Tenacatita

What a great day! Leigh and Barry Vincent picked us up and we drove North up Highway 200 our sights on a beach day at Tenacatita. At the intersection, to La Manzanilla, we took a hard right. Berry wanted to see what was further up the road at a little village.

We drove about a mile and sure enough, there was a very small village. Not much there, but any side trip gives Berry inspiration and he usually has a local story to tell. I love to ride with him and listen to the bits of history that he has picked up from his Mexican friends. Many of the stories involve politics of the area, some scrape along the surface of the local Cartel gossip. One story always leads to another.

Berry took a quick peek at the village and turned around and we headed back to the highway.

A stop and quick right put us back on Highway 200. More stories were discussed and eventually we parked the car right next to the beach at Tenacatita.

If you have followed my blog long, then you would probably have read my ramblings about this beach and its colorful history. You might Google Tenacatita and read about the land fighting and all that went with it. All I can say is that the beach is coming back, there is a restaurant just across the road and people are feeling much better about visiting and providing the locals a livelihood.

Today the weather and water were near perfect. There were about seven sailboats anchored in the Aquarium, the anchorage just offshore, and a large group of tourists lounging at the beach by the restaurant.

Berry and Leigh had all the beach accouterments and once we were all set up the lounging began.

As any beach day goes, there was food, drink and lots of talk. At one point Berry's eyes shut for just a few seconds, so I believe he took a nap.

This is what staying in Mexico is all about!

Birria with Barry

Sunday morning and we hit the road to Cihuatlán to find what Barry Vincent says is the best Birria restaurant on the coast. Birria is a spicy stew, traditionally made from goat meat which has been cooked in clay pots that have been sealed in a wood fired oven. 

Our trek took us to La Birria de las 12 located about six blocks up the hill from the main street in Cihuatlán (Map here). On this outing, Barry brought a good friend Gabriel, who is a contractor in Melaque and the four of us enjoyed a wonderful meal together.

One of the reasons Barry wanted to take us to this restaurant was that Linda had never tried Birria before.  Being her first experience we wanted it to be a good one and the stew here did not disappoint! We were served Birria with freshly made tortillas, queso fresco, refried beans, and all the fixings.

Birria ovens, one open, one still cooking.

Let's Go Shopping!

Barry and Leigh Vincent grabbed us after volleyball today and asked if we needed anything from Manzanillo today, or better yet, do we want to go to Manzanillo today.  Sticking to my policy of never turning down a chance to ride around and look at Mexico, we accepted the invitation.

We drove directly, well kind of directly, to Manzanillo making only three u-turns in the process.  Our first u-turn re-directed us back onto the highway and up to a highway overlook that gave us a great view of the bay around the port of Manzanillo.  I had conserved on equipment to carry and only brought my phone camera, but the shots will give you an idea what the area looks like.

After the photo opportunity we drove to a electronics store named Steren.  This is the Mexico equivalent of Radio Shack. While I stood and looked around I could feel my friend, Justin Van Eaton, was shaking his head and looking mortified. With Justin, even mentioning the words "Radio Shack" would bring scorn and a short lecture.

Linda in Ste#&%*. (For Justin)

Barry and Leigh exchanges some electronic connection equipment that they had purchased for their neighbor Yogi, and we were back on the road to find lunch at a place called Godzilla Burger.

When we arrived at the Burger joint, it was closed.  The owner met us and explained that Wednesday was their catch up day. Scratching our heads thinking that Wednesday was an odd day to be closed,we loaded into the car and drove to a sandwich shop near the Walmart on the main drag.

In the shop we ordered and within minutes our waiter returned and we had to completely change three out of four sandwich orders.  It seemed like Wednesdays were the days when all lunch stops were out of everything. They had no provolone cheese and no tortillas for wraps. Wait a minute, no tortillas in Mexico? That's a first.  After much pointing and conferring, our waiter knew no English, we had our new orders in and being prepared.  The meals arrived and we enjoyed the lunch.

We shopped at Walmart followed by Sam's Club, and Soriana. We bought all the items we have been using regularly saving us big pesos in the process.  It is sure fun to get out of our little town and see what life in the big city is like.  I prefer our little town but really enjoyed the change.

We were back in Melaque just after sunset. Leigh and Barry helped us unload our treasures. It is always so much fun to travel with those two, they enjoy every moment of their adventures. We talk and laugh as we maneuver on the roads and through the traffic.

To Manzanillo for Supplies

It’s now three days into March and I have noticed a big change.  The talk amongst the folks down here has changed from “How long you staying?” to “When are you leaving?”  As it turns out the consensus is that we will be one of the few hold outs and most in our friend group will have hit the road a least a week before we continue our journey back.

