Patzcuaro

UPDATE at 8:30 pm. We had a mini crisis this afternoon when we tried to buy our souveniers and realized we didn't have enough cash and the cash machine wasn't taking either of our cards. Luckily my mom was able to talk to the credit card company while i was on the phone from Mexico on the other line. Unfortunately it costs about $1 a minute for me to call (at least I hope that's all it is!) but it was worth the $10 so we could get some money since hardly anywhere takes credit cards. This afternoon we sat in a cafe on the patio overlooking the plaza having cappuccino and cheesecake... Where are we again?

This city has such a huge holy week celebration that it started today. So we got to see a procession of young girls in traditional dress with paper flowers in their hair and painted plates and a little band. We did take a video that we will put on our web album when I can upload my pictures. We ate at the same restaurant again because we aren't very adventerous since my stomach is just off. Of course it was the most beautiful plate of food and I totally forgot to take a picture. We are trying to keep taking pictures of food as research for our future restaurant. =)

There are sooooo many wonderful things to buy here! If you want Mexican crafts I would definitely come here. There are wood carvings, straw sculptures, copper, pottery, lacquer, everything under the sun. It was very nice. I wish we had more room in the car (and more money!)

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OK... for those of you who have read the previous entries (Copper Canyon, Driving, and Aguascalientes) I have added some more stories to them now that I feel better so go back and read them again. I will probably add captions to the pictures on the web album once I have more time in Felipe's town. I thought the file names would copy over and be used as captions but sadly it does not work that way. I will keep putting all of our pictures (even the not so good ones) on there in case I lose either the camera or the computer. Whenever you see a new picture on the blog it means I've gotten to a computer to update my photos so check the side link too.

We drove from Aguascalientes to Patzcuaro yesterday which took about 5 hours, only because it took almost an hour to navigate through Morelia (we are in the state of Michioacan). As we drove through the state of Guanajuato there were at least a hundred roadside stands selling strawberrys and strawberry products. Keep that in mind if you ever drive in Mexico! Patzcuaro is a little town near a lake that is one of the most famous in the world for it's celebration of the Day of the Dead. Apparently some hotels are full up to a year in advance. It also has a huge Holy Week celebration which starts on Sunday. They are already putting tents up in the plaza and the whole town seems busy. This town dates to pre-hispanic times and the thing that makes it stand out for us is the trees. The street into town and all the plazas are lined with 200 year old oak and elm trees and it is absolutely picturesque. Then the plazas are lined with 400 year old haciendas that are now shops and restaurants and hotels (one of which we are staying in).

It is a town of about only 50,000 compared to the 400,000 in Aguascalientes and has a totally different feel to it. We are really high in elevation again. about 8000 feet. We got here about 3 yesterday and walked around, took a nap, walked around some more... I really love Mexico! As we were walking around at night we finally found some crafts that we really want to buy. There are absolutely gorgeous handmade wood carvings and woven baskets here. And lots of the skull masks but I'm not really in to that. We ate in a nice restaurant last night that had the best guacamole! Felipe had lake trout that was fabulous and I had great enchiladas.

This morning we took a little bus over the the famous lake and looked across at Isla Janitizio where the famous celebrations take place. We did decide not to actually go ove there though. I tried to take a picture but it was pretty hazy and I cannot zoom in or my camera gets spots on it. We did take it to a repair shop but they said it can't be fixed. In 2 weeks our friend Maren is coming to visit and my mother generously is going to send her camera with so we don't have to buy another one. I have to just strategically position the things in the picture to cover up the spots.

We walked through a market today and the amount of vegetables and herbs and clothes and sandles and just about everything you want to buy is amazing. Just blocks of stalls selling all you can think of. We did buy some mangoes and oranges to try. Now after an hour of typing my hand is cramping so we are going to walk around and look in some more stalls and find some souveniers, have a little lunch, probably get more cash since we are running out and then walk around some more and people watch in the plaza. Tomorrow we are going to drive to Felipe's town. We were going to stay here another day and take the bus to Morelia because that is supposed to be a nice city but he is getting excited to see his family so we are going to leave a day early instead. We still have 5 weeks left and plan on seeing quite a few more places. I tried to mark with pictures on the web album on the left where we have been. I will keep trying to accurately place the photos along the road so you can see. they won't be good photos though since they are taken from the car at 70 mph.

Thanks for reading and checking in on us! Don't forget to email us with what's going on in your life at my gmail account or post a comment!