Family Fun

March 13th:

Our son Warren and his family flew down to stay with us in Lo de Marcos for 16 days. It was our first opportunity to see our new grandson Alton in person after watching him several days a week over Skype. Alton was 2 1/2 months old for the flight south.  Maxine celebrated a belated 3rd birthday with us in Lo de Marcos.

Maxine modelling Papa's hat on the beach

.

Alton with one of his many smiles

Bath time for Alton on our patio

Maxine burying Nana's feet in the sand

Alton playing with the Popple

Maxine enjoys rib night at the local restaurant

Visiting the local craft market (tianguis) in Rincon de Guayabitos

Maxine admires the toys with nodding heads

Maxine dancing to the music with her new wooden snake around her neck

Maxine riding a horse while shopping in La Penita

daily walk of cows down our street

Maxine gets a close up view of the cows

Papa and Mommy help Maxine jump the waves

Shannon and Alton relax under the umbrella

The blue beach umbrella is where we were sitting

Shannon captured this sunset over the lagoon next to our campground

Our family photo: Shannon, Alton, Vic, Maxine, Bev, Warren

 It was fun for the whole family!

New Highway to Durango

We left Lo de Marcos the morning of March 17th to start our journey home.  We arrived in Mazatlan that evening.  We had planned to stay one night but were there 4 days while repairs are being done to our friends' 5th wheel trailer.

We did a side trip with the car up Hwy 40 toward Durango on March 19th.  The government is building a new toll (cuota) road on the route.  Many tunnels and long expansion bridges have been built on the section constructed so far. When finished, the route will include 63 tunnels and 11 bridges. The new highway will cut the trip duration from about 8 hours to about 3 hours. Huge difference! It will also eliminate the Devil's Backbone, a narrow twisting dangerous part of the route that follows the ridge line for many miles.

This is mostly very rugged mountainous terrain and this new highway is a major construction feat. The number of tunnels is huge but the there are two bridges that are spectacular. The goal of our day trip is to get a glimpse of the Baluarte Bridge...the highest bridge in North America and the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Passing over the new highway just before joining it.

Looking down at one of the new bridges.

As we travel along the old road, we get glimpses of the new road, tunnels, and bridges.

 

 

 

Longer view. Behind the hill on left is a big bridge.

We traveled a few more miles down the old road and finally see the bridge. It is a very large suspension bridge.

See the large crane atop the centre tower.

John looks down at the bridge and tunnel construction.

In this view, you can see right to the bottom of the centre tower.

Max zoom in. Crane and Crane truck.

Here is a shot at maximum zoom. Without a tripod to hold the camera steady, it is a little fuzzy. Note that there is another crane (red and white) as well as a crane truck (yellow). You can begin to feel the size of this bridge.

The centre tower.

When we got back to the campground, I did some Internet searching and found that this was not the Baluarte Bridge...it was the much smaller El Carrizo Bridge. The big bridge is on the other side of the mountain, out of view. We will just have to wait until the highway is completed in 2012 (oops missed the announced date), or 2013 (not by the looks of what needs to get done)...maybe 2014 on our way back from our next trip. It's Mexico! Google Baluarte Bridge to learn more of this splendid bridge with a Guennis World Record.

Tunnel construction.

This area also includes two tunnels. The pic above shows one section of pre-cast tunnel ready to move into position and join with the tunnel on the right. To the left is the entrance to another tunnel the curves around and joins with the left side of the bridge.

Hidden tunnel entrance.

Find the tunnel entrance...look to the left of the squiggily road.

Trip to Tequila

February 21, 2013

We took a 2 day trip with our friends John and Pat to the town of Tequila in the state of Jalisco.  The town has 26 tequilla distilleriers.  The most well known are Jose Cuervo and Sauza.

The trip to Tequila from Lo de Marcos took us about 4 1/2 hours including stops for gas and photo opportunities.  The drive on Hwy 200 Libre was very scenic through mountain valleys.

