Jan. 23rd to Jan. 31st.

Mexico Trip 2008-09

Jan. 23rd to Jan. 31st.

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Jan. 23rd

The temperature was a little cooler today with brisk winds in the afternoon.

Today was Sherry's birthday and a surprise party was held for her up at the park restaurant. Cynthia knows a lady in La Placita who makes "tres leche" cake (three milk cake) and Sherry was surprised when it was brought out to her. Ron, the park's musician played happy birthday on his guitar and everyone joined in.

Singing Happy Birthday to Sherry

Sherry at her Birthday Party

Sherry's Birthday Cake

Jan. 24th & 25th

Not much was going on on Saturday but in the afternoon one of the new guests decided to take his pick-up down to the beach. His truck was only 2-wheel drive and he didn't quite make it before he was stuck in the sand. His neighbor, being a nice guy and with his 4-wheel drive pick-up decided to go down and pull him out. Unfortunately it was more difficult than they thought and the second truck sunk its wheels in the sand too.

By then it was dark and the two trucks were left there over night. In the morning a third truck loaded with lots of volunteers from the park equipped with shovels and tow ropes headed back to the beach and after a great deal of pulling and shoving they were able to extracate the two stuck vehicles.

This all took place early Sunday as everyone wanted to head to El Ranchito to the market. Fred and Sherry hitched a ride with us and on the way we came across a "just happened" accident at the corner where you turn off the highway to El Ranchito. A small vegetable truck and car were involved and one older lady was standing by the car with a cut to her head. We didn't stop as we saw four police trucks heading to the accident scene.

On the way home we looked for the fellow who sells shrimp and is usually just outside the entrance to the market but didn't see him. Instead we stopped so Fred (and the rest of us) could have an ice cream treat.

In the afternoon the pups still wanted to go to the beach and fortunately I was still able to drive the Jeep through the dug up area where the trucks were stuck.

First truck to get stuck

Second truck to get stuck

First and second stuck trucks

Hooking up tow cable to third truck

Jan. 26th & 27th

I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me the other day as my stomach was sending me messages to just lay down and be still.

However on Tuesday night everyone wanted to go to town to have tacos so hopefully my stomach doesn't rebel in the middle of the night.

We have to pack a few things tonight as tomorrow the four of us (Fred & Sherry and Diane & I) are heading to Tonala to shop for things we just can't do without.

Cynthia will again take care of the pups while we're gone which will only be three days. .. One day to drive there, one day to shop and one day to return.

I'm not sure if I'll take my laptop as I don't know if the hotel will have internet connection. However I will have my camera and will take lots of pictures.

The pictures below are we get our La Placita Tacos. Notice the meat and tortillas are cooked on a wood fire.

La Placita Tacos

BBQing meat for tacos

Hand made tortillas for tacos

Jan. 31st.. Tonala Trip

Surprisingly we pulled out of Rancho B. on Wednesday only 2 minutes past our planned departure time of 9:00am.

After telling the pups to be good and that we'd be back in a couple of days we all climbed in Fred and Sherry's car. Fred was the designated driver for the trip. The drive to Tonala was good with only a little bit of traffic delays north of Colima because of a rock slide that was being cleaned up. Even the traffic going through Guadalajara wasn't too bad and we arrived at our hotel about 2:00pm.

The hotel was about half a block from the main street in town making it easy to walk to where the market area is located. The price of 350 pesos per night (about $32.00 U.S.) was also very reasonable.

Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday was spent shopping and walking though the market area that covers several blocks of the main street plus numerous side streets. Tonala has market days on Thursday and Sunday and there's everything from small knick-knakes to large expensive furniture. There's something for everyone.

Sherry had her little dog Sophie in a stroller that attracted a lot of curious attention from everyone especially kids.

Sherry had a list of things to buy for friends and relatives and Diane found several things she wanted including a chimenea and a tall artificial bambo tree for the guestroom at our home in Texas. Aside from buying a couple of hats, Fred and I mostly walked and looked at everything.

The car was loaded to the limit for our trip home on Friday and although we went through two military check-points, they just did a casual look through and didn't have us unload the car.

Before getting to La Placita we stopped to buy a chicken dinner at a roadside vendor. These BBQ'd chickens are really good and you get two whole chickens with rice, salad and tortillas for 80 pesos.

We arrived back at Rancho B on Friday afternoon but learned the electricity was off for all of the La Placita area as they were doing some construction and new electrical instalations in town.

The pictures below were taken during the trip to give you some idea of the fun couple of days we had in Tonala.

Volcano outside of Colima on the way to Guadalajar