Tonto Rolls Again!

Rolling again. Since Casa Chachacha is rented out, we loaded up Tonto and hit the road. Of course as all our planning goes, we had no big plans in mind, just to see where the roads in Mexico lead.

After flying through Guadalajara we wanted to get a glimpse of Lake Chapala. We drove a road on the north side of the lake, with variable details on how long it would last. At one point it seemed as if we were going through someone’s yard, but no, just around the corner the dirt road, continued. It was the first of many narrow roads, but it only ment we had a closer view of the kids playing with home-made kites, donkeys tied to telephone poles, and the homes built on the steep banks of the lake. We ended up boondocking in a field once we joined the highway again, with a tiny vista of the lake. But it felt good. We put Lobo on patrol, in his chair, with his blankey, outside the van to watch for “banditos” and settled down for the night. Early in the morning, before sunrise, our fearless watchdog sprang from his chair and started barking. John turned on the light, and we saw a farmer and his son coming into the field with a truck, a horse, and some milk containers. Lobo came inside, we rolled over, and everyone went about their business. About three hours later, at a reasonable hour, the farmer had finished milking the cows, and John and I started our day. I had the opportunity to chat with the farmer. He was very nice, and very proud to tell me he was hoping to get work in Washington state in the future, with his other son I think. He thanked us for the light early in the morning and offered his horse if we wanted to go for a ride. I declined the horse ride (to John’s amazement) and they went on their way.

A few weeks ago, our friends Mike and Rosemary from Oz lent us the move “Beat” about William S. Burroughs and his friends when they spent some time in Mexico. In one of the scenes two of the characters visited a church that had been partially buried by a volcano. It turns out that in 1943 a man actually witnessed the birth of a volcano and by 1952 Volcan Paricutín had engulfed two towns! When John, Lobo and I arrived, we concluded that the church was “very lucky” since nothing within the 6 mile radius of the volcano is visible under the piles of lava, yet there are a few walls and a steeple still intact. John put it this way “Everywhere we go we see very cool things that are human made, or natural, but this is beautiful and cool because it is an amazing combination of both!” It was a great stop, for the Volcano, the ruins, and the very old town of Angahuan where women are in colorful dress and men are on horseback, well, for the tourists who want a ride. What a wonderful way to spend Valentines DAY!