On a rainy and cold morning, we set off for Mazamitla, despite the fact that Julie had a bad back, foot, knee, and thumb (don’t even ask!). She took two pillows with her, and did reasonably well on the day-long adventure.
What was perhaps less pleasant was the weather. We are having a stretch of unseasonably cold weather around the lake, including today’s full day of rain. It generally doesn’t rain here until spring and summer, but it rained the entire day of our trip, and it was really cold to double the “unfun.” When we arrived at Mazamitla, people were wearing parks with fur hoods — I kid you not!
But enough of that. Let’s talk about the tour itself. We left Ajijic at 7:45 with 8 other people. Nice van. Comfortable too. But first a map.
The trip, as you can see, took about 1.5 hours. Actually a bit longer since we didn’t speed, made a couple of stops, and dawdled a bit here and there.
Probably the most intriguing part of the day was a morning stop for
El Pajarete, a typical morning drink in the small towns in the area. The ingredients? Brown cane sugar, chocolate, vanilla, instant coffee, warm milk (straight from the cow), and TEQUILA! We mixed our own ingredients at a little stand “coffee shop” along the road (one woman overdid the tequila; she was quite funny and talkative for about an hour — no, not me), then walked over to a guy who was milking a cow, and he squirted warm milk directly into our cups. I hear that sometimes, people then light the drink to burn off the alcohol. Didn’t see that though. We joined the other folks sitting around and drinking their morning coffee. The place was busy because today is a Mexican holiday — Constitution Day, so very few people were working. Well, actually, Constitution Day is Feb 5, but the celebration of it is always on the Monday of that week.
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| The ingredients, all but the warm milk, which always goes in last |
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| Here comes the milk! |
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| As a plus, when the cows were being milked, they also got to eat: quid pro quo |
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| There were A LOT of cows waiting to mix their milk with tequila! |
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| The locals, hanging out. Wonder how much tequila they put in their drinks (you could mix up your own) |
Then we were on our way again. We stopped at another little town, but it was deserted because of the national holiday. We were supposed to view a mural of the history of Mexico in the town hall, but it was locked. We were able to get into the church, which still had decorations from a wedding the weekend before. We also saw a “posting of the bans” flyer which must be done to notify the public of an impending marriage.
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| Nice stained glass windows |
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| The next marriage. |
We were soon on our way again and made our way to Mazamitla. A look at the elevation might give you an idea about why it was so cold, but the cold temperature clearly was unusual as was the persistent rain.
Our first stop was a restaurant, a busy place, packed because people apparently come here from Guadalajara and Mexico City (and other locations, I suspect) to spend time in the cabanas. Happily, the restaurant staff was highly efficient.
The town square was quaint, and the town has a ton of shops, restaurants, bars — it’s sometimes called the Switzerland of Mexico because of its alpine atmosphere.
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| Every town plaza has to have a church! |
Mazamitla is known as one of Mexico’s “Magic Towns,” designated by the Mexican government as special places for cultural, historical or social reasons; thus they get extra federal money for publicity and beautification.
This town was as busy as it could be. Since I was having “body” issues, I didn’t go out on the one-hour wandering time to check out the shops, but Harold went out — in the rain — and said I didn’t miss much. The place was really crowded, and the traffic in the town and on the road home was horrendous.
We were to make one other stop — to waterfalls which are apparently gorgeous, but it was so cold and rainy that the tour guide suggested we shouldn’t go because the cobblestones were so slippery (it was hilly too). So — no waterfalls.
On the route, we were able to figure out what all the rectangular huge whitish things are that we can see from across the lake. They are a white sheeting material covering berries, all kinds of berries. While the government owns the land, Driscoll rents it, and this is where many of the Driscoll berries come from.
One last stop, this time for another tequila drink, one called “Vampiro,” a mixture of tequila, squirt, orange juice, and some sort of red juice. This one was quite good. FYI, we both tossed our morning milk/tequila drink after tasting it. . . .
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| Take your pick of alcohol |
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| And a picture of us with the vampire |
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