>>> EXPANDED FROM AN EMAIL to a Friend:
Having had an EXCELLENT lesson in "The Past Isn't REALLY What You THOUGHT It Was", yesterday, I returned last night due to the WIT and WISDOM of Mr. Tom-Tom, my GPS, who TOOK me to Colima just fine, and after an hour of getting my bearings, I found Los Amiales ("The Springs" in the Náhuatl Indian tongue -- and ancient recreational place PRE-DATING the arrival of the Spanish).
A palapa restaurant, like that owned by my godson Diego's parents at Los Amiales BEFORE Hurricane Jova. See a GREAT article on what Los Amiales was/is like here (NO GRINGOS!!!): http://www.gomanzanillo.com/features/amiales/index.htm
Not only did I find that Hurricane JOVE (here called "Jova") and COMPLETELY DESTROYED the ancient waterworks -- as well as three modern bridges over the river within 200 meters of the place -- in October 2011, but the place has been rebuilt in the last half year with Government help and everyone pitching in. Of course all the mature vegetation there is gone, as well as the ancient damming, so much charm is missing now -- but all will grow back soon and the people are undefeated.
Here is some video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKteNqrWw6A and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2wsFpQAQPU .
My godson, Diego, is now 14 and like his classmates, ENTIRELY COMPLETED SCHOOL when he graduated 6th grade two years ago. He is now pimpled, unemployed, and BIG-FOOT footed -- as large as my feet (15s) but TWICE AS WIDE!!! (above his hairing legs -- all MOST unattractive, but part of growing up). I immediately abondonned my fantasy developed en route that I would maybe buy him a relatively inexpensive computer or tablet to help him with school (he had seemed so scholarly before).
So I gave him 1,000 pesos to do with as he wished ($70.00 USD), and his parents the Bourbon and chocolates. I'd forgotten that "Alfredo" (Cornelio Prada Diaz - something of his story can be found here, although HE is the one who pretended to by my boyfriend and "stole" all my money from the sale of my nearly paid-off house in Stone Mountain, GA, then left me stranded in Puerto Vallarta on moving day from Colima, July 5, 2010.
I later discovered there were so many warrants for Cornelio Prada Diaz's arrest on DRUG GANG charges in Estado Jalisco that he COULDN'T stay. LOL!!! http://scottkenan.blogspot.mx/2010/04/letter-to-hateful-brother.html ) had absolutely INSISTED that NO ONE in Los Amiales know we were gay, so NOW I think Mama Martha has the idea that I might be her TICKET TO A HOT-SEX new life with a BETTER MAN (wealthier).
MUCHO debatable -- that description of me!!! If I were straight, I'd take her up IMMEDIATELY. She's the BEST woman there -- about 48 years old now, I'm guessing, and had married the TOP BULL MOOSE in town. Martha runs the family and the restaurant and I'm not sure what her husband actually DOES -- beyond stud services.
Since I saw them last -- two years ago -- Martha CLOCKED him after some misbehavior and KNOCKED OUT one of his front teeth. LOL!!! -- you don't see him smiling in the picture below, do you???).
Diego (feet too big to fit in the frame), Martha, Mr. Larios (terrible that I forget his first name!!!), a niece with her bambino, June 29, 2012 -- EXACTLY to the DAY, two years after Diego's 6th grade graduation.
Too-small picture I took of Diego (on right), with best friend and a shoe two years ago.
North Carolina Republican State Senator Thom Goolsby relaxing in his home in Wilmington, NC -- praisin' JESUS they're WHITE, insulated, and lead such INTERESTING LIVES (see blog post on Sen. Goolsby and snake-handling in church: http://scottkenan.blogspot.mx/2012/06/exact-copy-of-email-sent-to-me-by-nc.html )!!!
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And there is the story of how Mr. Tom-Tom not only tried to FORCE me to drive through a very old ferrocarrill (railroad) tunnel THROUGH A MOUNTAIN that had an active railroad but NO way for a car to go through. Really.
I was following it to get back to the toll road to Manzinilla, and the paved road became a gravel road, and then a two-dirt-tracks-in-the-grasses lane (sometimes in Mexico, valuable shortcuts ARE primitive, although nearly all of them have recently been upgraded) -- and finally dead-ended just before the railroad tunnel through a mountain -- with NO WAY you could have gotten anything short of a Hummer to hop onto the tracks if you WANTED to!!!
Previously (about six weeks ago), Mr. Tom-Tom took Sonny (Jimmy Humberto Montaño Prieto, see: http://scottkenan.blogspot.mx/2012/06/trouble-in-paradise.html ), his wife, child, and a friend of Sonny's -- and me -- on a wild 30-mile detour down a road so eroded and covered by debris from landslides that a local resident told me that if we continued we'd all "fall into the sea and die!!!"
In early 2010, my PREVIOUS Garmin GPS led me to places in North Carolina that reminded me of the movie DELIVERANCE (but less mountainous), claiming that I 40/85 was clogged due to a HORRIFIC accident. Later, after I finally got a bit freaked out by being so in the boonies, and MANUALLY returned to the intererstate (which Garmin had led me 90 degress AWAY from -- instead of parallel to), I discovered there had been NO ACCIDENT AT ALL!!!
So don't tell ME someone running the GPS satellites isn't up to SOMETHING peculiar!!!
And then after sticking around no longer to find ANY MORE wierd Colima-area things and deciding that I would stay in Manzanilla at a fun but inexpensive ($24.00 USD/night) resort con WiFi right on the beach with pools too, etc., which Mr. Tom-Tom had taken me right by on the way TO Colima, but kept me MILES from, returning, I just decided to drive on back to Puerto Vallarta, getting in at 12:15 AM this morning.
Now I go to the beach for some R&R FINALLY, then later make this into a amusing blog post with photos . . .
Scott
Bridge re-building near Los Amiales
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