Guadalajara to Morelia

October 29, 2009
Guadalajara to Morelia

Today was a travel day and went fairly well. By that I mean that we only got lost or almost lost several times. When traveling in Mexico it must be remembered that the road signs may not list the road number or the major city for that turnoff. Also, inevitably the sign may be half or fully covered up by a bush or tree. So it is best to keep an eagle eye out and even then sometimes you can go wrong.
First off we left for Lake Chapala which is south of Guadalajara. This was for two reasons the first of which we then did not have to get back on and off the preiferico or ring road. This is always a great adventure in white knuckle driving.
So off we went and the person at the RV park told me that the road to Lake Chapala was 40 Km down the way. Well that is not the case as it was only about 15 miles away and not 25 miles. So we had to backtrack about ½ mile when I came to the cuota (tole) station and knew I had gone too far. After that it was easy to find Lake Chapala and it is a very large lake.
There is a very large foreign community here and most of the northern part of the lake is wall to wall US and Canadian settlements. One of the largest is Ajijic and the other the town of Chapala. Because it is a two lane road the driving was slow with lots of topes (speed bumps) to slow you down even more. Bev did find some beads which we bought from a roadside vendor.
The lake itself is huge with I understand too much water as they had a lot of rain last year. We could see trees in the water on the southern shore of the lake.
From there another country road hwy 35 out to the town of El Barca. Meandering thru vast fields of sugar cane and something else I could not tell what. Finally at the town of El Barca we met up with the tole road again (Hwy 15) and on our way to Morelia.
Along the way we passed thru long valleys (about 15-20 miles each) and then another mountain pass with each mountain pass getting us higher in elevation. I should have realized that this was inevitable as we are heading towards Mexico City which is high in elevation.
The vegetation changed from sugar cane, and aguave cactus to corn and field crops and finally to great stretches of grazing land. Now this is not like the grasslands of the US but has grasses and also small and large trees. Everywhere though it is green, and where the valleys are flat enough you see cultivation in very black soil.
Upon arriving in Morelia we again had to take the ring road to get to where we wanted to go. After one or two almost failed attempts we got onto the ring road only to miss our turnoff. Now you say this should not be too much of a problem but it is as you can not always turn around. Lucky for me there was a returno in about ½ mile or so.
Tomorrow it is taxi time again with a trip to one of the oldest cities and a UNESCO historical city.
That is all for the time being.