Hotel Posada La Basilica Patzcuaro

... his own seat, where he immediately fell asleep.

I loved the ride. It was comfortable, short (about an hour an a half) and scenic - and included a complimentary goodie bag of a breakfast bar and a bottle of flavoured water (no plain water available).

When I arrived at the bus station just outside of town at St Miguel de Allende, the taxi driver that was next in line, and therefore the one for me, had a tantrum when I indicated that I needed to find my ...

... trip. In attendance: Holly, Martin, Ana, Kirsten, Che, Yazmine, Chantal (CEPE friends), Andy (my new flatmate), a surprise visit from Cameron the Kiwi (who was first discovered langouring in a hostel in Puerta Vallarta, and later visited us in GDL), and of course Kisiev, who was kind enough to let me crash at his uncle`s place. Gracias, cabron!

It was a non-stop weekend. Lots of music ...

... airport, about half way between Leon and Guanajuato.
The next day (Thursday, November 4) we drove into Leon, and I was treated to an expert walking tour of the city, including some of the many leather and shoe shops and the great market, as well as the manadory, very impressive cathedrals. In the afternoon, Daniel needed to attend to some business, so he dropped me at the new, very flash museum, which was featuring one display about the ...

... to really witness the true spirit of the festival.

The next morning we spent another hour buying crafts in the market in Patzcuaro before setting off on our way home. Somehow we managed to transform what should have been a three or four hour drive into a seven hour epic. However, despite getting slightly lost it was still an awesome journey; encompassing mountains, forests and small rural towns. Had we got back on time then we would have missed the unforgetable sight of the ...

... 1.5 hours each. I love them. The first one is basic things (greetings, numbers, etc.) It was like a review for me. I understood about 98% of what she said. The second one is pronunciation. I was doing great until the "r". I could roll my r's great (the teacher was shocked) but, I was having a problem with my reg. r's and "g" (this weird hacking sound you make in your throat). I thought i ...

... with me who new this.

- Half the people here don't seem to have doorbells. All the houses are very open in the center. So, people will stand outside the door and yell your name. All the houses seem to have a little store in front and then everyone lives upstairs, so knocking does no good.

Bathroom Signs:
at one place, the women's was a ceramic painted moon, and the men's was a statue of don Quijote
(see pics)

When you go ...

... picturesque town square. The achitecture is similar to New Mexico because NM was inhabited by people from this area and they took their achitectural style with them.

Tzintzuntzán - In the days before the conquistadors Tz. was the place where the priests (sacerdotes) of the P'urépecha Empire lived. Outside of the town they built pyramids for use in sacred ceremonies. The P'urépechas were monotheistic unlike the Aztecs. They did perform human ...

... General (he liked to remove heads from live indians) and, following the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, help the locals develop the skills to be self sufficient. Each village now specializes in one or more crafts from furniture making and finely woven woolens to the carving of traditional masks (mascaras). And that brings us to "faces. Most of the artisans work at home and there are few shops so you have to go hunting and hopefully have a good Lonely Planet ...

... French girl) as we all ended up staying at Casa Bertha. Guanajuato is a city kinda like Zacatecas - Spanish colonial architecture, museums, etc. As I mentioned before, it's an old mining town, and they've turned the old mine tunnels under the city into roads, so there's all these underground roads running underneath - very wild. There's a market in the middle of town that has the best food court I've seen yet. There's all sorts of other knick knacks in the ...

... we all went to meet some friends of theirs who just so happened to be hanging out with some really nice Americans. We were all on the beach drinking a few beers... when Alejandro disappeared? Didnt think much of it. After about 30 minutes i asked Sandi and she said he was still hungry and wanted some tacos. She called him and he said he was on his way. Phew. Another 15 minutes passed and Sandi said she had to use the bańo. I didnt think anything of it until 5 ...