Adios Melaque

Tonight was our last night in Melaque. We had a lovely supper. Went out with our friends Carol and Max and sampled molcajetes which we had never had before. It's a stew which can have any number of ingredients including the meat of your choice and it comes steaming hot in a preheated lava bowl which you literally cannot touch or you will have a nasty surprise. Needless to say the unusual presentation is half the fun.
I have a few farewell thoughts to share on Melaque.
If you're into a laid back vacation by the ocean which won't cost you a bundle of money Melaque is definitely the town for you. Of course there are a few things you might have to be willing to put up with which are not so different than what you might encounter in many other Mexican towns.
Although they've made somewhat of an effort to spruce things up it's still a fairly dirty town but it's not as dirty as it used to be so that's a plus. There's even a bit of an effort made towards recycling plastics which is a scourge and a blight in all third and second world countries. We can thank petroleum for that wonderful gift.
Melaque has a lot of dogs which equals a lot of shit some of it pretty stinking big since although they love chihuahuas it's not their shit that gets noticed, plenty of other pedigreed and non pedigreed specimens around. They love their roosters. Mexican roosters don't go by a certain timetable, anytime of the day or night is good for crowing, you have to learn to tune them out.
Where we are there's also a goat and she adds to the general cacophony, once in a while the mule also kicks in for good measure. There's an army barrack near by and they play the trumpet regularly bright and early every morning, needless to say the playing is not concert hall material not by any great stretch of the imagination.
In Mexico and in Melaque there is no escaping the loud, boisterous parties which might be weekly occurrences, Mexicans love to party and they don't mind sharing the noise at all whether you want to party or not. Many people bring earplugs I just can't be bothered. When in Mexico....well you know the rest of that saying as well as I do.
You will never want for a place to eat, taco stands abound. There are pastry vendors on the streets at night selling slices of cakes and what could almost pass for creme caramel, not quite as good as the original but still very tasty. Of course there are also churros to fall back on,
fattening and greasy but I do enjoy the odd one or two.
The beach is lovely with waves suited to all abilities, great big monsters, medium size waves and gentle waves which lap and nibble at your toes. The weather is always hot and the sun is always shining. There is poverty here but there's also a lot of freedom and happiness, it's not all drab and hopeless. We're always amazed at how even tempered the vendors on the beach are. They plow that beach back and forth carrying their stuff that not too many people want, suffer through countless rejections and yet don't appear angry or even disappointed when you say "no gracias".
I would have put a bullet through my head a long time ago. We were trying to imagine an alternate scenario where all the vendors, mostly indigenous, sit under the palapas drinking beer, eating basically enjoying their "dolce farniente" while the gringos would be out there plowing the beach looking for potential customers. It did stir up some pretty humorous pictures in our heads even if it's never going to happen and truth be told I wouldn't want to trade places with them. It's a hard way to make a living, very hard.
I haven't blogged too much since being here because life has just been sweet and easy with nothing too much out of the ordinary to blog about. We've enjoyed it but we're getting itchy feet now and it's time to move on and explore new vistas. The beach can only sustain us for a while, we need to be stimulated anew, there's nothing like the thrill of discovery when you're traveling and that's certainly what I enjoy.
We're moving on so adios Melaque and Hola Guanajuato.

 

 

Happy New Year with a bang

Actually more like a bang bang bang since they never seem to run out of firecrackers. They must spend a tidy fortune on those, we priced them out and they're not that cheap. We have it on great authority from a vendor that the Chinese ones are far superior to the homegrown variety, more expensive yes, but more BANG for your bucks.
New Year's Eve didn't feature a lavish party. We had a meal which I prepared, half a kilo of shrimps, wild and not flash frozen in Thailand like so many of the ones we get in Canada are. We drank a bottle of chilled white wine, Chilean, not bad a little fruity and not as dry as I would have liked but there isn't a whole lot of choice wine wise and the price at 72 pesos was more than reasonable.
We walked into town and spent time in the jardin which is that main square. There are still a lot of Mexican tourists but most of them have come by car, no more endless streams of buses.
While in the jardin we had some fun cataloging all the various ways in which Canadian laws are routinely broken in Mexico. I will provide a list and I'm sure I've missed some. Of course this is offered in fun, we love Mexico after all and that spirit of anarchy is what makes it so endearing and frustrating sometimes.

