Mexico - Shaye and Elizabeth Visit - 1

This week finds Emily recovering from a head-cold. There has been a sore throat, head-cold and cough going around and she got it. The Munoz family (our downstairs neighbors) was very sweet while she was sick. They sent over a beautiful bouquet of flowers and pots of stew. But after lots of fresh squeezed OJ, echinacea, grated fresh garlic and lots of rest she is doing much better now.

We mentioned in our last post we had our first visitors - our great friends Shaye and Elizabeth. It was great to see some of our USA family. We miss you all and wish all of you could be here with us. Emily put together highlights of their trip. I compiled PART 1 below, PART 2 is yet to come!

The girls arrived Sunday late afternoon after a very long day of travel. It was so nice to see our dear friends. After many big hugs we dropped off their luggage at our place and went for dinner. We took them to one of our favorite local spots 'Lulus' and introduced them to Barbacoa Sopes - MMMMMM ... Barbacoa... We took a sunset walk on the beach and started to catch up on the last few months.

Two tired girls.



Monday - Shopping and sightseeing in Centro (Downtown Manzanillo).
You can see the ships and equipment behind these guys holding items in the back of the truck from falling out.


Centro is a port harbor.



Manzanillo is the Sailfish Capitol of the world – we see this logo on items and businesses all over town.



The Centro is very hilly


Can you imagine bringing groceries home?


This was a very interesting looking plant with a very odd smell – something like rotten meat. Elizabeth explained the connection with it’s other odd characteristic - it’s pollinated by flies instead of bees. I love how creative Jehovah is!



They appreciate Superman in Mexico too [hand made from a coconut shell]



Tuesday – Puebla Blanca and La Hacienda
Tuesday we took a drive to the charming little Pueblo of Comala. All the homes are painted white with old iron work. It reminded us of a little European village.
Pretty plants along the way.




We can smell this delicious bakery from blocks away.



This sun dial was interesting and accurate.


We love this little queseria (cheese shop). Comala is known for their cheeses. They make flavorful renditions of traditional Mexican cheeses. We miss the Amazing cheeses from Oregon. We’ve found commercial Mexican cheeses often bland so we were excited to discover this little cheese shop.


Elizabeth was excited that they had this flavor of Ponche.

She grows passion flower vines in her large green house. She has collected gorgeous varieties from all over the world and sells them on her web site HERE

Comala is the home of Ponche - a local liqueur. It is made with agave – a similar process to tequila. There are numerous flavors – lots of creamy ones – our favorites are coconut, coconut with pineapple, “cajeta” a type of caramel (the Ponche version tastes like Irish Cream) and coffee. They also have fruit ones – passionflower, guava, pomegranate, blueberry... They have odd ones too – tamarind and "Cacahuete" - cream and ground up peanuts which is actually not bad.

A few miles outside of Comala is a little community called Nogueras. “La Hacienda de Nogueras” - an estate that was a sugar plantation founded in 1531. We only had time to explore the Main House (also called a Hacienda – confusing) – built in the 1600’s. During the Mexican Revolution 100 years ago almost all of the main houses were severely damaged or burnt. The main house was beautifully restored but on our next visit it will be neat to learn more about which features are original.

The house is built around the main courtyard – all of the rooms open onto it.

Any guesses as to what this is?

Dane was hoping it was a cerveza tap...

I was with Dane’s idea but Shaye offered it’s most likely to fill up bowls of water to bring to bedrooms to wash before there was full indoor plumbing. The community was built along streams of runoff from the volcano which they used for households and irrigation.



Some very interesting mysterious contraptions in this workroom/ stable/ shop.



I got a kick out of their signage – it tells you where to stand for a good photo.


Elizabeth in her favorite spot – looking for interesting plants



I was fascinated by these… They were all over the grounds. The builders diverted the volcano runoff to irrigate the whole property.





At first he was hiding - then he peeked out so we could get a good shot – what a poser!





So we have all seen the stickers on the back windows of a family car that shows cartoon figures of all the family members - sometimes even the dog or cat. We got a kick out of the Mexican version - can you see who the 4th member of this family is?

The family rooster. I love it!


Wednesday – Slept in and La Audencia Beach
A chill day. We slept in and relaxed for the morning and went to the beach for the afternoon.


La Audencia beach. It’s a tiny bay with beautifully clear water.


Found a couple dead jellyfish...





Elizabeth was SO excited when the Corn-On-The-Cob Vendor came calling down our street. If you’ve ever seen “Nacho Libre” you may recognize this.

Its corn with either mayo or cheese. The cheese was yummy but I’m not a big fan of field corn – they don’t have sweet corn here.
Watch out she'll throw it at your eye! (Also Nacho Libre reference)


Thursday – Jungle Hike
After a well needed rest day we were ready for more adventuring. We had read about a beautiful area to check out with a cavern by La Florena. Mexican signage is notoriously nonexistant so we didn't figure we'd find the cavern but the girls were hoping for a rustic hike so we set out to explore. We never found the cavern but it was a hoot trying. There was no signage but the locals were happy to help. And all of them were very optimistic. Each one encouraged us that it was just 2 more kilometers (1.2 miles), 10 more minutes... After a couple of hours we were dubious about these clams. They all kept pointing us in the same direction so eventually we might have found it but the road got too rough and we'd seen enough for one day.



Thursday was a treat especially for Elizabeth. Driving through the hills made for ultimate plant gazing. With each bit we climbed there was enough of a change for there to be lots of different species.

Just when we thought we’d left everyone behind we saw a couple of homes and this old school. No signs of electricity or other amenities.


It was such a neat experience going with an avid plant expert. She could spot little fascinating plants as we were going. She showed us dozens of Jehovah's pretty things I've never seen before. How true the words at Ecclesiastes 3:11 - "Everything he has made pretty in its time. Even time indefinite he has put in their heart, that mankind may never find out the work that the true God has made from the start to the finish." Delightful!



Dane studies a particularly rocky patch to see if our little car can manage it.

The road had been pretty rough off and on. Dane decided it wasn’t wise to push our car further as it seemed to be getting worse. We decided to explore on foot.

We hiked past this rustic farm.




Dane found a lemon tree.



Thanks for joining us for our adventure! We'll have Part 2 of Shaye and Elizabeth's visit up soon.