Copala - Part 2

Back to Copala. After ooing and ahhing over the leather work of Alejandro we left his gallery and walked to his restaurant. Just across this small street. 
I came across this article about Copala written in 1987 for the L A Times. Fun to read as much of it was about what is now Alejandro's restaurant but was then a small hotel and bar. Very well written and worth the read  Click Here to find it. 

Looking back at the church and the neat little plaza. The building on the left is the old souvenir shop and now empty. Hopefully with more tourist coming here it will one day reopen. 

Looking down the street from the gallery. The area for sale used to be Alejandro's restaurant when he first opened it. It was beautiful with mostly outdoor seating surrounded by huge plants. 

Going into the restaurant. After being a hotel/bar - that closed because of a family tragedy it was for a while a mining museum. 

One of the dining rooms. 

Another dining room. Big fireplace on back stone wall. 

A walk way between dining rooms. Mostly original building left. 

My meal. Chicken fajitas, rice, salad and beans. I was too full to have any banana cream pie.

More of the restaurant. 

Outside eating area. 

Alejandro's colorful building.

Looking over a wall near the church at whats left of an old building. 

An old mine cart that was part of the now gone museum. 

Heading out of town. 

Looking u one of the side alleys. That is a lot of steps to go up.

Heading down the street that goes out of town. 

Back up ready to turn on to the main highway. This is  the bus stop across the highway. 

From here we stopped in Concordia for a look around. Another post for another day.
Today we are staying home. Painters are taking the morning off so we are just enjoying doing nothing. 

Copala - Part 1

On Wednesday we took a day trip to Copala about 54 miles from the RV park. We stopped in Malpica, to see the laundry ladies and in Concordia on the way back. Last post has video of driving through Copala  Francisco de Ibarra crossed the mountains from Durango and and conquered the area for Spain. First known as San Jose de Copala it was named after the mythical city of gold that Ibarra was searching for. Silver was discovered there in 1565 and the town was built to service the mines.  In 1616 the town was destroyed by an uprising of Tepehuan Indians but was rebuilt the following year. In the 1800's it was a very wealthy town because of the gold and silver mines. At that time there were around 10,000 people living there. Now there are around 4 - 500.

Just before reaching the turnoff to town looking to the south there is an old mine building/entrance.

Turning down the newly paved, with cobblestones,  road into town. 

A city shield(?) as we come into town. The trees, Francisco Ibarra, the mining industry and the church. 

A couple of huge bougainvilleas 

Some beautiful hanging climbing flowers. 

Driving up the narrow main street. Another cloudy kind of overcast day so pictures are not vivid. 

Hope no one is coming down the road!

I have always wondered about this place. Looks like it was cut in half. 

Almost to the plaza. Alejandro's restaurant in front of us
The old church - see previous blog 

This building used to be a souvenir shop, it has been closed now for years. Too bad they had some neat stuff. 

Sure wish this mural could be restored. 

Walking up towards Alejandro's studio. Alejandro Rodriguez, is an internationally known artisan of leather tooling. His masks and faces are beautiful workmanship. Alejandro also owns the only cafe left in Copala. He and Rak, owner of Nid Art in Mazatlan were Bill's mentors and teacher when he started working in leather several years ago. 

Looking back at the plaza and church. 

Inside the gallery looking out the back door towards Alejandro's home. The colors are amazing. (Years ago this home and gallery were owned by Luis and his wife who first made the leather masks.They separated and she is now married to Rak who owns Nid Art. She works in leather there. Alejandro worked with Luis, but in my opinion  he has improved on the technique and Alejandro's work is the best.) 

A look at some of his work. This one is different with the long braid. 

Some of his masks for sale. 

The very interesting floor of the gallery, bricks, slabs of rock and a hunk of petrified tree.

The ceiling of the old building.

Alejandro is to the left in the doorway. I was trying to take a picture of the mirror - didn't realize I was in it.

Bill did quiet a bit of leather art work when we lived in Indiana. Click here to see a blog and video of how he did it. 

Some of his work. This is a leather leaf that was shaped then painted. We have it at home.

 Beginning work on a mask. The leather is not painted yet.

 Another one that is finished. That is a big shell in the middle. 

Working on another one. Formed and starting to paint it.  

 He also did leather jewelry, this is a pin. He did hair clips, pins, necklaces, and earrings. 

But his favorite thing was working with the hand carved wood spirits. 

Back to Copala - Outside a picture of the pretty plaza and gazebo. 

Young boys in the town sell these carvings to the tourists. Most contain a piece of real silver. They are made from a tree bark that has these large thorn type things on them. 

From here we went to the restaurant for lunch and banana cream pie. 
There is a Part 2 of Copala coming soon. 

Painting RV Day 2

The second day of the painting of the RV. They are moving along faster then I thought they would. This was taken in the morning before they arrived at about 8:30. All the clear coat was removed on this side the day before. 

 Yesterday morning they wet sanded the area using a VERY fine grained sand paper.

 Also yesterday Pablo the mechanic arrived right on time at 9:00. Bill wanted him to check the windshield washing system as it isn't working. He also was going to install a new K & N Air Filter.

 Filter got installed and was determined the pump to the washer system was not working. Could not fix that. 

Meanwhile the painters had finished sanding the RV and were applying the protective paper getting ready to paint the graphics. 

 Well they were almost finished sanding. 

 You can see where one graphic is on the cab over.  

 They were working quickly.  

 At 1:30 we had to leave as wed managed to get a dentist appointment with a highly recommended dentist here in Mazatlan. 

 We were there until almost five o'clock. He has to go back Friday. 

Painters were gone when we got home. There are now colors on some of the graphics. The main painter was here earlier in the day picking up a sample - the door to the water heater - for color matching so the background of the house can also be painted.

By then we were both starving so headed across the street to eat. Disaster  Forgot it was Tuesday night when they have good entertainment so the inside dining area was all reserved. So had to eat outside. It was already cool, sun was just setting and the wind picked up. Even I was cold. We both ordered sandwiches. Mine was okay, Bill said his was terrible. So were ate as much as we could stand and rushed home to the heater.  So that was yesterday. I was afraid that between the dentist and the lousy food Bill's stomach would be acting up again. He went to bed about 8:00 and seems to be okay. Guess the Pepto works. 
Still have stuff to post about our trip to Copala but want to keep up with the painting too. So for once I'm ahead on doing my job. Have this post an another one ready to go.
Today...was a very serendipitous day - found the baker of the good cinnamon rolls, got to tour a home in Centro that was built in 1795.