Dolores Hidalgo
and Santuario Atotonilco, Guanajuato – Mexico
Dolores Hidalgo is the birth place of the Mexican revolution, Talavera pottery and crazy ice cream. Atotonilco was the second town in Miguel Hidalgo’s march toward independence.
We drove out the back way from San Miguel near San Miguel Viejo not quite sure how to find Atotonilco. It turns out it’s right off the Dolores Hidalgo highway but made a nice country drive. It was here, in 1810, that Miguel Hidalgo took an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as the banner of his movement. Atotonilco is another pilgrimage town and because of the church’s amazing paintings on the ceiling, it’s on the World Monuments Watch list, among the 100 most endangered.
Then we were off to Dolores Hidalgo and we were surprised to find not many Talavera shops in the center of town. Many have moved out to the highway where the rent is cheaper. We did find that one nice shop about 5-6 blocks from the plaza. The museum of Independence and the casa of Miguel Hidalgo are not much to see but are close and inexpensive.
Getting hungry time found us at the entrance to the Mercado in front of “Cocina Charly”. Very cheap, very fresh and I don’t think we could have done better. Of course on the way back to the car we had to try some of the strange ice cream flavors on the Plaza … but not the real strange stuff.

Small Chapel near Atotonilco

Santuario Atotonilco

Dolores Hidalgo plaza

Dolores Hidalgo plaza church

Talavera shop

Cocina Charly

Dolores Hidalgo Ice Cream
Enanitos Toreros – Midget Bullfighters
The Villa Obregon Candelaria Festival Melaque, Jalisco – Mexico
There are at least five or six groups of Midget Bullfighters in Mexico. I’m not sure who the group was that visited Melaque except that there’s a foto of their poster below. Other groups have a much larger show but they may have been down-sized for our small town. This is really a family and kids party with
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A Mazamitla, Tapalpa, San Gabriel (Venustiano Carranza) loop from Colima
This trip is from March back when there were still snow-birds around wanting to take short trips thru Mexico. Glen and I spent two nights in the Colima area before taking this drive. We first headed up highway 54 and veered off to Mazamitla via the back way thru Tuxpan and up the valley – very nice drive past sugar
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Xochimilco – Mexico City
The gardens of Mexico City
Xochimilco is a south-eastern suburb of Mexico City. Mainly a commercial and tourist center, it is famous for its canals lined with poplars and flowers (Xochimilco is a Native American word meaning “plantation of flowers”). In pre-Hispanic times the Xochimilcas built soil-covered rafts (chinampas) in Lake Xochimilco on which they grew vegetables and flowers to be shipped to Mexico City on the canals. Eventually
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Ex-Hacienda Nogueras
Tour of the old sugar mill near Comala, Colima – Mexico
Nogueras is a small ex-sugar mill town a few kilometers east of Comala in the state of Colima. It’s home to the Alejandro Rangel museum, an Eco Park and the Ex-Hacienda itself that is being refurbished
We got a tour behind the walls of the Ex-Hacienda and parts of the old sugar mill that are being restored with
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