8 Best Sights in Mascota, Puerto Vallarta

The countryside just outside town is ideal for hikes and drives. From Mascota's plaza you can walk up Calle Morelos out of town to Cerro de la Cruz. The hike to the summit takes about a half hour and rewards with great valley views.

Mascota's pride is La Iglesia de la Preciosa Sangre (Church of the Precious Blood), started in 1909 but unfinished due to the revolution and the ensuing Cristero Revolt. Weddings, concerts, and plays are sometimes held here under the ruins of Gothic arches. Note the 3-D blood squirting from Jesus's wound in the chapel—you can hardly miss it.

On one corner of the plaza is the town's white-spire Iglesia de la Virgen de los Dolores. The Virgin of Sorrow is feted on September 15, which segues into Mexican Independence Day on the 16th.

Lago Juanacatlán is a lovely lake in a volcanic crater at 7,000 feet above sea level. Nestled in the Galope River valley, the pristine lake is surrounded by alpine woods, and the trip from Mascota past fields of flowers and self-sufficient ranchos is bucolic.

A block beyond the other end of the plaza, the Museo Arqueologico de Mascota is worth a look. It has some pictures of petroglyphs of the area as well as remnants of the pre-Hispanic era.

Around the corner from the Mascota Museum, the Palacio de Cultura y el Arte has rotating exhibits of photography and art. 

Walk around the plaza, where old gents share stories and kids chase balloons. Couples dance the stately danzón on Thursday and Saturday evening as the band plays in the wrought-iron bandstand. The town produces ceramics, saddles, and raicilla, a relative of tequila made from the green agave plant (tequila comes from the blue one).

Presa Corinches, a dam about 5 km (3 miles) south of town, has bass fishing, picnic spots (for cars and RVs), and a restaurant where locals go for fish feasts on holidays and weekend afternoons. To get to the dam, head east on Calle Juárez (a block south of the plaza) and follow the signs to the reservoir. Take a walk along the shore or set up a tent near the fringe of pine-oak forest coming down to meet the cool blue water, which is fine for swimming when the weather is warm.