Hard to believe it was another travel day isn’t it. Coffeys2Go don’t mess around when it comes to travel – we’re on the move! I thought this would be one of those days that I predicted in a previous post, would be kind of boring to report, but we have to keep you coming back to read so it gives us incentive to do interesting things. Thank you for spurring us on!
We said a fond farewell to the bustling town of Parral, Chihuahua in the wee hours of the morning just as the sun was beginning to think about rising. The town had a light haze over it, and while it would be nice to think it was a low fog, it was more of a low smoke. So many people burn wood in stoves for their heat source that the city gets a layer of smoke – makes for a pretty picture, but it’s probably tough on those with asthma and other respiratory difficulties.
It was a fairly long day of driving and we stopped at many of these cuotas (toll booths), which adds up to a fair chunk of change, but the roads are exceptional and there are not many cars on them so it was an easy, not too interesting drive.
For our first stop of the day, we had our new map marked for the Pueblo Magico of Parras, in the state of Coahuila. Our first time ever in this state so we were excited about that. This region is the oldest wine making area in the Americas. Casa Madero is the first official wine estate in Mexico. When early conquistadors arrived in the area, they planted European vines. In 1597 the winery was founded by Don Lorenzo de Garcia. It was originally named Hacienda de San Lorenzo, but the name was changed to Casa Madero in 1893 when the winery was purchased by Don Evaristo Madero. The vines that were established here were later exported to the Napa Valley area in California.
Casa Madero has grown to be one of the most important wine and brandy producers in all of Mexico. The only drawback to the whole place is that they do not have tastings in their beautiful sales room. We were forced (that’s stretching it a bit) to buy a couple of bottles based solely on their appearance. We’ll let you know more when we know more. The history and beauty of the place alone made it worth the journey to Parral.
But, there is another attraction that we HAD to go see. Remember that mission attitude – well this place filled the bill! We really don’t depend on Lonely Planet that much, preferring to discover a lot of things purely by accident, but here’s what Lonely Planet Mexico had to say: “Utterly kitsch low-budget wax museum with not-even-remotely lifelike figures of Freddy Krueger, Bill Clinton and the like. Far too many of them look like Michael Jackson.” HOW could we pass that up?
So, do I have a treat for you! Feast your eyes on these babies…
And no, we didn’t even drink one of those bottles of wine before enjoying this exceptionally exotic place! (Exotic: 2nd Definition from Dictionary.com is “Strikingly unusual or strange in effect or appearance” and this display definitely qualified.)
I think they did a fairly good job of copying Ky. Don’t you agree 😉
I’ll let you know where we ended up spending the night and where we’ll be for the next couple of days in tomorrow’s post. I know, it’s a cliffhanger, right!
Sleep well, and hugs!
P.S. I made my deadline and posted this, but WordPress somehow deleted it all. If that ever happens to you, look in your browser history. After fretting about it and trying to figure out what to do, the solution was in my history 🙂
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