Morelia and Patzcuaro
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
7
110
Trip End
Ongoing
Morelia,
Mexico
Friday, November 10, 2006
My queasy tummy soon improved after leaving John on the bus and by the time we hit the twilight zone, Collins and I were reasonably ready to wander round the city in pursuit of a bite to eat. Morelia is also a v. nice city but it does not have the same homely atmosphere of Guanajuato. There are many beautiful buildings (including a pink stone Cathedral, which is said to be the 3rd biggest of the Americas) and there was a big park called el Bosque Cuauhtemoc but with so much traffic and hurry, it's possible to feel the stress of the inhabitants.
The city is full of Krusties (otherwise known as "Hippies" for the adult, non Roscommon citizen) as well.Whether this is as a result of the International Music festival which is starting on Saturday 11th or whether it´s normally a krusty paradise (most were absolute hotties if a little skinny), I don´t know.
Once again, there´s a booming student population with many of the city´s inhabitants appearing to be super-sophisticated.
Not much else to say really. I'm slowly discovering that Collins is not much of a museum guy and the only museum I had convinced him to visit ended up being shut down (Museum of the Masks) Went seeking tickets for one of the concerts Saturday night but nobody seemed to know what we were talking bout despite signs up everywhere...must have been our Spanglish.
One good thing bout Morelia is that we finally got some good Mexican food. We´d been unlucky with the places we tried in Zacatecas and Guanajuato but we found some fab taco restaurants ere and stuck to them like there was no tomorrow!
Patzcuaro, Sat November 11th *** No globalisation that I saw.
We felt we had seen most of Morelia in the day and a half and considering we had booked hostel for the 3nights, we decided to take a day trip to Patzcuaro. Class hostel by the way, www.hostelmorelia.com, check it out!
Best day for me so far. Don´t know if Collins was too pushed but I really liked this little town. It was a little dirty but less polluted than the cities and it was situated beside a little tranquil, albeit also dirty, lake. The people were all villagers and I felt like I was seeing the real Mexico at last.
Patzcuaro is famous for its good market where we checked out the little bits and bobs for a half hour or so. There was beautiful fresh fruit and veg on sale and we´d have made a delicious dinner (well I´d have probably cut the onions or something!) if we´d been staying in Patzcauro instead of returning to Morelia.
Gorgeous jewellery there aswell but I just have too much in my rucksack as it is so I won´t be purchasing anything for a long time! I´ve been really good actually. Haven´t even bought one pair of shiny sparkly bling bling tacky earrings yet! Most of the clothes I have with me are black so there´s just no fun in matching up!
We took a boat out to a little island in the middle of lake called Janitzio where there was a massive statue of Jose Maria Morelos, a native of Morelia and a key player in their war for independence. I climbed to the top of the statue and it has to be said that I had major jitters by the end (Collins, the King, minded our stuff below as a result of his fear of heights!) It reminded me of Blarney Castle in Cork where you´ve to climb up the steps without railings but it was 50times worse with the narrow steps still seeping wet from the midday rain and the pole as unreliable as me doing homework. Great view though.
Have gotten some nice pics but it takes so damn long to upload that I´ll prob won't bother uploading many from now on!
In general, things are going well with the Mexican people, apart from the fact that all Mexican men (and indeed women) direct all conversation, tickets for buses, bills etc at Collins. Macho behaviour is prevalent ere. The only reason that I have any power whatsoever at the mo is that my Spanglish is still slightly better than Collins, and as there´s deck all English speakers here, we´re obliged to speak a little of the Latino lingo. I dread the day when they won´t need to speak to me at all though... Which will probably be in about two weeks cos the loser is making great progress!
There is a plus side to having a guy with ya though, you don´t get hassled by the Latinos at all. Today, when I was climbing up the statue and Collins was nowhere to be seen, I got 8 bullsugar "you´re beautiful blah di blah" comments. That was in half hour so I spose I can suffer him for another while if it means I have more peace!
Mexico city tomorrow. It´ll be a real challenge but I can´t wait. There´s so much to see and do and the hostel we´ve booked (can´t really chance arriving without prior arrangements in this Mexican metropolis with their dodge taxi drivers and 20million plus population) sounds class....dinner buffet in evenings and all! Gonna see Frida Kahlo´s house and then I can analyse the role she played in HER relationship with Diego Rivera,,,,WAHOO! Let the psycho analysis begin!
Later daters!
