Andrei Zúñiga's outstanding Cactus Garden at the Gran Vastaguera Restaurant
See related article below: THE FOCO TONAL OF OCOTLAN
Photos and text © 2010 by John Pint
Up until a few days ago, the only big attraction I knew of in Ocotlán (at the
eastern end of Lake Chapala) was its curious “Foco Tonal,” said to be a place
where cosmic energy is focused. So, when our friends Justus and Pinky Mohl
invited us to join them on a visit to Ocotlán, we assumed it was to see the Foco
Tonal. “Foco what?” they said, “We don’t know what that is, but we think you’ll
love the cactus garden at La Gran Vastaguera Restaurant.”
Since we had brought up the subject of the Foco Tonal, naturally these two
Mexican-German adventurers wanted to see it…and we the cactus garden.
First we went to the Foco Tonal, which is located an hour’s drive from
Guadalajara, just southwest of Ocotlán, This is supposedly what Carlos Castaneda
would have called a Power Spot—discovered by a Shaman some years ago. It’s
usually crowded with people who hope to be energized by standing in this exact
spot. Since you can read a full report on this place at the bottom of this very
page, I’ll just mention that there is something curious about The Spot which
everyone seems to experience, from the very gullible to the highly skeptical.
Anyone who stands on The Spot and speaks loudly, hears his or her own voice
distorted by a kind of reverberation, or echo. While everything else going on at
this place could be attributed to wishful thinking or whatever, I haven’t heard
any good scientific explanation for the weird sound distortion.
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What’s new at the Foco Tonal is that you must now pay 15 pesos to visit the
place and then you’re forced to listen to a long religious/occult “sermon”
which, I suspect, no respectable shaman would ever stand for.
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Next we came upon a truly bizarre plant: a large
succulent flower with a whole lot of flies buzzing around its center. At this
moment, who should walk up to us but Andrei Zúñiga Cruz, owner of the restaurant
and the man who collected all the cacti around us. “This plant is Stapelia
gigantea or Carrion Flower in English,” Andrei told us. “It looks like a cactus
but it’s actually a member of the milkweed family. The texture of the
flower—which can grow to a foot (35 cm) in diameter—resembles animal skin and it
gives off a putrid smell like rotting meat. As you can see, it attracts lots of
flies and that’s how it gets pollinated.” Carrion Flower: Stapelia gigantea. |
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Next, Andrei took us to see a large, barrel-shaped Ferocactus which he thinks is
at least 90 years old. In sharp contrast, he then showed us a very small,
unassuming cactus. “This is Geohintonia mexicana and it’s worth about 300 Euros
in Europe.” This surprisingly valuable cactus (named after its discoverer,
George S. Hinton, who found it in Nuevo Leon in 1992) opened up the subject of
smuggling. We learned, to our surprise, that after arms and drugs, the next most
profitable product for illegal trafficking in Mexico is cacti. The reason for
this situation became a bit clearer when Andrei casually mentioned that all the
cacti in the world originated in the Americas. “I didn‘t know this until I went
to a magnificent botanical garden in Lanzarote, one of Spain’s Canary Islands.
This garden specialized in cacti. To my surprise, I found that 90% of what I saw
there was from Mexico.”
Axel Orozco Mohl of Guadalajara with a tiny Geohintonia mexicana cactus which is so rare it is said to be worth about 300 Euros in Europe. |
In Lanzarote, Andrei Zúñiga fell in love with cacti and conceived the idea of
what is today La Gran Vastaguera Restaurant. “I had been traveling around Europe
for three years,” he says, “and right before going to Lanzarote, I had been
working in a restaurant in England. I knew that my family’s restaurant, here in
Ocotlán, had been closed for seven years and then and there I decided to reopen
it, together with these cactus gardens.”
Andrei’s wanderings were over. Even though his studies were in International
Relations, he set out to make his dream come true and today has over 700
varieties of cacti and succulents as well as a restaurant famed for excellent
local and international food at reasonable prices.
I think you’d have to go a long way from Ocotlán to find a bigger, more
interesting cactus garden than Andrei Zúñiga’s—or a more delicious salsa
lathered over your pescado. You can phone the restaurant at (392) 9234421.
To reach the Gran Vastaguera Restaurant, continue on highway 36, passing Ocotlán
and heading toward Jamay and La Barca. About six kilometers past Ocotlán note a
big sign on the right for Restaurante El Fuerte. You don’t want this one, but
the very next right turn after it, is for La Gran Vastaguera (at kilometer 6.5).
