Looking out my Backdoor: Hit the ground running

After a week on the beach, my guests, Don and Denise, and I, boarded the Primera Plus Autobus in Mazatlan, and climbed across the Sierras to my home in Etzatlan.

In a country where not everyone has acquired a car and where some people with cars chose to take advantage of the excellent public transportation, I’ve got to tell you, my friends, we are impressed.

We used to have pretty decent public transit in our country, too, until every family “needed” two cars in the garage, and added to that number when each child passed the driver’s test. Public transportation sort of faded out of existence about 40 years ago.

These days it seems one cranks up the family car to buzz around the corner and down the block to the store for a bottle … of milk, I’m saying, of milk, a bottle of milk.

Dear me, I never intended to rant, and after such an excellent week, too. So I won’t do more than mention that air transportation has achieved a similar status to our old northern Montana bus-lines of the 1950s. Given a choice of five hours in an airplane or five hours on our posh, first-class bus, Primera Plus wins.

For tickets of approximately $32, we sank back into comfortable seats and enjoyed the view. Had we driven, we would have had the same five-hour drive, $50 in tolls, plus gasoline, wear and tear on machine and driver. Enough said.

We no more than settled into Etzatlan than friends swarmed over to help us arrange our week. I’m grateful. One day Jim took us to Teuchitlan to the Guachimontones site where an ancient civilization flourished for about 900 years. We spent most of a day in the Museum and walking around the restored pyramids — and eating.

Kathy and Richard loaded us in their vehicle for a day in Tonola at the tianguis, the artisans’ street fair. What a fun day, exploring various booths, tiendas on the side streets, poking into this and that, marveling at kitsch and authentic treasures, side by side. And eating.

Making plans in Mexico never has worked for me. I’ve learned to define “plan” as a loose idea of what might happen. So on our designated “day of rest and relax” we climbed up, over and around an active dig in Oconahua, a small town about 8 kilometers from Etzatlan, which had a completely different “pyramid” culture from the one in Teuchitlan. Ate out again, this time in San Marcos.

The Friday Tianguis in Etzatlan is comparable to a huge farmer’s market with the addition of every kind of kitchen product, apparel, plant, tool, music and internet type items; anything and everything imaginable for everyday life. Uh huh, we ate out.

On top of all that, we managed to pack in a day in which five of us drove up into the mountains above Ahualulco to the Piedras Las Bolas site, where the magma from Volcan de Tequila formed into huge balls of rock. Delicious meal afterward in Ahualulco.

Oh, and did I mention the tour of Etzatlan, including the Museo at the Casa de Cultura, with reproductions of the shaft tombs found at Santa Rosalia near Etzatlan, with Leo, the man who knows the history of every family who lives here. I cooked. I can cook, too.

Does that sound like our week of adventure hardly left us time to pack for the trip back? It’s the truth. But, what a good time; what fun we had together.

Imagine us back on the bus, the wheels rolling us once more to Mazatlan to finish our dental work. Plus, we have a list of “plans” before Don and Denise cram aboard the plane back to Oregon and I enjoy another bus ride home.

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Sondra Ashton grew up in Harlem but spent most of her adult life out of state. She returned to see the Hi-Line with a perspective of delight. After several years back in Harlem, Ashton is seeking new experiences in Etzatlan, Mexico. Once a Montanan, always. Read Ashton’s essays and other work at montanatumbleweed.blogspot.com. Email [email protected].