mOOners in Mexico

by Kris

We're kicking back for a few days in San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, the southern most state of Mexico. This is a beautiful city, a Pueblo Mágico....

"The Programa Pueblos Mágicos ("Magical Villages Programme") is an initiative led by Mexico's Secretariat of Tourism (SECTUR), in conjunction with other federal and state agencies, to promote a series of towns around the country that offer visitors a "magical" experience – by reason of their natural beauty, cultural riches, or historical relevance.

A "Magical Village" is a place with symbolism, legends, history, important events, day-to-day life – in other words, "magic" in its social and cultural manifestations, with great opportunities for tourism.

The programme was launched in 2001 and, by 2007, a total of 32 towns and villages in 24 different states had been awarded the title pueblo mágico." We've visited several designated pueblos and they never disappoint in their "magical experiences."

San Cristóbal sits at 7,108' in a pine forest with decidious trees losing yellow fall leaves. Figure that out in January, if you can. All roads leading into the city are slow going, not such easy traveling. From the jungle ruins of Palenque in the rainy lowlands we journeyed through miles and time unlike any other stretch of road, to get here. The approximately one hundred and twenty miles took six hours. We went up and up and have come way down to this altitude. We drove through fog, wet fog, wetter fog, and then the bluest skies imaginable at 9,000'. Along the way we passed through small pueblos of Indigenous people, the descendants of the ancient Mayans, who treated our passing as a wonder.

Tuesday we took a tour to the nearby village of Chamula, a ceremonial pueblo that warrants a blog of its own. I'm grateful we had Rodrigo to explain what we were seeing and even at that I am struggling to put it altogether in my mind and in my spirit.

Tomorrow we depart for the city of Oaxaca; a trip of over 400 miles that we're breaking into three days. From there we will leave the mountains and sit our butts in beach chairs. We need the break to get our energy back and regroup on the blog....I have a bazillion photos to sort and size to pictorially do justice to where we've been and what we've seen.

mOOners

by Kris

The holidays are over - we had a blast and are pretty sure everyone did as well. We are packing the camper onto the truck and saying adios to our friends in Roca and Joco. It's really shifting gears to go from rv park living to beach dry camping but we can suffer through it...back to ultra conserving water, using solar power with the inverter, using propane judiciously, stocking up on the hard to find foodie items, and losing the back seat of the truck with our "garage" stuff.

We're appreciative of good friends to enjoy our equipale furniture in our absence. Nothing says comfort while dining or relaxing more than these body hugging sillas.

Knowing our time in Roca was drawing to a close we've said hellos and goodbyes this month to old and new friends...one last comida with our "Guad girls" and a bottle of Herradura...

We visited our Lake Camanche amigo, Vidal, and met his enchanting esposa, Angeles, at their Guadalajara home.

 We lived vicariously through the funtastic visit of la familia Boyer enjoying their kids like we do our own.

One of the last communal meals together...another delicious plate-filler of Chilean Sea Bass and verduras especiales..

Leaving the newly formed beisbol team is going to be hard - what they lack in equipment - they make up for with enthusiasm. Thanks, Dave and Sonia for providing bats, helmets, and shirts for starters.

Gigantes de Jocotepec...sounds good to me!

Ken and I have soooo enjoyed our time on la cancha de tenis...we're taking our raquetas y bolas with us just in case...

 One last thing before we leave, but it's totally out of our control....

Your girl, Natalie, and the rest of us say, PUSH! Come on Daisy, you can do it...

 mOOners

by Kris

Holidays full of good cheer and happiness revolve, in my opinion, around the joy and felicidades de los niños. An invitation to join nuestro amiga, Linda, for a Posada and feliz cumpleaño celebración for her amiga and housekeeper, Chelo was happily received. Linda is an artist and such a fun and interesting woman with an assortment of amigos to match, that any party at her home is a don't miss.

For most holiday functions NOB I would take a festive wintery dish but for some reason - too much summery sun? - I couldn't get potato salad out of my mind...and here it is with a special flavor of Mexico...

The festivities began with the appearance, at Linda's gate, of the Posada. One hundred or more children of Jocotepec re-enacting Joseph's search for lodging in Bethlehem with his very pregnant wife, Mary. The song of the procession, Pidiendo Posada, is in two parts with Joseph's request for a room and the response of sorry, we have none....until there is the realization of who this special woman is carrying in her womb...the precious baby, Jesus.

....."¿Eres tu Jose, tu esposa es Maria? Entren, peregrinos. Nos los conocia.

Dios Pague, senores, vuestra caridad, y que os colme el cielo de felicidad...Dichosa la casa que alberga esta dia a la Virgen pura La Hermosa Maria...."

The gates flew open and Joseph and Mary entered...

"Blessed is the house that shelters, this day, the purest Virgin, the beautiful Mary."

...followed by the symbolic crèche.

Our grand-daughter, Olivia, will notice something special about the placement of the nativity scene on the dining room table. Purely a coinicidence...and a zesty one at that...

With the blessed family safely tucked away for the evening, the festivities for the children began...It was a joy to hand out the beautifully packaged goodies prepared by Linda and her holiday helpers.

