On The Mission Trail

The past couple of days have been a blur. So please bear with me as I try to reduce this blog entry down to just the key points. We started off in Southern Arizona visiting the lovely mission ruin at Tumacacori.  The next morning was even colder than the day before, if that is possible. However, we were determined to visit the beautiful San Xavier Mission in Tucson and were very well repaid for the effort. The mission is stunningly beautiful. The interior art work was all done by indigenous hands and is a testament to their complete devotion to their Christian beliefs. Here I think that photos speak better than I can, so I will present here a selection of visuals from the San Xavier Mission...

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

We then proceeded through mid Arizona to the Colorado River and followed the route north to Lake Havasu where we stopped the next night. It was still bitterly cold, but we made an effort to go see the London bridge. Talk about a cultural disjunction!!  Never mind. The townspeople are very proud of their main tourist attraction...

London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, AZ

The next day was our crossing of California to Bakersfield. Still ruddy cold!  We turned off the main highway 58 at Mojave to go see the Red Rock Canyon State Park and were impressed by the stunning array of rock. In warmer weather, it would have been something we would like to explore more.

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Red Rock Canyon State Park

After a night in Bakersfield, we cut across the Imperial Valley to highway 101 and followed that north to Soledad California. On the way we stopped at three different Missions. The first one was Mission San Miguel Archangel, in San Miguel California. This mission oddly enough, lacked a certain warmth and hospitality even though it was still inhabited and used by the Friars. But we both felt a lack of something here. Maybe all the signs saying "private, keep out" and that sort of thing. In any case, we walked through it and moved on....

Garden at Mission San Miguel

Interior of Mission San Miguel

The next Mission was San Antonio de Padua on a military reserve in Jolon, California well off the beaten path. Again, it was set in a river valley in a sheltered locale and very suitable for grazing cattle and sheep.  This mission had a much happier feel to it, and Rick immediately recognized that several decades ago we had actually visited it. I didn't remember it but he said that he had had vague memories of this place bothering him for years...he remembered the military reserve and the buildings themselves. We spent a good while at this particular mission. It is fairly apparent that the California Missions were built on a different style and of a simpler structure than the more elaborate Arizona missions. Their simplicity however, is just part of their individual charm....

Mission San Antoni de Padua

Mission San Antoni de Padua

Mission San Antoni de Padua

Mission San Antoni de Padua Garden

The last mission was Nuestra Senora de la Soledad was a sweet, small, completely reconstructed mission, rebuilt from the ruins about 60 years ago. They did an excellent job of recreating it on its exact footprint. This is the smallest of the three California missions we visited and to me, the most intimate.

Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad

Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad

Finally we arrived at Soledad. The next morning we aimed ourselves at Walnut Creek where Rick was to meet his first cousin Sue for the first time. We spent the rest of the day in her fine company, trading family stories and getting acquainted with each other. It was a very exciting day, and we enjoyed the entire time with her. Sadly it was all too short, and we had to get on with the journey as we had other family commitments for the next day. But now that the connection is made, we know we will be seeing a lot more of our Wilkins relatives!!

Today we found ourselves amazed as the weather became increasingly warmer and pleasant as we moved north. The Northern California coast and into Oregon was the warmest of any place, and felt very spring like.  We zigged an zagged through the Redwoods....

 and arrived at Grants Pass Oregon just as the sun set and the Scottish Terror needed her puddle walk. We are now so close to home and I must say, that like Kermit the Frog, I do so love the colour green. Green fir trees, green pastures, green grass....all of it seems lovely to me after the beige desert of the southwest. As Rick likes to kid me, I am a webfoot now, and proud of it!!!

Driving in Mexico

Driving in Mexico is an interesting experience. You never know what you will find around the next corner on the Highway. Here are some examples:

Herd of cattle in the center section of the divided highway between the northbound and south bound lanes being looked after by a cowboy on a horse. Of course some of the cattle are right at the edge of the pavement because there is grass growing up to the edge of the pavement.

Whizzing down the road in the left lane of the divided highway where there is a concrete barrier between the opposite directions, and there are two guys up ahead hugging the barrier attaching reflectors to the top of it. No warning flagger, just the two guys on the edge of the lane.