Of course you can also get to Ocotlán via the more relaxing, but more expensive
Autopista, highway 15. Driving time from Guadalajara is about one hour either
way and if you live on the Lake, it’s practically in your back yard.
MIRACLES OR MUMBO-JUMBO?
THE FOCO TONAL OF OCOTLAN
At the end of a dusty dirt road about three kilometers southwest of Ocotlán,
lies an extremely curious “site” which is located next to an extremely curious
“sight.” The latter, you can see from afar, towering over the nearby fields,
farms and fences of piled volcanic rocks.
“What in the world is that?” I asked my neighbor, electronic music pioneer
Joel Vandroogenbroeck, who had
lured me out here among the ranchitos near Ocotlán with the promise that I’d
definitely find something interesting to write about.
“That,” said Joel, “is The Castle, which, in my opinion looks like it was built
with the collaborative efforts of Dali, Gaudi and Escher. It certainly is
unique.”
In fact, we learned later that it was built by Don Manuel Domínguez, a local
citizen with quite an imagination. Dozens of towers and turrets of many styles,
colors and materials sprout like mushrooms above the garishly decorated castle,
housing balconies galore. It’s the perfect setting for a great fairy tale, but,
unfortunately, it is not open to the public because, after all, it is Don
Manuel’s home.
The public, however, does not really come to this spot to gaze at the curious
castle, but to visit the “site” mentioned above: a spot just 400 meters to the
east, known locally as the Foco Tonal.
Readers of Carlos Castaneda’s books may recall that his mentor, Don Juan, often
traveled great distances to visit a “place of power.” Well, it seems that in
1998, Don Manuel Domínguez invited a clairvoyant to visit him at the castle and
this shaman, Don José Sebastián, wandered about the area and came back to Don
Manuel with the news that there was “a very powerful foco tonal” on his
property. Don José was quite excited about this, because he normally had to
travel all the way to Michoacán to find anything similar. Soon, word spread far
and wide that there was something strange about a certain spot on Don Manuel’s
property and people started coming to soak up the good vibrations, psychic
energy or whatever it was. Word spread that many were cured of various
infirmities and from a trickle of visitors, it turned into a torrent, especially
on weekends. It should be noted that there is no admission fee for visiting the
Foco Tonal, although a few pesos are charged for parking (2010 update: there is
now a 15 peso admission fee).
So, what will you see at this place, which some people claim is a “door to
infinity?” The answer, almost certainly, is: nothing out of the ordinary. The
spot is marked by a sunken ceramic circle enclosed by a low wall. When you step
into the exact center of the circle, you see nothing special, but your hearing
suddenly changes, as if you had just stepped into a giant tin can and if you
speak, you clearly hear a reverberation almost like an echo. I first suspected
that this auditory phenomenon was due to reflection from the 50-centimeter-high
circular wall around The Spot, but on a second visit, I tried covering part of
the wall with a blanket, but this had no effect on the weird sound at all. You
may want to visit the place and try to figure it out for yourself.
As for the curative powers of that special spot, my nephew Ricky Ibarra
reported that three busloads of his schoolmates went to the Foco Tonal and most
of them claimed they had been cured of one health problem or another. “I
myself,” said Ricky, “went there with a painful back injury—from playing
football—and left the place with no more pain. However, I must admit that
several weeks later, the pain came back.”
Now, the maximum amount of time you are allowed to spend inside the Foco Tonal
is fifteen minutes (in order to give everyone a chance). Perhaps longer exposure
might produce a longer-lasting cure for someone like young Ricky. My neighbor
Joel says that he always experiences a surge of energy for about three days
after a visit to this place and the local caretakers report that droves of
visitors claim to have been cured of all sorts of maladies. It is interesting to
note that this seems to be a “secular site,” not associated with any saint or
religious group and people who step into the ceramic circle are liable to do
just about anything, from Tai Chi moves to simple gawking. You’re on your own
(2010 update: the number of visitors has grown so large that you may now be
forced to "join a group" if you go to this place).
Joel Vandroogenbroeck soaking up energy in the Foco
Tonal
Between the castle and the Foco Tonal, there is, of course, a gift shop. This place features incense, chimes, quartz crystals, books on the occult and—somewhat to my surprise and amusement—sets of “stoneware” pots and pans, which seem to prove that no matter how much psychic power you accumulate, at the end of the day you still can’t heat up your frijoles if you don’t have a good old frying pan.
How to get there: see the
article above.