Our first stop was at a lookout area to admire the lava field created by the eruption in the early 1870’s of the volcano Ceboruco.

Highway 200 runs through the massive lava field

Boulders of lava

Upon our arrival in Tequila, we booked into Casa Dulce Maria.  It was a lovely hotel about a block and a half from the town square and within easy walking distance to tours and eateries.

 the lobby area of the hotel

a living wall on one side of the lobby

When we informed the receptionist that we were interested in taking a tour of the Sauza distillery, she called the local tour company.  An English speaking tour guide arrived within 10 minutes to discuss our options.  We made an appointment for a 1 hour tour of the town followed by a 1 hour tour of the Sauza distillery.

photo of Sauza estate home

A blue agave grown for the production of tequila

The male agave produce offspring, while the female agave produces a tree with seeds

 old tequila stills

new version of tequila stills

free cocktails were provided at the end of our tour

another mural of the story of tequila at the town square

statue of 3 jimadores preparing the agave pinas (in the background is the church built in the 18th century)

The municipal office mural depicting the discovery of making tequila by fermenting agave juice

one of the many valleys on our journey back to Lo de Marcos

Day trip to San Sebastian

Friday February 15th

5 couples of the RVers at Savage RV Park went by car to San Sebastian del Oeste for the day.  It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to this small town north east of Puerto Vallarta.  The town is located in the Sierra Madre mountains at an elevation of 4,500 feet.  The town was established in the early 1600s for mining silver and gold.  At it's peak, the town had a population of 40,000 people.  The mine was closed in 1930 and today the town has a population of about 1,000 people.

We started our visit by dropping in at the tourist information booth just inside the town limits.  We tried to hire a guide for 4 hours but he was not available.

design in sidewalk by the tourist information booth

buildings across from the tourist information book

The individual at the information booth told us if we wanted to visit the mines, it was a 20 minute drive. (actually more like 35 minutes) So we started our visit with a drive to the mine.  It would be best to do it with a jeep or ATV as the roads were extremely rough with no place to turn around.  When we arrived at the site there was only an entrance to an abandoned mine.  Not really worth the trip.

sign at mine entrance

Mine entrance:

low ceiling height -- shorty Bev could stand up but you can see John (behind) could not stand straight

 When we arrived back in town, we started exploring area surrounding the town square.

looking at the town square with the church in the background

closer view of the town square

entrance to the old town jail with only one cell

contents of the jail cell

stairs in one of the old stores on the square (fresco on ceiling not shown in photo)

another side of the square

Unfortunately the original church built in the 1600s was destroyed in an earthquake in 1898 but the replacement church is beautiful.

church erected in 1898

looking down a side street - all the streets were cobble stone

We stopped for lunch at a cocina specializing in traditional Mexican food.  Despite the electricity being off in town, they cooked wonderful food for the 10 of us in a short amount of time.  Vic and Bev shared a sampler plate containing a burrito, a gorditio, chili rellenos, beans and rice. 

many stores were running generators since the electricity was off in town

After lunch we headed to the local coffee plantation, Café de Altura to learn about coffee making and visit the orchard. The owner grew the coffee trees in among fruit trees such as orange, grapefruit, limes, guayaba to enhance the flavor of the coffee beans.                                                            

Our next stop was Hacienda Jalisco which was a few miles from town.  The hacienda is 170 years old.  The cost of $25 pesos covered entry to the museum,  The museum had many artifacts including old ledgers dated in the 1800s from the mine operation.  There are ruins of silver processing ovens on the grounds.

silver ovens

Hacienda Jalisco

view artifacts in one of the museum rooms

Add caption

Up until recently the hacienda had been a small hotel, featuring famous guests such as John Houston, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

kitchen in the hacienda

courtyard and gardens

the flower on a banana tree

Mike and Mavis on the narrow entry bridge to the hacienda

Our next stop was the Hacienda San Sebastian Tequila Distillery at the town of El Nogalito.  There was an observation deck that provided a view of the canyon and the bridge we had crossed to enter the San Sebastian area.