Here in Mexico, the designation "pueblo mágico" (magical town) is given to those towns that offer natural beauty in their landscape and architecture, along with an atmosphere of warmth in every sense. Tapalpa, Manzanilla, and Tequila are said to be the pueblos mágicos of the state of Jalisco.

So for the first time, we found ourselves in this beautiful town in Los Altos de Jalisco. It all happened after three days of intense work at the Expo Joyería in Guadalajara, where we'd been promoting our SILVER BRITE products.

There in Guadalajara, the capital, we ran into a friend we'd made at the previous expo, someone who is originally from this place. He told us about it and invited us to spend a few days at the hotel that belongs to his family.

The hotel turned out to be as charming as our friend's family, because we were received by a sweet and pretty young woman, his niece, who attended to us with real hospitality and warmth.

The hotel is called Mesón LUNA SACRA and is located at Luis E. Bracamontes No. 230, right in the heart of the town, close to everything. There are rooms of different sizes and configurations. There aren't many of them, which makes the whole place easy to rent out in its entirety if you happen to be going with friends or family.

All the rooms have a small sitting area with a fireplace for the cool or cold nights. Because this town sits at a higher elevation than Guadalajara and is surrounded by forests and streams, with a waterfall that drops 102 meters.

The climate is pure mountain, so in the warm season the sun beats down hard and the nights cool off considerably. It reminds me a great deal of the well-known town of Valle de Bravo (about which I've also written somewhere on this blog), located in the State of Mexico.

After settling into the lovely hotel, we went straight to the restaurant that Cintia (the young woman I mentioned who runs the hotel) had recommended, and we ordered what our friend had suggested: Borrego al Pastor (spit-roasted lamb).

The restaurant where we ate is called "El Tonga." I'm not generally very fond of the lamb eaten in Mexico, which is usually served as barbacoa, because for my taste it's greasy and strong in both flavor and smell, but prepared this way it transforms entirely into a delicious dish. We had it alongside quesadillas filled with moronga (a type of blood sausage also eaten in Mexico), handmade tortillas, and wonderfully good salsas.

Everything was delicious and very inexpensive, because the prices in Tapalpa didn't strike us as excessive at all. Quite different from what things cost in Valle de Bravo.

From many vantage points around town, you can see the famous Colima volcano, which is no less beautiful than the Popocatépetl, Iztaccíhuatl, or the Nevado de Toluca.

Strolling through its streets, looking at the houses with their red tile roofs, all of them well tended, alongside the churches, was a genuine pleasure.

You feel the tranquil atmosphere of provincial Mexico almost immediately. Everything seems to move in slow motion for the people who live there, and on top of that there's no sense of insecurity in the air at all, which you could tell, for instance, from the more than one house we saw with its door standing wide open.

People talk a lot about countries like Canada, where you can live without locking your doors, and by contrast with Mexico City and other places in this country, here you breathe an air completely free of that kind of paranoia.

Everyone in Tapalpa struck us as hospitable and genuinely eager to help and point visitors toward its hidden corners.

We only stayed a day, and since it wasn't vacation season and we arrived on a Friday, there weren't many people around, which we also enjoyed.

But if you go with a spirit of adventure, there are plenty of activities similar to those in Valle de Bravo. You can rent motorcycles for rides into the beautiful forests, or simply to get around town.

There are paragliding excursions and light-aircraft rides, zip lines, and various outings such as visits to places where they distill spirits, where you can buy the delicious drinks called ponches (fruit punches spiked with local alcohol). These are far better than the famous moscos sold in the Toluca region, because these ponches are made with more alcohol and less sugar.

Their sweets and cookies are equally famous, and the cookies made by our friend's mother are wonderful, available for purchase right at the hotel.

Just about five kilometers from the hotel, there is a valley with enormous rock formations that is absolutely worth a visit.

The place is beautiful and fascinating, and perfect for spending an entire day or having a picnic.

Walking through the town you come across curiosities like a stone fountain known as the "Pila del Tecolote," which carries with it a dramatic romantic story.

Sanuk