Villanueva

Villanueva is a pretty big pueblo. The road to Guadalajara seems to go through the middle of town. I leave the main road and look for the river I’m told is here.

The road is stone, very narrow, and the houses line either side, connected together with many storefronts opening to the street. Where the actual house walls are not connected, cement/clay fences connect them.

Several serious young boys ride horses down the streets I’m driving on, streets with sometimes cars parked on either side going any which way. I know I’m traveling the right way only because I’m following another car.

I ask two older womyn standing on the side of the road talking, where the river is. They tell me the way to go. I ask them if it is possible to park there over night. They look at each other and say sure.

I get to the puente (bridge) and turn down the side road. There are fenced areas and deep rust dirt that I now see are little corrals holding a few cows each. I drive to the end of the road and it is lined the whole way with cows or donkeys. Hmmmm Not a very good aroma to sleep with!

So I continue driving around the town. It is very crowded, the streets very narrow, but at the end of the town is a large park where many boys are playing basketball. I love to park at parks but the guys love to drink at parks or so it seems.

I explore the streets by a large hotel that is backed by what looks like a huge empty ranch with a sale sign. I pull over but I think it is too small for me there.

The last business out of town is the pemex station, which has a huge paved lot, an oxxo store at the very back and another store on the side. If it was closer to dark, I would stay there. I can come back to it too if I don’t find the hot springs.