Sylvie's Travels Home

We left at 9:30am to do a little excursion with Mario and Josée, using l’auto à mon oncle.

We went through San Juan de Abajo. Pogo likes to find little side roads, which ends up being driving in fields or very bumpy roads but most of the time we discover beautiful vistas. On our first try, looking for a river, we ended up not being able to reach it because we didn’t dare crossing some water with very sandy bottom.

We came back to town and walked through a cemetery. I had noticed a few these past years but we had never stopped to visit one. We saw three different types of graves in the cemetery: The enclosed mausoleums or chapels which were locked but filled with flowers and photos, the more modest outdoor graves surrounded by fences, and the simple outdoor graves with just headstones. It is a place of gathering for the loved ones especially during the Day of the Dead. It felt like we were walking through a maze as there wasn’t one straight line, and only very narrow passages between the graves. There wasn’t any grass like we are used to but only sand between them. They also had a large outdoor church. It was a very unique and colorful experience.

We stopped at a very small and dilapidated ranch to take pictures of a horse surrounded by beautiful bougainvilleas. The flowers are just exploding right now.

We reached the river Ameca by the little dam. Compared to when we first discovered it, the river was a lot dryer. We had gone swimming in it 2 years ago but this year there wasn’t enough water to experience that. We saw lots of birds on the dam side, sitting on down branches and trees.

We went through a few little villages like El Coatante, where no matter how small or poor they look, they always have a little square with a pavilion and a church. We had lunch at Restaurante Rio Ameca in the middle of nowhere in a town called Los Sauces. All the outside decorations were made with tires. We ordered more food than we needed but it was all good. It was a very beautiful and peaceful spot.

Our next stop was Aguamilpa which we reached through a field of corn because of a detour due to road construction. The town was small but it seems that all the men of the town were gathered in a few different places, all drinking big bottles of beer. Music was blasting from 2 different places. A bunch of kids were playing with boxes full of damaged shoes. It was a little weird so I didn’t take any pictures of them.

On our way back we drove through a few rivers, saw lots of cows and Mario flirted with a few of them, a bird attacked another one right in front of our car and we saw feathers flying, we saw amazing trees, iguanas, sleepy dogs everywhere and a bunch of horses and cowboys. In Las Palmas de Arriba, we noticed that they had lots of beautiful murals and I took a picture of 2 of their talented artists in action.

We stopped at Rancho Capomo and got some sodas. The boys spotted hammocks and there might have been a few quick naps taken. We got back home around 6pm after enjoying our day of discovery and I have a ton of pictures to prove it. I just love Mexico!

I noticed that all towns we have been through in Mexico have a street called Lázaro Cárdenas so I researched him and found out that he was the revered 51st president of Mexico between 1934 and 1940.

We watched the sunset and ended the day with a salad and a little tv.