Michoacan and Agua Blanca

We took a Drive to Michoacan for a trip to the butterfly sanctuary. The drive went through RURAL Mexico. Half of the drive the GPS didn't even show that we were on a road. Yes, we were a bit timid, Mark had money in his sock and I had my phone in my bra!! as some areas of Michoacan are sketchy. We were told that where we were headed was perfectly fine and a group of our friends had done it two weekend earlier and all was well. Heather co-piloted for Mark as Lynda put finishing touches on some mittens. As we made our last turn and headed down the driveway to our hotel, and yes, I mean down..........
down a canyon! As you see form the pictures that were taken from inside the car there was not much distance between our car and the edge of the road. And yes, this is a two way road! Heaven forbid you meet the cement truck we followed as you came the other way!! Thank goodness we did not have to pass by anyone! Off the edge of the road is sheer cliff edge! You can see the river that created the canyon...

Mark was laughing, I think out of fear, all the way down the canyon

Play the video at the end off this blog post, it was taken as Mark was driving.

This is the river that created the canyon. I guess in the rainy season the water really moves.

You can see from this photo the fence in place to guard us from falling off!!

Barbed wire???!!

When we got down the canyon we were welcomed by our hosts at a beautiful and serene little 'hotel'. It was beautifully landscaped and had its own cantina sort of bar area. It had ping pong, pool, ladder golf etc. Our room included our meals. I think they really did not have a choice as you had no choice of where to eat. this hotel was in the middle of nowhere. But relaxing it was!!

This was our room. The bedspreads were pink and the walls white, the sunshine made the whole room look pink. We had a doorway out to our own little private lawn area. It is hard to describe the lay out, but it was cute. Looks a lot like Goldilocks with Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby bear's bed! The room was decorated very Mexican and we had plenty of room for the three of us

This is the ceiling of the room, it was stenciled to match the rest of the stenciling around the room.

Even the door to the bathroom was stenciled.

Then there was the pool! It was drained and filled each evening. Filled by a hot spring!

Heather enjoy- ing her feet taking a dip in the the nice warm water! Cantina in the back

on your right, hotel on the left.

The view of the pool from the end where Heather was sitting. Below was a lawn of nice green grass. One evening they set out mats and we layed out there watching the stars. The hotel had hiking trails, a few waterfalls and acres of property. We had a most relaxing evening enjoying each others company totally out of touch from reality. As some of you realized, we were out of reach of

all technological gadgetry totally removed from reality. How relaxing!

Don't forget to watch this lovely driving video!!

Opal Mines in San Joaquin 2/20/2011

Heather and I went to the opal mine in hopes to get a chance to find the big one! Well, we didn't find any big opals, but we were in for the experience of our lives!!Hector Montes Montes, I believe the son of the owner of the mines, loaded us in his car, after much confusion, and we were off on an adventure. Since I had bent here before, I thought I knew what to expect, boy was I wrong!

We drove right past the mine I knew of and went a 4-wheeling onwards up into the mountains. We attempted several conversations along the ride with Hector and he with us. Hector only speaks Spanish, Heather French and English, and I have a few words of Spanish. So you can begin to imagine our trials! But we did understand each other in parts, at least we think we did. Finally we stopped, in the absolute middle of NOWHERE! and were told to get out. We blindly followed Hector into what seemed to be a crack in the mountain. Inside there were 3 other men. There stands Heather and I and 4 men in the middle of nowhere and us unable to speak or understand.. OK a bit eeerie of a feeling. We were offered tacos, who knows what was in them, that

that were being grilled over a fire on an old...HUBCAP!! We politely declined and were shown where and how to look for opals while the men feasted on their tacos...

Heather and I banged and chipped at rocks, sifted through rubble and found little bits of things. Every once in a while one of the men would come over, look down where we were and pick up something we totally missed and give it to us. You have to have eyes for this!! It is far more difficult than finding Herkimer Diamonds! But you can keep anything you find!

The men fiished thier lunch and come over by us talking and pointing. They showed us where they would blast with dinomite and told us they would do that spot on Monday., Well, Hector came over, said a few things we could not understand, pointed a lot, and the guys started gathering things. They called me over to watch and I realized what was happening. They began setting charges of dinnomite in the holes right in front of me. Hector waved Heather on over to take pictures. (Of which I will put on the blog when she makes them available to me)Yes, we were going to witness them blowing up the rocks! After they dropped everything necessary into the hole, and had the fuse attached we began backing up, just like in the movies! But Hector had Heather taking pictures, remember...quickly he said something to Heather and we knew we had to beat it out of the crack in the mountain. We went out and slightly around the edge and hid behind the car! Yes, as if that would protect the 6 of us! BANG, the first charge went off which sent the mountaiside shaking! We waited and BANG! the second one went off. The gusy just seemed to linger around. I guess that was to make sure there weren't any other things going to happen that they hadn't counted on. We went back inside where we had been mining and over to the spot where the charges were set. OH MY GOSH! They were so right. That spot had OPALS!

There we rocks strewn about with veins of opals probably about a half in wide and 6 inches long. They showed them to us, and would then pick up another rock and there was another vein! Beautiful, we were then quickly rounded up and told it was time to go. I think they really hit it big there and were afraid of what we might take, wither that or they had to get all of that picked up before the day was over. On our ride out, Hector stopped at an older mine for a picture or two....or so we thought. I think we spent about a half hour of Hector posing us and taking pictures. He even had Heahter climbing these huge boulders to get 'just one more'! The views from Hector's mines were breathtaking and we had sooooo much fun. When we got bak to town we discovered we had been 'miming' for about 3-4 hours!! This was no tourist kind of place, it was where they aactually are working It was amazing to put it mildly. Heahte rand I followed our day with wonderful lunch at a nearby restaurant, well, sort of, it is all relative. Below is a video of the older section of one of the mines. Enjoy!!

Heather Visits! 2/19 La Rodonda

Heather came for a week's visit and we swept here away first thing Sunday morning to the La Rodonda wine festival. There are many wineries here in Queretaro. In fact, there is a whole wine and cheese tour, kind of like that around the finger lakes. But today we went to a wine festival at LaRodonda winery. Wineries from all over Mexico were there handing out tastes. When we got to the festival and paid our entrance fee, they gave us each a glass for tasting! All you had to do was walk up to a booth, hold out your glass and they would pour you some as they were explaining the wines.

Needless to say, we did not understand much about the wines, in Spanish, but we knew what tasted good or not. If it did not taste good, you poured it out on the ground, discreetly, of course

They had tables and umbrellas set up for you to sit at, drink wine, eat, enjoy. There were bands playing and a ton of vendors of food and cheeses. We figured out what you do it taste the wines, find the one you like, buy a bottle and some food or cheese and sit and enjoy for the day! Well, we just had to give this a try

Heather and Mark are in the wine tasting tent. They had set these barrels up and people grabbed chairs, sat around them and listened to the music that was in the wine tent like Miriachis, etc. Mark found his bottle of red, Heather and I found our bottle of white and we were off in search of cheese.

Finding the cheese and being served the cheese were two completely different tasks we soon found out. We tasted and found our favorites, but the lady kept serving other people their purchased cheese and not ours. Talking about feeling like second class! It was probably because we were not Mexican, who knows.

Anyways, we got our cheese and we went off in search of a table. We found one amidst a cactus garden. Talk about dicotomy...Grapes and Cactus growing next to each other!

This is a view from the table we sat at. We sent Heather off to choose a few interesting looking things to eat and we had a very relaxing and enjoyable lunch. We even met the people at the table next to us, the lady, Sarah, had gone to Syracuse University..talk about small world!!

We left the winery and went to spend a couple hours in Bernal where Heather tried and bought candied rose petals to eat. An absolutely wonderful and enjoyable day was had by all. We have successfully given Heather a relaxing day away from school!

A Recipe for You

MARGARITAS!!

1 part fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 part Controy or Cointreau
1 1/2 parts tequila (I like the reposada rather than white)
a litle less than 1 part sugar syrup/simple syrup
1/2 part fresh squeezed orange juice
*(The real recipe calls for 1/2 sugar syrup and 1/2 orange juice)

Put in a shaker with a few ice cubes, shake and serve over rocks.

ENJOY!!!

*We have not found agave syrup for purchase down here, but they are definately better made with it. If you find some and use it, my guess is you will need less than the amount of simple syrup.

