“The most beautiful route in and out of Guadalajara is, in my humble opinion, dizzily zigzagging Highway 54 through the spectacular Barranca del Río Santiago.”

“La Gente del Agua” by Dr. Eduardo Williams is a 416-page book, in Spanish, representing 20 years of study of the “fishers” – as he calls them to avoid gender prejudice – who live on the shores of lakes Cuitzeo and Pátzcuaro in Michoacán. 

Nowadays every other renovated hacienda is advertised as a spa even though there may be no mineral-rich spring anywhere near it, and, of course, the rates for hotel/spas can be sky-high.

“I’m looking for a little-known obsidian deposit at a place called Las Pilas,” said geologist Chris Lloyd. “Want to come along?”

Several amazing caves close to Guadalajara will be presented to the public during a series of talks I will give at the Tec de Monterrey university, beginning in February.

In 2011 I described the Seven Falls of Tonala as “one of greater Guadalajara’s best – but least known – natural beauty spots.”