Adventures of a Vegetarian

On our mexico holiday this Xmas we rented a car and after 4 days in Puerto Vallarta drove all the way to the city of Colima, which is in the state of Colima. The drive takes a long time (5 hours), but you go through ocean road, forest, mountains, little towns, and finally reach the colonial city of Colima with the towering Volcano de Fuego as the backdrop. Colima is not really visited by foreign tourists, and is actually a very modern town on the outskirts. Although the downtown is very pretty and colonial. The things to do in Colima are to hike around the active volcano de fuego, visit the pretty little puebla of Comala, visit two archeological sites the ancient cities of La Campana and La Chanal, dating from 700 to 1400 AD, and two regional museums to see the pottery and statues from the sites.

Places to Eat in Colima:

There was a surprising amount of real mexican vegetarian food in this town that was AWESOME! First there is a great cafe called Sal Om Lux 5 blocks east of hotel Ceballos (main square Jardin La Libertad) on F. Co. I. Madero (the cafe shows up as “Lakshmi” on google maps). This is an order at the desk cafe / health shop in a huge building and everything is vegetarian. Try the varios: specifically tacos de guisados, soya ceviche tostada, and you MUST try the quesadilla combinado (with soy chorizo or mushrooms). They have serve yourself salsas. The food was fabulous and about $1-2 US per item! They also have a long list of veggie burgers, but the varios are better. They have great liquados and baked postres (desserts) too. The other restaurant we ate at was Ah Que Nanishe, a Oaxacan restaurant on Cinco De Mayo about 5 blocks west of hotel Ceballos. This place was unbelievable. In case you didn’t already know, Oaxacan food is one of the best in Mexico and they have a ton of veggie options here. Try the veggie tamale with mole for a starter. I got one chile relleno stuffed with squash flowers and the other with huitlacoche for the main course. The food was amazing and was about $15 per person for three courses. Side Note: If you have not had huitlacoche before, you must try it. I think you can only get it in Mexico (or central america). It is the fungus that grows on the corn plant and it tastes really good (albeit funky). You have to push your horizons when you travel so when there is a vegetarian delicacy you must try it! For dessert we got the pay de limon, yum….

Where to stay in Colima:

You have to stay at hotel Ceballos, which is run by Best Western. It is a beautiful multi level colonial building with internal courtyard, well appointed rooms with pretty Mexican furnishings, and is in the center of the action. Of course that means noise if you get a room that overlooks the main square, but you only live once. They have free parking and a beautiful roof top patio. if you want a quiet room you can get one in the interior but note it doe snot have a window to outside, only into the interior of the building.

What to do:

In town check out the Regional museum (in the main square – Jardin La Libertad) where they have artifacts from the ancient cultures of Colima and a replica of a shaft tomb downstairs and colonial period pieces upstairs. Also you MUST checkout the Museum of Western cultures (about 2 miles east of the center), also boasting a large collection of statues and pottery from the ancient peoples of Colima state. The top tourist attractions in Colima are its archeological sites. There are two settlements, La Campana (north side of town), which has a shaft tomb that you can climb down to and peer inside, as well as multiple plaza levels and buildings / temples. It reminded by of Teotihuacan although smaller. But the site is very impressive and apparently only 1% has been excavated. The other site, which has been very nicely excavated is La Chanal with well maintained grounds. This is also a very large site, but it is a little difficult to find. It is about 2 km north of Tercer Anillo Periferico by taking the V. Carranza Rd. north. Make sure to have a GPS or a map printed before you go, or you will have to ask someone in town for help. It is a large ancient city and is well worth the visit. There is another one, La Capacha, but our GPS coordinates led us to a field and the kids in town said there wasn’t anything there.

North of town, about 6 miles, is the little city of Comala. It has pretty white painted buildings and nice stores. Stop here for lunch, a licuado, and shopping, on your way to or coming back from the volcano.

You can take the main road all around the base of the volcano. On your way to the volcano you pass through the magic zone. It is an optical illusion that makes is look like you are accelerating uphill. You drive a few miles further up the main road and there is a side cobble stone road that you can take to get closer to the volcano and hike on the avocado farmland that encircles the base to have amazing views. The road is pretty bad so take it easy and make sure your tires are in good shape. But you don’t need a 4WD, however a manual transmission car helps (versus automatic). Having a GPS or smart phone with google maps already loaded helps you locate these spots. It would be hard without it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.