The Golden Years: A quick necessary trip to Tepic

Had an interesting time yesterday. Took an unplanned trip up the mountain to Tepic. The night before we had a brown out here on the beach and not long after that the microwave did a flash bang. No more microwave. How can we live without a microwave – we can’t. So therefore a trip to Tepic to get a new one.

The road up the mountain to Tepic is a beautiful ride – notice I said ride not drive. The road goes through banana and mango plantations as it climbs to 4000 feet. Some of the views are spectacular. Even the road itself is covered with tropical vegetation. In places its like driving through tunnels made of trees. Some of the scenery.

Lots and lots of flowering trees along the way too.

The road goes through a few small towns so you never know what you’ll find. Coming into one we ended up being part of a cattle herd. The cowboy on his horse stopped us so the cattle could cross the street. As they passed us they were rolling their eyes and heads. Sure glad one of those big horns didn’t touch Willie.

Driving on any road in Mexico you pass people on their three wheeled carts, bicycles and just walking. Usually carrying some kind of bundle. So many of them are out in the middle of no where – we wonder where they came from and where they are going. At least this man was almost to a village.

There is one rather big village we have to pass through. Jalcocotan is a narrow village about four street wide but quite long. The main street which is the road to Tepic is two narrow cobblestone lanes wide. And of course cars and trucks are parked along it sometimes on both sides. This car is being worked on – maybe – maybe it’s just being discussed. Most of the businesses have a couple of chairs out front and most of the chairs are occupied – by men.

People walk on the street making it even narrower. Another interesting thing about this town are the Vados – a vado is like a dip – a big dip. At every intersection the crossing street forms a vado. You can kind of see it in the picture.

Then we ended up behind a trash pick up truck. Had to stay there most of the way through town.

It's kind of shaky cause the road is really rough. But you can tell when we go over a tope or through a vado!

Once out of Jalcocotan we just had to pass through a couple of tiny towns with topes before arriving in Tepic. One nice thing about the ride up the mountain with every 100 or so feet of elevation the temperature dropped – way down to 69 degrees. LOVED it. Tepic itself was around 75 – when we got back to the beach it was 91 degrees – don’t love that.

Anyway we headed to WalMart and first thing checked out the microwaves. Had the measurements of the size we could use and found a Whirlpool that fits just fine. It is just a plain microwave no convection – never used that any way and that was the part that went. All buttons on it are of course in Spanish but they have pictures – one button is for heating tortillas! The instruction book came only in Spanish – no other languages like at home. Any way it is installed and works fine. Even the clock is set! It cost around US$125 – which is a little more then we’d expect to pay for it at home. Surprisingly the Mexican brand was only about US$8.00 cheaper.
While we were inside shopping Willie was getting a much needed bath. In the WalMart parking lot there are a lot of car washers with their machines with a water supply and a high pressure hose.
Also picked up a few groceries while there then headed home. Took the other road down the mountain as it is a little less curvy. But it required we take the toll road just far enough to have to go through a toll booth.
Passing one of the little markets I noticed that there are bundles of corn husks for sale. Getting ready for Christmas when tamales are made by everyone.

Just a view from the road coming home.

I took our cell phone with us to Tepic in case we wanted to make some calls. Here at the beach we sometimes have service but it isn’t very good. When we got to Tepic I realized it was discharged. Last time I did something with it I forgot to plug it back in to charge. Grrrrrr…..
Bill’s ankle is somewhat better. He kept it wrapped in the morning and the swelling was reduced quite a bit. It is still painful to put weight on though. He says he is fine but he is walking with a definite limp and list.
Before going home we stopped in San Blas for lunch and visiting.
And that was about all our activity for the day.
Watched the news from CT until I just couldn’t take it any more. How horrible. Cannot imagine how the parents feel. It is strange but here at El Chaco there are four RVs – three of us have lost a son. So the mood here is pretty somber.
Kind of a pretty sunset here last night compliments of a few clouds in the sky.