Mezcala: Doorway to a dramatic history

Doorway ruins on the fortress island of Mezcala
Carole and I have visited the village Mezcala several times over the past seven months or so, each time finding more to enjoy and admire about this small fishing town about thirty kilometers east along the lake from our home in Ajijic. The pictures in this posting reflect those separate visits, although the bulk of them are from our third visit which included historic Isla Mezcala, about five kilometers off shore.


Isla Mezcala from ridgetop
This photo was taken from the crest of the mountain ridge overlooking Isla Mezcala, which appears tiny in the vast lake, with an even tinier islet to its right. You are looking due south. Yup, that's a long way down.

The ridge crest from atop the fortress walls on Isla Mezcala
This view looks back at the ridge crest looming over Mezcala village. I took the previous photograph from the ridgetop. Yup, that's a long, steep hike up the mountain.

Spiral petroglyph design is found widely in Mexico and the US
Mezcala was settled by Coca Indians who moved into the area about 1400 AD, and also settled in the Ajijic and Jocotopec areas further west along the north shore of the lake. Evidence of even earlier occupation can be found on the rocks just outside Mezcala where early inhabitants left petroglyphs—ancient designs pecked into the flat surfaces. The people have always supported themselves in part from fishing, their catch including White Fish (now nearly extinct) and Charales, a small fish about the size of a sardine and still prevalent and eaten all over the area although probably somewhat toxic from the pollution in the lake. For more information about the area's prehistory, click here.

Mezcala under the mountains
There is not much agriculture around Mezcala because the mountains come down almost directly to the shore except for the relatively narrow strip of sloping land containing Mezcala itself. There are small fields of corn and agave up on the mountainsides, but they are difficult to till or even to reach except by narrow switch backed trails.


Nopal cactus leaves are highly edible and nutritious
Nopal cactus and camote roots are found growing wild in the area, both of which provide nutritious food. Mezcalans also raise cattle and goats. Still, all of this doesn’t provide enough to support all the people in the town. Many of them have to work as far away as Guadalajara or even the US according to Exciquio Santiago Cruz, the founder and director of the local non-profit museum, located just across the street from the church on the Mezcala plaza.

Exciquio has lived in Mezcala all of his life and one of his goals is to eliminate poverty in Mezcala by promoting tourism and visits to Isla Mezcala where the State of Jalisco is extensively restoring the ruins. The tourists spend money in local restaurants where food is excellent and prices are modest, and some take tour boats over the channel to the island, about 5 kilometers off shore. Fishermen organized into two local cooperatives operate the boats. The standard rate is 250 pesos (a little less than $25) for the trip plus an hour on the island, whether transporting one person or a dozen. Additional time costs about 100 pesos more.


Helen and Carole get briefed by Exciquio
We decided that visiting the island with a knowledgeable English-speaking guide would be ideal, so we stopped by the museum where we met Exciquio, who immediately agreed to round up a boatman named Beto and go with us. Exiquio asked for “150 to 200” pesos for his time. He ultimately spent about three hours with us, for which we paid him 300 pesos, so it was a real bargain given his extensive knowledge of the island’s history and the history of Mezcala itself. Both Exciquio and Beto seemed very happy with the deal. So were we, since the experience was wonderful and the cost came to only about $15.00 (US) each for the four of us, including boat and guide. One caution to the visitor: bring your own drinks and some small snacks. To make advance arrangements with Exciquio, he can be reached at his Mexican cell phone number: 333-174-0796. He's a great guy, and a good guide! Tell him we said Hi!


Beto, the boatman
Beto handled his craft very professionally. The boat was equipped with an overhead canopy for the sun and—to our surprise—life jackets. There are no services on the island and on a warm day it can be thirsty work to clamber all around and through the ruins, and one can also work up a good edge of hunger. However, there are very nice small restaurants on the streets leading to the harbor and in the plaza area where you can eat either before or after your visit to the island.

Great White Egret surveys his domain.
Canadians Gerry and Helen Green joined Carole and I on a couple of different jaunts to Mezcala. We four had previously visited the town to see the petroglyphs and sample the local cuisine. After eating lunch on this earlier trip, we wandered down to the waterfront where we watched a local fisherman cast his net into the glassy harbor water as egrets and other water birds stoically looked on.


He winds up!
A local fisherman caught in motion as he swings his net back in preparation for a throw that will spread it out over a broad area of the placid harbor water. Weights around the rim of the oval net help the net stay flat and even.


He throws!
Various birds float just outside the range of the net, hoping for an easy meal. The small bird in the foreground is an American Coot. Just like me.

