Treasure of the Sierra Madres part dos...

Continuing on our Journey to the little town of San Sebastian...

At 4,500 feet the terrain changes quite a bit from the tropical feel by the coast.

Tall pine trees grow here instead of coconut and date, rivers are akin

to those back home with boulders worn and smoothed by

centuries of running water...

When we arrived within 10 minutes of the town, the bus parked on the road

and we walked the rest of the way, enjoying the quiet of this sleepy town...

Founded in 1605, San Sebastian was one of the gold and

silver centers of Mexico.

At one time there were reportedly 30,000 people living here

but now it is a sleepy population of about 600.

The mines were what created the town of Puerto Vallarta and

after being mined and smelted, it was taken by mule train

to Guadalajara and Mexico City then to Veracruz where

once a year it was sent by ship to Spain.

This town has basically stayed unchanged since then.

Before we arrived in the town, our guide warned us NOT to touch any dogs.

Mostly because if you do, they'll follow you around all day and if they're

not friendly, they could bite and could have rabies.

Well, this was the first dog we met, who lived in front of the funeral home...

I think his breed was Chihuaha-bacca... for all you Star Wars fans.

The next 'dangerous' dog was this girl...

 Yeah, I think she could love you to death!

We visited one woman's little museum where her family has lived for over 300 years.

Her family history was like a million piece jigsaw puzzle!

Cousins marrying uncles who are brothers and sisters aunts who become your wifes daughter.

 Swallows making their home here under her porch roof on the 300 year old beams.

Her friendly kitty.

It was a beautiful day to wander about and check out the historical buildings.

One of the most beautiful was the church built in the 1600s

and then rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1860s...

I loved the colours of the interior...a lovely, soft robins egg blue and custard cream...

Like the translation of this sign...

We visited the local jail cell, which is still in use and tried to act the part of condemned prisoners...

I wasn't sure how much the girls would like this tour compared to all the beach stuff,

but they all agreed it was one of their favorite things we did.

I always believe you should find out the story of a place and people and culture when you go there

and the trip to San Sebastian didn't disappoint one bit.

Wordless Wednesday...



Treasure of the Sierra Madres...

No, I'm not talking Humphrey Bogart but a pretty little town up in the hills.

One of the tours we took while in Mexico was to the historical

silver mining town of San Sebastian.

It took us an hour and a half to get there by bus, with an

excellent tour guide by the name of Juan Carlos.

This guy knew his history and taught us so much about

Mexico and the area in the most entertaining way.

We left by bus from the marina in Nuevo Vallarta where, yes,

you have to be cautious of the crocodiles!
By the way, no diving or swimming...

While we waited we were treated by the appearance of this sweet little heron fishing for breakfast...

This road out of town was a great opportunity for us to see some of 'real' Mexico...

This trip used to take 3 days from the town back in the days before cars.

Now there's a fairly good road and most recently a new bridge...

At this stop, we found the prettiest kitty, and like a lot of animals  we met,

she just wanted a bit of love and affection...

Another stop on the way up to San Sebastian was a lovely old Hacienda...

 ...the cobblestone drive past the derelict out buildings...

This house was home to the big land owner in the area who

ran the silver mine...

Here, one of the resident dogs with her 'special' collection of prized bones...

This place is a step back in time and is open as a B&B.

The day we were there, there were no guests so we were free to wander through the rooms...

LOVED the kitchen!

The bedrooms were so simple with lovely light coming in the large windows.

Bananas and lemons right outside your door.

Next stop was an old, organic, shade grown coffee plantation and lunch in an open air cantina...

Surrounded by beautiful views of the hills, the local rodeo ring (not to be confused with a bullfighting ring), papaya trees, orchids and oranges...sigh!

whew...running out of time...for now I will leave you with these morsels

and come back again to show you the little town of San Sebastian.

Adios for now.

Lost and found...

A walk on the beach can be just that...a walk on the beach.

Some days you go to look for driftwood, sea glass

or nice pebbles to bring home.

These are treasures, yet somewhat 'ordinary'.

Then there are those days which a walk on the beach

can become extraordinary.

You find the rare and unusual.

Thursday was one of those days.

I've been walking on the beach and rambling through

the bush with my friend Irma for more than 15 years now.

She is the queen of finding artifacts.

Growing up on a small coastal Island, she learned to look for stone and bone

tools and such alongside the rest of her family.

She has an extensive collection from walking on the beaches around here.

Once, she even found a mastodon tooth!

And then, the find of her lifetime was a small bone

 carving in the image of a man.

A very rare find indeed.

I began looking as well and started to find the odd treasure on the beach...

Here's my small collection.

The black arrows are various stone arrowheads.

The green arrow shows a stone spearhead (tip broken)

and next to that the start of a jade chisel.

The red arrow shows a bone cleaning tool.

The light blue arrow show a bone blanket/shawl pin.

The white arrow shows two flints for Colonial flint lock rifles.

Here is a close up of one of my best finds...

A small jade chisel found where there is no jade.

May have been traded or brought by someone from another part of B.C.

This bone weapon was part of a double side harpoon used for fishing...

Here is the end of a clay pipe...

On Thursday, we were exploring a favorite area where we've

both been lucky enough to find artifacts.

I seemed to be focused on bits of old bottles and glass pieces,

when I bent down to pick up an odd bit of glass, my heart jumped!

There on the beach, rolling around for who knows how many decades,

was this...

The most beautiful, clear, agate arrowhead!

Irma and I both squealed like school girls, knowing

that this was one of those extraordinary days!

I had been with her when she found her bone carving

and she was with me to find my best find...so far.

As we walked, I kept taking it out of my pocket and we would look

and marvel at the skill and beauty of such an object...

To think how much time and effort went into producing such a thing.

 And the unanswered questions of who and when?

How did they lose such a piece?

Oh! to be a time traveller and to look over the shoulder of the past.

But then some things have not only the beauty of a mystery

but also the ability to take us away and wonder at days gone by.

Finding these things is a gift and a reason to keep looking,

to keep wandering, rambling and wondering.



Song for Friday...he got in my head...

Blogger has changed today and I'm having

a hard time copying and pasting so

you'll hopefully be able to click on the link for

Fridays song.

I've had this song in my head all week.

Sting got in there somehow and I've been

singing along with him...

I looked up the video on youtube and

found the young Sting walking thru the

streets of New York in winter...

Easy on the eyes as well as the ears!

There's a young Brandford Marsalis

on soprano sax there too.

So have a great weekend and remember...

"Be yourself, no matter what they say."

http://youtu.be/d27gTrPPAyk

Wordless Wednesday...