A section of roadway where they have decided to widen the existing roadbed to make the lanes wider. They excavate the shoulder away right to the edge of the pavement. It is a straight drop off 4 feet down. Remember, the lane was already narrow to start with. You start driving with the left wheel on the yellow line and you hope you don't meet a bus coming in the opposite direction doing the same thing because they have excavated his side also. You don't want a moment of mis-attention and let a tire slip off the edge here.

That is not to say that they don't also do it right and post lots of warning signs about work ahead and have flaggers warning you to slow down and cones to direct you into one lane while they work in the other. It's just that they don't always do it. You have to be constantly scanning far down the road on the lookout for the unexpected, the broken down truck, pedestrians crossing the highway in the middle of nowhere, the horse tied along side the road to eat the grass but his rope has come undone and is wandering around.

The scary thing is that after awhile, it seems normal. You just do it. You start to drive MEXICAN!

Rick

Bye Bye Mexico. Ole Arizona!!

The drive up to Nogales from San Carlos was a trip into winter. Even the desert looked frigid. And the sun looked low and watery compared to the sun at the lake. Sigh. The Mexicans were garbed in heavy winter coats and hats with ear flaps. Groups of men stood together along the roadside, warming hands over impromptu wood fires. We left San Carlos at 7:30AM and made it to the US border by 12:45PM. There were 6 lanes open and short line ups. We, of course, got the one that wasn't moving. We ALWAYS get the one that isn't moving. I swear the customs agents see us coming and say to themselves "here comes that weird American/Canadian couple, let's slow everything down for them". Anyway, the 5 lanes on either side of us whizzed past and through. The agent in our lane hovered and examined and opened doors and consulted her computer and waved people over. It was becoming depressing. Suddenly, the motorcycle ahead of us (also with BC plates) was called forward and as he did so, the miserable customs agent closed up and left. A nice brand new customs agent took over and waved the motorcycle through. Our turn next. Rick smiled, handed him his shiny new Canadian resident card, our passports and waited. The agent asked where we lived and Rick said "British Columbia"....two cursory questions, no hassle and we popped right through into the USA.

It took us about 15 minutes up the freeway to get to our first destination, the Spanish Mission at Tumacacori, Arizona. I was very keen to see the Mission, but even more so to see what kind of community surrounded it. I had a somewhat illustrious relative who retired here in 1945 at the end of the war. One of the stranger finds in my family research led me to a Scottish relative on my mother's side who had a long and very successful career in the British Army. And he retired here, at the end of the war.  And I wanted to know why.

Of course I didn't find out why, but I did get to see the little community that surrounds the Mission. No hints there of where he might have lived or why. There were just a few single story modest homes and a lot of trailer homes. I couldn't really see my general living there, but of course, they say fact is stranger than fiction so anything is possible.

We parked and ambled around through the mission museum and book shop. Then we wandered through the gardens and back through the gift shop.

 From there,  we could see through an open arch into the mission grounds and across to the oldest part of the church, a later Franciscan rebuild of the original Jesuit church of the 1700s. This church is classified a ruin, and the mandate of the National Parks Service is to maintain it as a ruin, not to gussie it up and make it look pretty for tourists. The result, is unbelievably charming and to my eyes, beautiful. Inside, the adobe bricks are naturally exposed, only the ceiling and flooring is "new". The rest is very artfully protected but left as is. The atmosphere is original and it takes you back to the people and the time period as no renovated building could.

Outside, was a display of traditional tortilla baking by an elderly O'odham Indian couple tending the mesquite fire. The wife spoke to me in Spanish, and offered us a tortilla. It is for guests, she said. It is free for you. We accepted, and had a small discussion of the oven, made of traditional adobe brick with a plate steel top and a underlying rack for the wood burning. I pointed upwards into the ceiling, and exclaimed "Oh that is Ocotillo" and the old man smiled and confirmed "yes, they were branches of Ocotillo". No burrito could taste better than the one the old lady passed to me, warmed from the fire and wrapped around traditionally cooked beans.

