The drive to Tepames from Poncitlan was our first time driving a somewhat long distance in Mexico. It was about a 3 hour drive if I remember correctly. We took the toll road that was supposed to be better than the free road. While it did have decent paving, and no treacherous cliffs to fall off of, there was just one lane for each direction of traffic, which meant there was a lot of passing going on. Drivers in Mexico don't seem to pay much attention to no passing signs or the changes in the middle line pattern indicating when it's safe to pass and when it isn't. I would say that driving in Mexico (whether you're the driver or even just a passenger in a taxi or bus) is the most dangerous and scariest part of being in Mexico. Somehow, we survived the drive to Tepames, but not without some major scares. We had our first experience of suddenly looking head on at a double semi that decided to pass another double semi that day - at about 70 mph and WAY too close to us. It wasn't our last either! This happened to us several times during our 3 weeks in Mexico Fortunately, we made it to to our destinations safely.
Tepames is a quiet little town about 45 minutes outside of Colima. Armando and I visited Tepames when we bused our way around Mexico for a few weeks one winter about 10 years ago and have very fond memories of the place and the people there - and those tacos - mmm. We also know several people who live there and wanted to visit again. Despite the heat and humidity, it's a really neat place with very nice people with delicious fresh and local food. We stayed with Armando's sister Teresa's husbands sister (I can't remember her name). With Aguillia following very close behind, Tepames was the hottest and most humid place we stayed - and had the most bugs. Can't have it all right.
Here are a few pictures of the drive
This is The Volcano Of Colima. It is very active and very close to many large cities. You can't see it in this picutre because of the clouds, but it is constantly spewing out ash and smoke. There have been several eruptions just in the past decade. We did drive a little closer to it, but not this early in our trip.
Everybody in Mexico has at least one of these kind of birds. Everyone! This one is the pet of the lady we stayed with in Tepames. It gets wrapped up in a soft blanket and sleeps on her back in a little basket on the bed of his/her owner at night. Talk about a spoiled bird.
Armando's sister Araceli and her husband (who live here in the U.S.) are building a house in Tepames for vacations and maybe a future retirement place. This is it so far. I guess you could say it's framed and roofed. Almost all houses in this part of Mexico are built with concrete - from floor to ceiling. They still have a lot of work to do, but we've considered this as a place we might stay also at some point. If only it wasn't so darn HOT there!
Next door to that house is where Araceli's husbands sister lives. We visited with her for a few hours one REALLY hot day. It was so hot! To cool off, the lady (why did I not write names down?!) suggested the kids cool off with some water play.
The woman in these photos is Araceli's mother in law (again, no name)
Almost all kitchen sinks are made from concrete too. This particular one was also located outside. Esperanza thought it was the coolest thing that she could scoop buckets of water out of the sink, dump it all over the place while dancing around in her undies.
Angelina walking down the street
Back at the house we stayed at, Esperanza made good friends with the neighbor boy who was about her age. Here they are standing outside of the house. The metal bars are what separate the kitchen area inside the home and outside. As you can imagine, LOTS of bugs are in the house. Something people there don't even pay attention to, but something I am not used to. I'll need to adjust my homemade bug spray recipe next time, cause it didn't phase the bugs there.
Below is a picture of the truck we drove around for 3 weeks. We spent many, many hours in this truck and put a ton of miles on it with only a couple of small vehicle related problems along the way. It's parked in the driveway outside the house we stayed at in Tepames. The big tank you see on the roof in this picture holds the water that is used for cleaning dishes, taking showers, flushing toilets, etc. The city water system turns the water on in the morning. During that time everyones rooftop tanks filled, their concrete sinks filled up for washing dishes, hoses are usually set out to water plants and anything else is filled up that they need water for. It is NOT for drinking or cooking. Even the poorest of the poor buy purified water to drink and cook with. I'd love to know more specifics, but because of the language barrier, I had a difficult time asking questions and getting answers. ALL houses in this part of Mexico get their water this way. This house has a couple of tanks as well as two bathrooms with showers, sinks and toilets. One even has a hot water for showers! She gets a lot of visitors from the U.S. - and we love our hot showers.
Esperanza and her friend (I think his name is Eduardo?)
I'm not real sure what this area is for, but it seemed picture worthy and the kids were playing around it.
Armando took Ezra for a walk when he woke at the crack of dawn, as usual. They walked to the store to buy some food for the day. Despite the fact that they had a working fridge, people in Mexico seem to buy their food for the day, fresh every day. They don't keep hardly anything in the fridge. We used it for all kinds of things - like chilling water since their 5 gallon bucket of purified water sitting in the hundred degree humid house just didn't do the trick for us. While Armando was at the store that morning, he bought some meat. They told him the meat he was buying was from the cow that was just butchered that morning, probably within the last hour or two. Talk about fresh - and local! We had home made enchiladas that afternoon and they were delicious! Here's the lady of the house and the neighbor cooking away.
sink
Every tree on her property was fruit bearing. At least a dozen or so.This one is an orange tree.
A different view of the side of her house, where the blue metal bars are basically the wall.
We visited a few other people and places in Tepames, but, this is only 48 hours into our trip and I have 3 weeks to cover! Next, we travel to Colima where we meet up with Armando's cousin Dora and her little family.
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