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Published: April 20th 2010
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Guadalajara
Mariachi festival I arrived in Guadalajara to stay with Susy and Sergio in their lovely little flat. They took me out for delicious Sopes and to see some live bands in the plaza one night. I also met with Prisca another couchsurfer who took me to Cochala, to a Mariachi festival. It was an interesting experience, she works for the government in the cultural department and was invited as a special guest, so we got taken on a tour out to a hacienda and around the local churches as well as special treatment at the opening of the festival. I also spent a lovely day wondering around Downtown and visiting the art galleries, all free on Sundays!
Next i headed to Bucerias, a town just north of Puerto Vallarta. I stayed with the crazy, but lovely Su De Los Santos and pretty much as soon as my bus pulled in we jumped on another and headed to Sayulita a lovely hippy town, with a gorgeous beach and spent the rest of the day there. Su lives in a gorgeous old style Mexican house, all bricks and tiles, only 3 blocks away from the sea. I was planning on staying a few days but
Guadalajara
Mariachi festival ended up here for a week! Su took me to a beach party one night and we danced all night and well into the next day! She also took me out to some beaches only the locals know, which were so much prettier and quieter than PV or Sayulita, although it is easter and half of Mexico seems to be here! I went into PV one day and it was nice but so Americanised, most things are priced in Dollars and everythings in English, i'm glad i'm not staying there, which was my original plan.
I've only recently gotten over the flu which i had for 2wks, but i got a call from Sergio, who i stayed with in Guadalajara, to tell me he has Swine flu! So if i get ill again i have to go straight to the doctor! Thankfully i'm feeling great right now, i'm putting it down to all the sun i've been getting!
Su sent me to stay with her Mum, Sandra and daughter, Edme in Mazatlan, a proper Mexican experience! The 3 of us sharing one room, a bucket of warm water for a shower and cactus, scrambled eggs and tortillas for breakfast! Mazatlans
another beach town, but with a more mexican feel, the old centre is all colourful old buildings and the 17k´s of beach are practically deserted! Su´s brother, Rogelio also lives at the house and although they don´t have many nice things to say about him, he did take me out for lunch with his Daughter and niece and then sightseeing the following day! Theres the strangest milkshake bar around the corner from Sandra its health shakes and while you wait you get given facewashes and moisturiser to try, everyone was taking it very seriously and i was sitting there trying not to laugh out loud! Sandra also took me to a plot she owns on the edge of the city, its basically in the slums with wooden shacks everywhere, she sometimes sleeps there and the people who live there are hoping the owner will sell them the plots so they can build permenant homes! Sandra also gives free english classes to anyone thats interested, so we gave a class to a group of kids while i was there!
From Mazatlan i headed to Los Mochis for the evening, theres nothing there but you have to stay the night if you
want to get the train through Copper Canyon, as it leaves at 7am. I got up at 5am to get the bus to the station and at 6am i was getting a bit worried as it still hadn't turned up, but just as i was thinking i'd better get a taxi it finally appeared! My plan was to get off the train at Bahuichivo and get the bus to Urique then stay there a few nights before getting the bus back and hopping back on the train to Creel. What i didn't count on was that prices had inflated so much that i didn't have enough money on me to carry this plan out! The hostel i wanted to stay at had a garden and you could help yourself to anything in season so i reasoned that if i didn't have to buy food i could just make it! So hoping everything would work out i continued with my plan! Then fate decided to take control in a strange way! When i arrived at the hostel, which was expecting me, no-one was there. I sat around for a while waiting and checked out the buildings finding the kitchen open. When
it started getting dark i thought i'd better go inside and still no-one showed up, so i got out my sleeping bag and spent the night on the kitchen floor. The next morning i found someone and they let me in to the dorm room and only charged me for 1 night, which again cost more than i thought it would! So basically if i hadn't had to sleep on the floor i wouldn't have had the money to get to Creel!
Urique was beautiful, its at the bottom of the gorge and you can follow the river in either direction for days, although i only did a few hours, in the baking heat it was enough! When i got back on the train 2 days later all i wanted to do was sleep, i couldn't work out why as it was only midday, but someone pointed out we had come up to 2500m so altitude probably had something to do with it!
Creel is a small town, but a big tourist centre. It actually has a cheap hostel which is unusual for Mexico, for 5 quid i got a dorm bed, breakfast and dinner! The place was falling apart
a bit though and we could only get into the dorm by climbing through the window! I went on a tour around the valleys, with strange rock formations and visited the cave dwelling Taramuhara. Also went on a 22k walk to a lovely waterfall and back.
I headed to Chihuahua city next, on the bus as its half the price of the train! I stayed with a girl called Alejandra, but the first night she was busy so i stayed in a cheap hotel. We met at lunch time the next day and she took me to the government building which has fantastic murals depicting the history of Chihuahua state and gave me a quick history lesson. We then went to her grandma´s to eat and met her Aunt´s and cousin´s, they kept saying how quiet i was, but its difficult when everyones speaking spanish and you can´t join in the conversation! The next day Alejandra took me on a tour around the city, up to a view point and for the best icecream in town! Chihuahua´s a proper cowboy town, the guys wear jeans, checked shirts, stetsons and cowboy boots, and this is the town to buy your boots,
in any colour you can imagine! 2 days was more than enough in Chihuahua theres really not that much to see, so i got the overnight bus and headed south again!
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