Golden Age Backpackers - Traveling to Amatlan de Cañas Hot Springs
Article
and Photos by John and Doreen Berg
It was a late summer morning while sitting at our
Powell Lake cabin sipping my morning coffee staring out the window watching the
rain pelting off the front deck's surface and listening to the gentle lake
waves lapping against the shoreline that my thought reflected upon our two
night March excursion to Amatlan de Cañas in Mexico. There was a bit of guilt included with my
reflections as we'd planned to document our Mexican trip as soon as we arrived
home in early April. However, it wasn't
long before we were absorbed with our spring gardening tasks, our struggling to
obtain a permit to construct a workshop in our backyard and our rushing up the
lake to energize our cabin for summer usage.
Needless to say we were busy and focussed on local activities and the
writing and sharing of our late season Mexican trip slipped in a rather rapid
manner to the "back burner"!
Our wonderful spring and summer season was upon us and either we are
getting slower at task completion or we include too many. We'd like to think it's the latter! As April and May slipped away it wasn't long
before July was in the rear view mirror and the grandkids, bless their souls,
chewed up August. September slumber was
quickly upon us and the lake boat traffic stilled to a slow ebb. Now was the final opportunity to either write
and submit this article or chuck the story idea and move on to next season's
Mexican trips. As the old cliché goes,
"Better late than never"! So
here is the reporting of our last season's travel experience completed just
before packing and departing for our home away from home- Los Ayala, Mexico!
An early departure saw us tossing our bags into the
Xterra's rear compartment and as usual our first stop was the nearest Pemex
station to top up the gas tank. On the
road again it wasn't long before we pulled into Las Varas for our second stop
at Angelina's Restaurant, one of our favourite, to enjoy a hearty breakfast
consisting of huevos rancheros and a Mexican omelette complete with hot cups of
coffee. Finally, with both fuel tanks
topped up, the vehicles and ours, I anticipated driving directly to our final
destination- Amatlan de Cañas. But, as
we reached the outskirts of Mesillas, Doreen suggested we stop to visit our
young friends, Mario and Elizabeth at their roadside coffee shop. They're a young family we met years ago to
visit their coffee plantation and to scramble over rocks to view stone carved
cliff petroglyphs. We usually visit once
or twice a year sharing pie and coffee, and purchasing a couple of bags of
their scrumptious coffee. After a warm visit and another cup of coffee we were
back on Highway 200 heading towards Compostela.
Today the highway was not busy making the twisting turning drive to the
Compostela junction pleasant not having to deal with impatient drivers passing
blindly or being stuck behind a slow truck. (View - "Compostela - The
Forgotten City" published in Jaltemba Bay Life.com, May 14, 2014)
At the intersection near Compostela, we drifted to the
right and took the cuota highway 68D toward Guadalajara then switched to the
libre road stopping at Ahuacatlan for lunch.
We wandered the town's picturesque plaza stretching our legs and taking pictures while checking
out the street taco stands for our lunch.
We employed one of our golden travel rules and selected the busiest
stand to enjoy chicken tacos and juice.
All the people eating there can't be wrong!
After our lunch we drove through Ahuacatlan picking up
Highway 4 proceeding towards Amatlan de Cañas.
While the highway is a secondary road it was in good condition climbing
over the mountain range. Although one
must be alert watching for loose rock on the road or on-coming vehicles cutting
corner on the curvy road.
We arrived at our destination mid-afternoon providing
for an early hotel check in, or one would think, but I'd forgotten our road
atlas and hotel information on our bungalow table in Los Ayala. At this point I wasn't a popular
individual! Thus it was with a bit of
luck that we found our hotel. Following
a one-way street in the wrong direction we passed a hotel entrance and Doreen
recalled the posted name as our destination hotel. Fortunately, this let me off the hook!
Being mid-week and after a holiday weekend, Bungalows
Los Pavorreales ( the peacocks) was empty.
The owner, Alfonso Ron, gave us an opportunity to select the room of our
choice. We settled on a comfortable
second story room providing a splendid view of the hotel's beautifully
manicured and appointed lawn and pool area. Alfonso was extremely helpful lending us a
cooler for our food and beverages plus advising on the best local restaurant
for dining. While relaxing on the
balcony playing cards, four peacocks joined us for an extensive photo
opportunity which brought closure to our day.