There are many infractions attached to driving.
1. Driving without a license (less common but it happens), insurance (quite frequent).
2. Wearing a seatbelt is law in Mexico but it is routinely disregarded and considered more optional than necessary particularly here in Melaque where we've noticed a lot of people don't even bother.
3. Drinking and driving,(common) drinking while driving (less frequent but it happens.)
4. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet, apparently it's also a law but again it's strictly up to you unless you get stop and ticketed. Some do wear a helmet but they're few and far between.
5. Driving with people in the back of your pickup is extremely common.
6. Three on a small scooter with the kid in front, quite common.
7. Making a full stop at a stop sign,it could happen but then it might not.
8. Not passing when there's a double line on the road, you still pass but you just floor it.
9. Wearing a helmet when riding a bicycle, please let's not even tackle this one, not even a remote possibility unless you watch a lot of American t.V. and want to emulate the lifestyle and have the means to do so.

Firecrackers:
Firecrackers have been completely forbidden in B.C. probably the same in the rest of Canada.
You just can't buy them anywhere even if you want to break the law. Here they're a dime a dozen. Mexicans are probably one of the biggest consumers of Chinese firecrackers in the world and they know their stuff.
They are everywhere and can go off at any time. Even when you're somewhat used to them those incredibly loud bangs can give your heart a run for its money. In fact while sitting in the jardin kids were lighting them up left and right. One took off, sailed over a wall and right into a house. Nobody irate came out so assume it was okay, that's the one good thing about building with bricks, houses don't burn down easily.
In another instance we were at the beach, that same night, watching a bunch of kids of all ages, lighting them up fearlessly when one sailed right over the crowd that was watching them. Nobody got hurt but it was still burning when it hit the crowd. Sometimes they don't detonate right away and kids poke and prod them till they do. Strangely there doesn't seem to be that many accidents involving firecrackers and if there are nobody reports them, unless they're really serious. Mostly they ignore the burns, it's all part of the fun, and just carry on.

Other random ways in which our laws are routinely broken. Buying a six pack of beer at a 7eleven type store, opening one beer and drinking it while waiting in line to pay. Come on that one's a definite winner. Setting up an improvised kitchen on the sidewalk right outside your house because you simply must cash in on those new arrivals who are thirsty and hungry. It doesn't matter how, when, where, why anybody pretty much can open a little stand and sell food and believe me they do. Chihuahuas are truly a beloved dog here and they are extremely portable which is an added bonus meaning you can take them everywhere even in restaurants (not fancy ones of course) in little pouches and that's totally fine. Of course dogs are allowed on the beach without restrictions and you never have to pick up their shit. We've only seen that done a couple of times on the malecon in Mazatlan other than that it's everybody for themselves and watch where you put your feet, much worse than in Paris any day of the week.
Drinking on the beach is not only allowed but encouraged. If you can't get to the booze the booze will come to you.

I've probably missed a lot of other infractions if I happen to note some more I'll add to this list again this is all in the spirit of fun. We're much too restricted in Canada where a state of hyper vigilance and control reigns supreme.

On another note we had heard that two passenger buses got hijacked on the quota (paying) highway out of Guadalajara. This was of interest to us since we will be driving in that direction. I made a few more inquiries and it turned out to be unsubstantiated rumors which is great news.
Bus jacking does happen but it's a pretty infrequent occurrence. Of course we're driving but it's good to know there aren't a bunch of banditos roaming the quotas.

Happy New Year, Feliz Ano Nuevo a todo.


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Noel Melaque Style

Noel in Melaque is an exuberant outdoor affair. It starts with huge travel buses slowly rolling into Melaque on the 24th, mostly from Guadalajara we suspect since it's the closesty big city. Today the 26th, there are probably over 50 buses we didn't really do a count so it's a rough estimate. I think we're erring on the conservative side, hard to say but the population of Melaque has definitely swelled to fairly big proportions.
The 24th started out beautifully. Carol and Max who manage the bungalows where we're staying came here two years ago. Carol bought some toys for the neighbouring kids and last year it sort of went viral with over 100 kids showing up some from the town of Villa Obregon. This year, with the help of some local women, they decided to restrict it

