Monday, April 25, 2016

Mexico - Central Mexico

March 31 to April 6: Central Mexico

Before leaving Oaxaca I had to revisit Danzantes for some more duck tacos. Still excellent! And their green pumpkin soup, made from a small (about the size of an apple) greenish pumpkin. That's a slice of it in the soup.

Danzantes: pumpkin soup
Danzantes: crispy duck tacos, redux (a pun!)


along rural route 190, northern Oaxaca state
I turned in my keys to the Oaxaca house and hit the road by 7:20am, with a plan to reach Cuautla, a city to the north near Cuernavaca where there are several campground options. I got there early, around 2pm, and decided to push on to get out of the 'hoy no circula' zone (driving restrictions based on license plate number) that extends some distance out beyond Mexico City.

Clearly I need to invest in a map that shows more detail around Mexico (it is common to refer to Mexico City as simply Mexico). I thought, jump on the toll road that goes north to Mexico but take an early exit so that I could take a road that bisects Mexico and Tuluca, another mess of a city. Not today. Either I missed the signs or there was no exit available, which I think is what happened.

The drive up to Mexico is beautiful, however. You climb and climb and climb, for quite a while, through farmland and pine forest and the temperature dropped from 92 to 67. Then you start dropping down in elevation...and there it is! There was hardly any warning. Right away, there was a protest blocking half of the road and policia frantically trying to guide traffic around to keep things "moving". I tried not to panic and move with the traffic until I could get my bearings. My FJ has a dash mounted compass, so I made sure to stay focused on a northern path. I could only tell myself to stay calm, this has to end at some point. If I drive north long enough the city would come to an end. Right?


crawling north through Mexico. Where am I, again?
Making my way through what is arguably the largest city in the world, staying calm wasn't easy. Most signs meant nothing. Often a sign I thought might be helpful showed up at the last second. I would be in the wrong lane and the traffic would push me along. I started hoping there would be a sign saying 'Kevin, it's this way, follow me'. Never happened.

After about 3 hours I finally got on a road that headed west towards Tuluca. This is also a hectic place, one that's part of the 'hoy no circula', so even thought it was getting dark (not again!) I decided to push on to Morelia to get clear of all the nonsense. Some 14 hours and exactly 500 miles later I drove into the city of Morelia. I drove around the centro district hoping to come across a welcoming, brightly lit hotel and I killed a half hour going around in circles. Exasperated, I flagged down a taxi and for 50p he guided me to a really nice Best Western. I gladly paid for the 1300p room, flopped into a big American bed around 10:30 and had one of the best buffet breakfasts I've ever had the next morning. All is well!



the cathedral
the boulevard in front of the cathedral
I had a few hours to kill before checkout so I got a taxi up to the zocalo area of Morelia. This is a Unesco World Heritage site and Lonely Planet calls Morelia "the coolest place you've never been". It is a city that immediately grabs me. Beautiful, clean, friendly and not too big or small. Being the tail end of Semana Santa, the city seems almost sleepy. I love it here.








a park with aquaduct going around. cool clouds
I happily spent about 2 hours walking around visiting a few parks and people watching. I made a stop in one of the language schools here to check on prices. I'm already planning in my head a two or three month rental in the historic district! A plus for me, I only saw maybe 5 gringos. Morelia is still somewhat undiscovered and is light years behind, say, San Miguel de Allende, in gringo-ism.










a small park
section of the aquaduct
A taxi ride back to the hotel and an easy drive out along the periferico (dedicated roads that circle the city, avoiding the centers, like a bypass but messier). Oh, so here is where that Holiday Inn is located. And an Applebees, and Home Depot and Walmart, etc. Outside the historic centro district Morelia has all the comforts of the U.S...if you're jonesin'.









following Arturo and the cows
from Oaxaca to Morelia/Cuitzeo
Up towards Cuitzeo, a pueblo magico on the north shore of the lake of the same name only 25 miles north of Morelia. There is a new campground on the south edge of the lake, but good luck finding it. A fairly rural area, I had no clue where this campground was. I was able to call the owner Arturo, though, and he met me on the main road and guided me in.







my spot
view of the lake
Set on a hill overlooking the lake, there was only one other camper here. Arturo is not charging anything to stay here, yet, as he wants the free publicity and good word-of-mouth to spread. He has been constructing this campground for about 8 years now. Though remote (bring food), this is a very pretty area and worth a stay.






a great breakfast buffet. The woman in back
is bringing us our beers. Fresh tortillas
from the woman on the right
the butcher
Arturo took me across the lake to Cuitzeo that first night where we had dinner at a tiny restaurant/bar of ceviche on tostadas and then these small local fried fish thingies on tortillas with a hot sauce. Mucha cerveza required.

