Cosala

Okay. We are supposed to take one day a week off away from the ministry, but we aren't very good at it. Since the camps are vacant for the summer a lot of the ministry presently happens on our patio and in the neighborhood surrounding the house. Even if we say we are going to take a day off, ministry somehow creeps in...it's just part of our everyday life. We have resolved to try harder to get away, and in that spirit we took an afternoon off and drove out to Cosala, a small pueblo about 50 miles east.

The road to Cosala is a far cry from the straight autopista between here and Mazatlan...get on, peg to 110 KM/H or so and hit the cruise. Autopilot the whole way. BORING. Not so this road! It's a lovely two-lane black-top, very curvy and hilly as it climbs in and out of foothills of the Sierra Madre.



We were slowed a bit while a cattle drive in front of us cleared the road. By the time they got the last beef into the trees there were four cars stacked up behind us! Ralph let them follow for a bit, then left them in the dust as he enjoyed the challenges of this road!



The challenges included a new Spanish word: Derrumbas. Didn't have the dictionary with us and we had no idea what it was, just that we were entering Zona Derrumbas. Didn't take us long to figure it out though. Zone of collapses!! There were two pretty large rock falls blocking the lanes in two spots through this area. Had to slow way down and go into the other lane to avoid them. Note to self: Don't drive this road at night or in the rain!!!



We marvelled at the thousands of yellow butterflies all along the roadway, they were truly amazing and very busy with all the wildflowers along the road. With all the rain we've had lately the hills have burst forth in green with splashes of wildflowers here and there, absolutely beautiful!



We got a great, shady parking spot near the plaza and got out and wandered around. There are unexpected little fountains and bronze busts of favorite sons and daughters of Cosala who've gone on to fame of one sort or another.

The town is self is pretty small, and is much more old fashioned than La Cruz. It has tons of tiny, winding streets made of stones and concrete. There's a nice mix of hotels, shops and restaurants, a history museum, lots of little vending stands with food, snacks, souvenirs, a lovely plaza and two Catholic churches!






The "new" Catholic church is about the same vintage as ours in La Cruz, but it is larger, and much nicer.






After exploring for a while, we found a spot to have a quick lunch, then wandered a bit more, exploring the central market, which also happens to be where the local buses stop. Cosala is the end of the road, so there is a lot of bus traffic getting people to and from the larger towns along the roadway, back out to the libre and autopista (free highway and pay highway). The town doesn't have a local bus route as far as we could tell, but does have a lot of taxis to haul you around if you wanted. There's even a small local airport!

We decided we'd better get back home and got a bit turned around getting to the one road that exits the puebla! It took us a few minutes and a few helpful townsfolk to get us on the right track and out of town, but we made it. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time and will likely explore some of the other small communities around here sometime soon. Including a refuge for tortoises that's around here somewhere close. Soon as we figure out how to get to it we'll go out there!