What's Love Got To Do With It

Everything evidently

Tina Turner

Hope it's a good sound track - speakers died on this machine

A friend arrived last Saturday after a seven-day drive from Victoria and he told me about almost not coming down due to a new relationship. She told him to go and didn't want to be the reason he skips Mexico for the first time in 3-4+ years. So seven days down, seven days here and he just told me he's leaving tomorrow. Guess they both don't want to be apart.  I wish him luck and he better get her retired soon so they can both come down. Winters in the Pacific North West are not my favorite thing.

Concepcion de Buenos Aires

My first short expedition after hernia surgery not quite 3 weeks ago. Short because even extended sitting makes me uncomfortable and they say 4-6 weeks is normal recovery.

So anyway a drive down the south side of Lake Chapala was the plan maybe to Petatán and see the pelicans if they were still there. Thoughtful me without my map I didn't know how far Petatán was and made it as far as Cojumatlán - both in Michoacan. Cojumatlán is a large town and Sundays are the day for everyone to meet at the plaza. Couldn't find parking within 4 blocks and didn't feel like being the only gringo with a camera in the huge crowd - so back to Amacueca and maybe head inland.

A friend told me about Concepción de Buenos Aires somewhere off the new road to Mazamitla as being an attractive place to visit. The turn off is about 10-12 miles up the hill from Amacueca to the right. Putting that name on a road sign is next to impossible so you'll see something like - Cocep de BA. About 12-15 miles on this secondary road full of not very deep potholes appears the gates to Concepcion.  Without a map in this area it's hard to tell if you are in Jalisco or Michoacan.

The town reminds me of a number of Colonial mountain towns like Tapalpa, Mazamitla or even Patcuaro with the tile roofs, buildings painted similarly and lots of wood. However this town was only founded in the 1850's and became head of it's municipio in the 1880's. The sign on the entrance to town says - 'Land of the friendly people'

Laguna Sayula

We took a little loop drive a few days ago heading around Cerro Garcia and thru some back roads towards Amacueca and back on the 54 libre. We went around the lake from Jocotepec to Tuxcueca where the highway to Mazamilta takes off south. Just about a mile on that road there is road to the right that heads to Citala, Teocuitatlan de Corona, across Laguna Sayula to highway 54.

Pretty country but it's dry and brown now including the Lake. We made stops in Citala, very small and not much there and Teocuitatlan quickly to check the old sugar mill. There are much better preserved and larger mills around Mexico but this one has been converted to housing, hay storage and various other things. Didn't get to see much of Teocuitatlan because we got a late start and my partner had been there before. Gonna have to start earlier next time by myself or with another 'newbee'.

Anyway, we did make it to Amacueca for coffee and did not get rained out this time. However what really interests me about that area is the lake and how it changes from season to season. Some years it has lots of water (looks like a lake) and right now it's dry .... but not as dry as it's going to be. When it's really dry it turns to dust and with a good wind the storms can be like a 'white out' with snow. In the opposite season it is green and filled with migratory birds.

Then there are stories of the ancients living on the lake, salt deposits and collection, arrow and spear heads found and pottery shards. Interesting stories and history

View Larger Map

Dry lake and the valley

The lake with water looking across at Cerro Garcia

Driving the Michoacan Coast

This is about the drive from Cuernavaca over to the coast bypassing Acapulco with the intention of over-nighting in Zihuatanejo. To my surprise Zihuatanejo was/is just another large, well (over) developed beach town like Vallarta. Manzanillo is just as interesting and attractive and probably cheaper - sorry you Zihua fans.

Soooo.... I just made a quick loop around town and headed for Playa Azul which is only about 2 hours north. At least Playa Azul is a reasonably sized (small) beach town but it's also tired and just about vacant during the week during the summer. Really nothing to take a picture of in the way of a beach or town. There are a few nice hotels and a beach full of palapa restaurants. I stayed at the Hotel María Teresa with parking, a restaurant and a pool that was not clean enough to swim - $420mx.

Anyway next comes the best part - Caleta de Campos and the Michoacan coast. These fotos are more-or-less in order heading north ... but I'm not going to be able to remember all (many) of the names because they don't show on my maps. (They are in the Pacific Mexico Handbook by Bruce Wipperman). The slowest going along the road is north of Caleta de Campos, not due to bad road conditions, but because of the twists and turns along the sides of the mountains. The road is usually safely wide enough in the critical sections but you're often not able to get rolling over 40 MPH. At times the small white and yellow butterflies were so thick it was like driving in snow.

Getting close to the state of Colima there are some little tourist boom towns with construction going on everywhere ... but still very small and tranquillo.

Now I'm back in Melaque
Drive times were
Cuernavaca -> Acapulco - 3 hours (Cuota cost $45us +/-)
Acapulco -> Playa Azul - 6 hours
Playa Azul -> Melaque - 8 hours (Cuota cost $15 +/-)

You can read and see more of my activities on the web site below.
sparks-mexico web


Michoacan Coast Hyway - Curves in other parts do get exciting

Caleta de Campos

Maruata

Michoacan Coast

Michoacan Coast