Sombrerete and the Sierra de Organos - April 3 & 4, 2015

Pueblos Magicos

The next stop on our Truck Odyssey was Sombrerete, one of Mexico's pueblos magicos (magic villages). The pueblos magicos program was created by Mexico's Secretariat of Tourism as a sort of counter-balance to the attention and money that has long been lavished on Mexico's beach tourism businesses. This program recognizes that there are a lot of reasons for travelers to travel beyond the beach. 

If you are interested in experiencing the charms of small-town Mexico - and they are many - you should consider a visit to one or more of the 83 villages or towns designated as pueblos magicos.

Travel Tip: Those visiting pueblos magicos should keep in mind that pueblo means "town" or "village" rather than "city".  Depending on your level of expectation, you may be disappointed in the tourist infrastructure available in some of these little places, though some (e.g., San Cristobal de Las Casas) have lovely hotels and great restaurants. Check on the internet to determine what your hotel and dining options are before you go.  

Sombrerete

In Sombrerete we stayed at a very clean but basic hotel. The majority of the other guests were not tourists, but employees of a mining safety and security company working at one of the nearby mines (Sombrerete has been a mining center since the 16th Century). The mine employees were very quiet guests - even when they changed shift at o'dark-thirty in the morning. But we quickly realized that they must eat at their job site because when we asked about the breakfast hours of the hotel's purported restaurant the woman at the front desk was extremely unenthusiastic. She mumbled something about someone (she did not use the "cook" word . . . ) getting eggs . . . We decided to find breakfast elsewhere in town.  

Sombrerete - Also an Agricultural Center

Population 20,000 . . . ? 

Templo de la Tercera Orden -- 
In Part, a 16th Century Convent

Viernes Santos  

We happened to arrive in Sombrerete on Good Friday. We found all of the saints covered in sorrow.

Awaiting The Resurrection

That evening, there was a service in the side chapel of the Templo de San Francisco (18th Century). We didn't intrude on the service, but it was followed by a silent procession (well, as silent as any big event in Mexico can be) of the faithful. There were groups representing the various Catholic churches in town; note that "small town" doesn't = "few churches". 

Gathering For The Procession

[Disclaimer: Our little camera is great for most purposes, but is not equipped for taking pictures of moving objects at night. Thus, many of the following pictures are blurry.]

Among the faithful were groups of men carrying their church's replica of the crucified Christ.

There were groups of women dressed to represent the Woman At The Tomb:

And other women were dressed like nuns:

Not Real Nuns - Check Out The Shoes!

Pre-School Nuns . . . Not Our Job To Worry About 
The Effect of This on Their Psycho-Sexual Adjustment

And not all of the groups were in outfits that translate well to Estadounidenses . . . 

No - NOT Who You Might Think . . . 

And at the end of the procession came the star attraction - the executed convict's grieving mother:

Periodically the procession would stop for someone to recite or sing and the men carrying statues would put their burdens down. The women would simply stop and sway silently, side to side. It was all very lovely and touching. 

There were, however, enough children in the procession to provide comic relief. At the beginning of the evening we got a good laugh watching one little alter boy who obviously thought it was his job to keep his fellow alter boys in line. His "charges" were not so sure about that. We amused ourselves wondering about what his future career path might be . . . 

Sierra de Organos

The next day we visited a nearby national park which is called Parque Nacional Sierra de Organos (Organ Mountains National Park) for reasons which became obvious as we hiked around.

Pipe Organs, Of Course!

We enjoyed a great day-hike and picnic among these strange, gigantic rock formations. 

Complete With Bird Watching

And Trying Out The Panoramic Feature
of Bryce's New Cell Phone

This was our first biggish walk since Bryce's operation:

The Hip Made It!

Even The Nurse Was Proud Of Herself

Because it was a Saturday the park was full of Mexican families doing what they do best - preparing food, enjoying each other's company, playing music - and making time to welcome foreign tourists to their country. 



The next day we drove further into the state of Zacatecas.

Durango - March 31-April 3, 2015

It's The Journey, Not The Destination

And sometimes that's not just a platitude.

Before leaving Mazatlan on the 31st of March we spent most of the afternoon having lunch with some yatista compadres - the crews of Dodger II (Leif and Jackie Watson), Full 'n By (Dick Towson and Anne Woodson) and Kewao (Tom Shenton). We didn't feel pressure to get on the road to Durango because we had read that, since the new cuota (toll road) between Mazatlan and Durango had opened in 2013, the drive to Durango had been reduced to "slightly under 2.5 hours". The old libre still exists, and it is said to wind around the side of the mountains providing spectacular views at the expense of a very long (up to eight hours long), death-defying ride.  

Well, after taking the new, fast, safer road to Durango our thoughts are: Holy Crap we're glad we didn't (a) take the free road, (b) have a beer at lunch or (c) ride with the guy that can do the trip in only 2.5 hours. 