This young mother (bottle at the ready) was one of many who helped with the treats deliveries and the preparation of the piñatas. If the sweetly loaded piñatas had any idea of the brutality they would soon face at the hands of young children and spunky mothers, they'd run for the hills.

Jose and Santa, with bags in hand, are ready to swing at a piñata or two or three.

A truly beautiful Angel made the evening more magical, as Angels do..

A mother, and evidently a seasoned piñata wacker, gives instructions to the very excited participants.

 Linda loads the show stopping grand finale big bopper piñata.....

And we have a winner!

Time to say goodbye to most of the crowd but an incredible number of Posada revelers, la familia de Chelo, joined a happy group of gringos in the house for a beyond delicous meal. Chelo was surrounded by her amigos, hijas, and a true gaggle of adorable grandbabies. She is a blessed woman.

Feeling the love of so many people, many of us strangers, brought together for one of the most festive events in the holiday season and for the celebration of a special birthday, was a fabulous experience.

Being away from loved ones and great friends during the holidays could be sad but we have our Skype Christmas Eve with everyone. And I have the special gift of seeing these three little cuties who take me back to long ago Christmas mornings and my three sweeties at the top of the stairs....

Felicidades

mOOners

by Kris

A common misconception with families and friends of many Mexican adventurers is that we're hanging out at the beach all winter. We do enjoy the playas of Jalisco and Michoacán, but the bulk of our six months is spent in the highlands of these two states exploring a diverse variety of cultures in villages in and around Lake Chapala. We discovered this region while investigating a summer-long trip on the Pacific coast of mainland Mexico in 2005. The highlands and cooler weather was our "Plan B" if the beach was too hot and humid which, we're happy to say, didn't happen. We were in beach mode at that time and the six weeks we languished in the sun and surf at Sayulita were among our most memorable times. We've not returned to Sayulita. Now like homing pigeons we head forty-five miles south of Guadalajara to Lake Chapala's western shore.

Lago de Chapala (elevation 5,000') is the largest natural lake in Mexico rimmed in a beautiful setting of extinct volcanic mountains that separate the lake from the heavily populated areas of Guadalajara. With a length of 50 miles and area of 450 square miles, the lake is divided into two states, Jalisco (north) and  Michoacán (south.) The population around the lake is sparse with small fishing and farming villages....except for the highly concentrated population (highest in winter...) in the twenty mile strip of pueblas from Chapala to Jocotepec. Lago de Chapala is, to put it delicately, not a water sporting lake but a water viewing lake. This is fine, because if the water was more user friendly there would be wall to wall condos. Ugh.

Our special lakeside village is Jocotepec, a gem of a town (pop. 16,000) with very friendly citizens and just the right number of equally friendly and interesting visitors (aka "Gringos".) Jocotepec, or Joco, is the town nearest to our home-base, the charming Roca Azul Resort and RV park.

This is the lighthouse at the tip of the Roca Azul property. It's a great lake viewing area, tai chi spot, and gathering place for happy hours and bonfires...

In late October or early November when we arrive in the area, the mountainsides and roadways are lush to us but the locals complain about how brown and barren everything looks...and how cool the weather is. Those of us from up north delight in the colorful semi-tropical scenery and the temperatures that are not too hot and not too cold, simply muy cómodo...

Roca Azul Resort was developed in the 1960's as a playground for the rich families of Guadalajara. There are acres of beautiful grounds and amenities that are aged but well maintained by the local staff. Occasionally groups attend "camping" events on weekends; mostly they are quiet family groups or religious groups (loud and righteous singing) and we enjoy what interaction we have with them. Especially the kids.

The centerpiece of the resort is the large swimming pool. Snorkeling practice, anyone?

Our preference is the smaller and warmer thermal spring pool which is ours alone during the week. It is emptied and filled twice a week and is the perfect temperature from the first til the last drop of water...

Sportscourts for basketball, volleyball, and tennis (woohoo!) are available and rarely used but the two fútbol fields see lots of action - all the groups that come to Roca have wild and wooly pick-up games full of fun and good natured goofing around. A highlight of our week is the Tuesday evening practice session of the local Jocotepec club team, also full of fun but with skills that amaze. There is no doubting the national passion for the sport.

Kids of all ages enjoy the variety of playground equipment, most of it original from the club's opening in the '60s. It's not unusual to encounter escapees from the adjacent field wandering among the swings and slides though their interest is less fun more food...

The RV park of Roca Azul opened only a few years ago but it is already a favorite with many travelers and stayers. We love it here from the morning when we take our walk around the park with Duffie ..

....til the evening when we say buenas noches to our amigos and Duffie does a last sniff about with his buddies..

Roca Azul is the best place for us to get into our Mexican state of mind as we plan our adventures to other parts of this great country, including the beaches.