It's a catch! (Hopefully)
The fisherman has released his net and my photo caught it just before it hit the water. This process involves a lot of work, and did not yield any fish while I watched. The fisherman must reel in his net in just the right way so that he can make it open properly when he throws it again. Later he must stretch it out to dry and repair any tears. This kind of fishing is not for the weak or easily discouraged.

Isla Mezcala from the waterfront, as the Spanish would have seen it
Gazing across the channel at Isla Mezcala, we hatched plans to visit the site of the longest siege of the Mexican War of Independence (1810-21). A couple of years after it started, the war came to Mezcala when Spanish troops visited the area to arrest a local activist. The Indian villagers mobilized and ambushed the well-armed regulars with little more than rocks and clubs. They won the fight and beat back several other attempts by the Spanish to take Mezcala.


Aerial view of Isla Mezcala looking northwest
However, each time the Spanish came with stronger forces, and finally the insurgents decided to retreat to Isla Mezcala as a more defensible position. Ultimately about four thousand insurgents occupied and fortified the island, bringing with them rifles and cannon captured from the Spanish and building defenses with Mezcala’s volcanic rocks. (This photo courtesy of Kim Miller.)

Thus began a four-year siege, which drove the Spanish authorities nuts. They completely failed, after numerous attempts, to take the island. In one of the attempts, the insurgents killed or captured all the Spanish soldiers including the commander who had just slaughtered the inhabitants of the south shore village of Tizapan and burned the village. The insurgents took the Spanish commander back to Tizapan where they executed him and fourteen of his soldiers for the massacre.

Worse yet for the Spanish, the insurgents used the island as a base for raids against Spanish garrisons in Ajijic, Chapala, Jocotopec, and other towns around the perimeter of Lake Chapala. Many of the hacienda owners around the Lake were sympathetic to the independence movement and provided supplies to the besieged insurgents. Some of the haciendados who had been officers in the Spanish army provided military leadership as well, but the great bulk of the fighters appear to have been Lake Chapala area Indians.

The siege continued from 1812 to 1816 and ended only when the insurgents became too ill from poor sanitation to continue. The Spanish authorities leaped at the chance to end this vexing and embarrassing stand off. They negotiated an honorable surrender and an amnesty for the insurgents, which included help in rebuilding their villages and seed and livestock to enable them to live. This was an extraordinary agreement and one, which the Spanish, for once, actually carried out. Generally, the Spanish favored insurgent heads on pikes, but they were so exhausted and fed up that they appear to have just wanted the fight to end.

For more details of the siege, click this Link.

Fortress walls, moat, and northwest bastion
The Spanish appreciated the military possibilities of Isla Mezcala and used it as a military base from 1819 through 1821, when Mexico won its independence.  Later, a prison was built on the island.  Most of the ruined structures appear to be from this post-siege period. The fortress was built as a large square with cylindrical bastions at each corner from which cannon and rifle fire could be directed along the walls against any attackers. The high walls and a deep moat (now empty) all around would discourage all but the most determined and well-equipped assault.


Fortress walls under reconstruction surround courtyard area
The sleeping quarters, food preparation areas, and hospital are contained within the thick walls surrounding the large inner courtyard. You can clearly see the iron bars and other materials being used to reinforce the walls. It is not clear whether the tree existed in the original courtyard, but it is quite large, so it may be old enough.


Stairway to northwest bastion
A stone stairway leads from a bakery on the ground floor to the fortress rampart walls and the northwest bastion, which also contains a small lighthouse.


Gerry enters the stone blockhouse
The fortress and a large stone blockhouse just outside the fortress overlook the prison, on an arm of the island extending to the southeast. According to Exciquio, this structure was built on the site of an ancient Indian temple. However, when Gerry and I examined the blockhouse from the inside, there was no question of its military purpose. It is a two-story structure, which can be seen from the slots in the interior walls about half way up which once contained the wooden rafters supporting the second floor. The three walls not facing the fortress each had large gun ports for cannon on the second floor and smaller ones for rifles on the ground floor.


Stone walkway from prison leads past blockhouse fortress
Clearly, anyone approaching the fortress along the stone walkway from the prison area, or from the east or west shores, could be covered by fire from the blockhouse ports even before they reached the fortress walls.


Friendly reconstruction workers
The prison is in fairly bad shape, but is currently under reconstruction. On the day of our visit, we encountered three very friendly workers who were delighted to pose for my picture. They are standing in front of the wall shared by the two long rooms of the prison.


