Comala

Comala is painted entirely white with red trim, by ordinance, and the effect under the twin volcanoes - the smoking Volcan de Fuego and the snow-dusted Nevado de Colima - is what put it on postcards. The plaza is the town's living room: arcaded portales on two sides where restaurants serve botanas, small plates that keep arriving free while the ponche - a fruit liqueur made locally in tamarind, coffee, guava and a dozen more flavours - keeps being ordered, with mariachi and banda alternating from mid-afternoon into the evening. Juan Rulfo made the name literary; his 1955 novel Pedro Paramo sets its ghost-haunted village in a Comala of the imagination, and Mexican readers arrive half-expecting whispers. Around the town, the ex-haciendas of San Antonio and Nogueras carry coffee-era architecture, the latter housing the museum of Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo, whose illustrated Christmas cards made the region famous abroad; the Suchitlan villages make masks and pottery, and the volcano lookouts are half an hour up the road.

History

The name means "place of comals", the clay griddles, from Nahuatl, and the façades have all been painted white since the 1960s. After 1527 the area was an encomienda of Bartolomé López, the Franciscans built the chapel of Ajuchitlán, and by 1554 Comala, Suchitlán and Zacualpan were officially established; Comala became a municipality in 1820 and a Pueblo Mágico in 2002 (Wikipedia, Comala).

Highlights

• The white plaza - portales, red trim and volcano backdrop.
• The botana tradition - free plates with the ponche rounds.
• The ex-haciendas - San Antonio's arches and Nogueras's museum.
• The Rulfo association - the literary Comala of Pedro Paramo.

When to go

November to April for clear volcano views; afternoons into the evening for the plaza at full swing, especially Sundays when families fill the portales.

Practical notes

The botana system means the drinks pay for the food - budget accordingly and pace the ponche, which is stronger than it tastes. Volcano views depend on cloud, often clearing at dawn and closing by noon. The village is small; the volcano road extends the day.

Nearby

The Colima volcano lookouts lie half an hour north; Colima city's museums and Suchitlan's mask makers are minutes away.

Key facts