Jalisco and the Pacific Coast

Jalisco: January 18, 2017 - February 12, 2017

I Finally left Morelia and made the short drive of about 20 miles north to Arturo's campground on the south side of Lago de Cuitzeo. Arturo lets me stay here free, which is quite generous and something I'm not sure I feel comfortable with anymore considering the investment he has made. It seems like 100 pesos per night would be fair? A discussion for next time. At any rate (pun?) I killed 5 days there, half of which was recovery from some flu bug I caught.

view from the campground of Lago Cuitzeo

There was one other campsite taken by a trio of dreamers, I guess I could call them. The guy was from Britain, his girlfriend was from Sweden and the third was an elderly woman from the U.S. They plan on buying some land in Belize and becoming self-sufficient. No experience with farming, whatsoever. So, dreaming, but you never know. Anyway, I mention them because one afternoon the old woman got into a bottle of tequila - like, she had most of it - and took off all depressed and yelling into the fields nearby. A rancher, some time later, called Arturo asking if he was missing any campers because there's a gringa lying down in his pasture. She was balled up crying about life, poor thing. Such drama! I usually just ball up in the privacy of my tent.

agave fields just west of Tequila. I wonder how many

drunken one-night stands are cultivating out there?

Next, I drove west through Guadalajara and then Tequila before turning south to Etzatlan, a farming community which has a nice little campground. The town itself is very peaceful and tidy and I was a bit surprised at the amount of prosperity and the nice homes in town.

the well-shaded plaza

There is a walkway that follows some abandoned railroad tracks and it takes about 20 minutes to walk into town. They have a well-tended charro (rodeo ring) on one end of town and an excellent shaded main plaza. I mean, it's really well shaded.

my comida typica

my lunch spot

The owner of the campground, Bonnie, told me of a place 'La Negra', where I could get a good meal. I ordered the comida typica, a caldo de rez with a side of refried beans and a plate of radishes, avocado and a serrano pepper (which I only nibbled at...it was very hot). And salsa and tortillas and a Coke, all for 70 pesos.

the mountains, as I retraced my steps a few days later

I woke to thick fog which didn't clear until late morning when I took off for the Pueblo Magico of Tapalpa. Heading east there are lots of sugarcane fields and the always seriously slow trucks that haul the stuff. Eventually, I turned south onto a dirt road that wound its way over and down some thickly forested mountains.

a part of the Enigmas

As I drove into the outskirts of Tapalpa there are these rock outcroppings that are called the Enigmas. Not otherwise so memorable, they are a bit of a tourist attraction here because they are so unusual for the area...an enigma. I walked over and took some pictures and as I was leaving I was told I should leave a donation. All I had was 17 pesos in my pocket.

part of Tapalpa's main plaza

Tapalpa may be the richest P. M. I've been to. The most well-off from Guadalajara have homes here, big homes. Even the baker in town has a big home. Luis, the owner of the campground with his wife Margaret, told me so and pointed it out as we went into town one morning for tacos. The campground is really just one corner of their own very large property and I was the only one there for 3 nights. Cold nights, too, as it would drop to near 40 degrees. Tapalpa, it turns out, is at close to 8000'. The nights are quiet here, though, and the night sky is excellent.

Chano's taco stand (that's him!) by the plaza

the masterpiece...it is sublime

Back to the tacos. Luis was telling me about Chano, a man in town who makes such incredible tacos de carnaza (it's beef) that folks from Guadalajara leave early in the morning to get here in time before he sells out sometime before noon. I begged for him to take me the next day and he did. Incredibly moist and tender and full of flavor these may be the best I've had, along with the carnitas from Tacambaro I wrote about in my last Morelia post. A squeeze of lime and some salsa, that's it. Have two.


Before I left Luis and Margaret showed me their house and the one next to it that they sometimes rent out (it sounds interesting, if only for the tacos!). You can also see the smoking volcano from their house that is south of here, near Colima. That volcano has been very active the last few years.

5 liters of silver and some anejo he gave me

a skull that has basically become part of

the tree, at the campground

Luis told me of the tequila he buys from a small distillery in Amatitan, near Tequila. He pays 250 pesos for 5 liters of silver and 500 pesos for 5 liters of anejo. He buys 10 or 20 of these and brings many of them back to California when they visit friends and relatives every year. It's where they lived for many years. He had a 5 liter bottle of the silver hanging around so I bought it from him. Except for water I'd never bought any beverage in 5 liter increments, certainly not booze. I'm still working on it! The anejo is actually quite exceptional and I will definitely stop by and buy my own 5 liter bottle the next time I go through the area. I mean, $25 for 5 liters, that's crazy.

the area of Jalisco I traveled. Try to follow the green #96-112.

along the road to Jalpa de Allende

Next I was off to a trifecta of Pueblo Magicos. There are three in close proximity to each other in the mountains east of Puerto Vallarta. Going to these P. M.'s and many others gives me an excuse to travel some of the back roads I might otherwise not of bothered with. These roads are, often as not, rural roads winding through attractive farm and ranch country and this was no exception.

a view of Jalpa de Allende

The first town was Jalpa de Allende, a new P. M. that is set down deep into a valley and one that was still quite dusty around the edges. It was a very busy market day when I was there so I mostly people watched before hustling off to the next town of Mascota.

along the drive up to Sierra Lago

Mascota normally means pet, but in this case means deer, I think, in the local indigenous language. It was getting late so I wanted to find a place to stay, opting for a room if I could find one. I followed a sign for 'Sierra Lago resort and spa', which sounded nice. About 40  minutes up an almost 10 mile cobblestone road that climbed further and further into the hills and I finally got to the hotel. It's (I was told later the next day) a labor of love by a guy who owns hotels in Puerto Vallarta. He bought this property in the hills with a lake and he's building more every year. It's beautiful up here.

a view from my cabana balcony. The orange tree is art.

