Another journey, to the south of Guadalajara

Glenn left last Sunday and we had a few days to explore so decided to head south and west of Guadalajara for a couple of days to the capital of Colima State, a city called Colima. It is close to the coast, much lower than Guadalajara and as a result much warmer. We also visited two other smaller places a short distance away. The first was Comala, another of the magical cities in Mexico and the second was Suchitlan, higher in the mountains, much cooler than Colima and best know for a famous restaurant.

We got to ride on ETN busses there and back and that is almost a holiday in itself as the busses are huge, with just 24 seats. They are three across and enough room between the seats to almost stretch out completely. They are definately worth the few dollars extra rather than just a regular 1st class bus. I always think it is a close to riding first class on an airplane as we will ever get.
These first two photos of are a Christmas market in Colima. This one of many hundreds of small Christmas figurines.

Ron and Dennis sitting in the central park in Comala.

This is the restaurant we went to in Suchitlan. It was huge with many 100`s of places to sit and we understand that on the weekend it is full. People come from all over to enjoy its delicacies. We are not sure we would go back and if we do we will try different entries. We also think it gets tour bus crowds.

As part of the celebration this day there was a huge food market set up in the park and some men women and children wore the style of clothes as you see on this woman

Another tradition on this day was to walk on your knees, up the isle of the church to the altar.

The foodstuffs for sale were numerous and varied as this photos shows. The red stuff is coconut with a red sweet milk covering. It was for sale on every table so it must be a big Christmas treat.

The little wagon in the aisle shows that everyone did not have to crawl the distance on their knees.

Two years ago when we were in Colima we watched a parade from the balcony of our hotel. And once again there was another parade this year passing by the window of our hotel room.

More of the same parade with the music of the Mariachies.

What to do when you are at a booth selling things and business is slow? This park had wireless internet and she was occupying her time on line.

There was a whole lot going on n the park this particular evening as it was the 1st of December and was a special day leading up to the 12th of Dec which is the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a very famous and holy day in Mexico. The church bells rang and rang and rang and not automatically as you can see by the next photo. People were in the belfry pulling the ropes to make the bells ring. It sounded pretty awesome

And lo and behold, as we were walking back to hotel, we encountered another parade. These were serene young girls on this float, and had more to do with the Virgin of Guadalupe celebration.

We are back in Tlaquepague and looking forward to our next great event. Our Seattle son is coming tomorrow for 4 sleeps and it will be exciting. We are not plannng any big trips, just visiting and getting him to know Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque.