(Admin note for our on memory: Yesterday we drove to Tonala, a town on the outskirts of Guadalajara. It has a renown market area and many many shops of artisan stuff. We bought stuff.)
We left Roca Azul at 1015 and headed to Tepic, arriving at 1415. We had to skirt Guadalajara which is tense driving in an RV but we had no problems. The distance was 250KM so 62KM/hour (155 miles/39 MPH) average on toll roads. Getting around Guadalajara caused the low MPH. Tolls were 674 pesos ($37.91 USD). High but worth it.
Our route took us by the town of Tequila and miles and miles of the Agave plant that is used to make the booze. The route was mostly toll road and easy, relaxed driving except it crosses several mountain chains with long, steep, climbs and descents. But no big deal. Some pictures and captions. (The screen is there in some because Robin was afraid the cat would try and jump out).
Here's an interesting You Tube of how they harvest Agave
Our highway
Great road
Young agave
Mature Agave
Serious mountains
Huge Volcanic Rock Fields
A sugar cane truck. Get behind one of these on a 2 lane road and you're toast. I've seen these with guys riding on top!
Sugarcane
Then it got interesting. I knew that the entrance to the Campground was hard to find but I thought there was a lot of maneuver room. Nope. Here it is! And we had the Saturn in tow and no room to unhook. See where it says RV Park?
Closer look
They had to move that bike and just ahead was an Army truck with guys armed to the teeth. They were on break.
Then one more tight turn
But it was worth it. A beautiful area and nice people.
BTW, the park's name is Los Pinos LINK Cost was high...340/pesos for a Class A. We're used to 250 pesos.
What an experience today. It is the 300th anniversary of one
of the town’s (Jocotepec) churches and they have thrown an all week party
(fireworks and bands at 0600 sharp and various times during the day and night)
with today being the Grande Finale.
Today we watched a HUGE Cross be removed from the
alter by 8 or so guys on scaffold with chain hoists and block and tackle and
taken to a huge truck by 15 or so sweating guys.
They do this every year. And the other churches do it to for their guy! Huge parade with Mariachis (2
bands) 4 or 5 huge Aztec dance groups. Local bands. All girl drum corps. Parade
lasted 3 hours from the time it left the Church until the Cross arrived back.
Lots of dead time between groups though. They moved ALL of the pews from the
church to outside. When the cross returned, every bell in town rang constantly.
Fireworks shot off yards from, and the middle of, the crowd. Then a Mass outside the
church.
Some videos:
Thousands of people in this little town were in the
square. Never heard a word of English or saw a gringo. Everyone smiled and was
nice to us. No one was drunk or loud. Only cops we saw were 2 or 3 clearing the
parade route. Families having a blast with their kids. I genuinely choked up at
the beauty and reverence of all those people. It is 2245 and the grand finale fireworks are going off.
I’ll post some videos later but it will take days to upload them to You Tube. It will worth checking back.