They charged me $103 for my own cabana, something that would cost maybe $300 in the States? These cabanas are built of brick and so - also, because they are way up and away from anything else - this was one of the quietest nights I've ever had in Mexico; Or anywhere else, for that matter. And the French toast I had for breakfast was delicious, perfectly heavy on the cinnamon.

a street in Mascota

Mascota is also a new P. M. and they were in the process of tearing up and relaying all of the cobblestone streets surrounding the main plaza. This was also the first place I saw any significant number of gringos since I had entered Mexico some three months earlier...I was definitely within sniffing distance of Puerto Vallarta now.

off San Sabastian's plaza

the Puente Curvo in San Sabastian

I continued my drive down some winding roads to San Sabastian del Oeste, this town having been a P. M. for some time so it was much more spiffed up. Actually, it's a pretty cool place with lots of hilly streets going off at different angles. Even the main plaza was at an angle.






From there I made my way down to the coastal highway just north of Puerto Vallarta. I turned north towards Bucerias and the Mega supermarket, gringo heaven, I'm telling you. The Megas truly are large stores and the selection is excellent, so I happily loaded up and drove back about 8 miles east into the hills and farming country for another campground called AltaRose, run by two expat Canadians, Gary and Jean.

Gary, Kenny (white hair), Jordan and Jean, and the smoker

My first night there I helped Gary and two other expat Canadians, Kenny and Jordan, finish off a bottle of Canadian whiskey (of course). I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but this was the first night since October in New Mexico that I didn't need to wear sweats to sleep. Comfortably cool was the order of the night here.

on my hike: corn fields on the left, mango trees to the right

One day I took off on a hike down the country road and ended up going into a town, San Juan Abajo, that was a nine mile round-trip walk. Who says I never get any exercise? It was a road that went through corn fields and watermelon fields and mango orchards, which were flowering so the air smelled like mangos.

a starfruit tree...I had never seen one.

Yellow is ripe, like a sweet pear.

The picture of the gang (above) was taken on a night when Jordan used the smoker to make fresh beef jerky. I had never had it like that, still warm. He does a really good job of it, too. Later, I came back for a few more nights and watched the Super Bowl with everyone at Jordan's new, shiny house that he shares with his wife and son. Jordan used the smoker to make lots of ribs, he sautéed shrimp in butter, garlic and tequila, he made more shrimp with tempura, and there were chicken wings, homemade French fries and onion rings and delicious guacamole. And booze. Maybe the best spread I've ever seen at a Super Bowl party and there were only maybe 10 of us. And it was in Mexico done up by Canadians. How awesome is that? Oh yeah, Gary cooked up some salami in the smoker and served it with vodka and Clamato cocktails as a pre-game snack. It was a lot better than it sounds.



In between my AltaRose camping I drove down to the coast to Lo de Marcos, a beach town I had been to last April. Then, it was pretty much deserted of snowbirds and I had the campground to myself for a week, which was great. In early February it's packed, but I managed to get a spot. I got to see Victor, a Canadian I met last winter on my travels. Then, he was with his wife and another couple. They kept running into me at various campgrounds and they jokingly called themselves the Stalkers. Now it was my turn.

the beach at Lo de Marcos

It was a nice three days listening to the ocean at night and walking the beach. I even got to eat at the famous local hangout called Claritas. It's a place for gringos and I chowed on the eggs, chorizo and coffee. Victor is a musician and one evening he and two of his friends put on a short concert in the main plaza as part of a fundraising event for the local schools.

Teacapan sunset, that part was nice

Leaving AltaRose for the second time I booked it up the coast to San Blas. I had never been on this coast road and it was still fairly green and lush, for the dry season. I managed to get a camping spot at the Chaco Hotel, not really a destination but a decent stopping point for the night next to the beach. After one night I drove north to Teacapan and the Color Marino resort and campground on the coast south of Mazatlán. This was not too long ago a major RV destination but for some reason it's fallen out of favor. I was one of three in a campground that holds maybe 60. It was quite windy here and chilly at night with fog in the mornings. In my little bit of experience with this stretch of coast I find it uninspiring, boring and the water uninviting.  

waiting our turn on the dock in Mazatlán

my $65 cabin

I then made my way north to Mazatlán to book a ferry over to La Paz and the Baja. The internet showed the ferry leaving Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30pm. I immediately drove to the dock hoping the ferry office would be open on a Sunday and that I could reserve something for later that week.



They were, in fact, open and they were sailing in 5 hours! The ship now sails on Sunday, not Monday, and at 6:30, not 5:30. They had two cabanas left and I snagged one of those and for $200 I was Baja bound.

from San Blas to Mazatlán to La Paz, 12.5 hours on the ferry