Sunday: La Toma, Magdalena and Policia Encounter #3

We awoke in our wonderful hotel, Casa Dulce Maria, and we watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics narrated in Spanish, of course. We had scoped out the Casa Dulce Maria breakfast menu the night before as follows in pesos:

Husband and I had a colorful breakfast of fresh fruits, yogurt and granola. The kids had hot cakes. The coffee was instant with powdered cream which seemed to taste great too - guess the atmosphere does wonders.La Toma Balnearios

We then headed out for La Toma Balnearios not knowing exactly how to get there but knowing general direction. Surprisingly, there was actually a sign pointing to a right turn onto a one lane, dirt mountain road. We tentatively wound our way around and up the mountain. We arrived at the most amazing mountain swimming park. There was a waterfall in which a pool had been built under, another smaller waterfall pool and a large pool area with slides and play equipment ($20 pesos per person/$2 USD). We were literally on the side of the mountain with the most glorious views. This was a uniquely Mexican experience. It was clearly a local gathering place for families to picnic, swim and relax.

Magdalena
We then headed to the next town, Magdalena, to tour the Opal Mines. The square was bustling with activity and we finally found a parking spot. We found a guy on the square who escorted us to a tiny opal shop where we managed to secure a tour ($200 pesos per adult/$20 USD). Our guide was a delightful 25 year old woman who did not know much English. She stopped at a local taco stand so we could get a late lunch - our first time to eat gorditos - they were very tasty.

The Opal Mines were on the mountain and were more like large piles of shale rock. We had a nice hike, banged on some rocks, found some opals in rocks we got to keep (not anything you would make jewelry from) and enjoyed the experience. Husband's father was a geo-physicist so brought back memories for him.

Our guide took us to an old railroad station and told us the local legend of the lake on way back to town.

Policia Encounter #3

Our first two encounters with Policia occurred in July in Monterrey (see July blog http://movingkidstomexico.blogspot.com/2008/07/policia-escort-for-1st-night-in-mexico.html and http://movingkidstomexico.blogspot.com/2008/07/day-2-first-12-including-policia.html).

So now we had our 3rd. Upon arriving back to our SUV, we saw a ticket on the windshield and the municipal policia whistled for Husband to approach their car. It was "bad, very bad" so they said. Husband has acquired more policia handling knowledge in last month so communicated in Spanish "let's go to the station." Off went the policia clearly not waiting for us to follow. Fortunately, we found them stopped about 2 miles down the road. They were with some poor fellow and the federal policia. We parked and Husband approached to wait out the other guy's unfortunate encounter. Finally Husband starts to negotiate terms with policia. It seems they want us to come back in 5 days! (recall we are 3 1/2 hours from home) Husband struggles in "just barely okay" Spanish. The younger officer was playing the hard a--. Finally the older officer and a civilian step in to help. They are more reasonable. After a one hour delay and $250 pesos, the policia attached our front USA license plate back to our SUV and we were on our way. Husband did mucho better this time!