Prison interior
The structure itself is comprised of two rooms, about fifty meters long by ten meters wide (a meter is approximately 1 yard). A long common wall separates the two rooms and over each is an arched ceiling, now mostly fallen. According to Exciquio, there were no individual cells. Everyone was just thrown into one or another of the big rooms, with little ventilation or light.


A prisoner's work is never done
During the days, prisoners worked building or repairing the stone structures on the island, including the large cobblestone plaza surrounding two sides of the fortress. I was amazed by the intricate patterns of stonework in the plaza until I realized that its purpose was probably to keep the prisoners busy. They were also kept occupied by constantly refilling the fortress moat, approximately six meters deep, from which the water was then let to run. The long trek up from the lake with buckets of water must have led them to curse that moat.


Exciquio explains tannery ruins
Another area of activity for the prisoners was the tannery, which sits just under the low plateau on which the fortress, church and other structures are located. The tannery site included several pits where the hides were soaked, and some shallow caves where Indian families once lived, possibly during the siege.

Exciquio told us that there were regular attempts to escape the prison, a testament to the harshness of conditions. Most attempts ended in drowning as the prisoners chanced the 5-kilometer swim across channel to Mezcala floating on stray pieces of wood. Overcome by the chilly lake water, few succeeded. However one large break was successful for at least some of the prisoners, who managed to escape to the south shore of the lake and the many sympathetic villages beyond.


Government House was the administrative center.
During the post-siege period, Government House was where senior officers of the fortress and prison conducted their business. It is a large structure, many-roomed, with most of the walls remaining but no roof. What appears to be snow in the tops of the walls in many of the pictures is actually cement placed there to stabilize the walls.


Plaster originally covered the inner side of the stone walls
Inside Government House there is a large room, which I call the Great Room, where I imagine significant business was conducted. One can still see the original plaster on the interior walls.


Lava block floor
Another original feature was the volcanic lava block floor, worn smooth by many feet over several decades of traffic.


Even a fortress island with a prison has a church
The reconstruction of the church was also under way. Exciquio would only allow us to take pictures from the outside because of religious considerations. The inside was pretty well gutted, but one can still see some of the original marble lining the places where the first floor walls met the ceiling.


Stone buttresses for support
The stone buttresses of the church, seen from the northwest side, helped support the thick volcanic stone of the walls. Use of these kinds of buttresses on churches goes back to the Middle Ages.


Another beautiful day on Isla Mezcala
After about three hours on the island we were tired and hungry and ready to go, but also delighted with all we had seen and heard. It had been a gorgeous clear day with wonderful vistas from every vantage point of Isla Mezcala, especially this one looking northeast. Even though the insurgents, the garrison soldiers, and the prisoners may have felt the conditions to be harsh, they at least had the benefit of beautiful views in every direction.


From the mountains over Mezcala
Well, to quote a great 20th Century American philosopher*, “th-th-th-that’s all folks!” Hope you enjoyed this posting and can visit Mezcala and its historic island yourself some day. Hasta luego!

*Bugs Bunny

Hiking in Lake Chapala's mountains

Steep hillsides and deep ravines just west of the fishing village of Mezcala. These are typical of the mountains overlooking the North Shore, which sometimes drop precipitously to the water, leaving little space for human occupation below. I have been collecting hiking photos from my excursions into the mountains surrounding Lake Chapala since last summer, but for one reason or another have not put together a blog posting on this important part of my life until now.

Accordingly, this posting represents a variety of hikes along the North Shore with different groups of people at different times although there is considerable overlap in who shows up in the pictures. I was a bit baffled as to how to present this at first until I decided to treat it as a composite hike, representative of what a person might encounter on any particular Tuesday morning when a group of expats and other visitors gathers at Dona’s Donuts in Ajijic to get their weekly “fix” of adventure and strenuous exercise. This posting will show typical scenes encountered by these adventurous people. So, with apologies to my fellow hikers for this arrangement of convenience, let’s get on with it!

The hiking group above is typical for its international flavor, containing Americans, Canadians, and one Norwegian. The groups who gather at Dona’s range widely in size, depending on time of the year, weather, and who happens to be in town. In my experience, there have been as few as two, in the summer doldrums when the “snowbirds” aren’t in town, and as many as eighteen when a search party gathered in December to find a couple of lost hikers who fortunately turned up before the search got underway. No one knows exactly where the hike will go until the group gathers. A few of the more experienced hikers will suggest a trail, based on conditions and whether the people showing up think they can handle it. Some of these trails are relatively short two or three hour jaunts starting right from the front porch of the donut shop. Some are as much as eight hours, and involve extensive drives or even multiple bus transfers. Some have even involved rock climbing up cliff faces requiring ropes for safety. We never know until we get there, and I have learned to allot the whole day just in case.