As dusk descended we took Alfonso's advice and walked
to the nearby Toucan Restaurant. The
restaurant was a local favourite for special occasions featuring a fish and
steak menu. Since we often purchase
fresh locally caught fish on the coast, we opted for hamburgers and fries. Our meal was adequate but certainly not
inspiring. We're spoilt with our varied
excellent restaurants located in the coastal towns of La Peñita and Rincon de
Guayabitos.
Early next morning found us in the town's plaza
desperately searching for our morning coffee! We must remember on our next trip to include a
coffee percolator to enjoy our early coffees in the comfort of our room! At busy Sandorval Restaurant we enjoyed
hueves rancheros and a Mexican omelette washed down with, you guessed it, more
hot coffee.
Returning to our hotel we collected our swim gear and headed
for the hot pools. The drive was a short
distance to the Balnearias Aguas Termales (hot waters). We paid our 50 pesos fee and set about
soaking in a few pools and swam in the larger pool before settling on a smaller
comfortable pool with a favourable temperature.
Just like Goldilocks, "Not too hot, not too cook, just right!"
Belnarias Agua Termales is a vast concrete structure
complete with numerous levels with many pools of varying sizes and
temperatures. There are numerous table
and bench combinations where family groups would arrive and stake out their
area unloading coolers of food and drink to spend the day soaking and
socializing. I don't think one would
desire to be there on a busy weekend with the sea of people that apparently
arrive during holiday periods. Or if you
enjoy crowds it might be a huge amount of fun interacting and observing the
Mexican families at play.
After our soak we returned to our room and relaxed
before preparing to again dine at the Toucan Restaurant. Having had our "burger" experience
we both selected a fish dish from the menu and enjoyed our respective meals,
retiring early to our bunglow.
Amatlan de Cañas surrounded by La Sierra de Pajaritos
and Sierra Madre de Sur mountain ranges, is a pleasant prosperous town depending
on agriculture and ranching plus serving the small surrounding towns. The pace appeared rather casual with local
produce being sold in the plaza from pickup truck beds, resident farmers
attending to business and others occupying the park benches.
After a breakfast in the plaza we left Amatlan de
Cañas to return to Los Ayala, our home away from home. We retraced our path following Highway 4 back
to Ahuacatlan passing the turnoff to El Manto Water Park. Another man's dream of constructing a recreational
complex to visit and swim in one of the
many cooling pools. If you haven't
visited this amazing canyon water park, do so and it's guaranteed you'll marvel
at the amount of construction and excavating done to carve a small canyon
stream into a beautiful attraction.
(www.elmanto.com.mx) This time we
continued past the El Manto turnoff not stopping for a brief swim.
On the way home we stopped at Santa Isabel to browse a
couple of the many roadside pottery shops.
Great place to purchase family gifts.
We were searching for the number "1" to complete our lakeshore
cabin address, but had no luck.
Surprise, surprise, not all was lost!
Doreen discovered a set of three beautifully painted butterflies. Now at our cabin these gorgeous butterflies
adorn the wall above our front door. You
can't miss them as they further enhance our cabin's Mexican theme.
After paying the 35 pesos toll on the cuota road (toll
road) we again joined Highway 200 at the Compostela intersection. We drove directly to Las Varas which became
our lunch stop. For a change of
restaurant venue we stopped at Rosita Restaurant located beside the highway and
close to the town's northern entrance.
We enjoyed a fantastic meal consisting of carne asada with papas fritas
on the side plus a decadent dessert, helado de nuez (walnut ice-cream).
We arrived at our bungalow mid-afternoon to a rather
quiet courtyard as most Canadians by now had returned to Canada while the
locals were busy preparing for the upcoming Semana Santa celebration.
We experienced a successful excursion to enjoy the
area's interior and gain a brief glimpse and flavour of the true Mexican
pulse. For us, our trips are a way to
escape the more touristy tone of the coastal towns and experience in a small
way another aspect of Mexican culture.
In just a few short weeks we'll be returning to the
Riviera Nayarit area again to bask on the beach, renew friendships and check
out the changes. Life is good!
Author's Note: One might alter the return route driving to
Ixtlan del Rio to visit Los Toriles Archaelogical site. Visit our article in Jaltemba Bay Life.com,
"The Golden Age Backpackers - Los Toriles Archaelogical Site"
February 20, 2013. Well worth a half day
visit as the temple of Quetzalcoatl is considered top notch in architectural
circles.
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| Able to purchase fresh strawberries in the plaza. |
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| Dinner at the Toucan Restaurant |
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| Backyard Mechanic |
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| Playing cribbage on our patio! |
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| Fresh meat(beef) being delivered! |