Talk around the pool touched on some of the changes that everyone noticed last night.  Late in the middle of the night the ocean break grew and the waves crashing on the beach got very loud.  Morning brought currents of colder water on to the shoreline and I am interested to see if all the birds move to different waters.  We have had huge flocks of Pelicans and Frigates attacking the waters for the past few weeks, but with the cooler water this might change.

As it stands now we will probably leave around the 25^th and make our way up north via highway 200 through Puerto Vallarta.  Once we hit PV then we will continue through to at least Tepic.  From there we will probably follow the same route we took on the way down.

It seems like all this is a long way off, but when you think about it time will fly by.  It feels like we just moved over to the laguna lot, and every day Linda and I talk about how lucky we are to be able to be involved in this adventure.  It still has a surreal feel to it. Every day we sit by the ocean and watch the sun set.  The nights are pleasantly cool and the days are hot, but not too hot.  We know we are very lucky people!

The port of Manzanillo.

Today we drove into Manzanillo and did some shopping and sightseeing.  Barry and Leigh were the leaders and we tagged along for the ride.

USS Coronado visiting the area.

Our first stop put us in the heart of old town Manzanillo, right in the area where the big ships come to unload.  We parked the car and Barry and I were immediately drawn to a huge ship flying the US flag.  We walked to the gate and Barry summoned one of the guards to come over and we had a nice chat about the ship, how long they were in port for and when they were heading home.  The young sailor was very polite and gave us very little information.

We did find out that the ship was very new and that there were only two of this type built and on the seas.  I ask him how fast the ship ran and he smiled and said very fast.  They were scheduled to leave port in two days and return to San Diego with in the week.  Putting the distance they needed to travel to get home into that schedule and you could see the ship was fast.  When we returned home I looked the ship up on the web and this is what I found.

No I didn't take this photo.

USS Coronado (LCS-4), a 418-foot warship built in Alabama, boasts a top speed in excess of 45 knots, or about 52 mph, and sustained 44 knots for four hours during builder trials. The high-speed trimaran hull and will be designed to defeat littoral threats and provide access in coastal waters for missions such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare. There are two different LCS hull forms – the Independence-class aluminum trimaran, and the Freedom-class semiplaning monohull designed and built by Lockheed Martin. These seaframes will be outfitted with reconfigurable payloads, called mission packages, which can be changed out quickly. Mission packages are supported by special detachments that will deploy manned and unmanned vehicles and sensors.^[1][2] Coronado is being built by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama. Total cost, 430 million.

Statues on the bay walk.

Fabric store, again.

While we were in the store this crash happened.

The classic Manzanillo Marlin photo.

Up the Spiral Staircase

Sometimes you embark on an adventure with a destination in mind but as the day unfolds, your adventure changes directions and ends up being a wonderful experience without coming close to the original plan.  This is what happened today.

Fluffy stuff in the trees along highway 80.

Barry and Leigh Vincent picked us up at the lot and we set out up highway 80, the back road to Guadalajara. Our plan was to drive to La Huerta and contact a fellow named Eric at a granite quarry. Eric was the key holder to a gate that would let us access a road leading to some petroglyphs. Barry and Leigh had heard stories of the existence of these rock carvings and we all wanted to find them.

The unused church in La Huerta.

We entered La Huerta and drove around the city centro exploring the many streets. We did a short search of both sides of the highway. During our exploration we found a small fabric store where Linda and Leigh did some quick shopping. As Leigh bought some beautiful fabric, I looked about the area near the shop.  I found a church and took some photos and later Berry asked the fabric store owner about it and found out that it was no longer used and that there was a newer church that the people attended.

We continued our search and found the granite operation. Barry and Leigh talked to a 14 year old young man and he tried to find Eric, the keeper of the key.  He talked to one of their truck drivers and the driver called Eric who said he would be back to the plant in about a half hour. This young man tried so hard to be helpful. How do you show your appreciation for this?  Leigh gave him something any 9th grader would love - Oreo cookies!

Barry and Leigh returned to the car with the information and Barry smiled and told us that a Mexican half hour could be quite long and that we should continue on to Villa Purificación where we could eat lunch and gather more information.  Barry had been told that there was a pizza shop that was run by a fellow from Chicago and he spoke perfect English and would be able to tell us much more about the area.


Off we drove.  It became apparent after a several miles that one tool we could have used for our trip was a map. None of us had thought to grab the numerous maps we had laying around at our places.  Barry turned into a Pemex station and he and I went in to see if we could buy a map or at the least get some directions.

