

And last but definitely not least,in keeping with Christmas,I wanted to show off my two GREAT GRAND KIDS….Chloe. She will charm the socks off everyone.

and Nate,looking a little unsure of this guy in the red suit,who is new to him.

Merry Christmas guys.

Yesterday’s Tour of The Town of “Valle de Juarez”.

This town is only a mile and a half away from the RV Park,so yesterday after breakfast,I set off to walk the streets and soak up the culture.It was a cool morning in the 60’s but warm in the sun.It had gone down to freezing overnight,so was slowly regaining.Perfect for walking the streets.

This is the main entrance street to the town. Off in the distance,is an archway welcoming everyone.Our park is beyond in that direction.

The first thing I wanted to do was get a badly needed haircut,so without camera,started at the beautiful town square,and walked a different square block at a time from each side of the main square,enjoying looking into the various little shops.I found a couple of funeral parlors but no hairdresser….Yes hairdresser.I was told the local barbershop was a gathering place for the local macho’s to talk politics and not cut much hair,so as in years before,I found the girls in the beauty shops do a nice job usually with no waiting, as it seems every block has a “Peluquero”.

But today I was finding it difficult to find one,so with an opportunity,to practice my Spanish,I approached 4 people standing in front of a shop having a gab fest.As I approached they welcomed me with a big hello in English,and as it turned out all 4 spoke English.One a young lady directed me to the nearest hairdresser and even offered to walk me to the spot.I thanked her and said that it wasn’t necessary.I got a bit of a hard time from the guys as they enjoyed kidding me about my sexual orientation because I wanted a hairdresser instead of a barbershop.Hey! These guys like being MACHO!

So I trundled off down the street still chuckling,made a wrong turn then heard a yell and hand waving as they pointed me in the right direction…I love these people,so friendly here in Mexico.I found the shop,only one block from where I parked the truck.Poked my head inside the open doorway as a pretty young thing was doing the hair of another pretty young thing.I asked,”corte de pelo para me”not good spanish but she understood and beckoned me to sit in the waiting area.After a couple of minutes my waiting area chair became my barber chair as she turned it around facing a mirror, and she asked which I prefer,scissors or razor,I said “ambos”(both) and she flew into high gear doing a nice job.When finished I asked how much,and she said 35p (less than $3.50),I gladly gave her 50 pesos with a big thanks…..Another sonrisa.(smile)

Another view from the main square,(PLAZA)near the hairdresser shop.

Visualize if you will,the street below.This is typical of most of the streets you will find in small towns.Very narrow and usually congested as delivery people will block the road completely to do their business.This is the culture and we must except it if we want to visit.

So you can see what kind of a problem some of us Gringo’s have when we get lost pulling a trailer or driving a big motor home up streets like this,especially when we have to turn from one narrow street into another.I’m just glad that my 7ft wide trailer is about the same width as the truck including the side mirrors,so if the truck makes it,the trailer is free to follow.

It was garbage pickup day.

After walking around and taking pictures,I drove up the hill out of town and took this view of the town and lake.

You can see the church in the plaza on the left and the pressa,(reservoir)I’ll call it the lake.

Here is the start of the malecon around the lake shore.This is right at the edge of town.

This is taken from the other end looking back.That is El Picacho in the background.This tree covered mountain is just under 8000ft.high.I’m not used to seeing such a high tree line back home.

A closer view.

I did more travelling yesterday,but will save it for another blog entry.