Columns

One of the many geographical benefits of living in Guadalajara is its proximity to volcanoes. There are few towns in the world where you could visit three of the principle types of volcanic landforms in just one day. Several years ago I suggested that some athlete ought to climb el Cerro de Mazatepec (a cinder cone or scoria volcano), cross the Primavera forest (a caldera, or collapsed volcano) and end the tour at the top of El Volcán de Tequila (a classic stratovolcano).

Not long ago a friend sent me photos of a huge cave entrance entirely composed of tall basaltic prisms: roughly hexagonal columns which are sometimes formed as basaltic lava cools. The cave was located near a pueblito called Los Reyes, located 7.5 kilometers northeast of San Sebastián del Oeste, as the crow flies. The only problem, I had heard, was the road, which was said to be in bad shape, requiring four-wheel drive and nerves of steel to put up with hours of negotiating blind curves overlooking deep chasms. Amazingly, I found someone interested in going to check out that bad road: my neighbor Josh Wolf, who said he needed a break from sitting in front of a computer screen day after day. “My family and I are up for an adventure this weekend,” he told me.

One of the reasons why the Spaniards eventually located the capital of Nueva Galicia in the place where we find it today, is the semi-tropical climate at the bottom of the Santiago River Canyon, which in many places is 500 meters deep.

Rodrigo Orozco is a Guadalajara-based businessman, who  in his spare time also plays the role of “foster father” to 6,000 young tarantulas. 

Sabius is a Guadalajara-based organization that assists senior citizens who want to offer talks or courses in their field of experience.

With the Colima Volcano filling the air with fireworks almost daily, it is no wonder that visitors to the state of Colima are asking for souvenirs related to El Volcán.