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Around Pátzcuaro


Craft vendor in Pátzcuaro

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Whilst in Pátzcuaro we did take several side trips to visit nearby cities and towns. The first of these was an overnight trip to Morelia, where we camped next to Susan and Steve in the Wal-Mart car park. Of course, we had driven around the city on our way to Pátzcuaro, but we had heard that it has a beautiful colonial style centre that is really worth a look. The other thing that motivated us was that, while we could buy all the fruit and vegetables in Pátzcuaro that we might need, we hadn't really found a supermarket like the ones we had been surprised by, and then became used to, since being in Mexico. So we decided to drive to Morelia to do some shopping and to have a look at the sights. We weren't disappointed on either score. We did the shopping we needed to in the afternoon of our arrival and then went into the centre by bus in the evening. The city is lit by lights on the footpaths at night and it makes all the buildings look beautiful. The first sight we saw was the cathedral behind the plaza - a very stunning sight. As it got darker and we worked our way around the cathedral we discovered that it is a stunning building from all sides.
We had a great dinner at Meson Agustinos, completed with the speciality of the house - Churros and the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted. Our waiter was a surprising young man, who spoke almost perfect English. We had an interesting talk with him about Mexico, its resources and lack of promotion - things like historic places and towns, cultural variety and the resulting cuisine. He said, "there are so many different, interesting dishes you could eat something new every day in your life and still don't get to taste all of them." This definitely seems to be true, although for vegetarians the choice is rather more limited, since Mexicans do tend to be big meat-eaters. Then there are all the things which originate from Mexico, like chocolate, vanilla, avocados, tomatoes, rubber, etc., from which Mexico doesn't really profit, but other places in the world do... He is a barista and thinks that the Mexican coffee, grown in the highlands of the Gulf region, is one of the best and he would like to promote it world wide... We wholeheartedly agree with him (and his boss, Tony, who joined in the conversation): we're very impressed by the openness of Mexican people and the way they adopt, and adapt, the new and at the same time continue with the traditional.
After a fairly disturbed night's sleep, we went back into the city in the morning to visit the aqueduct and see the sights in the daylight. The aqueduct is an amazing structure and the nearby Fuente Tarasca and Plaza Villalongin make this area quite a beautiful spot to visit. This is at the eastern edge of the city centre and from there we walked back to the Plaza along Madero Avenue, which is lined with building after impressive building - all in the same style but unique. And just to add some interest to the visit, we came across 3 different demonstrations - we had no idea really what each were about, but it was encouraging to see that people are not afraid to voice their opinions here. Just as we reached the main Plaza, a group of mostly young men started off down the middle of Madero Avenue towards the aqueduct. In the smaller plaza on the eastern side of the cathedral, a group of indigenous people and their supporters were camped. And as we walked away from the centre in the opposite direction, the university students had blocked off city streets and were just hanging around.
We wandered a bit more in the area around the main plaza and then we were on our way to the candy market - a whole market just selling sweets was something we wanted to see. In fact, there were other arts and crafts available also, but it was predominantly stall after stall covered in the same variety of unimaginable concoctions of sugar! Finding a collectivo to take us back to Wal-Mart was a little difficult with all the roads closed for various demonstrations, but eventually we were successful. After a late lunch and a bit more shopping, we were on our way back to the haven of quiet that Villa Pátzcuaro had become!
A couple of days later Ernie and Alexis took us to Uruapan for an artisan's market - purported to be the largest indigenous craft market in Latin America. On the way we stopped at Timgambato ruins, which is a small but extensive site. I am always fascinated by this evidence of civilisations past. I crawled into a completely dark tomb with some others, which none of us realised the appearance of until we saw the photos we had taken! We met a particularly friendly school group there who were excited to try out their limited English on us and to pose for photos!
The artisan's market was indeed quite large, since it completely covered Uruapan's rather extensive central plaza. Pottery was the major thing, but all sorts of beautiful handcrafts were available. We didn't buy anything, much to the shock of our fellow campers when we arrived back at the campground. It is not possible to carry most of these things on the journey we are taking - but we are both sure that we will return to Mexico in the future for a different type of holiday when we will want to take some of the local handcrafts with us. It was the day before Palm Sunday and there were many women around making woven objects that had something to do with it (we really need to learn more Spanish because there are so many things we would like an explanation of). Some of these women were outside the Templo de San Francisco. This church really impressed me - outside it is the 17th century baroque style we have come to expect, but inside it was simplicity itself. It seems that it was completed in the 1960's in a minimalist style of the times.
