Our tour of Copala, Mexico

Copala, Mexico

This little village in the mountains outside of Mazatlan, is very interesting.  For one thing, all the roads in town are paved using rocks, and there are designs made in the road using different sizes of rocks.  It's very clean and picturesque.  The village was founded in 1565. 

The church in Copala is very large and nice for such a small town.  It's age is definitely showing, and one of the big stones that helps form the top of the steeple, has fallen to the paving below.  It's estimated to weigh over a ton, which puts one in awe that this beautiful building was created so long ago.  If you look at the window above the entry arch, you will see the figure of a man from the chest up.  He is hanging over the entry, and it's stated that if you are entering the church with a bad attitude, he will spit on you.  Our guide had a story about that and he is a believer now. 

The inside of the church is much smaller than the others we saw, but this was pretty awesome just the same.  It was very well kept up and still had that feeling of grandeur with the columns, arches, and adornments.  The floor is made of tiles that are not cemented in.  Many of the statues you will see in the churches were shipped from Spain, by boat, hundreds of years ago.

Our tour guide with Vista Tours was very good at explaining details that were quite interesting in each of the areas we visited.  Here, the man in the blue shirt, is our guide talking to some of the members of our group about the history of the church and the fallen rock.  I'm assuming the area of dirt behind him is filled with flowers during the summer.  The children you see in this picture, carve small pieces of wood to sell to tourists that come on the tour to Copala.  A little pesky, but they were so cute, we still enjoyed them. 

Lunch was served at a cafe in town amongst the trees, on the second floor, where you could get a nice view of the area.  It was more like being on a big veranda.  The food was delicious!  On the left is my meal of fish smothered in tomatoes and chilies.  Jerry had the combo plate which was a tostada, tamale, and chili relleno.

What a fun trip we had.  The weather was beautiful, the people were very friendly, and we learned a lot!