We arrived in Tapalpa on a Saturday afternoon. We found our hotel (Posada Real) and checked in. It was mid range, nice rooms but nothing fancy. It had private parking which was a plus. The first objective was coffee. We found a nice little coffee shop with outdoor seating in a little courtyard with flowers (Cafe Rosa). Sadly, that was the only time we found it open. There was a Chocolaterie that stayed open late so we could have Mexican hot chocolate in the evening.
The main plaza had two churches. I preferred the old barrel vaulted one with the cracked bell in its tower over the newer larger brick one.
There was another church a few blocks away. Every small town in Mexico seems to have at least one fancy church, if not several.
Meson de Los Encinos (house of the oaks), on the second floor overlooking the plaza, became our regular breakfast stop. I drank Cafe de Olla, a Mexican mixture of coffee, cinnamon, and unrefined cane sugar. One of the oddities is that none of the restaurants opened for breakfast till 9 or 9:30, which is quite late for us. Luckily paragliding isn’t an early morning activity.
Other restaurants we enjoyed included Los Girasoles (the sunflowers) - lovely courtyard, Madre Tierra - good coffee and more American food, and Paulines (my mother's name) - another second floor with a view of the plaza. When we went to El JardÃn de Filippo there was a birthday party for a one year old in progress. We even got cake before the best pizza I’ve had in a long time.
Saturday, when we arrived, Tapalpa was a busy place. There were tons of people and a band in the plaza. I suspect it was some kind of festival. After that things quieted down. Even when it was busy it was all Mexican visitors, probably from the big city of Guadalajara to the north. We saw no white gringos like us. Which meant most people did not speak much English. In many ways that’s nice. But despite quite a few travels in Spanish speaking countries, Shelley and I have failed to pick up much of the language. We know a few words and phrases, and we're better by the end of a trip. But then we don't touch it again for a year or two and we're right back where we started i.e. dos copas vino tinto, por favor. We manage, occasionally resorting to Google Translate.
Most of the other paraglider pilots aren’t staying in Tapalpa. One of the reasons is that it’s cool in Tapalpa in the evenings and mornings. (But warm during the day.) Some of them are around Chapala which is a bit warmer but over an hour drive away. (Although closer to the San Marcos paragliding site.) And as we discovered, Chapala is very touristy. We much prefer quiet Tapalpa. Places that are focused on extracting money from tourists and gringos have a very different feel. e.g. Chapala has multiple “pet spas”!
Unfortunately, we haven’t managed to get out running since Puerto Vallarta. All the smaller streets around the towns are uneven cobblestones that would not be fun to run on. There are hiking and mountain bike trails around but we didn’t get around to tracking them down.
We're moving on from Tapalpa but depending on how things go, we might be back.
The main plaza had two churches. I preferred the old barrel vaulted one with the cracked bell in its tower over the newer larger brick one.
There was another church a few blocks away. Every small town in Mexico seems to have at least one fancy church, if not several.
Meson de Los Encinos (house of the oaks), on the second floor overlooking the plaza, became our regular breakfast stop. I drank Cafe de Olla, a Mexican mixture of coffee, cinnamon, and unrefined cane sugar. One of the oddities is that none of the restaurants opened for breakfast till 9 or 9:30, which is quite late for us. Luckily paragliding isn’t an early morning activity.
Other restaurants we enjoyed included Los Girasoles (the sunflowers) - lovely courtyard, Madre Tierra - good coffee and more American food, and Paulines (my mother's name) - another second floor with a view of the plaza. When we went to El JardÃn de Filippo there was a birthday party for a one year old in progress. We even got cake before the best pizza I’ve had in a long time.
Saturday, when we arrived, Tapalpa was a busy place. There were tons of people and a band in the plaza. I suspect it was some kind of festival. After that things quieted down. Even when it was busy it was all Mexican visitors, probably from the big city of Guadalajara to the north. We saw no white gringos like us. Which meant most people did not speak much English. In many ways that’s nice. But despite quite a few travels in Spanish speaking countries, Shelley and I have failed to pick up much of the language. We know a few words and phrases, and we're better by the end of a trip. But then we don't touch it again for a year or two and we're right back where we started i.e. dos copas vino tinto, por favor. We manage, occasionally resorting to Google Translate.
Most of the other paraglider pilots aren’t staying in Tapalpa. One of the reasons is that it’s cool in Tapalpa in the evenings and mornings. (But warm during the day.) Some of them are around Chapala which is a bit warmer but over an hour drive away. (Although closer to the San Marcos paragliding site.) And as we discovered, Chapala is very touristy. We much prefer quiet Tapalpa. Places that are focused on extracting money from tourists and gringos have a very different feel. e.g. Chapala has multiple “pet spas”!
Unfortunately, we haven’t managed to get out running since Puerto Vallarta. All the smaller streets around the towns are uneven cobblestones that would not be fun to run on. There are hiking and mountain bike trails around but we didn’t get around to tracking them down.
We're moving on from Tapalpa but depending on how things go, we might be back.
No comments:
Post a Comment