Flashback to Mexico

Along the way, we saw this:

And beautiful vistas like this:

We drove up the hill into a small village (San Nicolas de Ibarra, I believe), and found some sweet, but humble homes.

The next neighborhood over, Vista del Lago, (not actually connected, although close enough to be) looked more like this, and had gorgeous properties overlooking a local golf course. It’s amazing the diversity of wealth (or the lack thereof) that you get in this area.

Next, we continued East to the small town of Mezcala, which is known for offering boat trips to the island of Mezcala. Some day we’ll do that boat trip and blog about it, but we didn’t do it on this day.

As we were driving into town, nature struck me…and there was no option but to stop IMMEDIATELY! We learned how fast I could ask directions in Spanish to the closest bathroom. Pretty fast–it turns out–although I admit I really relied mostly on charades to direct me to a restaurant where I ran in, gave them some money to use their bathroom, and probably spent a good 5 minutes locked behind the door. When I came out, I found all of these children hovering around the car, asking Jared for money.

We also saw these girls enjoying some jump rope in the street.

Jared (of course) decided he wanted to see how far East the road would go on the North side of the lake. Turns out…it gets pretty rough if you continue on the road East. We drove for awhile on this (what is the random paved mini section in the middle? I have no idea!), until it became more of a 4-wheeling road. I finally convinced Jared to turn around (yes, he DOES require convincing…as he thinks he and this van are invincible).

On the way back, we stopped at this FANTASTIC “Italian” Joint on the side of the road. When I say “side of the road,” I really mean SIDE of the road. Do you see the yellow traffic line in the road? Cars drive RIGHT alongside this little restaurant!