…and we saw no monarchs. Layne was worried about my state of health at these altitudes and she wanted to get back down as soon as possible. I couldn’t argue with that and I was glad she agreed to drive over the high passes exploring the monarch habitats from the road. Next time we will spend more time acclimating at lower altitudes before coming up here. It’s funny as I’ve not felt this before and we drove mountain passes up to 11,000 feet in Colorado and Idaho last summer with no ill effects. The red line was our route, the yellow line I added for emphasis marking the state line between Michoacán and Mexico State.
The villagers in El Rosario got a special treat that day: two Martians dropped in on them to share the splendidly refreshing morning at their market. They stared and stared in slack jawed silence as we three approached. I might as well have been Gary Cooper in High Noon had I been taller and thinner and armed and at the OK corral. As it was I felt like an intruder. Which was weird really as the monarchs and their annual migrations are a world famous phenomenon and you’d have thought gabachos (gringos in a newer derogatory term) would be a common sight. As it was I saw a nice lady selling coffee and pastries so I peeled off from the vegetable expedition ( wouldn’t you?) and got busy. I asked for a coffee and a concha. Her son forgot his own breakfast and gawked at me as though I had asked for the head of Marie Antoinette on a platter. “Do you speak Spanish?” I asked a not unreasonable question because sometimes Indio tribes speak only their own unintelligible language. He nodded slowly fearful of what was to come. Buenas dias I said. He remained tongue tied. His mother crossed herself. I then further confounded their morning by speaking double dutch to my dog who actually understood me and obeyed. Had I levitated myself into the cloudless sky I could not have produced more astonishment.
The photo is from an excellent page discussing the history of conchas but also the balance between corn and wheat in Mexican history. Surprisingly interesting.
https://www.eater.com/2016/2/19/11054298/conchas-mexico-pastry
Under these trying circumstances my usual ploy of engaging in some light banter, asking about their kids and asking for a smile for the camera did not seem appropriate so we neither of us got any pictures of the market. I did manage to get a snap of the guy in the “built for the craft” (!) t-shirt who between using his three words of English on me was working with his wife to set up their restaurant stall for market day. I wish we had been there later in the day to do a taste test.
There it is, still standing after the alien invasion.
Never mind the monarchs, this is very much rural Mexico as we ourselves discovered.
With much regret and only a small headache I drove us past the butterfly parking lot on up the hill overlooking the valley.
This was a winding mountain road I wanted to explore before we descended below 8,000 feet to the city of Toluca, several hours drive away.
Actually I was glad Layne agreed to this deviation as she was quite surprised about me feeling so ill, and she insisted we get a wriggle on. The scenery was spectacular at ten thousand feet.
This is the road from El Rosario to the delightfully named town of An-gang-gay-oh in the next valley. Luckily we took this little used road in the down hill direction and you will see, I hope, how steep it was. Photos don’t do grades justice but trust me when I tell you it was steep!
This weird strip road actually works quite well as long as you keep your wheels in the strips.
Water tanks on roofs are universal in Mexico and it’s time I bought shares in Rotoplex. This yellow water tank is rather more fancy than the usual rotomolded plastic.
New construction everywhere. Until your house is completed you pay no property taxes I’m told so you will often see crafty home owners with rebar out of the roof.
Cows on the road. The protocol when you meet livestock is to be nice and not push. For retirees in a van that’s easy.
The farmer plodded in the road to protect his animals which knew the way home and turned in at the fence. We waved, he smiled and we were on our way.
The next time you have a crappy day in the office think about these fields, nearly vertical and neatly cultivated. At ten thousand feet.
The road deteriorated into a Roman style cobblestone that would shake your fillings loose at anything more ambitious than walking speed. So I stuck Gannet2 into manual first gear and we bounced along.
What I would really like in my six speed Promaster is a crawler gear for those roads where I want slow speed and more power but as it is this is a delivery van conversion not designed for rough back roads necessarily.
As it was I stopped from time to time to give the brakes a chance to cool. It was here I spotted a lone monarch. Layne wanted a picture; it was long gone. Here beginneth and endeth our monarch encounter!
Here’s a close up of the Roman road that was making me crazy. Worse was to come as we got off the mountains but I didn’t know that yet.
And this is where it got extremely steep. I was glad we were going downhill and the brakes were fine.
Believe me if it isn’t clear in the pictures that this is steep. In the rain these cobbles would be like slime. I’ve met their ilk before in Mexico and it’s a slippery surface like ice when wet.
Finally Angangueo and a few tiny alleys, one more stop to cool the brakes and we were in the main road again.
The Main Street had an Alpine air and I was out in mind of Switzerland.
It’s not actually Switzerland of course. Mexico is its own inimitable world, firewood and smart phone arm in arm.
I don’t know where Cassville is but I assume they traded these trailers onto the used market and they end up improbably in Angangueo.
Climbing up to the pass at the stateline with Mexico.
I hope this odd tour of back country Michoacán explains a little why I like driving Mexico. Not a single foreign tagged vehicle did we see since we left the campground in Pátzcuaro and our journey across Michoacán has been all to ourselves, the good roads and the bad, the road food and the awful altitude sickness soon to get worse.
Up next Mexico State, poverty, terrible roads and lots of dead cell phone areas. I ended up missing Michoacán.