The cuota - Mexico 40D - is an engineering marvel with 63 tunnels and 115 bridges, one of which is the highest suspension bridge in the world. The views are spectacular. But it's still a challenging, winding route and it took us 4.5 hours door to door.

You Do NOT Pull Over For Photos On MX 40D!

One of The 63 Tunnels

Another Of The 63 Tunnels

One of The 115 Bridges

Was THIS The Highest Suspension
Bridge In The World?

Durango

We pulled into Victoria de Durango (named for Mexico's first President, Guadalupe Victoria) around 8:30 in the evening (there's a time-change between the coast and Durango). We checked into the Hotel Gobernador (which we recommend) and had a glass of wine in the hotel bar before more wine and dinner in the hotel restaurant - too exhausted by the "easy" route to seek out other dining options.

Over the next two days we learned that Durango is a bustling, clean, prosperous (mostly from mining) city with just enough Mexican moments to make a visitor smile:

One Can Still Get A Shoe Shine On The Plaza

Gas Delivery Still Sometimes A Little Sketchy

   

And This IS Cowboy Country

The town was first founded in 1563 but most of the buildings are from the Porfiriato (the period during which Porfirio Diaz was president (1876 - 1910 ish).

Got Portales? Check!

Got A Plaza? Check!

Got A Cathedral On The Plaza? Check!

          Museo de la Ciudad 450:  There are more than two days worth of museums to see in town so we didn't see them all. But we understand why travel writers seem to be in agreement that the one museum to see is the Museo de la Ciudad 450. [The 450 reference is to the 450 years between the city's founding in 1563 and the opening of the museum in 2013.] 

The 450 covers a wide range of subjects including Durango's role in the motion picture industry. If you've seen a cowboy movie in the last 50 years you've probably seen scenes shot in Durango. Movies filmed in Durango include True Grit, The Wild Bunch, The Magnificent Seven and the "classic" chick-western, Bandidas (Bryce's favorite western . . . really, it's all about the story). 

Hollywood and Mexico's Film Industry Came Calling

The Duke Was There

Durango's other connection with the motion picture business is that it is the birthplace of Dolores del Rio. If you're too young to know who she is you should take time to watch Flying Down to Rio or The Fugitive. She's gorgeous.

The 450 also includes information about the history of Durango, even encroaching on the scope of the Museo Francisco Villa by including exhibit about Pancho Villa.

Molly and the First Mayor of Durango

A Former Miss Durango - Guess the Decade

The Alacran - A Symbol of Durango
(They Grow Big There!)

          Museo Francisco Villa:  As corny as a museum about Pancho Villa could be - this one isn't. It is a thorough, albeit somewhat romanticized, discussion of Sr. Villa's out-sized life. 

The short-hand version of that life is Sr. Villa was born in the state of Durango as Doroteo Arango Arambula. He used several aliases during his early years but became famous under the name of Francisco (Pancho) Villa. He held several jobs throughout his life including bandit, revolutionary, movie actor and border raider. He ended up an assassination victim. 

The museum is very interactive and we were amused to see that the visiting children/youths paid almost no attention to the artifacts or written materials. They went immediately to the interactive screens available in every room. Does one learn more or less by touching pictures on and hearing from a screen than by reading a wall plaque and looking at a piece of clothing once worn by a guy long dead? Hard to tell. 

Like many of the museums in Durango, this one is located in a spectacular turn-of-the-last-century building.

          El Aguacate: Our third museum was the UJED Regional Museum (UJED = Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango) also known for reasons we never figured out as El Aguacate (the avocado - ?). It has a rambling collection of rocks, minerals, mammoth tusks, taxidermed birds and animals, religious paintings by Miguel Cabrera, some pre-Conquest art, some conquistador armor, information about Durango during the War of Independence and the Revolution and an entire room dedicated to Pancho Villa.

           Walking Tour: On our first afternoon we hired a young woman who had approached us from a tourist kiosk in the Plaza de Armas to take us on a walking tour the next morning. She was a delightful guide - fluent-ish in English and knowledgeable enough about her city. We were her second tour and her first English-language tour! Sometimes you win at hire-a-random-local-guide roulette. It was nice to walk through town without having to stop and read our little tour map to find out if what we were seeing was important. She took us to several areas around the downtown core we might not have seen on our own.

          Teleferico:  Our final act of tourism was to ride the teleferico (a gondola ride) up to the view point in town. It gave Bryce a chance to fiddle with the panorama feature on his smartphone and we liked trying to spot where we had walked that morning. But really the view's not that spectacular so if you never get to take this ride you should not consider it a great loss. 

