Taxco to Guadalajara, Mexico December 31, 1978 - January 3, 1979

Heading north from Taxco we passed through lovely, cool pine forests – a landscape more reminiscent of BC than any I’ve seen so far.  The area is sparsely populated, comprised mostly of small parcels of land where families grow a few crops and keep small herds of cattle, goats, and sheep.  

We spent New Year’s Eve in a very small mountain town, Zitacuaro, best known for its proximity to the spot where millions of monarch butterflies come each year, carpeting the trees, the ground, and even the skies in a sea of orange.  But that’s not until March.  

 

Now Zitacuaro is a sleepy place, even on New Year’s Eve.  There are no other tourists here, which is nice, and very few people even around.  We strolled around, stretching our legs and getting a feel for the town.  There were plenty of shops and eateries.  The biggest problem for me here in Mexico, when it comes to eating at both cafes and street stands, and especially in small towns like Zitacuaro, is the prevalence of meat, especially beef, in just about everything they serve.  Usually they will also make a bean and cheese taco or burrito, and I’ve just discovered nopales.  The nopal is a cactus.  It’s cut in thin strips and fried up, sometimes with onions, always with seasonings. A bit like beans, but juicier and sweeter.  So while Ken has a beef taco, I order a ‘taco de nopale y queso’ – a nopale and cheese taco.  I also love chiles rellenos – poblano chiles stuffed with white cheese and simmered in a tomato sauce.  Sadly they are often not available.   

Note: The metal bowl on the right contains nopales.

 

We left the next day and continued our pleasant, relaxing drive through pine forests and high mountain towns.  We were planning to go to Ocotlan, a little town on the northeast shore of Lake Chapala, not far from Guadalajara.  We’d heard it had the best, most authentic, market in Mexico.  We got there mid-afternoon, and noticed there wasn’t much in the way of places to eat or places to stay.  So we decided to go to Guadalajara for the night and come back to Ocotlan in the morning for the market.   

 

The Ocotlan market lived up to its reputation.  Interestingly there were very few tourists – a nice change from Oaxaca and Taxco.  Some of the market was very close to the beach, in a lightly treed area.  The weavings, hanging between the trees, were particularly eye-catching.  Many geometric designs, but also some fabulous birds and interesting mythological figures.  I was particularly intrigued by a colourful figure, I think of a woman, with a very colourful headdress – or head of hair?  When I asked about the weavings the woman said all the dyes were natural, which is amazing given how bright and vibrant they are.  The other things that caught my eye were the grass brooms.  There were several groups of them, tied together in teepee formations, that looked just like what we think of as witches’ brooms.  Ocotlan is known for its hats, mostly of woven white grasses, often with blue or red patterns woven into the crown.  Very tempting (Ken almost bought one). 

From the beach, the market continued on into the town, where aproned market mamas sat amidst their vegetables – beautiful looking green peppers (are they hot?), bunches of onions, garlic, radishes, big tomatoes, and little piles of beans. There were baskets – large and small – everywhere, and everyone carried baskets or woven bags, and just put whatever they bought into them, without any additional wrapping.  

I noticed quite a few women in Ocotlan who were wearing large woollen woven shawls, draped over their shoulders, and sometimes over their head as well.  Perhaps from a particular town?  I took a picture of one older woman who was wearing one – the onion tops in her basket just peeking out from under her shawl.  She looked like someone who might have some interesting stories to tell, but she was on her way somewhere, and it didn’t seem the time.  Alas. 

 

Tomorrow Ken will continue on his way home, heading north, and I’ll be on a bus to Guanajuato, a colourful town of many hills on the way to Mexico City, where my plane to Guatemala leaves in less than a week.