Puerto Vallarta, a trip up to San Sebastian in the mountains. Feb 13 -14th

Tonight's Sunset, spectcular!

Thursday, Carlos couldn't pick us up but sent his brother, Francisco at 9am. It took an hour just to get out of town with the traffic before starting up the windy mountain road. Ray's able to stretch out a bit sitting in the front seat and reclining his chair. All the cars here seem to be small and have a standard transmission. This car didn't even have A/C lol. It wasn't too bad, until coming home in the heavy traffic and I had to move from one side of the car to the other to stay out of the sun.

And we're off!

The towns have mostly old structures and lots of abandoned places in between. Everyone seems to have a stand selling something or making food.

They definitely need the "Suspension Shop" with all the old roads with potholes and cobblestones. :)

Go for coffee with your cows on board.

As we got through the towns and started up the windy roads there are fewer houses, just farms of Blue Agave.

Francisco

 First stop is the El Progreso Bridge.

Papaya Tree

We passed by some beautiful blue agave fields.

We turned off highway 544, and I use the term highway loosely, lol to pass through the little town of Las Mesitas.

Back in the car for the next 20 minutes to get to San Sebastian. This small town is about 5000 feet above sea level and was originally created due to mining. Now the mines are closed and it's a bit of a tourist town with the main employment being farming Blue Agave and tourism.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, this region was populated by the Tecos . The conquest was carried out in 1524 by Captain Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura accompanied by Juan de Escárcena. In 1530, Nuño de Guzmán passed through this place with his army, who, upon being received without hostility by the natives, thus had the pretext to seize everything that Francisco Cortés had conquered. In 1542, the mines were discovered and the Royal Mining Mayor's Office of San Sebastián was named the jurisdiction of Hostipac. Thus, during the colonial period, it was one of the main mining centers of New Spain . The jurisdiction of the Royal Mining of San Sebastián included the royal mines of San Sebastián, Real de los Reyes, Jolapa, Real de Santiago and San Nicolás.

The town had a population of 20,000. Ramón Corona was governor of Jalisco when, at the end of 1888, the miners went on strike. They were led by Felipe Preciado and Francisco Ochoa. Escorted by a cavalry picket led by a second lieutenant named Romano, the governor sent a delegate to intervene in talks to reach an agreement with the company manager, Mr. Beckar. All the strikers' demands were met, but the owner company, based in New York, disapproved of everything done by its representative and ordered an immediate strike at its mining farms, whose products were shipped from the Port of Las Peñas 

The decree of October 30, 1886 mentions it as a municipality. In 1838 it had the status of a town. In 1870 the 10th canton was created and San Sebastián was placed under its jurisdiction. In 1886 a civil registry office was created.

It has lovely old buildings and is an authentic Mexican Town, with about 800 residents. All the streets are cobblestone. Difficult to walk on for any great distance as you always have to watch where you put your feet.

We ate lunch at the local hotel and then carried on. Francisco took us for a drive through the back roads, wow, talk about bumpy and uneven.

Next up is the small coffee plantation. They grow 85% of the beans at this location and 15% from backyard gardens of residents. Their family now counts over100 years at this plantation.

Coffee plant, with unripened beans.

Lemons, I think

They have a bit of a farm/zoo with these parrots, chickens running around and these other birds.

Just as we were leaving, I noticed this "Big Assed Bug" about 3" long on the shelf, it moved so it's alive!

Back in the car to the small Chocolate factory down the road.

They weren't making any chocolate while we were there, but there's quite a bit on display. Of course we bought some.

A bear made completely of chocolate!

Now, down, down, the mountain we go. Again, past the blue agave fields until we got back to busy streets and lots of people. 

Francisco managed to find a spot to pull over so we could take a picture of this Puerto Vallarta Sign and then squeeze back into heavy traffic.

Once we got back to town, Francisco asked if we wanted to see the crocodiles .... well ya! Apparently in the rainy season they can be seen in the ocean.

We left at 9am and arrived back at 3:30 pm. A long day. Friday we did our usual and sat at the beach for the day. 

I didn't manage to get any more a la carte reservations so we ate at the Buffet .... not nearly as good as the previous week and a half. Next time I will upgrade us to "Altitude Club" if we come back here as they get all reservations first and can book for the whole week ahead.