Villa Corona

Today we moved thirty Kilometers south to the small town of Villa Corona. Villa Corona is known for its beautiful Parque Acuatico Chimulco and it’s Hot Springs! There are three naturally hot pools and instead of pumping and filtering the water they simply empty the pools every night and refill them in the morning from the abundant underground hot springs. One of the side benefits for the people lucky enough to live in Villa Corona is that they get free heating and hot water! The water from the hot springs is piped throughout the town and into every home and business. The water has a very slight sulphur smell that you would quickly get used to although here, like everywhere in Mexico, bottled drinking water is the rule.

The Chimulco RV Park is probably the nicest RV Park we have stayed in yet in Mexico and is part of the pool complex. The aquatic park is open to the public during the day and is crowded with happy, laughing Mexican children and their watchful parents. Many of these visitors drive or bus down from Guadalajara for the day. They bring huge lunches that they eat at the many barbeque equipped picnic tables throughout the park. At night while the three main pools are being emptied and cleaned, another smaller pool is filled with hot water for the exclusive use of the residents of the RV Park. It is open from 7:00 to 10:00 at night. Tonight we shared it with three other couples.

There is a small lake beside the park which is a birding area and a nesting site for water foul. This is a lovely spot where we will spend a week. The camping fee for the week was $1,150 Pesos or about $105 CAN for a nice shady site with full hookups. This $17 per night includes free unlimited use of the water park.

We got Star Choice set up easily before dark, copying a neighbour’s settings. As I was tuning in the signal the neighbour behind us came over and offered to help. He said he had an “ulterior motive” for helping and that was that he would like to connect to our dish. This is a common practice down here. Why set up your own dish when the rig next door has one with four outputs? “No problemo” as they say in Mexico! This is what we did at the San Jose Park outside Guadalajara. I was starting to set up when my neighbour came out and told me to just connect to his dish. Very neighborly.

We are told there is a fantastic bakery in town that we will find tomorrow after I post this entry. There is no WIFI at the RV sites but it is available outside the park office where several tables with power outlets are set up for the purpose. After that and a swim I have to find a muffler shop to fix the Honda’s muffler that got knocked loose on a “tope” or Mexican speed bump that are sometimes marked with a sign and/or painted a contrasting colour and sometimes not. Even with the odd unmarked “tope” and endangered species bird pooping on the car, Life in Villa Corona is Good!

Teuchitlán Frustration

I wrote in an earlier entry about my fruitless search for the archaeological site near the town of Teuchitlán, west of Guadalajara. I had asked an English speaking policeman where the ruins were and he answered that he knew of no ruins nearby. I have now done more research and yes indeed, there are significant ruins there. In fact it is called "The most important archaeological discovery in Western Mexico." It consists of two Pyramids and several other buildings including a Plaza and sport courts. It dates back over two thousand years to Pre-Inca times. It is very well known in archaeological circles and is open to the public. There is also a museum near the site.

I don't know why I could not find it. If I saw a sign, I know enough written Spanish that I would not have missed it. The Policeman I talked to certainly appeared to understand what I was saying when I asked directions to the "ruins - archaeological - ancient civilization". Perhaps if I had said "pyramids - archaeological- ancient civilization", I would have gotten a different answer than, "I know of no ruins near here". Maybe the policeman was simply like me and pretended to understand more than he actually did.

This trip would be so much easier if I had better Spanish. I find occasions like this to be so very frustrating. It is no ones fault other than my own as I took off unprepared and with so little confidence in what I was looking for that I let myself be talked out of looking further by the answer to one obviously misunderstood question.

My next trip to Mexico I will have a small printer so I can have something to show when asking for directions. It would make life so much easier!

Here is a link to some photos of the site: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/teuchitlan_pyramids.htm

Guadalajara Cultural Museum

We visited the Cultural Centre today. It is a huge building of stone columns, vaulted ceilings, courtyards and fountains. It must have been a Palace of some sort Centuries ago and, like all the other Colonial buildings in Guadalajara, still leaves the visitor in awe of the architects and workers who created it!

