Driving To Pátzcuaro

 It was time to leave Uruapan and the parking lot at the hotel gave us a final kick in the pants. I chose yesterday to sleep in late and when 9:15 rolled around (I'm retired! Back off!) I crawled out of bed and picked up the cup of tea my wife had thoughtfully prepared. "That's odd," she said. "Look at those cars!" The camp ground suddenly started to fill with cars turning our empty field into a parking lot, a la Joni Mitchell. I groped for respectability to cover my nakedness.

We were all paid up so we straightened the cabin and got gingerly underway. Killing one of the ant heap pedestrians would have cast a pall on an already gray overcast day. Layne the former law student, figured it was a graduation as she saw a man in a black gown. I with my background, held to my superior theory that he was a priest and it was a wedding. I was ahead by a hair until the "priest" grasped a woman by the hand in a style which, if he were a priest he was being very naughty very publicly. I switched to the graduation school of thought as we picked our way through the sudden throng of humanity littering "our" campground. Time to go.

We parked downtown for one last walk in a town we have very much enjoyed. It's all Mexican, no concessions to gabachos, the modern term I'm told for gringos. Layne had found a museum of Indian Folklore in the heart of the city and we planned to walk Rusty, there and back, and see what's what.

The building as you can see is quite enchanting set in a courtyard beautifully restored and very well cared for. Rusty had to stay outside and he was not completely happy at being tied up like Silver the Lone Ranger's nag.

Helicopter parent that I am I fretted out loud so Layne and I kept an eye on him as we went round the courtyard. The docent watched us and found our involvement with our dog slightly unusual but he was forced to admit Rusty is quite sweet and he joined in keeping an eye on the mutt. Eventually Rusty laid down in the shade and we got on with checking the museum chock full of words and artifacts.

Given the war in the steppe every map has a tendency these days to look like a map of Ukraine but this is a chart of four tribes that lived in the territory of the state of Michoacán in the 1300s before the Spanish arrived in the 1530s. I'm not going to go deep into this subject but I will say the descriptions (in Spanish only) outline a very thoughtful and apparently balanced and nuanced view of the life and times of the Indios of the region. Basically they got badly raped by the first administrator, so bad was he that he ended up getting repatriated and put n jail in Spain. The follow-up administrator of New Spain in this region was an enlightened educated man, a judge from Mexico City who governed the tribes based - and I can hardly believe this- on the principles of Thomas More's Utopia. 

Bishop Vasco de Quiroga (described in the link in a rather tortured translation) made such an impression he is still revered today by the Indians who live here. I find it rather annoying that this example of enlightened administration with self government and communal decision making gets so little attention but I was glad to come across it.

Masks above and penitents in limbo below:

Woman steering while men do the fishing below:

It was a fascinating walk through time but we had places to go and things to do. First I had my shoes shined. This was a first. I'm wearing sneakers I protested! He said I can clean them , to the orchestra of head shaking and audible protests from the Admiral in the background. I'll be damned! Luciano did an astonishing job of restoring my beach battered footwear. It felt delicious like a mild foot massage. I told him this is a first but it won't be the last. Even Layne the Doubtful was impressed. 

They were covered in dust and a pale shade of gray before he got down to it. Brilliant job and I gave him 100 pesos, five bucks.

We moved across the plaza and Layne spotted apricots for sale.

We got four dollars worth spreading our money around a bit. No matter how weird the product you can feel good about spending a few bucks to help the locals. That good deed approach hit a bullseye at the ice cream store and we lunched on two cones, I had boring strawberry and pistachio while Layne went nuts and got two delicious but unknown flavors involving chocolate nuts and crunchiness. I lost out there being cautious! Then we found dinner.

Looks a bit odd doesn't it? Delicious little tamales which are a speciality of the region, small balls of steamed dough filed with bits of meat and vegetables. She gave us one to taste and we bought eight figuring enough for two meals. We have lots of hot sauces to eat up which we carry in our home!

I think there is a picture somewhere on Layne's Facebook feed of me getting. peck on the cheek from Chula. She lives large!

