For the Independence Day holiday, we are spending time in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and Dolores Hidalgo. All three towns are considered the cradle of the Mexican Independence Movement.

One of the largest flags in Mexico flies in the town of Dolores Hidalgo. The flag is nearly 150 feet wide and 50 feet high. It is an impressive sight.

If you are interested, you can read more about the Mexican flag.

–This is the fourth post of many highlighting our recent road trip to
Mascota and Talpa, Jalisco taken with a group of long-time friends. The second of the two towns we visited was Talpe de Allende which is about eighty
miles inland from the Puerto Vallarta Airport. –

This picture was taken on one of the main streets that crosses the town of Talpa de Allende. I like the contrast between old and new – cars vs. donkeys for transportation.

More roadtrip posts:

Old Adobe House

The Ice Cream Shop

Rancho Esmeralda Bungalows

–This is the third post of many highlighting our recent road trip to
Mascota and Talpa, Jalisco taken with a group of long-time friends. The
first of the two towns we visited was Mascota which is about sixty five
miles inland from the Puerto Vallarta Airport. Mascota makes a great side trip from Puerto Vallarta–

Most of the homes in downtown Mascota are traditional homes made of adobe. Many have been fully restored to their former beauty.

The house in the pictures is waiting for the right person to restore it. I told my wife that we might be the right people for the job. She made it quite clear that we were absolutely NOT the right people.

Even though this house hasn’t been restored I thought it was quite beautiful. If you look at the way the adobe is peeling off the wall, it forms a question mark with the door.

Looking at this house I see a historic treasure my wife sees a decrepit building. Like there are dog people and cat people there are old house people and new house people. I am old house people.

Previous road-trip posts:
The Ice Cream Shop

Rancho la Esmeralda

[ad#ad-1]

Mexican Discount Airlines

I came across an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that gives a great overview of Mexico’s budget airlines and where you can go flying with them. The list of airlines is complete. Two airlines I have never even heard of and I’m always looking for less expensive ways to travel.

Here is an excerpt from the article from the SF Chronicle:

While U.S. airlines have been dropping like flies (or at least
grounding their planes and filing for bankruptcy), Mexico’s discount
airlines have been steadily adding new destinations.

These new airlines crisscross Mexico, landing and taking off from more
than 50 cities. Some of these destinations are border cities and
industrial centers of no interest to most U.S. travelers; others are
popular tourist spots already served by U.S. airlines. It’s the middle
ground that’s really worth a look — intriguing destinations that used
to be hard to reach without putting in some serious road time, as well
as some likable cities that offer reasonable alternatives to busier
airports. Read the full article.

I have flown on three of the airlines on their list and the deals can be fantastic. Over Spring Break this year, on Viva Aerobus, we flew roundtrip from Puerto Vallarta to Monterrey for $750
pesos per person including all taxes.

Check the airlines websites often to see what they are
offering. Viva Aerobus has the most aggresive promotions. If you book
far enough in advance you can get a flight that costs $1 pesos plus
applicable taxes which comes out to a little over $500 pesos.

It’s getting much easier to use Puerto Vallarta as a jumping off point to explore Mexico.

Other related posts:
Travel Deals from Puerto Vallarta
Reducing Airfare Costs by Understanding Seasonal Airfare Fluctuations

-This is the second post of many highlighting our recent road trip to Mascota and Talpa, Jalisco taken with a group of long-time friends. The first of the two towns we visited was Mascota which is about sixty five miles inland from the Puerto Vallarta Airport.-

After we checked into our hotel in Mascota, the first thing we did was go for ice cream. One of our friends who had already been to Mascota insisted we stop at her favorite ice cream shop, the Neveria Rosita, because the ice cream was so good.

We weren’t really sure we wanted ice cream. It was evening. We had just arrived from Vallarta and wanted dinner. She continued to insist that we stop for ice cream first and that we would thank her if we went.

She was right about the ice cream. It was excellent – old fashioned ice cream, made on the premises.

Read the first Road Trip post – Rancho la Esmeralda

This is the first post of many highlighting our recent road trip to Mascota and Talpa, Jalisco taken with a group of long-time friends. The first of the two towns we visited was Mascota which is about sixty five miles inland from the Puerto Vallarta Airport. Driving time from Puerto Vallarta is about 2:10 due to the winding mountain road. The drive is beautiful and the road is much better than it used to be.

