Dean in Jalisco Mexico looking at country, ranches, and people

I spent 6 days in the general area of the country of Mexico between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. I stayed at the home of old friend Nicholas Morales. I met him and his brother Manual Morales about 24 years ago in one of their first of many Las Margaritas restaurants around the Seattle area. They used to attend our annual Open House-Granite Falls Thoroughbreds held at the farm every January for 20 years. Sometimes they would provide wonderful Mariache Bands to keep the occasion lively while we showed the stallions, yearlings and mares. It was attended by over 500 people every year.

I stayed at Nicholas' house an he showed me around for 2 of the 6 days. Introduced me to a lot of lovely people. Nicholas is the Congressman from this district so he had to go back to Mexico City as Congress was in session. He lives in a beautiful Mexican villa with his beautiful wife and 3 children. He introduced me to 3 nice men to show me the whole area. Potro--Little colt-owner of several restaurants in the U.S. and long time friend ---Amadore--local police chief in the Cuautla area and retired restaurateur Cheno. These are mostly nicknames.

They took me from Cuautla to Union de Tule to Ayutla to Puerto Vallarta to Moscota and back to Cuautla. We went to lots of local ranches-fairs=horse fairs and training arenas. Met several horse trainers-one with Nicholas and one working for Potro. Weather in this area is great all year. Summer rains -daily 3-4 pm from 15 May til 15 Sept. Highest recorded temp in Cuautla=96 F. Lowest 17F. Extremely low crime rate in this rather rural area. Irrigation not needed to grow corn. Several grasses some as high as 5 feet (andropone). Much of the corn is dried standing in the stalk in the in the field standing in large bundles. A traveling "grinder" grinds it up for horse feed --he can with 4-5 helpers grind 40-50 ton in 2-3 days. Great cattle country. High protein grass common.

There are many old (100-200 years) rock fences that still are in great shape--only stacked rock-no mortar but real craftsmen built and maintained. Too expensive to build today but they sure look great. Lots of clean wide clear rivers in the area. Some of the little creeks are dammed and produce great fishing. Trout-catfish depending on the type of area draining into the lake.
Most house built today are built of red bricks with lovely arches.

My new friend -Potro=Potrio= Little Colt-nickname with one of his famous Andalusian stallions at his Magnificent stable.


Amadore, the police chief of Cuautla watching a group of local vaqueros coming into a little town.


Amadore holding Nicholas' daughter -with my friend Cheno standing in front of a collage of wonderful photos of Mexican singers, movie stars showing 3 photos of Nicholas on his grand recently deceased Andalusian Stallion


Looking down on a beautiful valley with corn and andropone grass growing with the nice town of Macota in the background. It is about 2 and one half hours East of Puerto Vallarta and 2 hours West of Guadalajara. I really liked this ranching country.