The Road North (Part 1)

…runs through New Mexico. In late August, I left Loreto in Baja California Sur and drove 1,100 miles to Taos where Rande had spent the summer. Our plan was to drive to Whidbey Island in northern Puget Sound to visit her family, but first I had to deal with an ear problem. On what turned out to be my last dive of the summer in the Sea of Cortés, I had what diver’s call reverse squeeze – a sharp pain in one ear as I returned to the surface. I couldn’t equalize (reduce) the air pressure in my ear with the pressure of the surrounding water. 

Rio Grande south of Taos, New Mexico

The next day, I went to the emergency clinic in Loreto and learned that I had an infection in one ear. The doctor, a young woman who spoke some English, gave me a prescription for antibiotic ear drops and told me to stay out of the water for two weeks. My summer of diving was over. Before leaving Mexico, I made an appointment online for an ear specialist in northern New Mexico. When I arrived at his office in Taos a week later, the infection was gone, but he sent me to a clinic in Los Alamos to test for a tear in the eardrum. They pressurized the outer ear and waited; a decline in pressure indicates a tear. I passed the test; I could go back in the water.

Tlaquepaque

Historically known as San Pedro, Tlaquepaque was eventually surrounded by Guadalajara as it grew and spread outwards. Now a city of about 600,000, Tlaquepaque is a few kilometers from the city center of Guadalajara. Tlaquepaque (pronounced tlah-kay-PAH-kay [link]) comes from the Nahuatl language and means “hill where the clay comes from” (link) referring to the city's long history of pottery making (link). We drove from Ajijic about an hour north to Tlaquepaque. We arrived before the shops opened, found parking and walked the streets photographing old buildings in the early light.

Ceramic pineapples for sale in Tlaquepaque

Guadalajara

Guadalajara is Mexico’s second largest city with a population over four million in the city and surrounding metropolitan area (link). It’s less than an hour’s drive from Lake Chapala. We took a bus from Ajijic ($50 MXN, about $4 USD) to avoid dealing with traffic and parking. The bus dropped us at the Antigua Central Camionera (old bus station*), which is more than a kilometer from the city’s Centro Histórico, the colonial center of the city, so we caught a taxi from the bus station.

Plaza Guadalajara looking toward the Palacio Municipal (built between 1949 and 1952)

The Centro Histórico is laid out like a cross from west to east when viewed from above (link). The cathedral lies at its crux surrounded by four plazas: Plaza Guadalajara at the head of the cross; Plaza de la Liberación at its base; Plaza de Armas to the south; and Plaza de la Rotonda to the north. The circular fountain in the Plaza Guadalajara is shaped like an oyster with rose petals alluding to the city's two nicknames: "Pearl of the West" and "City of Roses." The stairs lead to an underground parking garage.

Ajijic

We left the Pacific coast before Easter and headed inland to Lake Chapala. Semana Santa (Holy Week) was approaching and the beaches would be filled with vacationers, a kind of Mexican spring break. The drive from Barra de Navidad to Lake Chapala was uneventful. We took Mexico 200 south along the coast skirting mangrove-flanked estuaries and the port of Manzanillo. Turning north on Mexico 110, we passed through Colima, the capital of Mexico’s fourth smallest states, and picked up Mexico 54 to Guadalajara. Gaining elevation, we passed the impressive Colima Volcanic Complex, including Nevado de Colima at 4,300 m (14,000 ft), at the western end of the 900-km (560-mi) trans-Mexican volcanic belt (link).

Ajijic and Lago de Chapala