Grandad's Visit 2/10-2/16, 2011

Grandad arrived on Thursday evening giving him and me free time on Friday for exploring. After a leisurely morning, we took a taxi down to Queretaro Centro, the old section of the city. We first went for a trolley ride for 2 hours to see the sights of the city. The tour was givne in spanish with some English translation squished in so as to not leave us totally clueless. We saw many staues, many buildings, gardens, squares, walked up many steps, saw a gorgoeous view of the city and Aquaduct, rang the rock at the Hill of the Bells,saw many spots where Maxamillion was either captured or held prisoner, or laid claim to use him name somehow, learned many historical facts and had an enjoyable ride.

After the trolley ride, we went for a short tour in the Regional museum which is where this photo was taken. We read and translated many signs, saw a Linotype machine, why, we do not know, but it was there. We never made it to the area with all the old artifacts as we were running short on time and wanted to make sure we made it to the Convent of Santa Cruz. I, however, did not take any photos there. We had a wonderful tour there with a kind (healthy now, Anne) and knowledgable tour guide. After our tour we took a taxi to the restaurant we were to meet Mark and and had an enjoyable dinner and evening stroll afterwards.

Enough taking it easy! On Saturday,we took a 'Jeep' Ride around La Pena de Bernal rather than have Grandad climb it! Strap those helmets on you are in for the ride of your life...haha, not really, It was a four wheeler pulling a wagon of seats!! But fun none the less. Lynda got the choice seat of the back seat of the four wheeler!!

A side view of La Pena

Here are the three adventurous muskateers

Mark is pointing out a sign from when the indigenous spent time in this area.

On Sunday we drove to San Miguell de Allende. We toured the Hidalgo Museum, which was neat. He is like the Paul Revere of Mexico, I think, I suffer a bit from CRS right now!! We ended up at our favorite restaurant Los Miligros, check it out at this website to see it. http://www.restaurantlosmilagros.com.mx/index.eng.html . Put your cursor over the space above this sentence and the link will lightup. After a few margaritas and a full belly, we made our way back home for a relaxing evening.
For in the morning, we drove to near Mexico City to see the pyramids of Teotihuacan. They are an amazing sight every time we see them. Lynda needed exercise for the day so she just about ran up the pyramid of the sun, touched the top, and came down again. I took a video fromthe top and a video of going down all the steps, but am having trouble uploading them, they must be too big of a file. Any ways, Mark and Grandad walked around the base and read all the intersting facts and took in the awesomeness of the site.

We walked toward the pyramid of the moon and Grandad just had to climb up some of it.

He really enjoyed the view from his seat on the steps, and we marvelled in the fact that he's still

"Got It'!

'

After that 'climb' and photo op, we went to the museum that is on the site. they had some wonderful plants and cacti that I just couldn't resisit a picture of. There were many arifacts and interesting objects in the museum. Check out al the photos at my Kodak Gallery link I hopefully mailed to you. (If I didn't, let me know)

This is a view of the back of the pyramid of the sun from inside of the museum.

After our day of taking in the history of Teotihuacan we relaxed at this unique restaurant called La Gruta. It is built in a cave. Allthe tables, chairs and table cloths were very brightly colored and beautiful set off by the drab colred rock of thecave. We were even serenaded and Grandad enjoyed siging along. Ahh, songs of youth.

There is a stage in the restaurant for entertainment that supposed' occurs daily', just not the day we were there I guess.

Grandad's last day was spent touring a lighing manufacturing plant that our landlord and his brother own. He was impressed by how well the fixtures were made as wella s the cleanlimess of the plant. He had a lot in common with Enrique to speak about lighting and the like. They treated him so kind and even called in their nephew who knew of a new type of lighting that Grandad was speaking about so he could talk with him. It was very nice of them to give us a treat. After our two hours of touring, we me Mark for a real Mexican lunch at Los Loreles, a former Hacienda.After a wonderful bottle of wine, margaritas, and super food, Canitas too of course, we made our way backto the house where we watched Jeopardy featuring the computer contestant Watson.

A great week was had by all.

Guadalajara 2/4-2/7/2011

We took a weekend trip to Guadalajara for two nights. Our purpose was to go on the tequila train and to do a little sight seeing in Guadalajara. We drove in a caravan from our Newcomers club so that if we got lost, we were all lost together. The drive was very uneventful and there wasn't much to see until we came across this plateau. I remember learning about them in school, but am not sure I ever saw one before.

