Chapala and San Luis and Las Cebollas

Coming down the hill into Chapala we headed to our hosts house which ended up being a whole house to ourselves in a pasture filled with horses, dogs and cows.  The house had two beds, a stove, outdoor sink area and an outdoor bathroom that you flushed with a bucketof water. Our host also gave us access to a shower at his work/parents place. For Dave and Uschi it was a nice change from the busy noisy streets of Guadlaljara. Our host also warned us to keep a barracade on the front porch because the cows liked to come up to the front door...which of course happened..

For New Years we stayed in a hotel right in the middle of town and wandered around town hoping for fireworks. The lady at the oxxo told us no fireworks so we didn't have our hopes up at all. But once we walked out on the dock we could see some people celebrating across the water.

San Luis

Deciding that we wanted to ride up to the magic town, Mazamitla, we set out from Chapala. But we didn't get out of the hotel very quickly and really it was New Years Day, who really wants to ride all day long.  We stopped a little after four in San Luis.  A cute little town busting with people, horses, and all sorts of small animals in the street.  We stayed at a cheap but clean hotel that had a nice balcony to store our bikes on which really meant carrying the bikes up a flight of narrow steep steps.  The shower was super hot though. The night was noisy though with the animals.

Las Cebollas

From San Luis it was about 52km ride to Mazamitla mostly uphill.  We finished riding around the lake turned right and were greeted by The Hill. We rode uphill for a few hours, stopped to make lunch which was oatmeal with freshly bought berries (50 pesos for 3 litres, blackberries and raspberries) as well as little wraps filled with cheese and avocado. Afterwards everyone was getting pretty tired so we started looking for a place to camp. We finished the hill we were on and were greeted by a very beautiful valley with a lake.  The little village, Las Cebollas, or the onions, laid just on the far side of the small lake. Maybe it was more like a slough...anyway we asked if we could stay in the field there to camp and they said that would be alright so they spread the word. Rigel and I walked around the town looking for a place to eat but it was too small a town so we went back to camp and made dinner. In the morning as we were packing up the cow path that we were camped on wanted to be used again; a herd of cows, calves, and one giant bull were coming our way. We didn't notice the bull right away and so started trying to shoo them away, but once we saw the bull, we just decided it was better to hurry up. A little while later we got out safe and sound ready to ride slowly up the rest of the hill.