Talpa #2 - Specialties

We came to Talpa to see the church and the little Virgin statue but Talpa has some specialty crafts that are only found there.

The first thing that we noticed when we arrived in the town, besides the fog, was the sweet smell in the air. We were in Talpa for at least an hour before we realized what it wa bys. This town is known for a fruit leather-like roll made from Guavas called a Rollo de Guayabana and what we were smelling was the odor of the cooking fruit. We passed at least 4 places that were processing the fruit to make this roll. It is quite a process from fruit to packaged sweet. One kind fellow offered to explain the process to us. It is a specialty of this town.

The second unique craft is one called Chilte. We understand that chilte is a type of white sap/rubber that they get from a special tree. They can heat the rubber and then shape it or make strings. Then specially trained woman make flowers, baskets, furniture, pots, jars, vases and intricate little figurines. I am not sure how they apply the colours. Probably painted.

Not so unique, but unique to this area is Talpa coffee. We’ll have to give it a try.

Next on the list are Huaraches, a Mexican leather sandal. We have seen huarache workshops in other towns near Ajijic but the sandals are slightly different. The work is intensive and a pair of kids shoes sell for about $1.30 Cdn. Besides leather shoes, they make belts and saddles here too.

One incredible tidbit that I learned is that there are sugar maples in the mountains of Talpa. Sugar maples! Actually, some birders discovered in the 1990’s, a hidden forest with a real mixture of trees not found anywhere else. Here’s a little account of when botanists went there -

“Driving up to a hill at 1764 meters altitude called La Cumbre, in a hidden-away arroyo called El Refugio, they were amazed to see not just one maple tree but a whole woods full of them, incorporated into an ancient fir-maple-conifer cloud forest, incomparably rich in diverse species of trees and plants. But the botanists were puzzled: the flora in the forest included species going
back at least to the Pleistocene (2.6 million years ago) and possibly all the way back to the Tertiary era. How, they asked, did this system of ecological sophistication and integration survive for millions of years?

Our botanist friends tried their best to explain to us that what made this place unique was its perfect balance. Plants and trees usually found in diverse climates had somehow learned to live together not just harmoniously, but so successfully that this forest had operated as a self-contained, self-sustaining unit since the Pleistocene age (or earlier). What looked like just another woods to us was, to our friends, the botanical equivalent of a symphony orchestra.”

We would have loved to have done a tour with a hike to that woods but today we just didn’t have enough time.

Our bus was heading back to Mascota at 2:45 and on the way to the bus station, we saw a place selling fire-roasted chicken. We knew what we were having for a couple of dinners. We picked up a whole roasted chicken, potatoes and rice but passed on the tortillas. As a promotion, a big bottle of coke was included. All for about $8 and it was delicious!

By 3:30, we were home. A great day!Read more