Headin' up. A shady and relatively level beginning is not unusual, but we can always count on tougher terrain ahead, since the only way up a mountain is “up”. I have just turned sixty, and had considered myself to be in relatively good shape. The hikers I have met are generally as old or older than me, although we get the occasional 30-40 year old. Despite my relative youth in the group, the older hikers regularly leave me in the dust. I am continually amazed by the seventy-year-olds who barely slow down on the steep switchbacks and who nimbly leap from one precarious rock ledge to another. While it is sometimes a little exasperating to watch this, as I pant for breath at seven thousand feet, it does give me hope for my own future, as I get stronger and more acclimated.

Speaking of switchbacks. This photo shows the typical steepness of the trails, and the jungle-like underbrush in the shadier areas. In the summer rainy season, this jungle grows to a level of thickness that discourages any thought of venturing off the narrow trails, and sometimes conceals sudden drops and other pitfalls. Great care is needed to avoid injury in places where rescue would be difficult and many hours in coming. In the winter, the underbrush dries out and is often slashed back by Mexicans coming up to tend mountain-top fields or to herd livestock, but it can still scratch and entangle the unwary with clusters of sharp thorns which seem to leap out with evil intent.

Camote holes show another reason the Mexicans trek up these remote, rugged trails. They come to harvest camote, a tuber similar in appearance to yams or sweet potatoes. Camote grows wild, and is free for the taking by local Indians on their ejido (common) land. I am told it only grows between seven thousand and seventy-five hundred feet, in a band that rings the mountains around the Lake. Camote must be an exhausting crop to harvest since you must first climb two thousand steep feet up the mountain, find a camote plant, dig a substantial hole, and then tote your vegetable treasure down the mountain to sell on the street.

A cool reward on a hot day. Waterfalls are only active during the rainy season, from June through October. The cool moist air they create, and their wonderful sound encourage many an impromptu break on a hot sweaty hike. Unfortunately, the water is not safe to drink, so you have to take plenty with you

Dry waterfalls make for great rock climbing. During the dry season many hikes take a route either up or down the steep ravines cutting the sides of the mountains. Here, Robert, our resident rock-climbing expert, tries a route up a particularly steep dry waterfall in a ravine overlooking San Juan Cosala, which lies a few miles west of Ajijic on the North Shore. In September, a tromba (waterspout) came off the lake and dumped tons of water on a mountainside already unstable from unusually heavy rains. A massive mudslide roared down this ravine and through the middle of San Juan Cosala destroying numerous homes and cars. There were many injured but fortunately no one was killed. The slide brought boulders the size of my car from high on the mountainside down into town, and plunged autos headfirst through the sides of homes.

Path of destruction. From the top of the dry waterfall, one can see the path of destruction down toward San Juan Cosala in the distance. Mt. Garcia, an extinct volcano, rises across the lake. (Photo by Norm Tihor)

Debris from Tromba mudslide. Our hiking group posed behind some of the debris from the mudslide. You can see the size of the rocks that hurtled down the slope, pushed by tons of water and mud. Canadian Norm Tihor, who took several of these photos, stands on the left beside Martha, a Mexican from Guadalajara. (Photo by Norm Tihor)

Robert and Sven scout the gorge. The ravine narrowed into a deep gorge necessitating a detour. In the photo, Robert and Sven, our Norwegian climbing friend, assess the possibilities of a climb down the gorge before giving it up as too risky without equipment. (Photo by Norm Tihor)

On the ridge at last! After several hours of tough switchbacks, it is a relief to reach one of the ridges that run along the top of the mountains paralleling the shore. In the background, you can see both the mountain valley behind the ridge and the lake, which lies in front of it. Anna, pictured with me, is a Canadian who came down alone to visit the area. She is a gutsy woman and a strong hiker.

A burst of beauty. One of the rewards of these hikes is to suddenly come upon a small bit of beauty among the rocks and brambles. This flower, as yet unidentified by me, thrives at high altitudes in the area. The blossoms grow at the tip end of the bare branches of a medium size tree, and are very striking against the brown winter landscape.

Predator in disguise. We found this Preying Mantis on the trail after nearly stepping on it due to its excellent disguise. The creature is at least six inches long and its mandibles look very capable of catching a meal.

Taking a break. Barbara, who is visiting from Sonoma with her husband Larry, takes a break with Sven. Sven grew up in Norway during the time of the Nazi occupation. I am told he is a former gymnast, which helps explain the amazing agility of this seventy-year-old man.

