8.00pm and listening to the Canucks beat the Ducks in hockey, had supper and life is good after a fantastic day out.
Lee offered to show Norma and Croft and I around to some smaller towns outside of Mazatlan and of course we jumped at the offer so at 9.30am we picked Lee up and went off into the Sierra Madre Occidental foothills. The first little town we came to was Concordia, this town is renown for it’s high quality made furniture and we stopped at a road side vendor and his furniture was incredible and the prices very reasonable. The town itself is like going back in time 200 years. A sleepy little town plaza where vendors, small children and locals mix. The town boasts the largest chair and of course yours truly had to play the tacky tourist and have my photo taken here. Overlooking this square is the Church of St.Sebastian built around the late 1790’s. This church was so ornate and magnificent and a peek inside revealed a mass baptism taken place with at least 6 small beautifully dressed babies being blessed. We had a drink at the El Granero restaurant. This was a novel adventure for me for the restaurant where I worked all those years is called the Granary and I guess this is the Mexican equivalent and no I did not apply for a position.
From here we drove further into the mountains for about 20 miles where we came across another smaller town called Copala, if the other town was like stepping in back in time 200 years this was like stepping back in time 400 years!! Don’t know why but this little town is noted for its Banana cream coconut pie!! We decided to test this first before we walked the town, so we went to Daniels restaurant, which was in a fabulous location overlooking the mountains, and the pie was just out of this world!! We walked around the property, which is an abandoned gold and silver mine and Croft and I went down into one of the shafts. There is a small hotel here and as we were walking around we met the owner, Daniel, who is a transplanted Californian who came here years ago and really was instrumental in making this town the tourist attraction it now is.
We went into the town through small cobble stoned paths and came upon the little plaza and it was like out of an old movie. At one end of the plaza the beautiful old baroque Church of San Jose, the side streets were lined with small benches, locals sat watching us the tourists, two young boys riding burros and down this little side lane I found the three beautiful sisters who spoke perfect English and enjoyed having their photo taken. This town was such a joy and definitely one to remember. The weather was hot and everyone was friendly.
On the way back to Mazatlan we stopped at another small but bustling town of Villa Union and here we walked the square watching the shoppers and the hustle of the little town. Of course here was another church this one not so old and totally different in design and construction from the other two.
This was just a great day and it was neat to travel such a short distance away from the beaches and hordes of tourists and thanks to Lee for being tour guide and thank you to Norma and Croft for driving us and for Croft putting up with back seat drivers.