Guanajato… you may never find the way out, but why would you want to leave?

The road turns like a bobby pin, the brightly colored houses painted pink, turquois and orange disappear, there is a tunnel.  Suddenly Greta Garmin protests, “Return to the Highlighted Route” but then the satellite signal is lost, as you are.  Underground in a tunnel made with carved stone big drops of water fall on the windshield, the road splits, left or right?  Who knows?  Suddenly the sun is shining on the car and we sit in a traffic jam surrounded by Sunday shoppers and tourists at the Mercado assaulted by the colors after being in the dark.  As Greta starts to yell to turn right then left on some unknown street, a tourist guide steps in front of the car waving frantically, did we do something wrong?  No he just wants to sell us a tour to the mines, or show us to a fancy hotel.  We continue on… where too?  We don’t know.

Guanajato is more than a city on a hill like San Francisco.  It is a Medieval city in a ravine.  The streets are so steep they use stair cases to get from one level to another and the drainage tunnels are now used by cars that can’t fit through the walking paths above.  And at the same time it is so colorful and full of life, the open air stalls selling tacos, fruit, juices and all sorts of knick knacks, pedestrians crossing in front of buses that sit in traffic too dense to move.  I wonder how the buses navigate these streets that a VW bug seems too big to fit in.  Around a corner appears a castle or an old wall and in the distance where the city has grown is a modern building.  The Hodge-podge design works, buildings stacked one on the other, older at the bottom and modern at the top.

Our Hotel (Las Estrellas de Valenciana) sits high above the beautiful chaos, the view alone is worth the $700 pesos a night, which is good because the beds are made out of wood and the shower is only hot for a few hours a day, but they took our dogs and we have the view.

It is hard to believe that the cities keep getting better and better, someday I would like to spend enough time here to know the city, it’s turns and secret short cuts.  But that time will have to wait, today we leave for Morelia… The adventure continues!

 

 

Roca Azul and Lake Chapala

The year is 1969 and Maria is on vacation at a beautiful lake side retreat and it is here she must choose between the dashing, rich Javier and the passionate revolutionary Marco.  Will the comfort and confines of society win or the passion and adventure of the revolution?

Or…

A young couple risks all that they have on restoring a fading lakeside retreat to its former glory. What they don’t know is the horrible tragedy that occurred here, a horror so dark and deadly it threatens not only their future but their very lives.

If you have the script I have the place. 

Roca Azul is a fading early 1950’s to late 1960’s yacht club, that is spending it’s retirement as a RV spot, with weekend campers from Guadalajara and permanent residents from Canada and the US paying for it’s up keep.  We meant to stay 2 nights (which would have been about ½ a day too long) and ended up spending 3, the last one working on the rack on the truck.  I can’t say it is horrible, but I can’t say it is nice either, if you have an RV it would be perfect, but dry camping is a bit different and the coolness of the showers (and lack of toilet seats) made night 3 a little hard.  The grounds are beautiful but the lake is a bit of a walk, the pools are cold but I bet in the heat of summer they are a welcome relief.

 

 

Roca Azul is a very short distance but a fairly long ride from Jocotepec on the “Mexican” side of Lake Chapala.  Jocotepec is a quintessential Mexican town with a Xocalo, Church and dusty roads. 

 

On the other side of the lake is the largest (they claim) US expat settlement in the world.  You will find a Wal Mart and cute restaurants advertising both Mexican Food and European food.  We didn’t do much exploring there, just a drive in and out to the end of the road and back.  We did contemplate going out there for the chili cook off on Saturday, but decided street tacos and fewer Topes would work better for us.  We had an early drive to Guanjuato the next day after all.     

Sometimes you just get lucky

Guadalajara besides having a plethora of “a’s” in the name is a huge city. It is the second largest in Mexico, with 1.4 million people living in the main city and 4.3 million living in the outside area (if I am wrong blame Wikipedia).  Driving Moby our petite Ford Excursion can be challenging on empty roads but getting to a huge city, where we have never been (I am not counting when I was 5), and then trying to find a hotel is next to impossible. 

Before we left Tequila I did a quick search for hotels, which accept doggies, in Guadalajara and came up with 7, 3 seemed woefully expensive, and one was next to the airport which left 3.  Two were on the way into to town and the 3rd was a hostel right in the center of town, with no parking.  Our first bit of luck was having purchased and downloaded the Garmin Mexico Maps.  It took me a while to figure out how to enter the names of the streets but the first hotel finally made its appearance after about 5 tries.  Our next bit of luck was being able to understand Ms. Garmin… “Turn on cal Fred Rick O deli Valley”.  But she still faithfully led us to our first hotel, which luckily was sold out.  We couldn’t locate the address of the second one and so off to the 3^rd one this one a hostel, with no street parking...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found it easily enough, I entered into this...

 

 

 

 

 

Love at first sight. And this little paradise is located a 5 minute walk from the historic center. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parking well that is also a lucky story, the senora told us there was parking a block and ½ away, not thinking we would fit, we drove for about an hour and a half being turned down at all the other parking lots in the town, we were too tall, at night it isn’t secure, they have tenants that take all the spaces at night, etc… only to return to the one she recommended, fit and have locked secured parking overnight… Now that is what I call luck, dumb luck!