Weekly Observations
Aug 14 - Aug 20, 2005
This week we visited Ocotlán. The road branches off the highway that
leads from Chapala to Guadalajara, and follows a valley just north
of the string of mountains that border Lake Chapala. Excellent road,
but the Mexican mania for passing makes it as dangerous as any local
highway, perhaps more so because the good road conditions allow for
high speed.
That highway parallels Rio Grande de Santiago which
flows out of Lake Chapala at Ocotlán, then westward for about 40 kilometers
before turning north towards Guadalajara. North of that city it turns west
again and passes through Nayarit, emptying into the Pacific. It is an
impressive river this time of year, though in the dry season it just
trickles along.
After visiting the interesting archaeological and historical
museum in Ocotlán, we walked across the ancient stone bridge and found a
very pleasant park of about 10 hectares, forested -- as is so often the
case with parks in this area -- primarily with eucalyptus trees, that Australian
import that does so well in this climate. There were paths and shaded picnic
tables, but the areas in-between were left fairly wild. No lawn-mowing here:
when the weeds get about waist high they chopped down by machete. Thus there
were lots of shade-tolerant wildflowers. Once again I bemoaned the fact that
there is no equivalent to Peterson's Field Guide to Wildflowers for Jalisco.
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