La Casa Encantada Patzcuaro

... So much going on, and all under the glow of the illuminated cathedral and temple. The second night at the plaza was also pretty lively - especially the constant parade of cars all tooting their horns in concert to celebrate a local soccer victory. While waiting for the traffic to move, young men were leaping out of their cars to perform impromtu hulas and to generally whoop it up. The energy of the place is high and really infectious.
The day after I arrived in ...

The Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican festival based on precolumbian religious rituals. Death was just another part of life for indigenous civilizations like the Aztecs, for whom human sacrifice was a common practise. The spilling of blood was essential in order maintain the balance of life and ensure that the sun would continue to rise each day. Thus it was only natural for them to celebrate death; and each year on the 2nd November many Mexicans still give offerings in honour ...

... Mexicans took us to a trendy club with an outside bar and a magnificent view of the city lights down in the valley below. I spent the vast majority of my weekend's money on one bottle of Bacardi, from which I got about two drinks as many others helped themselves. Still, we had a great time and it was definitely one of the coolest clubs I've ever been to. We headed back to the bus around 3am but it was only then that the real fun kicked off. Upon returning we consumed far too much of ...

Well, I finally got my pictures up and got caught up to last Saturday. I don´t have any more pictures to add (see previous entry for explanation!), but here´s the rest of the story up to today.

Last Sunday I went to a different church for mass, then did some shopping and museum hopping. I was quite excited to discover that even though my speaking is still slow and laborious, I could read the explanations in the museums (Natural History, and Casa Natal de Morelos ...

... restored so you can get an idea of how big they were. They carved inscriptions on the stone, and you can still see these inscriptions on the pyramids and also in the buildings built by the Spanish! (see photos!)

After the pyramids we went to the town below and visited the monastery and church where Vasco de Quiroga lived. He was the one who set up the system in the 16th century (that still survives today) of each village of indidigenous people ...

... to remember the conjugation. (If only there weren´t so many exceptions!!) But this is only a short respite - subjunctive is coming!

I´m fighting the gringo tummy bug, but Martha is being really helpful. Made me plain rice (do you know how hard it is to find plain rice in Mexico??) and jello (jelly for my UK readers) yesterday, and fresh chicken broth today - guess it's Mexican penicillin, not just Jewish penicillin! (It took me days to realize that when Martha ...

I was fortunate to catch a lift between Uruapan and Patzcuaro (60km) with Aline and Oscar, the owners of Casa Chikita B&B, which was where I had been staying in Uruapan. Patzcuaro is located just off the autopista midway between Uruapan and Morelia, a forty five minute drive from either. We didn't leave Uruapan until 16.30 hours as they had been waiting all day for a car to be delivered. They were heading to Morelia with some friends and ...

... our own bread, ate honey from the beehives, and made yogurt and cheese. We dined together at the same time each day (a first in my life), said grace, and had long and interesting conversations over our meals. The food was so good that I grew two belt notches in just five weeks! I feel priveledged to have stayed with Vincent and Marta- I learned about agriculture (both the frighteningly unsustainable industrial system of the day and the holistic ...

Mercredi 16 janvier Patzcuaro Superbe journée ensoleillée et la fourmilière se met en branle avant le départ pour la visite prévue à 11 :00 : Michel termine la réparation de son jack hydraulique avec Yves et Jacques et les outils de Robert; puis opération distribution des sacs de linge provenant des lavandières et triage. Il n'y a pas eu échange de couples dans notre caravane mais plutôt de bobettes car tous les morceaux de linge n'étaient pas dans les bons ...

... the gate- we told em and nada. The man at the hotel said he had no idea who Alejandro was but he said that because we all arrived together he thought we were good friends. Alejandro came back after dinner and said that we were too drunk to get home and he had to go and pick us up.(He had broken into our hotel room and taken the keys) So the hotel guy let him and all of our belongings out the door. Where do we go from here? Cried and waited up for hours for ...