It's that magical time of the year when migrations occur and many things change, the most noticeable is the annual northern migration of the white haired (and in some cases hairless) Canadian Snowbirds to their ancestral hermitages. Each year the frigid winds of Fall drive them in droves to the sunny shores of Lake Chapala where they spend the Winter sunning themselves while shopping in places like Tonala and eating in local restaurants punctuated by trips to explore neighboring curiosities and purchasing Mexican artifacts they dutifully carry back to the northland in the Spring.

Being blessed with the good friendship (and good cooking) of one such snowbird one must be ever mindful they are only temporary residents and will one day be gone when they hear the calling strains of the wild Canadian Loon. So, with only one week left in her annual stay here in Mexico we decided to make one last trip for the season to explore the eastern end of the Lake and a magical place called Foco Tonal, a place of unusual energy convergence (and even more unusual curios in the ubiquitous "leave-your-pesos-here-and-haul-home-a-piece-of-junk" gift shop).

About 60 miles from "GO" we enter the outskirts of Ocotlan and do a hard right into the village of Cuitzeo where we follow the mandatory narrow bumpy streets through town and out to a place near the Lake where a magical castle stands guard over Focal Tonal. We beached the Jeep and headed past some small "booths" selling stuff to tourists and entered through the "portal of the all seeing eye" ($10 pesos each please). Being the Saturday before Easter we were not alone in this quest to experience the energy convergence (and maybe even take some home).

The castle stands several stories high and is something out of a strange dream with it turrets, spires, dragons etc. The grounds are nicely organized to accommodate sizable groups under a long awning covered sitting area while you wait your turn to suck up some of this mystic energy. Of course there is the requisite memorial to the clairvoyant who discovered this phenomena, an interesting story in itself. After wandering the grounds he discovered the "foco" point, drew a mark on the ground, said "my work is done" and shortly thereafter died in his sleep - well, it's a nice story anyway.

My friend had been there before so was somewhat familiar with the ritual, I tried to look like I knew what I was doing by not loudly saying things like "WHOA, LOOK AT THAT" - or "GOLLLLY GOSH, AIN'T THIS COOL". Also being an amateurish photographer I was prepared to document the goings on of this place - well, at least the ones visible to mere mortals like myself. (If I'm sounding a bit dubious, it's because I was having another of those "how did I get here?" moments)

The "temple" of energy is actually a ring about 20' in diameter all tiled with a raised edge suitable for sitting and surrounded by several columns all painted different colors - sort of an open air cathedral? The center of the ring is tiled and in the center is an area marked by a six sided Jewish star, but this being a non-denominational place, it could just be two triangles interlocked? The circle was maybe 30' from the sitting area and that was when I began to notice little things that were a bit unusual, like you have to take off your shoes as you approach the Foco Tonal and after you're finished experiencing the energy you have to back away from the ring (being careful not to back off into the grass).

As there were many people here, pilgrims who had traveled great distances (like us), organization was necessary and they were up to the task. When you buy your tickets there is a number on the ticket and groups of maybe 15-20 are escorted to the ring while the rest of us sit and try to talk to little Mexican kids who of course don't speak Inglish? In preparation for the experience I removed my shoes and took a picture of my feet and my friend's feet (I promise you I did) to illustrate this was no normal day in Mexico and something special was about to happen.

As our turn came we approached and entered the circle and each person puts something in the middle on the star, trinkets, billfolds, purses, water bottles, you name it including my friends ring to absorb some of this magical energy - I passed, I wasn't about to throw my American Express card out there in the middle of 20 Mexicans who all appeared completely honest, but who knows? The guide asked us to sit next to him as we appeared to be the only gringos in attendance. He described the history of the place and each time would then tell us in Inglish which was very kind. Then he started by asking my friend to stand on the Focal Tonal and say her name. Now, she had been there before and felt a wonderful exhilaration all through herself, so she was a bit disappointed when nothing happened this time. You're supposed to hear an echo within yourself as you speak and also the guide should echo. She tried turning different directions, but no Tonal today, I guess some days are diamonds, some are stones? - maybe it's time to head back North.

Next I stood on the spot and sure enough I experienced the echo, really quite an odd and interesting sensation. Each person in turn stood and repeated their names and finally my friend tried again, but no zap that day. Then we were all invited to stand in a cluster in the middle and offer a tribute to our spiritual being for a few minutes, then we performed the ritual of rubbing ourselves (no, not the cute girl next to me) from head to toe to "rub in" the energy which of course is a healing power.

Once completed, we stepped out of the ring and backed away from the source to respect it's whatever. After retrieving our shoes we proceeded to the mandatory gift shop and this place was a trip. Every religion and belief (probably even some whims) is represented, you can buy figurines, rocks, crystals, whatever from American Indian dream catchers to Buddhist elephant carvings, if you can imagine it? - it's available. It's hard to figure where they find all this "stuff" - but, for a few pesos it's yours. I fought the urge to invest and took some pics instead.

Having fulfilled the main purpose of the day, namely having me experience the "energy", we continued on along the east end of the Lake enjoying the rather prosperous farming areas that are already green with a new season's crops. We stopped at a nice restaurant in La Barca for lunch and continued on toward Sahuayo, a very prosperous sizable city. We explored by driving up incredibly bad streets so steep the Jeep was complaining to see a memorial of some sort at the top.

Back down in El Centro we stopped at the central mercado which turned out to be huge, pretty much a block by a block with produce of every imaginable kind. They were beginning to close up and so we took some pics and my friend bought some evil weeds (onions) for soup. One thing that caught our eye was a truck outside on the street which ran it's front tires up on ramps to elevate the body containing a big load of oranges. They were allowed to roll into a hopper and down a trap door in the sidewalk. Underneath the sidewalk was a conveyor which transported them inside and up an elevator into large bins, very innovative. Compared to our little mercado here that I visited the other day, this one is huge with giant sacks of dried peppers, fruits and vegetables of all sorts and other commodities.

Of course every town has one or more big old churches, so we took pics of those and headed for the next neighboring town Jiquilpan, somewhat smaller, but actually nicer. They have some nice little plazas and the mandatory big churches.

By this time it was 3:45, getting pretty warm and we were 75 miles from home, so we headed back along the S shore toward home. It was interesting to see families under any shade tree by the side of the road enjoying an Easter outing. Back up the road we saw a small farm house with probably a dozen tents pitched in row along the wall in the front yard, visiting family I guess.

Another day, another adventure before my neighbor the snowbird flies N for the Summer. I have noticed however, this particular breed of bird is a bit lazy, they tend to let Air Canada and Mexicana do the flying, could be due to the two giant suitcases she drags along to haul stuff back. It will be quiet when the last one departs for the season leaving just Max and Shorty and me to tend the estate - we don't eat as well either! - but there's always the hope of next Winter.