to the Colonia of Primaveras. A Colonia is the Mexican term for neighbourhood. All the toys were organized in terms of gender and age. Kids started lining up around 10:00 am. They were very well behaved and even though it turned out to be a fairly long wait there was no pushing, shoving or crying. I have to say that I don't think our Canadian kids would have handled it quite as well. Mexicans, in general, have learned the art of patience. Patti, who owns the bungalows with her husband Andreas, had bought some buns and she was waiting for them to arrive along with some milky concoction flavored with strawberry. Both finally arrived and the handing out of the gifts proceeded without a hitch.
The children were delighted, it was a joy to see.
I took quite a few pictures and will post them on Picasa when I update my pictures.
The rest of the day was pretty mellow. We went to the beach and noted that the big crowds had not yet arrived. In the evening some of the older kids went a bit wild with firecrackers exploding all over the place as they played war throwing them fearlessly at each other. It was quite the cacophony but as per usual nobody complained. There was, however, an unfortunate accident. One of the kids, Andreas' son, got a second degree burn on his thigh when the ones he had in his pocket ignited. That incident put a damper on the whole affair and kids retreated to their respective houses. It's a little scary to see kids as young as five handling firecrackers but it's the norm here. Little kids appear to be much more competent, certainly not as protected and coddled as ours. Today we saw a little girl of 3 having come back from the corner store clutching a roll of toilet paper and some chips which she had just purchased. Scenes like that never cease to amaze us. Of course Melaque is small and people do look out for each other. Nevertheless I don't think I'll ever see a kid of 3 shopping by himself or herself in Summerland which is only slightly bigger than Melaque.
On the 25th, the buses started rolling in earnest and there were more revelers on the beach.
We staged our own little party at Bungalow Itzal. We had turkey, chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, desert the whole enchilada in other words. It was very nice. We enjoyed it a lot, eating outside with stars shining above our heads. Later on we took a walk into town not knowing what to expect but it was business as usual. Most of the stores, restaurants were open trying to cash in on all this influx of tourists to their town.
It hasn't been easy to make a living lately for most businesses in Melaque, this arrival was definitely welcomed.
Today, boxing day, was probably the biggest day yet in terms of the crowds. The beach was packed
but the waves were still mellow and everybody was having a great time enjoying the sun, sea and sand. If they're coming from Guadalajara which is the 2nd. biggest city in Mexico they must appreciate it tremendously after possibly living under fairly cramped conditions.
Tonight I didn't cook. We went into town and had a dinner of barbeque ribs which were actually quite good. We wandered off near the Jardin which is the central square in Melaque.
It's nearly impossible to adequately describe the controlled chaos which reigns supreme in most of the town. Any house who has the space and desire can improvise itself instantly into a sidewalk taqueria. There is the pervasive sound of cleaver on wood chopping all matter of meat, organs and all, into stuffing for tacos. The Mexicans love to graze. They don't actually often sit down for a big meal but they do consume food, in smaller quantities, on a regular basis and when on holiday there's no holding back. Surprisingly one of the most popular stands was the crepe stand. Yes crepes have finally made their way to Melaque and they're extremely popular with neverending lineups of eager customers. I lined up today as well. After Bretagne where crepes reign supreme I just had to check these out. I took a crepe with Nutela and, indeed, it was very good. That little stand was making a killing having replaced churos, the sweet cinnamon sugary donut as the finger food of choice.
We slowly walked back home under a moonlit sky, a perfect end to a really good day.
Tomorrow we're off to another beach, by car, it's called Tenacotita, it should be another great day. Hope you're enjoying reading about our adventure. Don't forget to comment if you're so inclined. Merry post Christmas to all.

