THE tour is long, some three and a half hours, depending on the vehicle you use. You can also get there by plane. Slopes, rivers and narrow roads send a clear signal that this is no place to visit during the rainy season. Rocks appear to be watching us as trees hail us down our path. We take a glimpse over one side and there it is, a agave river streaming down from the mountain. Now I understand why they call it the blue agave. Its hue makes a unique contrast with the lavish green of the scenery.

The water seems refreshing. In addition to that, mountains in Puerto Vallarta turn bluish as the night closes in. These are blue agave mountains, these are the mountains of Jalisco. Getting to San Sebastian is like meeting a part of Mexico's history, like entering a place where time has stood still for the past 400 years. Stone houses, fog rolling down from the mountains; nothing seems to disrupt the peace of this town.

We checked in at the Hotel del Puente, a nice 200-year-old mansion that was turned into a lodging facility some four years ago. Early birds can catch good-tasting breakfast in two or three places before hitting the streets. Visit the church and the Museum of Doña Conchita. Since I laid eyes on this place for the first time, I knew this was the fruit of a woman's hardworking endeavor who never received any official aid whatsoever in her effort to rescue all documents in display there.

Those documents are the only remaining testimonies of a time that has almost been forgotten. With an admission fee of 10 pesos apiece, the museum has been able to endure time impairment the best it can, even though nobody seems to care more. From San Sebastian we move on to Mascota, a place dominated by the volcanoes, lakes and dams of the surroundings.

This time around, we stay at Villa Esmeralda, a lovely establishment that stands at the entrance of the town, and features well-taken-care-of rooms equipped with such high-tech conveniences as cable-TV. We walk in the rooms and drop our suitcases on the floor to head for Talpa de Allende. We're starving, so we ask locals about any place in town that serves good-tasting food. After loading up on calories, we go to see the Virgin to feed the spirit.

There are two churches around here, one displaying the original Virgin, the other one featuring just a replica. The town can't be any nicer and cuddlier, showing off guava jam factories and pastry bakeries in every corner, a plaza coming apart at the seams with people and a fresh breeze that blows through the streets.

Back to Mascota to hit the hay, we stop at a taco joint and engage in a friendly chat with some locals. This conversation, coupled with an earlier talk we’d had with the hotel's owner, led us to a couple of conclusions: firstly, that we cannot leave the area without visiting the Juanacatlan Lagoon, and secondly, that we need to come back to see everything we left behind. We made up our minds to wake up at 6 a.m. and head for the lagoon.

Once again, the road is long and thorny, but we finally get there. You find yourself at your wits' ends. The place is so beautiful! The lagoon is nothing but a crater full of water where peacefulness and silence abound. If you still don't believe in miracles, then you can sip a cup of coffee in a place that features a breathtaking view. We feel as if we were floating up in the air; you can easily spend three to four hours there, listening to nothing but the sound of the leaves and staring at the sun, the swans, the squirrels and the horses. The trip back to the hotel, with a storm looming from the mountains, is some kind of adventure. But that's a story for some other time.