Papa Francisco (Pope Francis) changed our plans.
There was "no room at the inn" in Morelia where
Papa was speaking the day after we were planning
to arrive. So we went to Patzcuaro first(with day
trips to Santa Clara de Cobre and Tzintzuntzan).
Traveling around the state of Michoacan
We were the only guests in the hotels where
we stayed (it was during the week) and
we only saw a handful of other "gringos"
on the entire trip. Most Mexican tourists
travel in the summer, holidays, and weekends.
Most of the hotels in the smaller towns are
old colonial homes that haven't changed much
structurally. They all have VERY high ceilings,
central courtyards, and balconies.
Bathrooms have been added to the bedrooms
and the electricity and plumbing
have been upgraded. On the downside there usually
isn't heat and the lighting is bad
(you need a headlamp if you want to read).
They have lots of blankets, though!
Wake up call is the church bells at 7:00 and
the hustle and bustle outside of people preparing for the day.
Patzcuaro:
Patzcuaro is at an elevation of 7200' and as our taxi
climbed from Morelia to Patzcuaro we started seeing
pine trees everywhere. Nice change!
We found a great hotel right on one of the two central squares.
Probably because Patzcuaro is close
to Mexico city and is a weekend "get-away"
there are:
-espresso machines in most of the restaurants
and carts around the square in the evenings
-good bottles of wine in the small grocery store
-lots of very good restaurants with good wine
and micro-brew beers
-lots of hotels
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| Our hotel in Patzcuaro - right on the square |
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| Our own balcony |
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| A local (Patzcuaro) micro-brew IPA There are also espresso machines in most of the restaurants and carts on the square in the evenings. |
An evening walk around the square:
A walk around the town of Patzcuaro:
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| The Public Market |
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| Avacados are ten pesos (60 cents) per kilo |
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| Santuario de Guadalupe |
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| Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Salud |
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| Peyote w/marijuana mix available outside the Basilica |
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| Ex-Convent de San Augustin |
Santa Clara de Cobre:
Known for their copper -
there are some incredible pieces displayed
at the museum there.
Street scenes in Santa Clara:
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| The band stand in the square has a copper roof |
Tzintzuntzan:
This was the ancient capital of the indigenous people of
this area (Tanascans). There were approximately 40,000 people
at the time of the Spanish conquest.
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| Heading to Tzintzuntzan in a colectivo van |
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| This guy adopted us for awhile |
Articles found in the tombs
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| View of Lake Patzcuaro |
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| They are making an effort to bring back the hummingbirds by planting salvia Tzintzutzan means "place of the hummingbirds" in Tarascan |
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| The market in Tzintzuntzan They are known for their reed and straw weavings, woodwork and pottery. |
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| This once was a monastery and is now a park. Notice the cedar trees - it's about 7000 feet here |
From Patzcuaro we headed to the small town of Angangueo
which is near the Monarch Butterfly reserve.
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