A ride to San Blas

Thursday February 23, 2012

Today it was too cloudy to be a beach day but plenty good for a ride.  It is actually much more pleasant to ride when there is a bit of cloud since the Harley really doesn’t like the heat.  We set off early around 9:30 a.m. and enjoyed a leisurely ride toward San Blas. 

Coming through Zaculapan we once again shared the road with all sorts of farm machinery.  There was even a combine of some sort fueling up at the Pemex station.

Coming through Aticama just before the right turn to San Blas.

This truck was bouncing along in front of us and it was a bit worrying since those bread fruits are large and if one fell off the truck it could really do damage to us on the motorcycle. 

I tried to snap a picture of breadfruit growing as we rode along and this isn’t a very good picture but you can see them hanging at the bottom of the tree.  Very large.  I read up on them and it turns out they are very nutritious but not very tasty so they have to add spices etc. to make them edible.  Sort of like Tofu! At least that’s what I read on line.  They are for sale everywhere here so maybe they know how to cook them! 

Coming into San Blas.  Right to Tepic left to San Blas. 

Part of the estuary by San Blas.

Entering San Blas.

 

When we got into town we rode down the main street which is one way west and one way east.  We did come into San Blas briefly last year on our trip south with Frank & Sandi but it was late in the day and busy because it was Sunday so we just fueled up and left.  Today it was much quieter and we could see the charm of the area.  Many gringos stay here for the winter but it has never become a huge tourist destination because of the jejenes or no see ums!  Voracious and plentiful due to the mangrove swamps and they can ruin your day in a hurry!  Many people are allergic and break out in huge red welts.  No fun!

San Blas is steeped in history.  ….. if you are interested in the history of the area and the things that you could see there Wikipedia has a good write up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Blas,_Nayarit

Every town has a square.

At the end of the main street which turns to the marina we decided to stop and have a look at an old building which is some sort of a museum.  This was an aduana or customs office that was a crumbling ruins but has now been restored and is now the The Casa de la Cultura.  It housed a small amount of exhibits of ancient artifacts and an art exhibition.  I think they also have other exhibitions in it but we don’t speak a lot of Spanish and they didn’t speak English.  Our fault….not theirs! Hard to tell what’s going on when you aren’t fluent. 

Coming in on the front of the building.  Huge columns.

Inside glass cases there were  exhibits of obsidian above and carvings below which are pre Colombian.  

We walked out the back of the building and there were steps going up to an old area….what was it….I don’t know.

There was a case of these malcates which were use to produce textiles and it was from a much earlier time as the writing shows.  There was too much sun to get a picture of the case. 

Pictures by “Pedro Casant” and I really liked them.  Graphic and done in acrylic.  It appears he is an artist from Nayarit, Mexico. 

 

This one by Alberto Meza. 

These works were quite large as you can see by Eric looking at them.

Not sure if this is new or a reproduction. 

I thought this was a great shot from inside to outside where the columns are.

It was time for lunch so once we found the one way street heading out of town we started looking for a lunch stop.  At the end of town on the way out there are many barbecues cooking but they don’t have “pollo…chicken”  they have fish.  We stopped at this one and had a great lunch.

Sitting inside looking out past the barbecue.

We picked smoked Marlin on the barbecue for lunch.  Tortillas, rice and some salad and we were set.  We ordered two pieces when we started but one piece was more than enough…..Grande!  They had whole fish called Lisa and fish Zarandeado  as well as the Marlin. 

The Jejenero Restaurant a.k.a. NoSeeUm’s! 

This guy was working his way up and down the street trying to sell the fish hanging on each end of his pole.  Looks like a Gringo to me!

Eric had wanted to see the old fort here in San Blas but it got too late and we didn’t know where it was.  Turns out if we’d gone on the right fork of this road we’d have gone right up to it!   Next time!  

 

Just before we left Eric crossed the street to see what fish was this barbecue.  Corbina….a good eating fish.

It was now time to hit the road and head home. 

In one of the small towns along the way we stopped to stretch our legs and we noticed this stadium.  Amazing to find such a large football (soccer) stadium in the middle of virtually nowhere.  Huge. 

Tonight there was another music singing get together at the front of the park.  We could faintly hear it but when the rain started to fall some people headed back to their rigs.  The die hards  hung in there.