The next day we went back into town for breakfast and he ran some errands including the butcher shop shown. The butcher was breaking down a pigs head that a woman was going to use to make pozole. A few whacks with a cleaver to split the skull in half. This shop was very clean with absolutely no 'funny' smells and the butcher pretended to not know any English until we were leaving, when he said 'have a good day'. Everyone, including me, had a good laugh. I'm glad I didn't say anything bad! Another town full of good people.



the convent in Cuitzeo
A couple of nights later Arturo, two local guys that are helping him build some stuff and myself went to another small town north of Cuitzeo to a local cantina.

Called Billar Beto, it's a low, narrow concrete and brick poolhall with one loud jukebox, one toilet and, for some reason, a Korean woman sitting at the bar. Out back is a little oasis of mowed grass and avocado, lime and (very sour) orange trees. We sit down to a number of large Indios and, basically, local bar food. We each had tostadas with either a fish or shrimp ceviche.




table full of beer and cantina chow
Then Arturo ordered huevos de cordoniz, some kind of small bird that they hardboil the little eggs from. I swallowed one and it wasn't completely terrible. Then there were the things in the front-center of the picture with toothpicks. I tried one, it was rubbery and pickled and I spit it out. Arturo deadpans "bull dick". They all three gave me the international symbol for a hard-on (firm vertical forearm with clenched fist) to say it helped in that department and, of course, they all claimed to love the stuff. We finished off with a few shots of Don Julio before driving back across the lake.







the southeast corner of Laguna de Chapala
From there it was west for about five hours to Villa Corona where there is a campground next to very large balenario (Mexican swimming pool complex). I drove around the southern shore of Laguna de Chapala, Mexico's largest lake. This was a prettier drive than I remembered the north shore being, certainly more rural.


bunnies and little chicks of all colors for sale in the market
There are only maybe 5 RV's here in a park that holds well over 50. I have the good luck to meet Russ and Debbie, a couple from Michigan who, among other things, sailed around the world for a few years in the '80's. They invited me to join them in going over to the weekly market, as usual very busy and colorful.







pull up a stool and order a torta
Another day I drove with Russ into Guadalajara. I had been wanting to try the famous torta ahogada, a torta that is served with a sauce or salsa poured over it, making it delicious and messy at the same time. Guadalajara is ground zero for this specialty and I had waited 5 months to try it here and only here! Lonely Planet mentioned this one place in the photo in particular, so that's where I had to go. It was hard to find since we were thinking it would be a sit-down restaurant, but, as you can see, it was really just a food stall. All they serve are these tortas.



the fabled torta ahogada
the torta takedown
I can't say it changed my life. On the other hand, what a great freaking idea! Get messy, scoop on some onion, avocado and a squeeze of lime. I definitely want another. One thing that is hard to duplicate, though, is the bread. It's crusty so it won't fall apart, and I personally think it's the minerals in the water that make it taste unique. You can get great tortas in Denver, but the bread, man, the bread...it's not the same.







April 7 to April 15: Perula to Las Glorias



the countryside around Tapalpa
Cuitzeo to Lo de Marcos
My first goal was to reach Tapalpa, another Pueblo Magico (I'm starting to think they hand out this label like M&M's. The total number of these towns has at least doubled in the last ten years). I found the town, very pretty horse ranch country with vacation homes and even a country club. The campground, either it was closed or I got lost, both real possibilities. So onward to the beach.








looking at the hotel zone of the port city of Manzanillo
the bay at Perula
Getting to and away from Tapalpa meant driving on some very hilly, winding, potholed roads in the middle of nowhere, making my next destination of Perula (south of Puerto Vallarta) seem like the other side of the moon. I arrived at the campground just before dark and set up and crashed for the night. This was one of my favorite beaches from ten years ago, but it didn't do it for me this time around. Maybe it was too hot, I don't know. But, my second night a local family showed up for the weekend where I was staying and, typically, partied until dawn. They showed no sign of let-up or of leaving the next day, so I did.



