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The Jalisco village of Oconahua is hidden away in the municipality of Etzatlán, a few miles from the border with Nayarit. Most of its inhabitants are indigenous and the pueblo’s fine tortillas are much appreciated in the region.

In May 2019, the Jalisco town of Ciudad Guzmán announced that a radically new water and utilities distribution system — based on cutting-edge Dutch technology — would be installed to rid the town of its tinacos (rooftop water tanks), as well as the ugly telephone and electrical wires stretched above its streets.

Los Pozos (The Wells) is a rather curious place, located on the edge of kilometers and kilometers of featureless salt flats, at the foot of a sheer cliff wall that rises straight up for 595 meters.

Immediately west of Guadalajara lie 30,500 hectares (75,367 acres) of rolling hills covered with pine and oak trees — home to hot springs, deep canyons and over 300 species of woodsy creatures.

If the small Jalisco town of Talpa de Allende is not in the middle of nowhere, it is just on the edge of it, hidden among the lonely hills of the Sierra Occidental, about two-thirds of the way from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta.

“Let’s go camp on top of Ceboruco Volcano to see the Lyrid meteor shower,” suggested Chris Lloyd, my geologist friend. “The next morning, we can go take a look at a fumarole with beautiful sulfur crystals. It’s in the upper crater.”