Durango as Panorama

Durango from the Mirador (Lookout) 

           Timing:  We were in Durango Tuesday through Thursday of Semana Santa (Holy Week or the week preceding Easter Sunday). Semana Santa of course has religious significance in a country where the majority (still) self-identify as Catholic Christians. But in large part Semana Santa in Mexico is a national holiday week. It's said that everyone not employed in the tourist industry or required to stay at work for public safety reasons is on holiday for Semana Santa. And life near the beach has led us to believe that's probably true. On the beach it's "Spring Break". 

But in Durango - even though it is only a "2.5 hour drive from the beach" - (ha) - it was quiet. Really quiet. It seemed like everyone had gone to Mazatlan for the party. On the night of Maundy Thursday (the day commemorating Jesus' Last Supper) we hailed a cab and asked to be taken to a popular steakhouse - only to find that it was closed. As was the next place the cab driver tried. Thankfully the restaurant at the Hotel Gobernador was open, the food was okay and the singer in the adjacent bar was good.  

[Travel Tip: Apparently tourists in Mexico who don't go to the beach for Semana Santa will have their Last Supper at a hotel restaurant!] 

Some Extremely Simplified and Condensed Historical Notes: 

Summer 2013 was our time for learning (a bit) about Mexico's war of independence from Spain. This trip through Pancho Villa country has been our chance to become thoroughly confused about Mexico's Revolution. To help you (and us) through the next few posts, here's what we think we know about the Revolution:

          The Revolution Isn't The War of Independence: Like many estadounidenses (people from the U.S.) we used to confuse Mexico's War of Independence with it's Revolution because in the U.S. the terms "war of independence" and "revolution" are both used to refer to the same conflict - that which established the U.S. as a separate political entity. 

In Mexico these terms refer to two different bloody conflicts separated by 100 years. The Mexican War of Independence (from Spain) took place in the 19th Century (1810 - 1820ish). The Mexican Revolution was an internal conflict initiated to overthrow the dictatorial regime of the Mexican President, General Porfirio Diaz. The Revolution took place in the early 20th Century (1910 - 1920ish).

          Cultural Note: Those of us of a certain age watched the Revolution played out in several Hollywood movies and on early television. Think: Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, big sombreros, bandoleros and lots of aye-yai-yais. Like other Hollywood historical flicks those about the Mexican Revolution include a grain of truth. But no one movie can do justice to the plot twists of the Mexican Revolution. 

At a minimum it would require an HBO series running for multiple seasons to accurately reflect the Mexican Revolution. 

          Plot Twists: The idealist Francisco Madero (and friends) managed to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Diaz (see above re: the Porfiriato). Diaz skedaddled to Europe. Madero was murdered by his top general Victoriano Huerta who became president but eventually skedaddled to Europe. Venustiano Carranza took power but was murdered while trying to skedaddle to Europe with a bunch of gold. Alvaro Obregon became president and in early 1921 defeated Adolfo Huerta who had somehow become an interim president. This Huerta is not the same Huerta that skedaddled to Europe - that Huerta died in El Paso trying to get back across the border and regain power. 

Fighting on a small scale continued but the war was mostly over by 1921. Of course there were other wars after that, but we'll try to stick to this one in this post. While all of these power shifts were going on Villa was switching allegiances frequently and with varied military success. He also made raids into the U.S. where he spent time in prison. Villa was given a hacienda for his services to the republic in 1920 and assassinated (maybe even by the same guys) in 1923. Zapata operated his own ideologically-based revolution with varied military success against anyone that wouldn't support land reform. He got killed in 1919. There were several different attempts to get Villa and Zapata to join with various other parties that had limited success. 

And along the way there were lots of agreements. Mostly broken.

          Foreign (Mostly U.S.) Intervention: The U.S. intervened both politically and militarily. General Pershing tried to capture Villa along the U.S./Mexico border. The U.S. Navy blockaded Veracruz to avoid importation of German arms to Huerta #1 (think timing: WWI is happening in Europe). The U.S. also took military action to protect American oil interests. 

Germany intervened politically and in 1917 actually offered (well, there was one telegram) assistance to Mexico to regain territory lost to the U.S. in the Mexican-American War (that one was in 1846-1848). 

Also in 1917 the U.S. entered WWI and didn't spend a lot more time intervening militarily. 

          Final Score: One million Mexican dead (though some 1918 flu victims may be counted in there), continued unrest, some land reform measures and decades of one-party (PRI) rule.

If you are interested in this non-linear happening the Internet has some interesting though sometimes inconsistent time-lines to walk you through the plot maze.  



Our next post will be mostly about Viernes Santos (Good Friday). We'll get back to the Revolution shortly thereafter.

Close to Home - Mazatlan -- March, 2015

Because we had The Truck with us while we were in Mazatlan, we took some day trips while our friends Frank Chan and Irene deBruijn-Chan were visiting. It was particularly interesting to visit some smaller towns after having been in the big city.  