Three young ladies tried to help us. The first thing they asked was "Habla Español?". When Barry said "si", all three of them started talking at once, very fast, in Spanish. Barry's eyes got big and he raised his hands and laughed. They all stopped and laughed also and then one started speaking in both Spanish and English as they drew a map to Purificación.

Gotta shop!

In Purificación we drove around the jardin and Barry leaned out his window and in his best Spanish asked directions to the Pizza restaurant. A Mexican fellow on a four wheeler replayed" Straight ahead on the corner." in perfect English.  We all laughed because you never know how the answer will come.

Remember at the start of this blog that I said some times you have a plan for an adventure and during the execution of the plan the adventure goes a different direction? Here is where ours starts to change and become classic Mexico.

We got our selves a table at La Hacienda Restaurant. We were greeted by the owner Abraham Pelayo who gave us menus and a big smile.  We all ordered pizza and Abraham said "Oh, so sorry we only serve pizza on weekends."  Then Berry explained that we had heard about his pizza and had also heard that he had learned to make the pizza in Chicago and that it was the best around.  Abraham laughed and told us that he had learned to make pizza in California, but that at one time a famous person from New York had been in Guadalajara and drove down to his restaurant to have New Your style pizza. We all laughed at the amount of miss information Barry had gathered.

Rock cutter at the granite property.

We ordered our food and chatted with a couple of Canadians who were living full time in Purificación. they were very nice and seemed to know everyone in town.

We asked Abraham about the petroglyphs but he didn't know anything about them, however, he said he had one petroglyph on his property and would love to show us it. We all agreed that it would be a great addition to our day and made arrangements to meet him back at the restaurant after we explored the jardin and visited the church.

Looking for Eric.

After a delicious lunch we walked over to the church.  Barry and Leigh said that this church was the oldest church in Jalisco and the second oldest in Mexico.  Abraham told us that this church was 481 years old and that they had painted it just over a year ago for the 480th birthday. The paint they had used was bad and so they were in the process of doing a complete renovation using federal moneys.

We walked around the structure and took photos.  It was amazing! We asked one of the workers where the entrance was and he led us to the side directly across from the jardin.  Linda and Leigh went in the sanctuary and I noticed a small doorway on the side of one of the towers. I looked at it and said to Barry "I bet this leads to the top of the tower!" One of the workers said "Go ahead, es ok!" I looked at Barry and said "I can't pass that up, let's go!"  So we climbed.

The staircase was a tight spiral that twisted its way up to the top of the cathedral. Along the way there was a doorway that led to the balcony above the sanctuary. It was never intended to be used by anyone and was just an area that accessed the churches front windows.

La Hacienda Restaurant

At the roof we were able to see the two bell towers and walk around the entire structure taking pictures. It was amazing! One young worker came over and answered the questions we could ask in Spanish. You could really see the pride he had in showing us this treasure.

The jardin and 481 year old church.

I was in seventh heaven the entire time in the cathedral. One of my favorite things is to get on the roof of big structures in the various cities I visit. Many years ago I climbed out on the roof of Las Hadas in Manzanillo with my friend Mike Anderson.  Las Hadas is a huge expensive hotel and we were there for two days.  The roof views were fantastic.  I have also been on the roof of a very tall hotel in Chicago and one in Boston. I don't know why, but I love to explore those heights.


Once on the ground we walked back and found Abraham. He then led us to his home where he showed us numerous artifacts he had collected over the years. Abraham is a collector.  Once we looked at the items in the house he showed us his garage and the many things he had collected and stowed away.

We finally followed our friend to this property where he was growing mango, sugar cane and other agricultural goods.  On this land he had found a large rock that had carvings on it. The carvings were indents in a circle that he said formed a crown. Abraham had brought in an archaeologist and he had used chalk to show the form of the crown. In the photo you can just make out the indents of the ring.

We must have stayed an hour or more out at Abraham's property.  He picked a fruit called Gyuava (sp) and we tasted the sweet flavors it produced. Abraham told us the history of his property, we could see the pride in his eyes as he spoke.

We drove back to Melaque, our adventure twisted into the stairs of a 481 year old church and out into the fields of a proud Mexican entrepreneur.  We never found the petroglyphs we set out to find but we found much, much more!

Back side of the church.

Door to the spiral staircase.

Thought this would be a great photo, but the composition went bad.

The young man who showed us the project.

Going down!

Barry chats with the worker who said we could climb.

Our friend says good bye!

Abraham's collection of finds.

More of his collection.

The mango trees and Horse Saddle mountain.

The rock with the petroglyph.

Note the circular dimples.

Gyuava (sp)

The gyuave (sp) flower.

Stream on Abraham's property.