This article is from the June 2004 The Mexico File newsletter.
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Into the Hills of Jalisco – Mascota and Talpa de Allende

by David Simmonds 

“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.”– Dagobert D. Runes 

I have been to Puerto Vallarta, oh, I don’t know, maybe 75 times since I first limped into town in an old VW van with a fried generator and 4 bald tires in 1970. Armed with zero knowledge and little money, I knew that I had found the place that would forever be central to my life. Though the little village has grown enormously and too often insanely, in my heart it remains, in many ways, the same town I discovered then. It is my personal decompression chamber. One that never fails to stabilize my breathing and re-circuit my frayed and aging wiring system. The older you become, the more important it is to embrace a place in that way, much as you do your family members. Especially in today’s rapidly shrinking world, where the U.S. now has some 700 military bases in over 100 countries and globalization has become a political precept. It’s a safe bet that Mexico will not soon be joining that group, ever diligent in their correct insistence on independence from their imperial neighbors to the north. Large deserts make good neighbors. 

Having seen the gradual morphing of Vallarta over a 34-year span, the vividness of my recollections has become hazy, and possibly inaccurate. Fortunately, I have a thing about not being able to ever throw a book away (I liken them to works of art, much to my wife’s dismay), so I can usually find an old source that is being held together with a rubber band or kite string. Somewhere I have Frommer’s Mexico and Guatemala on $5.00 a Day, circa 1971, but the only one I can presently find is the !975-76 edition, which has bumped the parameters to $5.00 and $10.00 a day. Here are some reminders that can be found in the tattered pages from when Gerald Ford was president and many of the Watergate gang were either imprisoned or pardoned: 

The peso/dollar conversion rate was fixed at 12 ½ to one –  that is, a peso was eight cents US. 

The huge hotel zone north of town, including the Marina area hotels, was swampland. All of the hotels listed in the book are in town, which basically started where the Malecon begins. 

The hotel I have stayed at for years, Posada de Roger (then called Hospedaje Roger) had 15 rooms, only two with bath. The rest used a communal shower. It was nicknamed the “Y of PV.” attracting young travelers from all over the world. At night, everyone would gather in the lush courtyard passing a bottle of tequila or raicilla, sharing lies and adventures. It was not unusual to end up in a room other than the one you checked into. The price for a double, without bath, was 25 pesos, or $2.00US. 

The “splurge” hotel was listed as the Hotel Oceana, long since converted into shops and restaurants, right where the malecon curves in at Calle Galeana, a couple of blocks north of the Plaza de Armas. A double room at this long lost landmark where John Wayne, Richard Burton and John Huston once threw back shooters cost 150 pesos, or $12.00US. Meals were in the 30 to 50 peso range. 

Other restaurants listed were the Mismaloya Beach at the north end of town (not be be confused with THE Mismaloya beach seven miles south of town) where a fresh lobster tail would set you back 50 pesos (four bucks) and shrimp 22 pesos (a buck seventy-five). 

The two still thriving (and great) restaurants on the Playa de los Muertos on the south-end, La Palapa and El Dorado, were featuring sandwiches for 10 to 20 pesos, entrees at 20-35 pesos, and 7-peso beers. I remember lesser establishments where a bottle of Corona or Carta Blanca were 2 pesos. A shot of tequila was about the same price.  Considerable damage could be accomplished for under $1.50. 

In today’s guidebooks, there are pages devoted on things to do in Vallarta from dolphin encounters to jungle tours to art walks. By comparison, the paragraph in the ’75-76 book lists “Sunning and Strolling” as the activity guide. I’d say that sums it up better than I can. 

But I’m not complaining. To me, PV is still the best town in Mexico. One of the premier features of the town is the location, nestled between the usually placid Banderas Bay (except during hurricane season) and the little-traveled Sierra Cuale mountains. And it is in the villages of these mountains where you can shuffle back in time to catch a glimpse of the Vallarta of 30 or 40 years ago.  

This is scheduled to change sometime in 2005, as the government is working on a paved highway running from Vallarta to Mascota, a town I selfishly didn’t really want to publicize, as long as it took five hours to get there on a dirt path that few sane people attempted. But if they really do get this road built, I expect some rapid changes. The town is only about 30 miles from PV, making the potential drive-time very short on the new track. I keep hoping that I’ll get word that the project, like so many do, gets abandoned for lack of funds or waning interest, but all reports have it moving forward.  

