Cecille's Creativity

The city’s huge Sunday flea market is a grab bag of anything and everything you can think of: plastic, robots, clay masks, tacos. It has all sorts of items from all sorts of times and sources, and qualifies as one of the best in the world.

This city of 135,000 population is considerably larger than Zacatecas (32,000). It is a good place to buy drawn linen work and hand-embroidered cotton. Aguacalentes’ spring festival (dancing, fireworks, cock fighting, bull fighting) in honor of the city’s patron saint, San Marcos, begins in late April and continues for two weeks.

Twenty-nine miles fousth of San Luis Potosi is the neat little town of Santa Maria del Rio on the banks of the peaceful Rio Santa Maria. This community is known throughout Mexico as the place where for generations the women have been weaving beautiful silken “Santa Maria rebozos” – highly prized by the ladies of Mexico. Recently the Mexican government became concerned that the art of weaving Santa Maria rebozos might die out as the older women of the town passed away, so a special school was established to teach young girls the art. Tourists are invited to visit the school, on the main plaza, rebozos and other handicraft made by the children may be purchased.

A few miles beyond Santa Maria del Rio is the Rancho Santo Domingo, where for three generations the Labastida family gas bred fighting bulls. These beautiful big black animals of Rancho Santo Domingo are in great demand by the largest bull rings of Mexico. Tourists are invited to visit the old hacienda and the rancho’s own little chapel. Senor Javier Labastida, the American-educated grandson of the founder, is sometimes on hand to act as guide.

Farther down the highway is the junction with Highway 110 to Dolores Hidalgo and Guanajuato. Near Dolores Hidalgo, Highway 49 branches south to San Miguel de Allende.

Leon is a flourishing industrial city (population 210,000). It is tidy and prosperous looking, and the stores are well stocked with goods. A beautiful wide boulevard runs the length of the city. The trees that line the plaza are clipped and green, and ther is about the town something of the bustle and aggressiveness of some of our mid-western farm and manufacturing cities – which in fact, it parallels from a Mexican standpoint. The production of leather products is the chief industry, and this is a good place to shop for leather goods.

A few miles south of Leon and then 6 miles east on a blacktop road is the popular health resort of Camanjilla with thermal spring waters piped into large swimming pools and also into the bathtubs of the guest rooms.

About 48 miles off themain highway, Uruapan wears an air fo drowsy remoteness. The town is set in a green garden-like landscape, a lush mixture of pine, cedar, oak, ash, with banana, avocado, mango and other tropical plants and trees. Uruapan is sometimes called “the flower garden of Mexico”.

Lacquerware, especially trays and masks is produced in several small shps in Uruapan and in the surrounding territory. The best work has engraved designs an dis filed in with real lacquers. Guitars are made in Paracho, on the highway 15 miles south of the junction town of Carapan.

Uruapan’s pride is its beautiful park, Parque Nacional Licenciado Eduardo Ruiz. Tree-shaded paths lead along a cool, clear river and up to its headwaters – a series of bubbling springs. Local residents often bathe in Bano Azul, on eof the river’s pools.

For another purely relaxing excursion, ride about 6 miles of to Tzarraracua Falls. Its water gush from many points around a natural stone amphitheater and drop about 90 feet into a pool surrounded by tropical trees, plants and flowers. Rustic, circular rest houses on a trail to the pool make cool picnic spots.

There is no activity now at Paricutin, the volcano that sprang from a cornfield in 1943, but you can drive out to view the weird, blackened landscape. It is a 24-mile round trip via cinder-surfaced road.

Tepic, an old colonial city with a solid, prosperous look, is the capital of the small state of Nayarit. The main streets are wide and clean, and other streets are being widened by cutting away old buildings and adding modern facades which contrast sharply with the old wallet cemetery and the arcaded buildings around the plaza. The promenades and the concerts in the attractive city park, and the soccer games in the stadium at the edge of the town are interesting to watch. Points of interest in the town include the cathedral on the main plaza, which was built in 1750 and has two perfect Gothic-type towers, and the Church de la Cruz which was once a part of the Franciscan Convent de la Cruz founded in 1744.

The broad valley south of Tepic is planted to sugarcane and corn. Small banana and papaya groves surround the settlements of native huts. The town is situated 3,186 feet above sea level, at the base of an extinct volcano, and is noticeably cooler than the nearly coast.

Tepic has good accommodations on the highway near Parque Loma, and also downtown.

For the auto explorer, Kino Bay is one of the few accessible spots in the long undeveloped coastline from the northern end of the Gulf of California down to the resort center of Guaymas. Kino Bay and the little town of “Old” Kino are 66 miles by good paved road from Hermosillo.

The residents of the tiny village, with its simple chapel and a single cantina, make their living chiefly by fishing. The men fish from small boats, a few dugout canoes. Some villagers work on the nearby inland farms.

Five miles beyond “Old” Kino is the newer, more urban shoreline community of “New” Kino, a modern development with curbings, paved streets, sidewalks and sewers. This is an up-and-coming seaside resort with attractive homes springing up along the beach, two modern motels, three trailer parks and a restaurant.

Some 80 miles southwest of Toluca, and reached via a paved road, is Valle de Bravo, and nearly lake Avandero - an increasingly popular recreation spot with good accommodations and a top-flight 18-hole golf course. The return form Valle de Bravo to Mexico 15 can be made by an alternate paved route.

There are lots of things in life that are left unsaid but will remain just a secret that is of course, hurtful. But no matter what it is, it is just left said unspoken.

I am the one taking the price because I know in the end, it will not be mine. He will not be mine.

I admit I obsessly love aromatherapy as much as I love using essential oils like Eucalyptus, Lemon, Rosemary, Basil, Jasmine, Rose and others. They are very essential to me. That is why, I store them in airtight, dark containers away from sunlight. I always make sure not to leave the tops off the bottles or allow the oils to heat up, as I don't want to waste their qualities nor let them evaporate needlessly. Of course, they are very expensive and rare, therefore, I need to properly store them so that they will last for years.

I am an avid of using aroma or scent as a form of treatment to change my bad mood, for my body and for the relief from the pressures I experienced from the environment. I have experienced using Lavender, Eucalyptus, Rosemary and Lemon. But if you are like me who has the passion for aromatherapy, I list down for you the different essential oils which I categorized according to its amount so that you will definitely know the budget for such.

Lower cost - Clove, Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint, Patchouli, Rosemary and Tea Tree.

Medium cost - Basil, Bergamot, Cedarwood, Chamomile, Clary Sage, Geranium, Ginger, Juniper, Thyme and Ylang ylang

High cost - Frankincense, Jasmine, Neroli, Rose and Sandalwood