Working the fields in Tlatlaya

During our summer trips to Mexico, we did a lot of traveling along small roads; many areas of the country back then had no major modern highways. Of course, that’s still true in parts of the country today. But back in 1970 it seemed that even the toll roads were narrow and had no median barriers. The “big” roads between large cities like Guadalajara or Mexico City could be quite dangerous, so traveling the much smaller roads wasn’t for the faint of heart. Naturally, city driving had its own challenges! But in the countryside, there was always the bonus of great scenery.

Plaza de Toros Santa Maria from Highway 45D in Queretaro — 1970

Mom driving our VW camper on the two-lane toll road between Guadalajara and Queretaro

These days, Queretaro is roughly a 4-hour drive from Guadalajara

The image above shows an open-air snack stop along one of the small roads between Guadalajara and Colima; two volcanoes in the background are obscured by clouds. They are the Nevado de Colima and Volcán de Colima, now part of the Nevado de Colima National Park. The Colima Volcano, while currently dormant, is still considered potentially dangerous, with “near-constant activity” since 1994. The city of Colima lies on the southern slope of the Nevado de Colima.

In Colima

Classic Dodge parked along Revolución in Colima; Jardin Nuñez, a central square, is across the street on the right

Tlatlaya

I don’t have a memory of the name Tlatlaya, but in many ways the pictures my dad has labeled with that name remind me of another tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, Axochiapan (I’ll have some slides of that location next week). According to Google, Tlatlaya is about a 4-hour drive from Mexico City, sitting to the southwest along narrow winding roads along which Google’s Streetview cameras have not yet ventured.

Grain storage

Story time by the river