Elusive Giants

December 28, 2019June 14, 2021 Donnie Meals

Read Time:4 Minute, 28 Second

December 25 – We planned on leaving San Patricio on Christmas Day, mostly to avoid potential traffic. We took a route that avoided the toll roads as well. This means a shorter route that takes much longer. Go figure. However, you also get to go through all the villages along the way. One was Autlan, the home of Carlos Santana. We tried to check out a large statue there in his honor. Unfortunately we only found the civic center that had a mural or two. Darn Google Maps.

I have come to the realization that Yahoo Maps is so much more precise than Google. Trying to leave Autlan, Google kept changing its mind every 200 feet or so. “Turn left here. No, I mean right. Did I say left? Turn around in 100 feet”. I switched to Yahoo Maps and the voice said “Go straight for two miles”. That was it… and it was correct. Google seems fine in the U.S. but internationally, not so much.

We wound through the mountains and contemplated the previous day’s events in San Patricio. We managed to get three straight days of playing in the surf, getting knocked literally head over heals multiple times. I worried about not acting my age and my propensity to break major bones but It was a blast. The first day we saw dozens of live, brick red starfish. The ocean water is so clear here between the waves. The starfish would occasionally end up on your feet and attempt to get back to the sandy bottom. They felt creepy but were harmless. The next day we spied small manta rays feeding along the coastline from where we had breakfast in Barra de Navidad. Each afternoon was capped off with the gathering at sunset to witness the “eye of the needle”.

We entered the neighborhood of Tlaquepaque, Guadalajara. It’s Christmas Day and our gift to each other was a beautiful boutique hotel; La Villa del Ensueño. Our needs are simple: warm water, comfortable bed, a shower head. We found those along with a great location and a beautiful, secure home for two nights.

After this we will head for Zacatecas, spend a couple of nights there, look for the “Phil Collins Jesus”, (I’ll post a picture here if we find him), then a night in Nuevo Laredo for our traditional great dinner before crossing the border early in the morning. The bridge traffic can be brutal if you don’t plan it out.

*** UPDATE ***

The drive from Guadalajara was awesome. Again we took the free road through a huge grubby barrio that gave way to a massive canyon. There was a noticeable lack of guardrails along with an equally noticeable number of roadside memorials at some of the trickier curves. The single-lane drive took us to the bottom of the canyon then right back up the other side. Top speed: 35mph.

We found our hotel in Zacatecas, Hotel Santa Rita. It’s in the center of the universe for Zacatecas. No big deal but here’s something from the “Weird but True Department”. We walk in, make the necessary arrangements, when a gentleman comes from around the corner and announces, “Mr. Donnie Meals”. That was pretty strange but it ends up being Alejandro Rodriguez, a hotel guy from here that I friended on Facebook a couple of years ago. He worked at a different hotel but he wasn’t there the last few times. It was surreal.

The next day we went in search of the giant baby Jesus/Phil Collins doppelgänger. Click HERE for the story that lead to this search. We did our research. 35 minutes west of Zacatecas is the tiny town of Zoquite, home of La Epafanía del Señor. Recent stories show the church looking like this:

The above is a blatant abuse of journalism. That isn’t La Epafanía del Señor, nor does that church exist in Zoquite. We know because we drove down every street in Zoquite. It’s just not that big. I gave in and took a leap of faith by asking if someone knew where this church was. The leap of faith part was because I asked some Federales. The four of them put on a tough guy act and generally didn’t care to help. But then I said, “Tiene un Jesus Christo gigante”. They proceeded to bust out laughing, choked a bit on some pan dulce then proceeded to draw me a map to a location that was one block away. They could of just pointed. Here’s what it really looks like:

The statue is so big, they had to take out the glass above the doors and bring it in that way, (the part that’s covered in black plastic). The church is closed for repairs until January 6th. Bummer. Statue number two has evaded our experience.

On the way out of Zoquite there is an interesting complex of cones. We explored them for a bit in which a couple was having a traditional Chichimecas Indian wedding.