Mascota is a quaint old town which has become a popular tourist destination for people looking for a taste of Old Mexico. The buildings are adobe, the streets cobblestone. The pace is slow and the people pleasant. It’s the kind of place where you can do nothing but watch the world go by for hours and enjoy every moment.

Arriving at the outskirts of Mascota, we stopped to check out a recommended place to stay, the Rancho la Esmeralda. Pulling up to the administration building, we knew we had found our place to stay. Rancho la Esmeralda is a country bungalow hotel set on 24 acres. I felt as if I were arriving on a movie set.

The administration office and the owner’s home. They have a coffee pot set up on the patio for your morning coffee. You can stay and drink it in one of the rocking chairs or take it back to the patio of your bungalow.

I never thought I would get so excited about rocking chairs. When we were checking in, I was bouncing around like a little kid telling everyone, “look everybody, rocking chairs!”

Rancho la Esmeralda has five two-bedroom bungalows and five single rooms. Rates are $480 pesos for the single rooms and $980 pesos for the bungalows. The bungalows are a great deal. They sleep six people and have a fully stocked kitchenette.

The setting is spectacular, wide open space  with an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. The weather is about ten degrees cooler than in Puerto Vallarta and much less humid.

Rancho la Esmeralda is easy to find. When you arrive on the outskirts of town you will see a Pemex gas station and a big sign for the hotel in front of the station. Make a left off the highway on go 300 hundred yards and the hotel is on the left hand side.  You can’t get lost.

Contact information for the hotel:
Telephone 01-388-386-0953
Mobile 044-388-101-2513
e-mail humbertorodi52@hotmail.com
Web www.rancholaesmeralda.com

Marina Vallarta is a great place to watch the sunrise in PV. Grab a cup of coffee at the Coffee Cup and sit on the steps in front of the cafe for the best view.

The sun starts peeking over the mountains about 7:30am. It’s a beautiful way to start the morning.

Finding Airfare Deals

I like to travel and often spend time checking airfares to different cities around the world in the hope of finding some incredible deal. I came across a useful blog that is part of the FareCast.com website.

The FareCast blog has a series of posts that analyzes airfare fluctuations to popular destinations around the world and how by understanding the fluctuations you can reduce your travel costs.

One of the posts analyzes flight costs to Mexico and the Carribean. Here is an excerpt from the post Airfare Seasonality Part 2: Mexico and the Carribean .

Here’s a chart comparing a year of average prices for travel for a mix
of cities within the US and for travel from the US to Mexico and the
Caribbean. The two mirror each other closely, but travel south of the
border costs about $140 more on average. You may be interested to know
that more than half (roughly $90) of this difference comes from
international taxes and immigration fees levied both by the US and by
foreign governments.

Be sure to read the full blog post for a complete explanation that might help you save money on your next trip to Puerto Vallarta. I’m hoping that it will help me find the next great deal.

Travelling From Puerto Vallarta

Using Puerto Vallarta as a starting point for travel in Mexico is no longer as expensive as it used to be. Many discount airlines have begun operating over the last few years.

Four popular discount airlines are:
Interjet – Hub city: Toluca (just outside Mexico City)
Volaris – Hub city: Toluca (just outside Mexico City)
Viva Aerobus Hub city: Monterrey (Northern Mexico)
Alma

All of these airlines fantastic promotional fares. Over Spring Break this year, we flew roundtrip to Monterrey for $750 pesos per person. Check their websites often to see what they are offering. Viva Aerobus has the most aggresive promotions. If you book far enough in advance you can get a flight that costs $1 pesos plus applicable taxes which comes out to a little over $500 pesos.

To give you an idea of the airlines’ standard rates, I did a price check for a flight to Toluca leaving Thursday, April 17 and returning Thursday, April 24.

The results were:
Volaris – Puerto Vallarta to Toluca, $1690.30 pesos
Interjet – Puerto Vallarta to Toluca, $1790.30 pesos

A few years back it typically cost more than $4000 pesos to go roundtrip to Mexico City from Puerto Vallarta.

We snapped this photo from the car driving back to Puerto Vallarta from Jala, Nayarit this past weekend. It is an agave cactus plantation owned by the Cuervo Tequila company.

Jose Cuervo Blue Agave Cactus Farm