It's a special place where even the unlikeliest folks can become the best of friends...

mOOners

by Kris

The prospect of driving 2,200 miles from Northern California to our winter Mexican "home" of Roca Azul RV Park at Lago de Chapala, while not as daunting as that of our Nova Scotia amigos, is still a fer piece of landscape to travel. We choose to add variety to the miles by driving different routes within the western states to a border crossing in or west of Nogales, Arizona. Heading south on CA-99 we decided to make a left turn before Bakersfield and spend a couple of days exploring Death Valley. For the first leg of our long journey, we initially entertained the prospect of Yosemite with glorious fall colors as a delightful segue to the glorious colors of Mexico but the weather suggested the prevailing color would be white. While beautiful, dealing with snow and the inherent issues was not how we wanted to begin our trip...chains? Not in our vocabulary.

Climbing in the foothills toward the Sequoia National Forest we enjoyed changing tempuratures, varied scenery, and the sight of a stampede of tarantulas across the highway. Why did the tarantula cross the road?

California is one of the most incredible states in a country full of natural beauty. If you don't like the scenery or weather where you are in California mere hours away is a climate and a geographical setting so amazingly different. There's much of the state we know intimately and enjoy regularly and even more we couldn't explore in two lifetimes. The Sequoia National Forest covers much of the lower area of the splendid Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and the climbing winding roads though it offer glimpses of different lifestyles than our own...a cabin in the woods so close to a highway but so far from civilization..

From the 6,102' summit of Greenhorn Mountain in the middle of California the next hours and miles of our trip led us toward the lowest elevation in the United States - no exaggeration about the variety of our home state's geography. Bob's your uncle.

We like to stop periodically and check our rig, take a bathroom break, walk Duffie, and occasionally try a local specialty.  For countless miles we'd seen signs proclaiming the freshest and best jerky in the universe at this spot in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I guess if you'd been wandering foodless in the desert for days this claim could be true. But you might like COLDBEER.COM to wash it down.

Next stop the incomparable Death Valley National Park....we spent many entertaining hours watching the recent PBS series Ken Burns: "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" and have visited a number of the featured parks, but never Death Valley...go figure.

What's not visible in this first photo of the landscape is that the wind was not merely blowing, it was howling, as in do not get too close to the edge of the mountain for a look.

Unlike many national parks and forests, Death Valley doesn't welcome you with an entrance kiosk full of maps and information, so we happily discovered a non-pay, basic campground and hunkered in for the night. There were three tent campers in the area and I know they had a long night - a long howling windy night wondering where they might be in the morning light. Inside the cozy confines of our camper, very well secured to our one-ton dually truck, it was crazy windy loud and rockin'. Snuggle up and snooze was all you could do :) It was fortunately less blustery when we awoke but the building gusts gave hints of more to come.

With no set travel itinerary we'd hoped to spend time hiking and exploring some of Death Valley's incredibly scenic vistas and learning more about the history of gold mining in the mountains, borax harvesting on the valley floors, and the lives and livelihood of the native Timbisha Shoshone people. BUT, wow it was beyond uncomfortable to be outside....

Resorting to Plan B, we became road tourists with the camera handy for a quick window down shot. Being a smaller RV once again rewarded us with the ability to experience what the big rigs cannot, in this case the "Artists Drive" a windy (aka twisty) one way route of scenic viewpoints recommended for vehicles no longer than 25 feet. Our front mounted bikes pushed the limit but we navigated the turns and dips with ease. It's fun to have photos of our home in so many diverse locations...

We had a reprieve from the extreme wind at a most extreme spot, the lowest elevation in Death Valley, California, the US, and almost the world...the famous Badwater Basin is 282 feet below sea level. That's an almost hard to fathom factoid. Also hard to fathom are the winter duds I'm sporting now that I'm warmly back in Mexico...

Everything about Death Valley is on a grand scale...the scenery and the vastness of it is inspiring and we do plan a trip when weather conditions are more conducive to outside activities. Ken and Duffie scan the landscape...Duffie for anything that moves...

Driving further south toward the border we finally outlasted the wind. Following the trail of our British Columbia friends, Dave and Sonia, we stopped in Ajo, Arizona for final pre-Mexico provisioning. We then drove through the town of Why (don't ask..)  then made the final US leg to the border and our crossing in Lukeville. Not much dialogue with the US border authorities other than their standard questions; "Do you have weapons?" and "Do you have more than $10,000 cash"? I'm not sure which question is more ridiculous in our case.

It was another smooth transition to Mexico; we have copies of everything the authorities could possible want and we know the order of migración offices to visit and the information they require. It's a more enjoyable experience when the authorities are located away from the border cities such as this complex at San Emetrio.

We've heard some pretty funny (after the fact..) and horrendous stories from both sides of the border so we gratefully accept each smooth crossing we experience. And we, of course, say thanks to Mike and Terri Church, authors of "The Traveler's Guide to Mexican Camping" the bible of rv'ers, for their input and insights into all things Mexican rv travel related....because of them our first crossing years ago was a success we've been able to re-create time and again. http://www.rollinghomes.com/

Three long days on the expensive - but worth every peso - cuotas (toll roads) and we arrived in Roca Azul....amazingly one hour after BC'ers, Dave and Sonia!

The gate to Roca Azul complex welcomed us with the warm and happy colors of Mexico.

More to come...

mOOners