Some places just have that feeling of magic, and this one had it!  I was very interested in knowing that the first mission at Tumacacori was established not by the Franciscans, but in 1691 by a Jesuit, Father Kino. Like other Jesuits, he was a highly educated man, and had a protective and respectful attitude toward his indigneous followers. He therefore learned to speak the indigenous language. I told Rick that Huronia in Ontario was also built by Jesuits who learned the indigenous language and worked among the Hurons until it was ravaged by the Iroquois in 1649, so of a similar time period. It was a strange moment to think on this juxtaposition of time and place, to imagine that 400 years ago, Spanish and French Jesuits were in these two unconnected places, surrounded by wilderness and strange and difficult environments, trying to bring the Old World into the New.

We checked in to our (for us) luxurious Best Western motel in south Tucson. After Mexican hotel rooms where there are sometimes no bathroom doors, and the floor tiles are often cracked, and the light fixtures sometimes dangle, this seems so perfectly modern and clean and, well, let me repeat, luxurious! I am savouring the evening, with TV and internet and instant heat. Tomorrow, if we can hang around for a bit, we will visit the Tucson mission of San Xavier. I am hoping we will do that.

Barbara

Goin' Home again....

It has been cold in Mexico. A second small but very wet front moved through the Lake area before we left, leaving a trail of crisp clear air in behind it. Not that it would be considered "crisp" in more ordinary northern climes, but here it is unpleasant. A last minute decision and we tucked in the two very heavy wool blankets we had bought locally and usually left behind us. A very fortuitous decision as it turned out.

I, the main passenger, get to man the camera on the route. I usually get every power pole, every mark on the windshield, and miss the subject matter. But I did manage to capture a reasonable view of the town of Tequila as we whizzed past in the early hours. Tequila is where you make tequila of course. In Mexico, the making of tequila and the growing of agave is a matter of state regulation. Not just anybody is allowed to do it. And the town of Tequila is the centre of the whole industry. Definitely worth a day trip, which we haven't done so far. Ho hum. Always next year?? 

The Town of Tequila in the distance

The 6-7 hour trip to Mazatlan is all down hill. An easy drive. And as we get lower in elevation, moving off the 5,000 foot level of the central plateau, we can see the effects of all the recent rain with lush stands of corn 4 feet tall and growing, sugar cane and the earliest of spring flowering trees and shrubs.

Unfortunately, when we get to Mazatlan, our expectations of a short period of tropical beach life are somewhat cut short. The afternoon was cooler than expected but nice. 

Our Hotel "Los Arcos"

 People were lying around soaking up the rays and the beach, although fairly quiet, looked alluring. It gave us a beautiful Mazatlan sunset.

And then, it turned nasty cold. Mazatlan is not supposed to turn cold. Hence, there are no blankets on the bed and the mini-splits on the wall do not heat, they just cool. So we brought in the wool blankets from the van, and between them and Molly the foot warmer, and a pair of warm socks, we stayed toasty warm.

Off the next morning early as it was longest day, crossing the endless Sinaloa coastal plain up the toll highway to our next stop at San Carlos. This stretch is very agricultural, fields and fields of corn and vegetables and sacks of new potatoes stacked along the roadway, awaiting pick up. After a full day's drive we made it to the turn off to San Carlos and Guaymas. This is the last spot of the beach, before the highway turns inland and climbs back up to 3,000 off feet in elevation as it crosses into Nogales Arizona, just an hour or so south of Tucson.

We like to stop here, and we had a little project to do before settling in to our hotel room in San Carlos. We  had heard about an interesting spot in Guaymas on the Bay, an old traditional hacienda type hotel built in the 1930s by some very rich investor. It was at the end of the road, and very private, and was described as an aging beauty. We had to see what it looked like
.

Hotel Playa del Cortez

It was more than we expected. A beautiful spot, lovely privacy, and all the atmosphere one could expect. In addition, in behind the hotel they had a nearly deserted, tucked away RV parking area with shade trees, full hook ups, convenient location to the hotel swimming pool and so on. A little gem tucked away, at the end of an upscale Guaymas neighbourhood.

Residential Neighborhood in Guaymas

Mount Tetakawi over San Carlos.

