After a great night's sleep, Pat was anxious to show us around the area a bit the next morning. We'd have been happy to stay inside her lovely home and just enjoy the relaxation, breeze and flowers, but duty called.
As we walked to the car with her dog, suddenly two other dogs showed up and the fight began. In an attempt to stop it, The Butterfly swung her backpack at the aggressor dog, forgetting her steel water thermos was inside. The loud “gong” sound got all of our attention, not the least of which was the dog's. I fully expected the dog to be dead from the sound of the blow. It worked however, the fight was instantly over and I'm sure Kim passed into legend in the local dog community... "La Mariposa de Hierro es una gringo peligroso!" they would bark around campfires for many years to come.
I squeezed into the front seat of Pat's car and she proceeded to drive us up the hillside to the old fort that overlooks the city. It was quite old, and we explored the ruins of the original church and the crazy trees nearby. Old cannons were still exhibited on the walls and it was interesting to try to imagine the past in this place.
In conversation she mentioned crocodiles, much to my surprise as I didn't realize they were this far north. The mosquitoes were quite crazy in the area and we made use of her repellent, but it didn't do much good. We'd brought our swim trunks since she had mentioned a favorite beach and after the short drive outside of town we pulled into the crocodile viewing area. Sure enough, there were a few small ones around and Pat mentioned that the barricade between them and us had only been erected recently. Apparently before you could simply walk up to the edge of the water and take your chances.
The general laziness of the crocodiles was having its effect on us and we were anxious to do our own imitations, lying like logs on the beach. She continued driving us around until we reached a deserted beach with a few little cabanas. We were informed that there was hardly ever anyone here and this day was no exception.
A light lunch of fish tacos seemed appropriate and timely. No one’s in a rush in Mexico, but such a simple order of tacos seemed to be taking at least an hour. I was nearing getting up to go see what was up, when about that time I saw a young boy carrying a huge fish down the beach to the kitchen. Don’t know if they had just caught it or if he’d walked all the way to the town fish market, but it was certainly fresh. No complaints baby!
The empty beach, the sound of the waves and the sunshine was incredibly relaxing. The water was cool but not cold and swimming was great. It was followed by lounge time in hammocks, and we were in heaven. The Glimmer Twins had been here earlier and had stayed for a long time. It was easy to see why.
After our swim we returned with Pat, and later went for a long walk into town, ending up at the beach in the evening. It felt so good to be there, and despite the mosquitoes, we were sad we couldn't spend a few extra days in San Blas.
Crashed airliner. Razor sharp chunks of sheet metal. Perfect theme for a kid's park!
Our initial travel plans had been to go straight from Texas to the town of Guanajuato, to spend some time there and immerse ourselves in the culture of Mexico, both to adapt our thinking and learn a little Spanish. We'd found a place there for an extended stay, but it wouldn’t be available for 3 weeks, so we’d decided to take our tour out to the Pacific for that time, but now we had to be there in a couple of days. Staying at the beach was quite a temptation for each of us, but we’d committed to the apartment and need to get there.
The next morning we said our goodbyes and headed for our next destination, Guadalajara, which was roughly half way to Guanajuato. We wanted to take one last ride down to the waterfront in San Blas, but the road was blocked by a parade of school children so we abandoned that idea and headed down the coastal road for the huge city of Guadalajara.
Doug and Pat - awesome folks and awesome hosts
The road was narrow with no shoulders, running through mangrove swamps and eventually leading up into lush jungle-like terrain, twisting its way high up the hillsides and into the mountains. It was a fun ride, eventually cresting and winding down into the more desert-like valley.
A quick stop in Chapalilla for a plaza lunch
The valleys were full of bluish smoke as the farmers were burning fields in preparation for spring planting. It didn't take long to begin to see carpets of blue agave as we approached the town of Tequila. It was interesting seeing the orderly lines of agave plants in the dry and hilly terrain. I’d received a little instruction on the difference between tequila and mezcal, both being essentially the same except that “tequila” had become a trademark of the liquor produced from the blue agave in that region. I guess it would be something like the Champagne region of France.
The temperature was warm as we rode into the town of Tequila. We stopped in the downtown section and perused the little tourist shops. We did not have a lot of time to tour some of the old places unfortunately. We still had to make Guadalajara and we would hit just about rush-hour. I'd plugged in the address for our next host, but neither my GPS or Google seemed to understand it. Google showed a small store at that address and my Garmin couldn't even find the name of the street, of course. I wish Google would make its own GPS unit, as this expensive Zumo with its Mexico maps are missing so many roads in comparison. It also has a “dumb” search feature, being unable to find roads unless you spell it exactly the way Garmin entered it, which in a foreign country can be maddening with all it’s variations and versions of names, especially such long ones as are common in Mexico.
The traffic was quite thick and watching the cars and GPS simultaneously was a challenge. Eventually we found the street and drove back and forth trying to locate the address. In frustration I finally pulled over to the small abbarotes to get out of the sun and let Kim text our host. There was a gated parking area next to the store with a huge Great Dane snarling and barking at us intensely. He was quite intimidating and in short order Kim received a text that the little store was our host's mother's shop and the Great Dane was our host's dog.
Our host would not be there for a few more hours but mama came out of the house and ordered the dogs to be silent and to stand in the corner, which they did. It was with great trepidation that we rolled our bikes into that gated parking area with the huge Great Dane standing there staring at us. Apparently he was afraid enough of mama to do exactly as he was told. I stayed in all of my riding gear until we had brown-nosed the dog sufficiently and he calmed down a bit, accepting our presence.
Mama!
Mama was very sweet and though she didn't speak English, welcomed us into the house and showed us our upstairs bedroom. We were hot and tired and laid down on the bed for a nap. It seems I'd just dozed off when we heard voices and looked up to see our host "Chuy" and his sister Fabi standing in the doorway staring at us. It was a bit embarrassing laying there in our spandex undies and shirts. We jumped up and got dressed, meeting them downstairs since they wanted to go out for the evening. Chuy spoke English well and his sister Fabiola only a little. We piled in their car and went out to a little bistro with outstanding coffee. We had a lot of fun talking and then went for a long walk around the neighborhood. We were up until the wee hours before finally passing out.
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