The new road will open up an area of Mexico first settled by the indigenous people who grew crops and pulled a little silver and gold out of the ground. Soon enough the Spaniards decided that the riches belonged to them, establishing a few mining towns and cattle ranches that fairly thrived while the profits were substantial. By the first part of the 20^th century most of the mining had ceased with the area’s inhabitants subsisting on agriculture and horse breeding, which are the mainstays of today’s population. 

Mascota 

As mentioned, local people lived in this area for centuries before the conquistadors arrived in this fertile valley around 1592. I can imagine the sense of good fortune that they must have felt. Having myself seen most of Mexico, this area ranks very near the top of my list of locales not attached to an ocean. It is somewhat similar to San Miguel de Allende, before it became known world-wide as a retirement haven, although not nearly as large and nowhere near the amount of money changes hands on a daily basis. Mascota’s population is around 8,000, but you scarcely see a soul as you walk along the cobble-stoned streets, and you are just as likely to see a horse as a car. The staple crops of the region are rice, wheat, oranges, corn, lemons, grapes, avocados, sugarcane, and most importantly, the agave Lechuguilla. It is from this plant that the brain-altering, somewhat illegal, moonshine, Raicilla, is made.  I say somewhat illegal because it is not against the law to produce it, but it is illegal to serve it in a bar. There are backyard production plants in Mascota where you can buy nicely packaged bottles of raicilla, but the bars in PV will tell you that they can’t serve it. I know because I have been told just that many times immediately prior to offering an extra incentive to the bartender who invariably has a bottle stashed away behind the bar. It is suggested that you have a map with you showing directions to where you are sleeping and possibly a name tag before sampling a few shots, not to identify yourself to others, but rather in the event you can’t recall your name. 

The average daily temperature (not the daily high) is 69 degrees with June having a daily average of 75 degrees and January 62 degrees. The town’s elevation lies at 4068 feet above sea level. The average yearly rainfall total measures 36 inches, all adding up to a near-perfect climate. The valley in which the town sits is surrounded by pine and oak covered hills, which can be explored via dirt roads and by horseback, which can be rented in town. 

On a recent trip I saw no evidence of a single gringo living in town, although I’m not sure about that, and I suspect the new road might bring a number of expats looking for the next “place.” – the place that all too often eventually starts to resemble the place that they left in the first place. Oh well, that should take a while before the first signs of necessary services take hold – chic coffee houses, ATM booths on every corner, AA meetings. I give it five years from the road’s completion, then it will be on to another village, which fortunately, is something these hills between Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara are filled with. 

Talpa de Allende 

Talpa is somewhat larger than Mascota, with about 11,000 people, but seems to be larger than the 3,000 person difference would suggest. It must be the fact that about 1 million people a year visit the town in pilgrimage to its Gothic church that houses the beloved virgin, Rosaria de Talpa, one of the renowned three sister virgins of Jalisco. The small, straw figure is said to have miraculous healing powers, attracting the faithful from all over western Mexico, many of whom walk for days to reach the town. The supporting businesses create a lively scene as mariachis, souvenir stands and food carts cater to the pilgrims. The festival days in honor of the virgin occur four times per year on February 2, March 10 -19 (the largest gathering), May 10 - 12, and September 10 - 19. The few hotels in town fill up rapidly, and then so do the sidewalks with makeshift tents providing nighttime shelter. For the less committed traveler, at any time during the rest of the year you can find nice lodging options and plenty of areas to explore once the virgin has healed your ailments (hmmm –  it might be a good place to visit right after sampling the raicilla in Mascota) 

Talpa is a very pretty and colorful town, with the same elevation and climate as Mascota. There are several nearby defunct mining operations that you can visit as well as smaller villages that could be imagined to be much as they were 75 years ago. Local guides can take you to a choice of many adventurous day-trips (see www.mexicofile.com/talpadeallende.htm for some ideas as described in a Mexico File article from July 2001 by Georgia Stasi). You can also reference the information on Hacienda Jacaranda, a boutique hotel owned by long-time Mexico File subscribers Bill Worth and Guy Lawlor.  

So I would suggest that you visit this area soon before the master planners get started. A few days in Vallarta followed by a few more in the hill towns is about as good as Mexico gets. Just don’t plan to move a Starbucks into Mascota or Talpa. I’ll be the guy out front with the picket sign.