We had a wonderful experience visiting San Sebastian, a colonial town, founded in the 1600's. It has a population of 506 people, elevation of 4200 feet, and about 1 1/2 hours east of Puerto Vallarta. It's the first time we've been above sea level in 6 months. San Sebastian was noted to be a town stuck in time.The tour was very educational about the history of Mexico. Puerto Vallarta was a small fishing village of about 2,000 people in the 1960's. Puerto Vallarta became known with the movie Night of the Iguana, after which many Hollywood movie stars came to Puerto Vallarta. In 1968 the airport was built and has since become a tourist destination. Puerto Vallarta is the third largest tourist destination in Mexico.
Mexico's name means "the bellybutton of the moon". The story is too long to explain.
One of the local MD's noted that while America's economics are having a cough, Mexico is having pneumonia. The second largest source of income to Mexico is money being sent into Mexico from outside. Of note, today the exchange rate is 15.50 pesos to $1. (First source of income is oil and the third source of income is tourism).
We visited a hacienda that continues to operate as a bed and breakfast. Of current interest is that it has no electricity. It use to be a silver mine. The oldest commodities of Mexico is silver and coffee.
We visited a operating coffee plantation that has been owned by a local family for 5 generations. It is an organic farm. They used garlic, onion and chili for it chemicals. For shade they used fruit trees and then the ripen fruit is used as fertilizer on the soil. There were 25,000 plants (they actually look like trees)of which 65,000 pounds of coffee beans are hand picked. This yields about 3,500 pounds of coffee per year.
The town buildings were very old. They were built around the Catholic church and plaza, which is normal in Mexico. The roads were all cobblestone.
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