On the road to Melaque - observations

Before leaving Puerto Vallarta paid a last visit to our favorite restaurant for our traditional buffet breakfast at le Gilmar. The waitresses were lovely, the food was excellent, many options and the price was incredibly sweet at about $8.50 for two. You just can't beat that, our best price yet for breakfast.
The road to Melaque is another one of those sinuous roads that can make you road sick if you suffer at all from motion sickness. Happily neither of us are afflicted or we would have thrown up our cookies a long time ago. As you get away from P.V. the houses become grander and grander, lavish dome like constructions overhanging the ocean, lots of trees and flowers fill the mountain side and precipices which drop down to the ocean. There are very posh hotels as well along the way and possibly a few all inclusives tucked away here and there. The road leads to a pretty little cove called Mismaloya. Mismaloya is famous for having provided the set to John Houston's film Night of the Iguana. The film is notorious for sparking the torrid love affair between co-stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Few have heard of this film nowadays although if you're at all a film aficionado you will surely know of it. Not a masterpiece but definitely worth a peek.
We didn't stop at Mismaloya and continued on our journey to Puerto Vallarta's botanical garden which was just along the way.
We were the first visitors at the garden on that day. It's not a huge garden but it does have some interesting varieties of palms, like the Bismarck palm (took a picture), vanilla, coffee
bougainvila and some species of orchids.
Since there are over 10,000 species of orchids this was not a representative sample, there were only about 20 or so varieties but they were pretty nonetheless. The botanical garden we visited in Quito/Ecuador had hundreds of different varieties by contrast.
We had never actually seen a vanilla plant. It's a vine like plant and the vine looks like a very thick rope quite large in diameter, smooth and green. It wasn't flowering and we didn't see any pods. Vanilla is the most labour intensive spice in the world which explains and justifies its premium price.
The coffee plants didn't have any berries which are red before being harvested to be roasted.
Mexico no longer produces a lot of coffee, most of it is grown in the Chiapas area of Mexico.
Colombia is now one of the largest exporter of coffee in the world and coffee is the second highest traded commodity after oil, no wonder it's called liquid gold.
We continued on our route along this winding highway,the sun was high in the sky, it was very hot and our air conditioning started acting up or not acting at all. It blew some vapour through the vents and then nada. We contemplated the rest of our trip driving with no air condition and it wasn't a pretty picture. Yes we're spoiled gringos!
In any case we opened the windows, shut the air down and about 30 minutes later tried it again.
It worked just fine. It must have been having a moment.
Listened to some good music along the way. There's something to be said for listening to early Stones blasting Sympathy for the devil as you're rocketing down a Mexican highway. A good play list is a must. We have Bob Marley for a little reggae, Neil Young and Van Morrison for the nostalgia factor and their great music to sing along to. Los Super Seven is a great album filled with wonderful Spanish tunes. Stan wanted Cat Stevens, at times too sugary for my taste, although he does have a few classics. Some CD's I mixed as well we brought along, my tastes are pretty eclectic there's a bit of everything. Still listening to Nouvelle Vague, Nissa made that CD for me. We bought some latin mixes, the best of radio 2010.
Shakira is number 1 with Loca, it's a great tune. Camila is THE rock group of the moment in Mexico, their tune Besame is really good too, check it out on you tube. Lady Gaga is huge with Alejandro. We love sampling new music in Mexico. Bought Los Tigres Del Norte I've been wanting one of their CD's for a while and they're hard to find.
Regarding the violence in Mexico, it's definitely real although it mostly affects some border towns with the violence seeping into other parts of Mexico. Recently there was a huge stand off near the town of Morelia in Michoacan with buses and cars burned by the narcos to prevent the federales from entering the city. They did kill the main head of that particular cartel but it was pretty brutal, some innocent people were killed or injured in the crossfire.
The tabloid newspapers are always filled with lurid photos of violent incidents. That's typical of this kind of reporting which is the same all over Latin america.
The town of Melaque is pretty quiet in that respect, it's too small to matter. The town has been improved since our last visit two years ago. It's cleaner, they have a recycling program for plastic, they've leveled off the road in front of the bungalows, taken care of the swamp all in all it looks pretty good.
Bungalow Itzal where we will be staying for the next 3 weeks comes with a kitchen, bathroom, living room/eating area, 2 big bedrooms and a nice big bathroom. There's a little pool at the back. It will cost $550.00 for 3 weeks, really cheap. All the bungalows are occupied by Canadians mostly from B.C. and one young mother from Quebec with her two daughters. It's a nice ambiance. Our friend Max is the on site manager. His wife Carol had to go back to Quesnel to take care of her mom who is ill. She should be back around the first week of January.
That's it for now. I don't think I'll be updating my blog that much for the next three weeks or so unless something momentous needs reporting, reflecting on.
From Melaque Feliz Navidad y Propero Ano Nuevo a todo.

