Hotel Mansion Bugambilias Patzcuaro

... crowding of accomodations and travel in general.
I spent the first week attending my classes, studying, and stocking up my fridge with beautiful, very cheap fruit and vegetables, along with the other basics for self catering. There's an abundance of restaurants in Morelia within easy walking distance, as well as bakeries, markets and grocery stores. Also, within a block on either side of the school, there are two "cocinas econimicas" - little restaurantes where one can have ...

... of stalls aimed exclusively at tourists, making you wonder what happens here on the other 364 days of the year when the place is not overwhelmed with visitors. Fortunately we visited the cementary before the masses arrived, and then made our way up the hill to a giant statue of Morelos, a hero of the revolution. At the top we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the lake and the city lights of Patzcuaro on the opposite shore.

As the sun went down more people began to ...

After my first week of classes I decided to visit the neighbouring state of Michoacan. A couple of Mexican guys called Hugo and Raul were taking a coachload of students to party and see a bit more of the country. I was the sole Englishman but it was a real international group, mostly comprised of Germans, French, Mexicans and Americans.

We arrived in the state capital Morelia on the Friday night and took a brief tour around the city centre. It was fairly lively as the annual ...

... trip up to the base of the trail to the caldera took more than two hours each way on horseback. We ambled up and down rocky trails through woods, trotted along tracks past remote avocado farmsteads, and cantered and galloped across fields, which, before the eruption in 1943 had been fertile farmland, but now are seas of black volcanic ash. We climbed as far as possible up the volcano on horseback and reached the base of the final trail. Our guide ...

... to follow...............

Accommodation

Patzcuaro offers an excellent range of places to stay with the best deals to be found in the centre of town. Your other option is to stay three kilometre's out of town on the road that leads down to Lago de Patzcuaro, from where the boats depart for Isla Janitzio. Where ever you decide to stay make sure to ask for a bit of discount as all the places that I looked at would drop their rates ...

... traffic if you ask for a room towards the back. They offered excellent rates of 180 + 220 Peso for 1 or 2 persons. It's a ten minute walk to the main plaza.
There were two or three other budget hotels / posadas within a couple of blocks of the plaza but the rooms were shocking. And because of their location the rates were ridiculous, somewhere between 170 + 320 Peso a night.

... didn't end up making it to the table, a few Bohemias and tequilas later I didn't care.
After being chased from our table (they wanted to close) we wandered though the artisans market that had already been in the process of going to sleep for the evening and so we set off looking for a nightcap to celebrate our first evening in Patzcuaro.
No luck in finding a real cantina, but what we did find was someone's home that was doubling as an artist's gallery ...

Hola Although this blog is about Patzcuaro, it is being sent from a small place near Cuernavaca (the first place we found Wi Fi in the past few days). We are here for a couple days, relaxing at a swimming pool resort camping ground populated mostly by Mexican families from Mexico City. We were here 4 years ago and there was nothing but the beginnings of construction. Now it is a lovely palm tree lined compound with all the amenities you could ask for. And it ...

... de Quiroga looked down upon the scene. Don Vasco came to Michoacán in the 1530s, tasked with repairing relations with the Tarascans following the depredations of Nuño de Guzman. A bishop of the church, he established his capital in Pátzcuaro - to the chagrin of the colonialists at Valladolid - and set about the business of winning souls. In his thirty years in Pátzcuaro Don Vasco established a reputation as a protector of the Indians and he is credited with ensuring ...

... to the top plaza where I was entertained by more children collecting treats, dancing and a group of Mexicans who were pleased to shared their tequila and singing with me over the next few hours. It was after 3am by the time they left and I headed back to the cemetery to have a drink with an old friend. It was quite bizarre to be in a flower-coated cemetery with hundreds over other people, some drinking and dancing, others crying, and others (mostly ...