Will We Ever Go Back to Chiconquac?

Chiconquac, Morelos 1 - 4 May

We left Oaxaca and the pestilence of the swine flu behind, but were faced with the dilemma of how to negotiate Mexico City, the epicenter of what the papers were calling the "next pandemic". We were helped by our campsite neighbours, Calvin and Leanne, who had spent two months earlier in the spring near Cuernavaca, which is southwest of Mexico City, and had good things to say about the trailer park in Chiconquac. Best of all, after the bustle of the big city, it offered a pool! So the decision was made.

The trip past Cuernavaca took us past the Sierra de Primavera (Mountains of Spring) Park, which is an apt name for the area. There was a riot of flowers growing everywhere, and huge bunches of roses were on offer on the side of the highway every few hundred meters.

After a long day's drive and having to interpret the rather opaque instructions from our camping guide, we made it to Chiconquac and the camp ground, which is located a couple of kilometers east of town. Being so near Mexico City and its bedroom community of Cuernavaca, the campground is a popular weekend resort destination for better-heeled residents of those places. It was interesting to see Mexicans cavorting in motor coach and trailer RV's and to have whole families frolicking at the pool. We quickly made friends with the camp ground staff, having couriered a letter from Calvin and Leanne relating to a cat they had adopted from the camp ground. Remy got to practice his rudimentary Spanish, explaining how things are in Canada.

The pool was the gem we had hoped it would be. Once we got past our fears that the water itself did not present any greater danger of contracting the fearsome flu (a fear that had woken Liz up the night before, and had tormented her for the rest of the night), we dove right in. It got very hot through the day and Liz had the opportunity to catch some rays again. The boys practically lived in the pool, to the extent that Hollis contracted an ear infection that we had to get treated in our next stop. It was good to see other brother pairs, here for the weekend, doing all the same mean things to each other that our two (apparently very normal) boys do.

We hopped on our bikes and did a family ride into town to see what was happening in Chiconquac. It is a beautiful and well-kept little burg that sprang up around a hacienda a few centuries ago. We happened upon market day (Sunday) so we did our shopping for the next leg of our journey and had lunch in the square. We visited the church, which is the only part of the hacienda that is still in operation, but that at least allowed us onto the grounds and gave us an idea of how grand the hacienda must have been in its day. Remy read mention of Chiconquac in his history of Mexico - apparently the Spaniards that ran the hacienda and exploited the local Indians met with some rough treatment during the War of Independence. The aqueduct that fed the mill at the hacienda (which probably farmed sugar cane) is still there, still carrying water, and makes an interesting feature that runs through town. The trip into town is very pleasant through the countryside, and the town itself is of a scale that we prefer, large enough to have what you need, but not too large.

The campground is very neat and orderly, with good bathrooms and showers. We paid M$270 per night (27 bucks) and there is the option to rent a bungalow for four, with everything including basic foodstuffs, for M$700 (70 bucks) per night. It made for a good rest stop to catch up on some maintenance and blogging before heading off to our next colonial town sightseeing stop!

-Remy