Adios Puerto Vallarta, Hola Melaque

We left fairly early from San Blas skipping breakfast altogether. We opted to take the more scenic route, the one skirting the coast. That was a very good decision although it took a bit longer to get to Puerto Vallarta. The road was breathtakingly beautiful with huge trees overhanging the road, meeting halfway across it and forming a lovely bridge of greenery overhead. There was dripping bougainvilas their bright red, pink and purple flowers providing splashes of color amongst all the green. The road meandered across verdant hills, glimpses of the sea appearing at unexpected moments. The only sour note were the many impromptu, improvised garbage dumps where a view point might have been. It's an unfortunate reality here. There is far too much garbage and nowwhere to put it. There's no point complaining about it, it will take years before that state of affairs changes, if ever. I don't want to sound pessimistic but it is a real problem and there are no easy solutions.

We stopped in the seaside town of Sayulita. It's a cute little town, soon to grow bigger since it now has been discovered. Quite a few gringos here.
Initially this was where we had wanted to stay but I preferred moving on to
Puerto since it's a bigger city with a lot more options in terms of food and lodgings.

This is our fourth visit to P.V. We came here over ten years ago, coming back from traveling across other parts of Mexico and Guatemala. We knew that the cheaper hotels were situated south of Rio Cuale which is a river in old P.V. Just like in Mazatlan there is an old and a new section, the new being the one where most of the all inclusives are found. There are a few semi types of all inclusives in old Vallarta but not very many. It's mostly condos, houses, hotels and cheaper types of lodgings.

Not surprisingly we ended up on a street called Madero. It's been an old stand by of ours. We've stayed in 3 other hotels on this same street. One was very noisy, one was smelly, one was all right and the one we're in right now Hotel Economico Azteca is by far my favorite. The room is pretty big, two nice beds, there's an inner courtyard, the washroom is functional, cable t.v. and free internet accessible in the room. All this for the tidy sum of 280 pesos a night which works out to about $24.00, a real steal.

The beach is about 4 blocks away but it's a pleasant walk. We only went to the beach twice, once walking and once for swimming and lazing about.
There is much to explore in P.V. The little island separated by the rio is home to a beautiful garden, a theatre and an artesania market. The malecon which is a sparkling promenade along the beach always has entertainment of some kind going on. We saw Tolteca Indians from Vera Cruz, go up this post with ropes which they twirl along the top of the platform they sit on.
There are five of them on the platform. Four each tie a rope to their foot and slowly unfurl the rope coming down while the lone guy on top plays the flute. As they spin around the pole the rope gets longer and longer till they finally reach the bottom. It's quite exhilarating to watch. It's an old Tolteca tradition.
Another most amazing thing is the balancing rocks. We've all seen "sculptures" of rocks on top of each other while walking in the forest or along the beach. This guy, a "rock whisperer" doesn't just do rocks he does boulders. It's unbelievable. He places boulders at the most incredible angles one on top of each other. We actually witnessed him placing a third boulder. He was wonderfully focussed and concentrated. I even saw him talking to the stone before taking a step back and there it stayed this huge rock at an inconceivable angle, it should have toppled but it didn't.
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera. We went back today but Sunday is apparently his day off because he wasn't there. We were told that every morning he topples his creations and starts over.
If we come back to P.V. I will definitely take a picture or two.

While walking I noticed a French cafe type restaurant and bakery. I wanted to see if the croissant and pain au chocolat passed the mustard. I talked to one of the waiters and he said the owners were French. We met both of them Sophie and Pierre who's the chef, one of the 250 best chefs in France we were told. Of course his wife said that and she's obviously biased.
Nevertheless the pain au chocolat was very good so we resolved to have our big night out on Saturday by treating ourselves to a French restaurant meal.
The whole thing was quite formal but the food was delicious and it was a novel experience for us and quite a change from our usual dining venues.

Today we went shopping for groceries at the big Soriana store. Melaque is quite small and it's sometimes difficult to find certain items. We will be cooking for three weeks there. It was important to get certain necessities.
We will probably be going back to Melaque again after our trip to the interior. We've really enjoyed our lovely time in Puerto Vallarta. Hope you do too, it's just a little glimpse I know.