San Carlos is the tourist area, a purpose-built location in a dramatic area, around the corner and about 15 minutes drive from Guaymas. Guaymas is a Mexican port town with a very clean and well-to-do air about it. It sits surrounded by the same craggy mountains as the iconic Mount Tetakawi that looms over San Carlos, which provide both a dramatic back drop and a sense of cosy enclosure.  Maybe you can tell that I REALLY like Guaymas. I keep nagging Rick that this place is just perfect for me and 1000 miles closet to home than Lake Chapala. And only 264 miles fro Nogales, Arizona. A real convenience!  Of the two places, I prefer Mexican Guaymas to American San Carlos. But then, I am kinda weird that way...

On the road again....

Tomorrow is departure day! The gas tank is full, the tire pressures have been checked, and all the gear is loaded. Before we finish this leg of the journey we will have traveled around 3200 miles in 10 driving days to get home. We may or may not have internet connections at our two motels in Mexico on this portion of trip so we thought we would send this out in advance. Here is a map of our planned route:

The first three days will be spent getting out of Mexico, On day 1 we will drive to Mazatlan (B on the map) on the coast to stay at a small beach front hotel for the night. It is an easy day's drive of about 325 miles and we should arrive around mid-afternoon. Except for the portion of the route in and around Guadalajara, all the driving will be on toll roads (Cuotas) which are good quality limited access highways. Speed limits are 110-120 Km/Hr which is roughly 68-75 Mph. Of course many drive even faster than that (not me of course).

Day 2 will take us from Mazatlan to San Carlos, Sonora (C on the map) this day is a little bit longer with a driving distance of 492 miles and a driving time of about 9 hours. Again most of the driving is on the toll road so it easy to make good time. San Carlos is a beautiful location on the Gulf of California that is popular area for diving and deep sea fishing. It is an easy days drive from Phoenix and Tucson and is a popular destination for people from Arizona for a beach getaway.

Day 3 in Mexico takes us from San Carlos, through the town of Hermosillo, on to Nogales at the border and finally to Tucson (D on the map) where we will stay overnight. Total driving for this day is around 330 miles with 270 miles of that being in Mexico. It is about a 5 hour drive from San Carlos to the border and another hour on to Tucson once we are cleared through US customs and immigration. We like to make this a shorter day as the border crossing can be 15 minutes or it can take 2 hours. There is no way of knowing in advance. 

Rick

A Pictorial Look at Jocotepec

It struck me that we haven't really shown you much of you our local town of Jocotepec. So I thought I would tell you a little bit about the town and show you some pictures.

Jocotepec  (ho-co-te-pec) is a town of about 18,000 inhabitants on the far western shore of Lake Chapala. As you can see from the map below we are only about 30 miles from Guadalajara but it feels like a different world. Along the north shore of the lake is a mountain range that physically separates the two areas and gives them two different climates with the lake providing a moderating effect for the towns around it.

The Jocotepec is primarily an agricultural town although there used to be a lively fishing industry here also. 

  

Below is the entrance road leading into the town just off Hwy. 15. 

Looking across the town plaza towards city hall

On the other three sides of the plaza are covered arcades that provide protection from the rain and sun in the next three photos.

A street scene looking north off the plaza towards the mountains.

There are numerous Ferreteria's or what we would call a hardware store. They typically specialize so that some will sell plumbing, or tile, or construction materials. The building below is painted orange because that is a color associated with one of the major hardware brands, such as Tru-value or Ace in the US. Down here it is "Truper". I suspect they provide free paint to advertise their brand as virtually all hardware stores are painted the same color and everybody sell Truper tools and hardware.

Most of the hardware stores have a small display area in front, then a counter and most of the stock in the back. You usually have to ask for what you want which can be a problem if you don't know what the heck it is called.

A typical street scene

A street side food vendor.

This lady is selling fruit by the quart ready to eat.

A house with a retail shops on the ground floor.

Another street scene. You can see the church tower poking up over the buildings.

A creative rooftop garden.

Our Supermarket. This store is part of the Walmart chain. They put these in small towns that don't have the  population to support a full size store. It is mostly groceries but they do have a small pharmacy and you can buy a TV, mattress or even some tires in there. 

One of the local feed stores.

Jocotepec has a large park on the lake with playground, picnic area, and a broad "board walk for strolling along. Of course there are a variety of vendor selling Ice cream, beverages, food. 

That's it from Jocotepec, We hope you enjoyed the photo's.

Rick and Barbara