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

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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.