There is also a large display of Pre-Columbian gold ornaments and jewelry. A jewelry store on the premises offered some very nice items at a price too good to pass up.

Back to Guadalajara Centro

We took the bus back to the old Centro of Guadalajara today. It was an exciting ride through very narrow streets at high speed! The bus ride cost only $41/2 Pesos ($.40 CAN) and took about an hour each way. We had three very positive interactions with Locals on the way back from the Centro. We got on the wrong bus by mistake and as we were talking about it a young man behind us offered to help, went to talk to the driver and came back to tell us how and where to get the proper bus. Then when we went to get off the bus, I left a parcel on the floor. It was a gift bag from a very expensive and well known shop in the Centro. A man sitting across from me called me back to get it when I was half way to the rear door. He could just as easily have waited until we got off and picked it up. The third time was when we decided to take a cab the rest of the way instead of waiting for the second bus. Our neighbours, who offered to pay, gave the driver $10 Pesos more than the $70 Pesos he had asked for. Instead of just taking the money, he made sure that they were aware that they had paid too much. They thanked him for being so honest and told him it was a tip. Once again we were shown how helpful and honest the Mexican people are!

Honda Repairs

After 240,000 KMs the old '89 Accord was finally demanding some attention. The (original) rear suspension was so weak our rear seat passengers were commenting on it "bottoming out" on every bump. The rear end of the car probably has well in excess of 275,000 KMs on it as a result of being towed on a dolly several times across the USA. The rear brakes were also in bad shape as a result of my driving the car with the emergency brake on. This is not the first time I have done this.... ( ;>(

I asked Andreas in the office if he knew of a good "Taller Mechanico", and he immediately recommended Ignacio Lozano Ramirez or, "Nacho" of Multiservicios Automotrices. Andreas called Nacho and arranged for him to meet me at the RV Park the next morning to ride with me for almost an hour in this huge city to his shop. Nacho is a former Commercial Lear Jet pilot who got tired of that boring job ("Fly for 18 minutes and then wait in a hotel room for two days") and decided to start working with his hands. His shop is open air, dirt floored and well equipped although not in the way most of you in Canada and the USA would expect but he had the tools to do every job. He took the brakes off and discovered both hydraulic cylinders were ruined as well as the shoes. He called his supplier who arrived on a motorcycle to take the old parts away to be replaced including the drums to be turned. Next Nacho's mechanic (his cousin) started taking the old shocks and coil springs off while Nacho's wife started calling parts suppliers for replacements. She found new shocks by the time she got to the "G"s in the Yellow Pages but by the time she got to the "XYZ's she still had no coil springs.

This is where you see the difference between Mexican and Canadian (or USA) mechanics. Instead of admitting defeat, Nacho got on the Internet and started researching. He discovered that 89 Accords had very similar suspension as several other years and some other models. His wife then started at the "A"s again and modified her search and finally found some springs. When they arrived, again by motorcycle, Nacho compared them with the old ones and found they had more coils and were slightly bigger (stronger). He looked hard at the pieces they had to mate to and declared, "I can make them work". He got a hacksaw and cut a couple of coils off, filed things down a bit where they joined the mounts and pretty soon we had a complete new rear suspension, much stronger than the original. That is a good thing as we use the car as a "cargo trailer" as we move around the country.

The brakes were now back but the replacement cylinders did not have the correct mounts to fit the Honda. Nacho looked at them and decided he could take the pistons and seals out of the new housings and put them back in my original housings. No Problemo!" He successfully did that and soon the Honda was sporting new brakes. A testimony to the ingenuity that comes from years of working with what you have.

All this took from 10:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night. Except for a short time when we were waiting for material, there was at least one and at times three people working on the car in addition to the hour or more that Nacho's wife was on the phone looking for parts. I was confident that my bill would be substantially less than it would have been in Canada but even then I was surprised when presented with a total bill of only $4700 Pesos or about $450 CAN. Of this about $360 was for parts and contracted out work (turning the drums) and the rest was labour. A very good deal!

