People Watching and Eating In Tapalpa and Comala

We still haven't broken away from the cooler, higher ground of inland Mexico. After we spent a week in Tapalpa at 7000' elevation, we headed to Comala, another cobblestone town similar to Tapalpa, but not as good.  Comala is only at 2000', so the nights aren't as refreshingly cool.  We were hoping to hit the coast, but the temperatures and humidity are prohibitive, unless we can spend most of the hot hours surfing.  For the past 2 weeks, we've been on a wave-drought, and the forecast doesn't look good.  Sadly, the coastline we are considering skipping is reputed to be the most beautiful and sparsely populated in Mexico.

Saying goodbye to the Tapalpa town square

A beautiful house front near the town square in Tapalpa

Not a bad free camping/parking spot for the week.  A 5 minute walk to the center of town.

Cheese fondue with chorizo ($3) for dinner one night and tortas ahogadas ($2 "drowned" pork sammies) for lunch.  I tried to cool down the spicy sandwich with the cucumber salad, only to realize at the end of the meal that the little orange pieces are not carrots, but flaming hot habaneros!

Tejuino - not good!

Our typical routine in the small towns is to find a quiet/safe place to park for the night, and then head to the town square for people watching and food.  After Tapalpa, we are pretty picking about our food.  We're even getting pretty snobbish about tacos. When we arrived in Comala, it had been a long, hot day of driving.  There was a woman selling Tejuino at the town square.  I saw quite a few locals slurping up the cool, icey drink, and figured it was my turn to be brave and try something new.  We were both really thirsty.  Take a look at this drink (to the right).  What would you imagine it contains?  For me, I figured it was some sort of an iced tea or maybe even something a little chocolatey or coffee-ish.  Silly gringa.  I almost gagged on my first sip.  Tejuino is made from fermented corn, from the same corn dough used for tortillas and tamales. "The dough is mixed with water and brown sugar (piloncillo) and boiled. Then the liquid is allowed to ferment very slightly. The resulting drink is generally served cold, with lime juice, a pinch of salt and a scoop of shaved ice (or lemon sherbet)."

Comala town square with free internet and electric plug-ins for our computers

Just another Sunday evening in the town square of Comala

Pictures from November