Ixtlan del Rio

Another short bus ride away took us to Ixtlan del Rio, (place where obsidian abounds) the home of an archaeological site, Los Toriles, that we visited 25 years ago on a trip to Sayulita. We have memories of it as we went with Pat and Gail and Chris Van Bridger (a fellow Culturlingua teacher in Zamora) on the Spring equinox and people were celebrating mystical rites on the old circular temples. Today we just went to the town to check it out.

Ixtlan del Rio is the main commercial town in the area. There you can buy anything and everything. Vendors line the street with fruit, vegetables, food stalls and small crafts. It was a lot for us to take so we found a place to have a coffee, watch people and acclimatize.

We walked abound the Central Park, saw the big church and went to the Casa de la Cultura where we had an energetic tour of the little museum. It has two rooms. One room has artifacts from the archaeological site and the other has old photos of the town.

We noticed some people working in another room making paper mache hearts and flowers for Valentines Day. They love chatting in Spanish with us. I wanted to join them and learn how to make the hearts but… Maybe there will be a little workshop in Ahuacatlan.

They asked where we were going to have lunch and recommended a place called La Casona. An artist, who painted a big mural in the museum, owned the restaurant and they said that it was like a museum. One guy offered to drive us there as it was several kilometers away. He gently insisted so we got a ride with him. People are so caring and kind here.

At La Casona, we met the artist who showed us some of his art after we had a very filling lunch. What a nice experience. The restaurant called a taxi for us and the driver dropped us off at the bus station to catch the bus back to Ahuacatlan.Read more