Everyone worked very hard but had fun at the same time. They would tease each other and tell jokes which Nacho would translate for me. Soon everyone tried to tell their jokes in English for my benefit. Much was "lost in translation" which made them even funnier. Nachos daughter showed up with his six or eight month old granddaughter, Maria Carmalita, a beautiful little girl who was absolutely fascinated by my "white" face! She started laughing and giggling every time I got close to her. I played with her and talked to her mother and grandmother in the office for a couple of hours until she fell asleep and her mother took her home across the street where I think the whole extended family lives. By now it was dark and the car was finished. We test drove it by driving Nacho and his wife back to the RV Park so they could pick up their car and return home. He had been working for eleven hours with only one meal break and was hungry and exhausted. People who say Mexican workers are lazy should have been in that shop for the day! They would have changer their opinion.

The reason I had to stay with the car for the day is that Mexican Nationals cannot legally drive any vehicle with foreign plates! This makes life very difficult for mechanics as they cannot pick up, deliver or test drive the vehicles they are working on. The Mexican Government usually tries to make things easy for workers but this is a big exception!

Tonola Market

Tonola is a community just East of Guadalajara that is is famous for it's Market on Thursdays and Sundays. We headed out for the market after the traffic died down at about ten this morning with another couple from the RV Park. We followed directions provided by another resident and eventually found ourselves in Tonola. The market was huge, stretching several blocks down the main street. We drove to the end, getting some idea of the scale of the place, found some public parking and set off walking. We started down one side of the street and were quite surprised when we reached the end. We could not believe we had walked that many blocks. The market is a choreography of colours, smells and sounds! Anyone who has been to Mexico will know exactly what I mean and the rest of you will find out when you come here!

We walked back on the other side which held the better quality furniture and lawn ornaments. It would be great if we had a truck to bring all the "stuff" we wanted to buy back home, but alas! We had no room for it. We walked all the way back to the car and returned back to the Park in time for "Happy Hour" at 4:00. All in all a wonderful day and once again, in Guadalajara, Life Is Good!

More Tonola Market

Teuchitlan Wild Goose Chase

Teuchitlan is a tiny village about one hundred Kilometers West of our RV Park and for some reason I had drawn a circle around it on the map. Someone along the way had told me to visit it but I did not make a note as to why. I looked it up on the Internet ans found a reference to the town and was told it contained some ruins of a past civilization.

I decided to take a trip there yesterday and headed off by myself at around 10:00 after the traffic on the Periferico, the circle road around Guadalajara, had died down. Along the way I got a little lost and missed the turnoff to the town as I did not have my map reader with me. I stopped at a Pemex and got straightened out. I found the town and looked around for some sign of or to the ruins. Nothing. I found the Police Station and went in, finding an officer who spoke English. I asked him how to get to the ruins and he had no idea what I was talking about! "I know of no ruins near here" he said.

Well. there must be two places in Mexico with the same name and it just proves that I should do a little more research before I take off in a cloud of dust! In any case, the day was not wasted. I saw a beautiful little village and met an accommodating policeman. Here in Teuchitlan, Jal., Mexico, Life Is Good!

Water Dog

Next door to the RV Park is a large lot and a house with a dog in a fenced in area. The lawn was being watered with one of those huge agricultural type sprinklers that slowly revolves in a circle. Once every pass it would spray into the fenced dog's area. The dog would fixate on the sprinkler as it slowly made it's circle, barking and jumping all the time. As it got closer to his area he would start going crazy waiting for it until it finally sprayed him. At that time he would jump up half way to the top of the fence and move sideways under the spray until he came to the fence on the other side where he would start the whole routine over again waiting for the next shower. It was midday, sunny and about 27 degrees and he was taking full advantage of the cool shower! For this particular dog on this particular day in Guadalajara, Life Is Good!

Note - the photos did not come through on this posting so you will have to use your imagination to visualize the dog jumping at the fence. I will try to post it again when the connection is better