The road to Colima, Colima was lined with coconut groves with cattle roaming amongst the trees.
By the way I did not make a mistake with my typing by repeating the names of the city twice. In Mexico the state capitals are often the name of the state, for example, Oaxaca, Oaxaca or Zacatecus, Zacatecus, etc. Us and our van were stopped by the Federal Police. Scary in Mexico or really anyway. Ken's first thoughts where, what did I do, was I speeding. They wanted to check our tourist visas, which surprised us. Now we know they do check (I always wondered about that).We wondered why the police officer handed back our paper work in a strange way. Seemed to be like, repulsed. Later Ken found out he thought he said "we are two Canadian tourists", what he did say was "we are two Canadians with diarrhea". Spanish is a strange and wonderful language. It is all in how you pronounce tourist disease.
Once in downtown Colima we wondered around to find a deal on a hotel meeting our criteria, something that changes from one place to another. We toured the Best Western's Hotel Ceballos right on the main square, Jardin Libertad. Some rooms have little balconies, it has a really arty feel, extremely well kept with a pool. We also looked at what appeared to be a new hotel downtown, Hotel La Merced (found out later it was renovated not new). It was a bit plain but extremely clean and fresh, great, economy option. Then after lunch we discovered the winner - Hotel Adama. It is somewhat arty, relatively new, built around a courtyard, old school architecture.
We also checked out a few high end restaurants Las Cavas and a restaurant attached to a hacienda. For another days meal. My plan for supper is seafood pozole. We walked for about three hours after finding our Hotel.
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| Note Ambulance. Guess what happens when they go on a call at 2 am? |
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
We had to change rooms. We loved the hand hewn, wooden ceilings complete with beams in our first room. Practically won over beauty as the street noise kept us awake much of the night. After the move there was the rearranging to do. Needless to say we had a late start to the day. We could eat breakfast right out in the courtyard of our Hotel.
At the portales in the cento around the main jardin we found three little restaurants. Once one was picked for lunch we ordered. In the end the ceiling was very dirty and we regretted our decision to eat here. The food, however, was good.
Off to the Contemporary Art Gallery. The curator tried to communicate with us and was excited to talk with us about her enthusiasm for the art. We, however regrettably, are not advanced enough in our Spanish so we missed out. I was obsessed by one realistic painting of the branch of an avocado tree - gorgeous.
Then it was off to the zoo. They had monkeys, lions, several forms of pigs, sheep, lots of birds, snakes, ducks, geese and iguanas. The iguanas were out in the wild and were the type with orange on them. There was some sort of green lizard type of creature.
We did lots of walking and needed a lengthy rest before supper.
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| Yes, they are that close and yes you could touch then if you tried. |
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Our big adventure for the day morphed in plan a few times.
Generally we figured it out on Google Maps and we walked about eleven kilometers. Yes, you did not read incorrectly, us somewhat couch potato Canadians walked eleven kilometers today. We walked though many neighborhoods. Our first being quite well off.
Friday, January 17, 2014
From our great walking adventure yesterday we woke up groggy, tired and a bit sore.
Taking it easy was already in the plans. Knowing us we still needed a short walk, going straight down our street Aldama, the Hotel's namesake. Museo do las Cultureas de Occidente was where we ended up. It partly housed Pre-Hispanic artifacts - many Colima dancing dogs and otherwise occupied dogs. It was tricky taking pictures of glassed in artifacts, so many pictures did not turn out. There was information about each section posted on brightly coloured and painted canvases, in Spanish. I do know that the dogs were found in burial sites in this area. The dogs were to assist the departed into their place in the spirit world.
Near downtown we found a vegetarian restaurant in a building with a courtyard. What a great find in already wonderful city. I had the comida (the lunch special) and it was so good. By the time we finished eating it was already 1:30 and very hot. We kept to our aim on taking it easy. Ken napped and then wrote his proposal for presenting at the NCRC in Victoria this June. I painted on my coconut piece. I must keep in mind how refreshing it is to do art and continue doing it whenever possible.
In the evening we returned to the same restaurant - Sol Om Lux Vegetarian Restaurant. Again it was good. We went by the Jardin La Libertad and saw a big event happening. Folkloric dancing then singing, perhaps opera. We sat in an open setting under an orange tree, able to look up at the clock tower and church steeple. What a great, peaceful, contented feeling in a picture perfect setting.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
We again had 'una plata de fruta," that we shared for breakfast.
