From the highlands to the sea...

The weather for our last week in San Miguel de Allende continued to be cloudy and cool. Terri finished up 2 weeks of individual intensive Spanish instruction with her tutor, Alicia Chavez (see photo). We each took a tennis lesson from Walter, one of the brothers who owns the RV park there; we explored more neighborhoods on foot and even went to a few yard sales; we found an Italian restaurant whose native Italian owner made some of the best pizza we’ve ever eaten; and Terri bought some San Miguel Shoes – stylish, comfy, and designed and made right in SMA.

Typically, we’re not “tour people,” but on the enthusiastic recommendation of a couple in the trailer park, we signed up for a tour to a Monarch butterfly sanctuary, where millions of the large orange-and-black butterflies migrate from North America each winter. Had we researched the distance involved, we’d never have taken this tour: For a nearly 10-hour, butt-numbing round-trip drive in a Ford Expedition with 2 couples from Toronto, we got about 2 hours at the sanctuary. One hour of that was a horseback ride from the parking lot into the woods and a hike back out. We were surprised at how few people were at the sanctuary, usually a magnet for visitors – more proof that tourism in many parts of Mexico is way down...

At the sanctuary, the trail ended short of the area where the butterflies are most concentrated – the boughs of some trees are covered with them -- but many were flying around on the trail, and some even landed on us. Another note about weather: Anguangueo, the town that’s the usual gateway to El Rosario, the main sanctuary, was wiped out in a rain-induced landslide that killed 18 people; the tours are now going around the other side of the mountain and into a smaller sanctuary while crews slowly dig Anguangueo out.

The day we left SMA, we headed for La Gruta, one of several hot springs just north of town. The pools are filled in the morning and again in the afternoon, and because it took a little doing to pack up the motorhome, we didn't arrive until 10:30, and the water had cooled off considerably. So with the less-than-hot water and the still-chilly air, we weren’t entirely comfortable either in or out of the pools. We decided to put La Gruta on our “Try it again next time” list for SMA and move on.

We headed north to Dolores Hidalgo, a town that’s known as a ceramic center in this area. We stopped at a factory on the outskirts of town and went in. There we saw the kiln room and a warehouse with a long line of women hand-painting individual pieces and young men packing the dried pieces in newspaper for shipping to all parts of Mexico. And of course everything from plates and bowls to planters and wall art and sinks was for sale on rows of shelves and tables that seemed to go on forever. Yes, we bought a few things...

From Dolores we drove toward Guanajuato, a university town of about 50K people that was once a mining center and is now the capital of the state of Guanajuato. Like SMA, Guanajuato is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but unlike SMA, its growth has been constrained by its physical location in a long ravine. Crayola-colorful buildings – commercial businesses, the university, homes and apartments -- are crammed at the bottom of the ravine and up its steep sides. Many areas of these steep inclines are accessible only by foot via pedestrian alleys or  sets of stairs. But amazingly, car and bus traffic also flows through this town -- on narrow, switchback streets and through both above-ground and subterranean tunnels.

We have a guidebook on touring Mexico in a motorhome, and we rely on it to know if there are camping areas in places we’d like to visit. If there aren’t, Gary is great at finding spots we can park for the night, such as the entrance road to a little rancho off in the distance or next to a small palapa restaurant on an uncrowded beach. In the case of Guanajuato, we’d been encouraged by two neighbors at the SMA trailer park to check out a small campground – only 4 spaces – that is indeed listed in this guidebook. It’s located near the top of the ravine at the far end of town and is accessed through a labyrinth of skinny one-way streets. (The photos here are shot across the ravine to the other slope.)

Terri tried to talk Gary out of this but he really wanted to experience that campground, and he wisely proposed hiring a taxi to guide us to it. $5 well spent! Terri held her breath the whole way, and Gary expertly drove our 19-foot rig behind the taxi up, up, up, around, around, around. The so-called RV park turned out to be someone’s wide driveway, situated in a neighborhood where music blared and dogs barked until 3 a.m. ... Earplugs couldn't touch this noise. ... Early the next morning, before too much traffic was about, we picked our way in low gear back down toward the center of town, hoping to find a place to park so that we could walk around and see something of Guanajuato, maybe find some breakfast. We found not one spot to stop, let alone park, and had to just continue to drive out of town. (We learned later that there are parking lots underground that are accessed via the tunnels.) So, sadly, Guanajuato also goes on our “Try this again next time” list -- and you can bet we’ll take a bus or hire a driver and leave the motorhome behind.

From Guanajuato we headed south through Cuitzeo, one of Mexico's "Pueblos Magicos," (Magic Towns), which we now call the White Town. All the buildings are painted white with a rust-colored bottom strip, and every store or office has its name formally lettered over the door in the same black font. We had some nice tacos on the plaza then headed out to Patzcuaro, another Pueblo Magico which we visited for the first time last winter. 

In Patzcuaro, the beautiful and historic central plaza is under reconstruction, and something about the energy of the town felt different to us. What was it? We strolled through the Mercado and ate some more tacos. We spent the night at a nice trailer park there, and  when we awoke to frost on the ground the next morning, we said, What are we doing? Let's get to the beach! And off we drove, dropping in less than 4 hours from nearly 8,000 feet elevation to sea level. The final bit of that drive goes up and over the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range, which reminds us of Shangi-La: tall mountains with rounded tops and some craggy outcroppings, green and lush. They give way to the coco palms and beaches of Guerrero state. 

We stayed on the beach next to a little town called Majahua, and both of us just sighed at the feel of the warm breeze on our skin and the sound of the surf. The sunset was lovely. We slept like babies. We had one more day before our Zihuatanejo condo was available for us to occupy, so we drove 20 miles or so south of Zihua to Barra de Potosi, where we again found a sweet access road to the beach to park on. That night, the last night of February, the full moon rose as the sun set, and the following morning the moon set into the ocean as the sun rose in the east. Perfect.

So now we are settled in the condo, enjoying the pool, the king-sized bed (yeah!), the tiled shower (yeah!), and all the other comforts of home. For some photos of our condo, visit http://www.vrbo.com/239697. (For those to whom we haven't mentioned it, we have a "Family and Friends" rate of $50/night, which helps us cover expenses.)

We went downtown to the Mercado today and stocked up on fresh veggies and fruit. We may have a shrimp cocktail at Paty's Restaurant on the beach to watch the sunset. 

All is well in our world :-).....