Mexican Holiday

To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: DOWNLOAD

When we were planning our month’s holiday in Mexico this winter, my husband and I decided that we would see as much of the country as we could rather than booking ourselves into one resort for the entire time. We would travel by bus and we would carry all of our belongings in two relatively small back packs. About a week into our trip we realized that we may have been rather ambitious about the amount of territory we were going to cover. We loved travelling by bus but we were not keen on making a two or three hour journey every day. We ended up getting “stuck” in one place that we instantly fell in love with. This place was a lovely little coastal town called Melaque, a three hour bus ride south of Puerta Vallarta. Despite it being a very popular place with tourists there was a laid back atmosphere and a strong presence of Mexican culture.

David spent many afternoons in the surf fishing with the locals. Following their example, he devised fishing gear for himself from materials he found in the trash or on the roadside. The process was very simple. Catch a little fish to be bait, hook the bait onto the line, fling the line out into the surf and catch a bigger fish. He was actually quite successful, much to the gratitude of our cleaning lady who took his catch home each night to cook for her family. Melaque is also home to hundreds of pelicans which fly over the beach competing with the fishermen for the minnows that swarm onto shore. They will dive head first into the water to catch these fish, narrowly missing anyone who is standing in the surf. Occasionally a pelican will misjudge the movement of the wave and crash into the sand. Or a greedy pelican will go after a bait fish and get caught by the hook. It is not unusual to see a group of people helping a bird regain its senses after nearly knocking itself out or working together to untangle it from the fishing line.

We spent a week in Melaque before finally forcing ourselves to get on the bus and move on. Our next stop was Colima.
Colima is famous for its earthquakes and its proximity to two active volcanoes. One Sunday morning we ventured north to a small, hilly town called Suchitlan with the hopes of getting a closer glimpse of the volcanoes. Because it was Sunday we found the streets of Suchitlan very quiet and most of the shops closed. As was typical for us when all else failed, we decided to look for a place to eat.

After a brief search we found the one and only restaurant in town as well as the entire population of the town. Seems on Sunday everyone does family stuff and starts off with breakfast at the local restaurant. The place was so busy that we had a difficult time finding a place to sit. Eventually we were invited to join a Mexican couple and their 6-year-old son at their table. The dad spoke a little English and with the use of our trusty dictionary, we managed to carry on a stilted conversation. We told them we were going to a place called San Antonio to get even closer to the volcano. They offered to take us in their Toyota truck. We figured this would be a little crowded so we declined and said we would take a bus. We then ran into a couple from Minnesota with whom we had crossed paths before in our travels, and they decided to come along. We were waiting for the bus when our Mexican friends drove by, repeating the offer to drive us, and pointing to the back of the truck. This was an adventure too appealing to refuse, so all four of us hopped in and headed out of town into the mountains. We came around a corner at the crest of a hill and there in front of us was our volcano, not only in perfect view, but also belching smoke. This was all very exciting until we were told it does that almost every day—didn’t really matter as it was unique to us and lots of fun.

For the most part we were very happy with the way our holiday turned out. It was a great learning experience for us. We learned that traveling by bus is a very comfortable and relaxing way to see the country. We learned that all we needed was what we could carry on our backs. (Laundries are convenient and economical.) We learned that we enjoy putting down roots for a few days before moving onto a new place, and finally we learned that even though the Mexican people were patient with our attempts to speak Spanish, we will be making an effort to be more proficient with the language when we return next year.