As we were heading back to the car, we stumbled across a food market where there were many indigenous people cooking and many more people eating. This is evidently the Mercado de Antojitos (snack market) and we were all sorry that we hadn't found this place before we had eaten. But it was fascinating watching the food being prepared and cooked, obviously in the way it had been done for probably hundreds of years. A little further down the street we discovered the most popular taco stall we have seen - with a queue of about 40-50 people, going around the corner into a side street, waiting to be served!
We drove back to Pátzcuaro by a different route, through many small towns - each known for a different craft. We were most impressed by the big guitar that stands at the entrance to the guitar making town, Paracho. (Tamworth must be jealous!) We had read that in the 1530's, Bishop Vasco de Quiroga encouraged the villages around the Pátzcuaro Lake to each specialise in a different craft to increase economic development. This seems to have spread to the surrounding countryside. The lake was actually one place we didn't visit, but we did visit some towns along its edge. Evidently the island of Janitzio is a very busy centre where all the different crafts are sold. But since the road around the island goes upwards in a spiral to the statue at the top and Juergen's knee hadn't been behaving, we decided against visiting this island. There are plenty of examples of the local crafts available in Pátzcuaro and we had been impressed by our experience of them. They are imaginative and creative, and their quality can match the best you find in places like Bali.
Other places we visited included Tzintzuntzan, Santa Clara del Cobre and Erongaricuaro. Tzintzuntzan, to the north-east of Pátzcuaro and on the eastern side of the lake, is famous for its ruins, although there is not as much to see as we have seen at other sites. It is also a village of stonemasons and their work on display along the road entering the village is amazing. The village itself is architecturally like Pátzcuaro, but with a real pueblo feel. There are shops selling thousands of small woven Christmas decorations. There is also an ex-monastery that has large grounds and 2 churches. The grounds are famous for having the oldest olive trees in Mexico - said to have been planted by Vasco de Quiroga. The story goes that Spain decided to destroy all the olive trees in Mexico so that they wouldn't have any competition for their product, but that somehow these trees were fortuitously missed.
Santa Clara del Cobre is to the south of Pátzcuaro and is the copper producing town. Almost anything that can be imagined can be made from copper here. They have a central market which sells a lot of cheap and sometimes tacky items, but the individual shops, often attached to factories on the outskirts of town, have much more impressive merchandise. Evidently the copper museum is worth a visit, but unfortunately they were closed for siesta when we wanted to visit.
On Good Friday we ventured out again with Ernie and Alexis to the village of Erongaricuaro, on the western side of Lake Pátzcuaro. Alexis had discovered that there should be a flower show there. As we drove through the other villages on the way we noticed a lot of activity - none of it obvious to us in its intent. When we arrived in Erongaricuaro we discovered a passion play in progress on the streets around the square. It appeared over time that it would continue the whole day, climaxing in a crucifixion later in the afternoon. We stayed to watch some of it, but declined to stay for the gory bits... The flower show was next to the church. It consisted of everybody's most precious plants in a display that could win prizes. Huge pot plants to small displays utilising yoghurt cups or eggshells as containers were present. One thing we have noticed is that Mexicans love flowers. All the markets have flower sellers, the churches are full of flowers and as we drive through the countryside, even the poorest looking house with a packed earth yard has a large quantity of pots with flowering plants in them.
Just outside of Erongaricuaro is Campestre Aleman - a restaurant and park with a German flavour. The food was great - I had smoked trout - and the position was also nice. It was crowded, mostly with Mexicans, which surprised us only a little since we are learning how much Mexicans adopt and adapt so many things foreign. By the time we left there was a line of people waiting which went out the front gate.
Our time in Pátzcuaro was extremely pleasant - we relaxed and got some things done, we visited some interesting places and met a lot of interesting people. But once Easter was done we were ready to once again head somewhere new. We left on Monday morning and took the roads less travelled - as usual. About 7½ hours later we arrived in Playa Azul after a day of windy and bumpy mountain roads. Sometimes the scenery was spectacular - there were some particularly nice trees with pink blossoms, and one area we passed through was covered in huge cactuses - but the discomfort of travelling these roads eventually dampened my enthusiasm for the scenery.


 
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