We found we liked Uruapan enough to want to come back despite the ghastly potholes and surly spectacular dead ends. We not only came down this death defying slope (above) we had to turn around at the bottom and crawl back up. 

We meandered back to the van with a half dead dog on the leash. Rusty really likes to be leashed, it gives hm confidence in strange places and I am resigned to being his minder. Which as you can imagine is a role I hate! There is no room on these streets and I am grateful for the Promaster's front wheel drive and tight turning radius.

 We headed out of town heading to Pátzcuaro about 20 miles away on the toll road. But first...there were roadworks and traffic was ghastly as two lanes shrank to one. I will say though that everyone waited patiently, no horns, no shoving, no impatience. We proceeded one at a time and the whole process of filtering out of the traffic jam was slow steady and stress free. It's not the stereotype of crazy Mexican drivers is it? It gave me time to check the sights, including a repurposed US fire truck in service in Uruapan.

We had no signal and I was reading Google maps offline and trying to figure out a route as we sat stalled in the traffic. Layne had found a campsite on a lake a little before the city of Pátzcuaro so we aimed for that to start with. It was lunchtime and we had plenty of daylight to wander around a bit. 

We stopped to let Rusty out as rain was threatening and drizzle was putting a shine on the roads.  This is around 7,000 altitude and the air was cool and crisp at 64 degrees at two pm.  Pine trees have replaced palms and granite rock gives this place a slightly alpine quality.

I suspect the piles of trash along the road get nocturnal visits from animals because Rusty spent a very long time sniffing everywhere. He wasn't interested in trash but in the bushes lining the road. 

The lakeside town was a bit of a disappointment and we blamed the rain and gray skies for giving us a bit of a downer. Zirahuen is a lakeside resort for Mexicans but it was full of dogs and that's tough for Rusty and me. They aren't strays but they aren't loved and seeing them wet didn't make me feel good.

The campground listed on iOverlander looked like an alpine resort with steep pitched roof cabins and lots of grass by the water's edge. The employee looked shocked when we asked to camp in our vehicle and told us they only rent cabins for $150 a night.

We might have taken one for $50 Layne said looking at the fog and drizzle but $150?  We decided to go on to the highly rated campground just above Pátzcuaro. On the way a seller on the street corner in the rain caught our attention. We got suckered into buying a bottle of pineapple cordial of some sort. Hopefully it will go well with tequila. Doing our bit for the local economy as usual!

I snagged a photo in motion of a tortilla maker in action and Layne snagged half a roast chicken all that was left at the vendor's shop. Cook's week off I think.

iOverlander has a way directing you to sites by connecting directly to Google Maps. You find a location of interest and at the bottom of the description it has a link to Google maps and there you are.  We were following the blue line when Layne said "Chinese Food!" "Let's stop," I said. As odd as it sounds I had been craving Chinese food lately, one of those weird unbidden thoughts that creep into your head when you are far from home and routines.

So we stopped and Layne ordered noodles and teriyaki and we knew it would most likely be slightly odd but I tell you it was great. It fixed the craving and we had a laughter filled lunch when we got to the campground.

Glad we have a fridge to store all this stuff because we couldn't eat it all at once. Living large on the road but now we have found a place to stop for the weekend.

We have a usually decent WiFi signal, a pool cold no doubt, hot and cold showers and toilets with seats and toilet paper- be still my beating heart! There are a few other RVs here, the first we have seen for a while, including two Swiss couples who have stories to tell and seem very nice. Our immediate neighbors, a couple of Canadians from British Columbia spoke to us in passing at the beach recently. 

Rusty has to be on a leash and isn't allowed inside buildings. That's easy.

We'll have the pool to ourselves as it's cold. We've changed a bit since our pansy days in the keys of only swimming in hot water!

Rooms on one side and RVs on the other. We have electrical plugs, household 110volt outlets, and a faucet for water and a sewer drain for our toilet for $14 a night.

This will be our base from which to explore Pátzcuaro, one of Michoacán's "Magical Cities." I hope you will be along to see what we find.