Our trip to Mazamitla.

Saturday, we took a roadtrip to a town on the other side of Chapala Lago called Mazamitla. It is a mountain tourist town. Every part of the trip was an adventure. And a show of our incredibly bad luck.

First, on the way there, the mirror of another car hit our mirror. Dave stopped to check it out and the man came over and demanded money to pay for it. His mirror had fallen off. But Dave said that the other man was in the wrong because he should have gotten over more on the crowded, narrow street. The man threatened to stand in front of our car so we couldn't leave while we waited for the police -- unless we give him 600 pesos (about $60). If the police come they will impound both cars and wait until an agreement can be made till we get it back. Dave thinks the other man was drinking, but in order for the police to test him, we would have to make a complaint and pay for the test. Laura was with us and just told us to pay him, because a ticket, impound fee and sobriety test would cost us more than $60 and mean our whole day would be taken with this stuff. She said we should have just driven away before he came over, after we knew everything was alright. So Dave paid him and we went on with our trip.

We finally made it to Mazamitla, about 2 hours later. We were starving so we stopped for tacos. We're trying to get over our fear of small taco shops and restaurants because we have heard so much about them making gringos sick. This one looked fairly clean. It was good but I didn't want to eat too much, just in case. So I was hungry most of the day after.

After lunch we went to a tianguis market and looked around. The souveniors all looked the same as the stuff you see in every Mexican market we have ever been to. I wonder where they get thier merchandise. Seems like the same places. Nothing too impressive.

Next we decided to take a tour of the mountain road and another town nearby. It was very pretty and actually got rather chilly as we climbed the mountain. We passed by a house that apparently had been owned by an American druglord before he got carted off to prison by the FBI. It sits empty and falling apart because the Mexican government aren't organized enough to sell it.

The other pretty town had a reservoir and cute plaza that we got to see for about 5 minutes because we spent the other 15 minutes of the stop in a line at the pay toilet.

Then we were off again on the bus back to Mazamitla. Our next activity was supposed to be to rent some 4-wheelers for a few hours but by the time we got back to the car and on our way to the rental place it had started to rain. Then it started to sleet. We had to pull off the road several times and wait for it to let off a bit.

Overall, I think the kids will remember the 4 movies they got to watch in the car, not getting to buy anything at the market, and not getting to ride 4-wheelers. Not our best trip, but we're not giving up. And Dave did take a few good pictures.