We also came across these cowboys out in a field playing around with their horses. It is hard to see in the picture, but they were making the horses go around in a circle, like on a dime. You never know what you'll see along the highway inMexico!

We arrived at the outskirts of the the city faster than we had ever expected, It helps to get places quickly when the head car travels areound 100mph!

As we were entering the outskirts of the city, we went to a smaller town called Tlaquepaque. It is known for wonderful hand work, artists, etc. This is the park in the center of town with a church.

In the park there was also this bandstand.

This is the church from the opposite side. This statue was erected for Pope John Paul whenever it was that he visited ..

I loved this shop..the artwork was all done with these rolly polly people. They were miriachis, children, people riding bikes, etc. I did not come home with one, eventhough I really thought about it, but they were EXPENSIVE!!

This is a whole miriachi band outside of another shop.

Then it was onto our hotel, well, sort of. Everyone was checking in, but the hotel could not find our reservations. We had made them and paid for them back around Christmas time, but we were inthe states when we made them. Problemo! They were totally booked for the night and did not have space for us so they sent us to another hotel that was supposedly equal...'supposedly' was the word. As the bellboy was taking us to the other hotel, the streets started to look nowhere near as nice and there was a lot of writing on the walls and buildings. I asked if it was safe to go out for a walk after we settled and the bell man said only in one direction from the hotel. Needless to say, Mark and I stayed in our hotel room for the night, which was decorated a lot like Motel 6 or Knights Inn back in the 60's. Dang, I just deleted two pictures! And it is too difficult to post them. I may just stick them in the next post. Anyways, we were safe for the night and went back to the hotel where we were supposed to be staying at to meet everyone else for breakfast and to move our belongings back to the original hotel as they had space for us the second night.

This is our room for the second night back in the original hotel. Absolutely no comparison to our Motel 6 room!

This is the view from the center courtyard of the hotel by the fountain looking up

This is a church in the center of the city in walking distance from the hotel

Another view of the church from the front side.

This is inside of the church by the dome.

Another view of the inside.

A view from the backside of the church

A closer view of the dome.

We also walked through the market in Guadalajara on Sunday morning. It is about 5 stories high and has anything you would ever need. Fruits, veggies, meat, fish , poultry..the whole sheep, pig, or whatever, skinned with head on, of course. It probably had 50 places selling shoes, all basically the same, clothing, CD's & DVD's, pirated of course.

Very interesting. And fun was had by all. The post following this one is of our tequila train experience

Guadalajara and the Tequila Train 2/5/2011

We boarded the Tequila Express train in Guadalajara at 9:30 am, yes in the morning, and were greeted by margaritas, or anything else we wanted with tequila. the train was bound ofr Herdurra Hacienda for us to learn about the tequila maaking process, have a wonderful lunch, entertainment, and drink, and drink, and drink tequila. Some did that more than others! until the train returned back at 5pm

At the train station and aboard the train we were entertained by a

miriachi band. It was loud, but fun!

At the hacienda, they showed us how they harvest the agave in the fields. It is still done this way by hand. It takes about 8 years for a plant to mature. they keep out the very center to replant(kind of like a pineapple). Then they cut off the exterior 'leaves' and use the inner core that resembles a pineapple. Those cores then get roasted squished and juiced for fermentation. We tasted the roasted agave, ithad yellowed, gotten soft, like ripe pineapple, and taseted really sweet! A nice treat!

Smile for the camera!

It is not tequila yet, it must go through the fermetation process. These are the three stages and have very differnt alcohol and sugar content. The names of the stages translate into death, ordinary and white tequila. The difference in the different types of tequila, blanco,reposada, anejo, is the length of time it ages....in Kentucky oak barrels! White is aged 2 days, reposada is a few months and anejo is a year or more, I think

After out tour we were fed a huge 'comida' That is lunch around 2 or 3 pm, that really is the size of dinner. We had every kind of typical mexican food, and of course te tequila was flowing well. While enjoying our food and for a couple hours after we were entertained by miriachi, dancers, lasso ropers, and singers. It was then back to the train..tequila flowing of course, and we arrived back to our hotel around 5 or 6pm!!
A great time was had by all! Click on the next picture to watch a video of our entertainment! It was