Lo de Marcos looking one way...

...and then the other
My next drive was relatively pleasant, only 125 miles and 4.5 hours up the coast road to Lo de Marcos. This is a very popular snowbird retreat that was recommended to me by my four friends from Canada (aka, the "stalkers"). Fortunately, it is now well into April and probably 95% of all the RV'ers leave by the end of March. I found the campground they like and I was content to be the only one here for 6 nights. I had good wifi, hot showers and the beach only yards away, and all for 100p/night. I ate a lot of shrimp and bodysurfed when the waves were just right.


There are supposed to be some campgrounds up the coast as you head north of Mazatlán, but where I went, Celestino Gasca, my luck didn't hold. One place was closed and for sale and at the other no one answered either the bell or the phone. Great, the next spot was hours to the north. This part of the coast looked very desolate to me, anyway. I won't be back. Snooze you lose, dudes!

Las Glorias campsite; not really as pretty
as it looks from this angle
Flying up the toll road at 70-80mph (and spending 924p!) I finally made it to foggy, misty Las Glorias at around 9:30, a campground that once had a loyal following, but unbeknownst to me, was also up for sale and basically neglected at this point. They let me in, however, and for 200p I called it a night. Another very long 504 mile, 10 hour day.










April 16 to April 24: Alamos to Nogales (the border)



Alamos as seen from El Mirador (370 steps up a hill,
at least by my count)
Alamos is, you guessed it, another Pueblo Magico, a silver mining town that had a heyday, almost became a ghost town and was then rejuvenated when it was discovered by some gringos in the 40's and 50's. It's now a very attractive small town that's trying to gain Unesco World Heritage site status.

this is how I like my campgrounds...empty
There's a nice campground within about a 10 minute walk from the centro area that, once again, I had all to myself for 4 nights. From here it was easy to explore the town. I decided I really like it here so I looked online to see what kind of rentals were available. I emailed one place writing that I was actually in Alamos that day and the owner called me later to say, come on up and take a look. I ended up renting her beautiful casita with pool for 3 nights.



Here are some photos of the town...


on the plaza
looking towards the cathedral


as the sun sets
chilaquiles rojo con pollo. First time I've
seen it served with frijoles and avocado

along one of the town arroyos
the rental casita




Alamos is now home to several well regarded restaurants. The best food I had was at Teresita's. It was a beautifully presented pork dish baked in orange juice and served with a mashed potato and bean combo. I also tried a shot of bacanora, served chilled on a bed of ice. (Serving mezcals chilled or even out of the freezer like vodka is becoming more common). Bacanora is the Sonoran version of mezcal. Sotol is the Coahuila/Chihuahua version of mezcal. And, actually, tequila is technically a version of mezcal. While tequila is made only with the blue agave, the other mezcals can be made with one, or a combination of, several dozen other agaves. With tequila they steam the agave and with mezcals they are roasted. Hence, the smokier flavor of mezcal. It's all good, of course.



the long coast drive up to Alamos
(days 165-171, in blue)
Alamos to San Carlos to Nogales
After a week in Alamos it was time to finally head north towards the border. With only 7-8 days left on my 180 day tourist pass, Mexico just feels done at this point.














edge of San Carlos
I spent one night at an RV park up the coast in San Carlos. San Carlos and neighboring Guaymas are very Americanized towns with all the stores you would expect and lots of condos for sale. It was a Saturday night so the music went late, late, late. Therefore, not much sleep, sleep, sleep.











the border fence at Nogales...adios old Mexico!
almost my turn
On the road north by 8am, it took 5 hours and 249 miles to reach the border at Nogales. It was a busy day for crossing and it took another 40 minutes before I made it to U.S. customs. A scan of my passport and a handing over of my two remaining Gala apples (ironically, they were imported to Mexico from the U.S.), I'm back in Arizona.

173 days.