Las Labradas

This boulder-strewn beach, located about 33 kilometers north of Mazatlan, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is the site of over 800 pre-Conquest rock carvings. Archaeologists estimate that these petroglyphs were created from approximately 1000 B.C.E. to 3 C.E. [Side note: The literature about the site refers to "over 600" rock carvings, but while we were there the head archaeologist for the site introduced us to a graduate student who had recently completed her thesis and had identified over 800 separate petroglyphs.]

The small site museum was closed when we were there. The staff was preparing a new exhibit for a big solstice event scheduled for the next day. But even without the museum, the visit was interesting. 

We shared our morning at the site with a group from a local university.

Students - Cell Phones and Cameras At The Ready

Frank and Bryce Posing With a Pretty Young College Student
Who Wanted Evidence That She Had Practiced Her English

A Permanent Resident of the Site

The petroglyphs were sometimes faint because it was a cloudy day, but others - even after more than a thousand years - were clear. Here are only a few of the over 800 carvings:

INAH (the Mexican institute for anthropology and history) offers a map identifying some of the more impressive carvings, but even using the map finding carvings is a bit of a treasure hunt. Fortunately, the diligent graduate student had marked several with tiny rocks with arrows or numbers on them.

Bryce and Irene On The Hunt

Bryce Testing His Agility on The Pebble-Covered Beach

And even if you're not a treasure-hunt fan or an archaeology buff, it's a nice day at the beach.

Irene and Frank Enjoying a Beach Moment

If you're going to Las Labradas don't forget water, a hat, your camera, and rock-walking shoes or sandals. It's an interesting place - but a location of high ankle-turning opportunity for those who don't take care. Also, you might want to schedule around meals as the "restaurant" in Barra de Piaxtla looks a bit - uh - rustic.

El Quelite

After working up our appetite searching for petroglyphs we drove back towards Mazatlan and took a side road to the village of El Quelite. The road into the village is lined with bougainvillea and the streets of the town are lined with brightly colored houses. The church was closed.  






The primary attractions in El Quelite are a couple of destination restaurants. We chose El Meson De Los Laureanos and we are happy to report that it has great food for a destination restaurant.  

And chickens!

El Rosario

Our second day trip was to one of Mexico's "Pueblos Magicos" - small towns throughout Mexico that have been designated as sites of particular beauty, cultural significance or historical relevance by Mexico's Secretary of Tourism. El Rosario is a former mining town about 30 miles south of Mazatlan known for its beautiful church and a museum honoring Lola Beltran, the queen of ranchera music. 

We did El Rosario proud.  We visited the church and saw the golden altar: 

Nuestra Seniora del Rosario

The Golden Altar

Altar Detail - Archangel Michael, We Think

Another Altar Detail

We visited the town square and saw the statue of Ms. Beltran. We even brought our own diva - Irene!

Our Own Diva!

We visited the Lola Beltran museum which was interesting but, oddly, didn't play any of her music - ? After touring the museum we sat for a formal "family portrait" taken by the charming museum guide.

The Andrews-Arnolds and Chan-deBruijn-Chans

Across from the museum were the ruins of the prior incarnation of Nuestra Senora del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary) which, we were told, collapsed when its foundation was negatively impacted by the mining tunnels underneath the town. The townspeople moved the church to its present location, creating an exact copy of the fallen church. 
  

Bryce, Explaining It All To Us . . . 

El Rosario didn't offer many obvious options for lunch so we asked a woman at a local tienda where we should go. She highly recommended the Restaurante Bellavista saying that it was where "everyone" liked to go. 

Travel tip: Before acting on a restaurant recommendation try to discern the dining preferences of the person offering the recommendation. 

It turns out that the Restaurante Bellavista is the snack shack next to an extremely popular water park. While we wouldn't recommend it for fine dining (or really for anything other than a few tacos) we had a great time watching groups of middle-school and high-school students enjoy the day. 

One local water park fan practiced his English skills by introducing himself and his high-school buddies to us, and proudly welcomed us to his town. He was remarkably fluent for one so young and confidently explained that his father was a doctor and that his plan was to attend veterinary school in Phoenix, Arizona. 

One of the boys he introduced then proceeded, with the most serious expression we have seen on a high-school boy in a long time, to ask us where we were from. We answered. He nodded and walked away. A few minutes later he returned to ask what we did for a living. We answered. He nodded and walked away. His third pass was another carefully thought out and grammatically correct question which we do not remember. We answered. He nodded and walked away. He certainly understood his seriously formatted questions - but we will never know if he understood our answers! 

So, while we can't highly recommend dining at the Bellavista, along with edible tacos you may have a thoroughly amusing afternoon.  

Once Frank and Irene left us, we packed up and departed for our Tour of Central Mexico - the home of cowboy hats, pick-up trucks and heroes of the Revolution ---- aye yai yai!