Cosala Pueblo Magico

Way back on December 29^th we visited the little town of Cosala. It was designated a Pueblo Mágico in 2005 because of its beauty and history. The town was founded on March 13, 1562!

We went to visit Paquis and her family in their beautiful home there. After visiting for a while her husband, Chiquis, took us on a tour of the town and a nearby silver mine. These are just a fraction of the pictures I took that day - I took 250 pictures! It has taken me this long just to decide which ones to share.

The 206 mile round trip there and back. We went there on the Libre 15 (free road) and came back on the Cuota 15D (toll road)I know I posted this map before - 

The town is one of the prettiest towns we’ve been in. It is like we stepped back into the time of the Spaniards.

Following Chiquis through the town. The colors are amazing.

 

Aren't the colors amazing? The sidewalks are high to keep water out of the homes during heavy rains and flooding.

One of the narrow streets. Lots of trees and flowers in the town too. 

We stopped at the Hotel Quinta Minera to look around. 

 Avacado trees growing in the courtyard.

Some of the grounds of the hotel - one of two pools. 

Bill and Chiquis leading the way. 

Back out on the street driving around towards the center of town. More high curbs, narrow cobblestone streets and colorful homes. 

 Most of the homes/buildings have a molding of some sort at the top of the walls, under the roof. 

 Lots of arches - typical of that Spanish era. 

 And lots of street that end abruptly - have to turn either right or left - pretty sharp turns that made me glad we were in the Jeep. 

 A small plaza with trees and fountain.

Nearing the main plaza - the church was built in the 1700s. It is white and pink.

Some of the buildings on the main plaza. All the signs above the door ways in town are written in the same type of old fashioned lettering.  

 Another view of the church from the plaza. 

One of the original buildings in the town - the Jesuit House - the crown above the door is their symbol.

 A little walk through only street. 

 More of that street

The blue building is a hardware store - the yellow has a dentist office

 Just a pretty building. I like the light fixtures and balconies. 

 Lots of vendors selling peanuts downtown. 

I have lots more pictures of the town but this gives an idea of how pretty it is. A definite must see. Like stepping back in time.
Will do another post on our visit to the silver mine and our evening with our hosts another time. This is long enough and I have to start on what we did yesterday - another amazing day here in Mazatlan. 

An evening in one of the colonias with Paquis

Let’s see what is going on now. Today Sunday was more or less a stay at home day. Except around lunch time. We drove over to the sports bar in the marina – Christy’s. We planned to eat lunch and watch the soccer game between Barcelona and Atletico but I mixed up the time and we only got to see the last five minutes of it. Barca won 3 to 1. Then we watched the first half of the Colts/Broncos game. Came home at half time and watched the end on Mazatlan TV – in Spanish. Not the ending we wanted. And the weather there in Denver – wow - ugly. I read where Manning doesn't do well in weather below 40 degrees - hummmm...

Got a message that we sold one more of our hard back books, our friend staying in the house will mail it out.

Finally think we’ve solved the bird into the window problem. Both the lower half of the window and the rearview mirror are now covered with black trash bags – he doesn’t like that. But this morning one of the big blue birds came up to the window right next to me. Grabbed onto the ledge and pecked at the window. I jumped about a foot. Kind of like looking at something from Jurassic Park.

Yesterday morning we went out to breakfast. Always a nice way to start the day. Some of the activity on the beach in front of the restaurant.

fruit on the man's head and Bill is looking at a rug - beautiful 

Then we headed into Centro Historico to do some errands. Bill had another watch that the battery wore out in, took it to the watch makers. Picked up my second pair of sunglasses. Really like them. And stopped at a printers to see about getting some more of our traveling business cards printed seeings how we don't want to pay the price of printer ink here. 200 cards will be cheaper than one cartridge of ink!

Also went to the central market where I got still another blouse! Some of the pretty hand embroidered dresses for sale.

And how is this for a slab of ribs [beef]. 17 pounds for 280 pesos – less than 20 US dollars. No we didn’t buy any. Just looked.

Late afternoon we got a call from our friend Roberto who is the congresswoman’s right-hand man. He wondered if we wanted to go out to one of the colonias [a section of town] to meet some of Paquis constituents. Of course we went. She was having a meeting in the back yard of a home. This little dog in her dress greeted us.

A lot of the homes have a brass plaque at their front doors – with their family name on it.

Setting up for the meeting – dining room chairs. They were beautiful as was the large matching table inside.

A few of the people there. More women than men. 

In the background are Bill, Roberto in light shirt and Paquis husband in blue shirt.

Talking to the people and listening to them.