It consisted of half fresh pina (pineapple) and half fresh papaya - so healthy. For days this has been our breakfast. Today we found a health food type of store selling in bulk - "La Habanera". Our breakfast will be different tomorrow because we bought granola plus many other interesting items - dehydrated or dried kiwi, melon (cantaloupe), cactus fruit (tuna), guayaba, macadamia nuts and cascara nuts in the shell (which were grown in Colima), pumpkin seeds, etc. All of which we had not seen before except, of course, the pumpkins seeds and the granola. I am going to try bee pollen, too. It was very inexpensive.
The first day here we noticed and are still noticing this floaty, black stuff nearly everywhere outside. It looks like someone shredded black, plastic garbage bags and let it go over Colima. I thought it was likely ash from the active volcano nearly. Once I met someone who could speak English I asked about this phenomena. In December and January the farmers burn the dried sugar cane stocks in preparation for the coming season. That is the mystery of the black floaters solved - sugarcane ash.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
We got a bit ready the night before for today's big adventure to the town of Comala.
It is market day in Comala. Once there we parked in the shade and walked to the centre plaza with the big church - Parrochia San Miguel. There were several fountains and a bronze statue of Juan Rulfo, of Mexico's greatest authors. The plaza was surrounded by portales which housed artisan shops, offices and restaurants. We were hungry and went to Restaurant Comala. We knew that it is their tradition, if you order a drink, they bring you free snacks (enough to make it a lunch). These famous snacks or appetizers are called botanas and are served free when you order a drink, nice tradition to keep up, I'd say. We sampled a traditional drink called "ponche", that was the drink we each ordered. Ponche gets its alcohol from the local mescal, called tuxca. There are many shops that sell Ponche of many varieties, pomegranate being the most traditional.
We drove on to the village of Suchitlan and beyond, up a gentle slope where coniferous trees became more abundant and views of the lower levels more spectacular.
We visited the ruins of "La Campana", dating back as far as 500 BC. The site has not been fully unearthed, in fact they think only about 1% has been. It still was fairly extensive and provided me with a good walk. The side of Ken's left knee is swollen up and he does not want to walk too much for a while. This ruins is on the edge of Colima. Hopefully it will be saved and cherished as the city expands.
Then we visited San Fernando Mall. The very antithesis of La Campana, showing off a very modern and wealthy Mexico. The San Fernando Mall is where we ate at Salad Fresh. We have been eating out so much lately and salads are not always so great in restaurants. This was such a treat to have fresh, raw veggies for supper.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Ken has somehow hurt the side of his left leg just above his knee of the left side. It is a concern because there is a lump, a scrape or cut and it hurts. He is icing it to bring down the swelling. Our extreme walking has ceased today to allow for healing (ice, rest, arnica montana, Advil). We will be driving for the next two days to also allow for more rest.
We did, however, walk to the Sol Om Lux Vegetarian Restaurant for lunch or comida. We had a totally lazy morning for good reason. We were mulling over options of where we would go for the next couple of weeks. We discussed the option of south to Zihuatanejo for the next few weeks. It would be at the end of a very windy, narrow road taking two days to travel. Plus it is even hotter there. Zihuatanejo lost out to the Bucerias area. We will likely stay near where we will meet my Sister, Charlene and Brother-in-law, Mike in three weeks. We will be camping.
I did more painting today. I had to pack up my art supplies as well as everything else in order to move on tomorrow. I am sorry to leave Colima and our great little hotel.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Our last fruit plate was had at Hotel Aldama. We packed up and were on our way to Mascota, Jalesco, Mexico. Highway 54D from Colima to almost Villa Corona was just in the process of being completed, the toll booths were the only real sign that work was still being done. Just outside Colima we drove by the two volcanoes - Nevada (snowy one), Colima (active one). We drove by huge fruit stands, trucks full of sugarcane, fields of tall looking grass with seed pods like papas grass (it was sugarcane ready to be harvested). We saw fields of stooked corn, perhaps ready to be burned.
Villa Corona was a stopping point for lunch. We had been their before and felt comfortable driving right downtown. It was busy, it appeared to be market day for the town and we could not find anything a hungry vegetarian could eat, We moved on and found great seafood.
Our drove from Villa Corona to Mascota was extremely picturesque. Rolling hills, pine trees, villages in valleys, houses and cattle in fields, etc. Last but not least, I saw great furniture in a town starting with T between Mascota and Armeca. I saw chairs sort of French Provincial looking covered in leopard print in a shop on the outskirts of town.
Once in our destination of Mascota we needed to find centro and a place to spend the night. We looked at close to half a dozen hotels even though we liked even the first on we saw. All were built around a courtyard and ranged in age from 1842 to new builds. One had a courtyard that was alive with birds, must have been attracted to the honeysuckle. One had huge cold rooms. Our was just right temperature wise. Our room key looked positively archaic.
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