The youngster of the group. Chris, a young father with twin eight-year-olds, is one of the few younger people I have seen on these hikes. A low-key, friendly type, he is a partner in an investment company in San Francisco and owns a home in Ajijic on property that used to be part of a gold-mining operation. His family has owned property in Ajijic for many years including a former convent.

Isla Mezcala, fortress island. Mezcala Island lies a couple of miles off the town of Mezcala. The island has a long and colorful history as a fortress and later a prison. During the Mexican War for Independence from Spain, rebels held the island against Spanish royalists for four long years. They raided the small towns and villages along both North and South Shores, and resisted repeated assaults by Spanish troops. The Spanish, frustrated and worn out by these stubborn patriots, finally negotiated an honorable surrender that allowed the rebels to go home. This was a fairly unusual arrangement for the Spanish who tended to favor rebel heads stuck on pikes outside the town gates. Mezcala fishermen take tourists over to the island when their fishing boats are not otherwise occupied. On the far side of the Lake you can see the distant ridges of the Sierra Occidental del Sur, beyond which lies the Pacific.

From the ridge on the west end of the Lake. At the far western end of Lake Chapala, about 20 miles from Mezcala, lies Jocotopec, a good-sized town of about 40,000. Some expats live here, but many fewer than Ajijic or Chapala, so it has much less of a “gringo” feel to it. It is mainly a commercial and farming center, and is a gateway to Guadalajara for those who live at this end of the Lake. The white patches seen in the distance are plastic sheeting over vegetables. The farming operations around Jocotopec seem very modern compared to the small plots cultivated around Ajijic. The long green strings in the Lake are “lirios” or patches of floating hyacinth. This is an invasive species and there is a constant battle waged to keep it in check and unfortunately poisons are sometimes used. We are looking down from about two thousand feet up on the ridge.

Larry points the way as Gerry checks his GPS. Larry, standing next to his wife Barbara, points out features of the country back of the ridge (looking north toward Guadalajara). Rick, the Canadian with the black walking stick moves forward for a better look. Anna, in the background, seeks shade from the glaring mid-day sun. This was a typical section of ridge top, a broad rocky trail surrounded on both sides by low dry brush, dropping off to splendid vistas in either direction.

Another stretch of the ridge trail. An agave cactus, relative to the plant from which tequila is made, grows in the foreground. In the distance the trail passes through an open meadow allowing another great vista, and then into a small forest of low oak trees. The hiking was very pleasant along here, gently rolling with periodic shade, one of the rewarding aspects of the long trudge up.

A rest and some chow at the summit. This particular summit overlooked the Jocotopec vista seen previously. There is always something triumphant about reaching a summit, the place where you can look down on everything around you and relax in the knowledge that it’s all downhill from here. You can see on the faces of the hikers: “we made it!”

A remote ranch in a mountain saddle. Looking down from one summit, we saw this ranch set in a saddle overlooking both the Lake and a broad mountain valley to the north. Somebody who values his or her peace and quiet owns this place. The main crop seems to be corn, possibly for cattle we saw grazing in the area, but there is a field of agave nearby, seen as the gray-green rectangle at the right of the cornfield. Agave is considered a cash crop, but it has apparently been over planted in recent years and since it takes several years to mature, the farmer never really knows whether the market will be there when the crop is ready. Ah, well, you can always drink the profits.

All downhill doesn’t mean easy downhill. As you can see, switchbacks up often lead to switchbacks down, and often through more tangled jungle. Whenever you look ahead on the trail and see people moving in opposite directions on different levels, you know you are in for a dose of switchbacks. Down can be more tricky and dangerous than up when you are tired, your muscles are quivering, and gravity is pushing you forward. Generally more people get hurt coming down a mountain than going up and the extra concentration the downward trek requires adds to the strain.

Farm kids shucking corn. Kids like these probably shuck the corn harvested on the mountain ranch. These kids were having a whale of a time when we came by, and all waved excitedly at the strange gringo hikers. They were probably wondering who these crazy people were who walked up mountains for fun. When I turned the camera toward them, some grinned, some screamed with laughter, and some hid their faces. Kids are the same everywhere.

Low-tech energy transportation system. Burros trudging into Mezcala carry heavy loads of firewood gathered in the mountains. Burros have been carrying loads like this since biblical times, but it would not be unusual to see the drover on horseback text-messaging on his cell phone.


The final reward: a flat spot to sit and a cold drink. The end of this particular trail was Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos, after a long hike down a ridge from an eight thousand foot summit overlooking Chapala to the south and small lakes and farmland to the north. Ixtlahuacan has a bus station on its plaza where we caught a bus back to Ajijic for about 90 cents. Now for a cool shower and a long nap.