The ladies of the home cooked food for everyone. The evening ended with a light meal and beverages.

Interesting evening.

Had to put gas in the Jeep last night it is around US$ 3.55 a gallon depending on the exchange rate. At least it has stopped going up every month. But doubt if it will ever go down. 

Out and About in Mazatlan Evening

Here I am again still trying to play catch up. But most of it will be about yesterday too.

As Bill likes to say “Another beautiful day in Paradise.” The sun is up the wind has stopped and not a cloud in the sky. Supposed to stay in the low 80s. I hope. Yesterday and last night was almost perfect.

So to Backtrack – January 3^rd, a Saturday, we went to El Quelite for breakfast. Janet and Ron went with us – they’d never been there. Boy did we ever pick a bad day to go there. It was CROWDED – cars parked all over – even the back and side streets were full.

We forgot all the Mexican tourists in town for the holiday weeks – and with the new road to Durango I think half of the population from inland was here.

We even had to wait for a table in the restaurant – that has never happened before. Every seat in the main restaurant and the new section across the wash was filled. We sat under the umbrellas – which we haven’t done since I got pooped on! As always the service and food was great. And Janet and Ron really enjoyed it.

I didn’t take many pictures of the town as I think I already have a picture of every home in town. But kind of liked this one. The sign is pointing up the hill towards the bakery and the cock farm.

Up the hill we went towards the farm. Parked in front of the cemetery – It is really an interesting one with all the bovedas [houses in the cemetery] some of the bigger than the houses in town.

This time we got a chance to walk in the cock farm. The care taker opened the gate for us. The little tent like things are cement – each bird has his own “home.” There are over 3,000 birds there. This is one of the biggest farms around. The birds range in price from US dollars 300 to over thousands.

Watching us watch him. They are sure beautiful colors.

There are three or dogs wandering around the birds – they don’t pay any attention to each other. And a burro wandering through the area.

Because it was so busy we didn’t do much else. And the road into town is still all tore up but we managed to take the detour both in and out this time. 

Before I forget this is a picture of the restaurant we ate in a couple of nights ago with Paquis. It’s called Campestre La Marina.

Now to yesterday. The day started out quiet already mentioned looking for printer ink and grocery shopping. Had a quiet afternoon at home. Then Bill got hungry and neither of us wanted to cook so we went out to dinner – picking up Ron and Janet on the way. We revisited the great Italian restaurant we went to the other night. Again excellent food and service. When we finished eating it was too early to go home and the weather was cooperating – warm not windy – so we took a drive. Sure glad we did.

We drove along the Malecón – there were a lot of people strolling along but not so much traffic as the holidays are over. As we came to the area where the cliff divers perform it was packed with people. So we stopped – managed to find a parking place as someone pulled out. The first thing we heard was music – flute and drum.  Not a good picture because it was dark. They were playing a lot of Peruvian music – some of our favorite music.

Then we walked along the sidewalk. All kinds of food vendors were there. The food vendors have to pay 1,200 pesos per year to buy a permit from the government agency that regulates them. Their paper work is checked by roving inspectors.

Corn on the cob – and kernels of corn in cups. [to our tastes it is not very good – not sweet corn.] The dish in the middle is Salchitacos - wieners wrapped in tortillas and fried and topped with beans, cream, shredded pork, cheese, chiles, mayo and what ever else you want. The plate on the left is sliced wieners.

Handing one to a customer –

This cart sells cocos helados  - cold coconut – you can just drink the milk or add a bunch of stuff like hot sauce etc. Haven’t tried one yet…

Yet another vendor. These are bananas frying.

Bananas on a tray being cut into bite sized pieces.

Topped with caramel sauce and condensed milk.

And pancakes cooking. After cooking jam or caramel sauce and/or condensed milk tops them.

Another vendor. Bill is asking her what a roll of white stuff was. It was pork fat, uncooked and cut into chunks to be added to other “stuff”  No thanks. 

Vendors baby patiently waiting for work to be done and to go home.

Cute right?

Back into the car and over to the Plazuela Machado for a walk around. The music school was having classes – there were four teenagers learning the xylophone. Sounded pretty good.

And more practice. Didn’t sound so good.

At one of the restaurants – the guy in the back in the middle in the white shirt was playing the keyboard and singing. Listened to him for a bit.

At another restaurant there was a man with a guitar and at Pedro and Lola's restaurant a jazz group. Lots of music in the plaza to choose from. 

And then a really good group performing in the gazebo. The female singer had a beautiful voice. 

All in all a busy and fun night out and about the town. Always something new and interesting to do.