Patzcuaro to San Felipe and the Butterflies

We left Patzcuaro on for a 3 or 4 hour casual and scenic drive thru the beautiful countryside to San Felipe. But first we had manoeuvre our drive thru Morelia and then find Hwg 126. Well, we got on the periferico ( ring road ) which we thought would not be busy on a Sunday morning because we all know Mexicans go to church. Well, I’m here to tell you ,many of them played hooky on this Sunday. As an aside, a guide who was showing us a few churches ask if we knew why so many Mexicans go to church. We assumed it was because they where good Catholics. He said No.. It is because they are “scared” as to what would happen if the did not go. However , once on the periferico we where looking for hwy 126 but in Mx style they must have run out of those signs so the used MX 15D as a substitute, which we did not realize soon enough. Once we did realized we had missed the road we needed ,we now had to turn around which meant a U-turn on a 6 lane street but we had the light in our favour and I guess the cops where in church.

We finally decide that hwy 15 D was the correct road so we headed for San Felipe.  We stopped for fuel along the way and we ask the attendant for the best road to take. I suggested a route but he no, “road no good” , go thru Marvato so I took his advise . Well, most of the road was good except the 1st 10 KM which was under construct so this was really slow going. The road really needed re-construction but they are building it into a 4 lane hwy so when any of you folks are this area it will be 4 lanes.

We arrived in San Felipe in the early afternoon and found our camp site which was a Dry camping but grassed area at a hotel which we knew from our travel bible. However, the entrance was gated as per normal but the entrance was also narrow and the walls where built out to the street so there was no way I could turn right hence i had to drive a few miles down the road so i could U-turn and attack the entrance from the left, which i did successfully. 

The butterflies  are not actually in San Felipe; this is the closes camping area for our rig, so after we setup we decide to check out the route. The first town that we needed to find was Ocampo which was 15 KM up a mountain on a windy road, albeit paved but narrow. The direction from the Hotel owner was that Ocampo was a 10 or 15 min drive and when you enter the town take the 1st right and follow the signs. Although i never notice it, but I assume the Hotel owner has a Rocket ship  that she uses when she goes to Ocampo because it took us over 1/2 an hour because we had to negotiate several small towns and their topes. However, we found Ocampo and followed the sign for a few miles in the direction of the butterfly area . This road is most interesting because is two lanes wide but only the travel area is concrete and the area between the travel lanes is cobble stone. i very much doubt that this road will every wear our and i assume the maintenance is very low. According to the book this road is only 11 KM, mostly up hill  but driving this road seemed much longer. This road took us thru several small towns and the area was littered with small farms. What amazed us was that we were well over 7000 ft and the farm land was above us. After travel about 10 KM we reached the area that was damaged by the rain which caused a river to overflow its’ banks and wash out the road along with several homes. However by this time the mud had been cleared but the roads where  in bad condition and a make-shift bridge was in place for us to cross. The ditch was only about 2 ft deep so i figured , even if it collapsed I could still get thru so i challenged it with a problem.

This is what the farms look like in the mountain and we are above 7000 ft

This is the bridge I had to cross

 

This is near the end of the road to the Butterflies and it was washed out during a 4 day rain storm a month earlier. Incidentally we picked up an old man and 2 older ladies along the way and gave them a ride ( about 5  KM ) right to the end of the road. Mexicans always right in the  truck box so you can imagine what the ride was like

We finally reached the parking area and we where the only ones there which was not to encouraging. The parking attendant was fluent in Spanish, but no English; we on the other hand are fluent in English but no Spanish so he was of little help. Then luckily i seen a lady, who looked like a Gringo walking down the mountain road so i ask her for some assistance. Lucky for us she spoke English, Spanish and her mother tongue was French. Unfortunately she advised us that the butterflies would not be available this day because it was cloudy and they will not leave the trees unless it is sunny and warm and the next day did not appear to be promising. As we later learned she had traveled over many miles of rough terrain in an old Van only to learn that the butterflies would not flying this day. She also advised us that she was going to walk 11 KM to Ocampo to catch a bus, one of three, I might add  that would eventually get her to Mexico city. While she carried on down the road we pondered our next move because we had spend 2 days just to get to see the butterflies and we hated to leave this adventure without its’ conclusion. After several minutes, we accepted failure and decided to return another day and another year. On the way down the mountain and after we carefully crossed this newly constructed bridge,  we picked up the French lady from Montreal that we met early and headed down the 30 KM of mountain road. Since this trek would take the biggest part of an hour we drummed up a conversation with the lady whose age i would guess was north on 40. She was a world traveller and was not afraid to travel alone as we learned during the conversation. Since her “butterfly” trip was also a failure she was now on her way to MX City to meet up with a partner and then to fly home. She had to catch a bus in a city about 5 KM from our camp site so we said we would take her to the bus terminal, which of course neither of us knew where it was. Since she speaks Spanish ( also French and English) we stopped on the street to ask directions and luckily we where told to turn left and  continue and we would see it. After 10 block we begin to question her Spanish, so we ask direction again but with the same results; continue on, so we did. We then drove through some of the worst slum areas you could imagine and this was right in the city. Most of the homes where poorly constructed shack. Anyway we reached the bus depot and bid farewell to the French lady. But this drive just shows that Mexico still has the lowest of the lower class who have to exist day to day.

The next day we headed for San Miguel Allende and of course is another story.

Patzcuaro/ Morelia/ Santa Clara

We arrived in Patzcuaro  at Rancho La Mesa on Sat afternoon and met up with our friends , Jean and Brent from Nova Scotia. After setting up and having the proverbially Happy Hour toast we  decide to eat supper at the restaurant which is also located on the Ranch. It had good food and cold beer, what else do you want. We also planned our tours in the 3 above mentioned towns/cities which would take care of the week long stay.

The first day we hired an English speaking  tour guide for 4 hours to tour us around the area as we where interested in the History of the bldgs and the area. We advised him that we did not want to see any Ruins nor did we want the tour of some convent that our friends advised us to avoid as it was boring. By avoiding these two items , therefore  shorten the tour by 2 hours. However the tour guide was a retired teacher and a carpenter. He said he had to stop teaching and get a job that allowed him to feed his family. And being a tour guide pays better than a carpenter. Anyhow he gave us a great tour which included a good history lesson and a visit to several shops that are not available to a casual tourist. These shops included a man who carves masks used during the celebration of the “Day of the dead”.  This celebration is very important to these folks as the go to the  grave site and take items , mainly food, but other items, even cigarettes,  that they think or know  the dead person would like if they were alive. At the end of the day they take whatever is left over ( food ) home.

Other Artisans that we met where a lady who does needle work, a lady who does pottery without the use of a potter’s wheel, her son who has another shop with a Potter’s wheel and his two adult children who have a different style than Dad.It seems common for Artisan's children to follow in their parents footsteps. We also got the church tour but it was interesting because it dated back to the time that Spain colonized MX and the church was a means to get the natives to accept the Spanish religions ways. The people of this  particular town (area ) have the  features of the native Aztec people.

We then visited a church which we knew we would. In MX you must visit at least one church per tour. However, this visit was most interesting as the guide explained how the Spanish used the church to win our the natives. Then we were directed to the market where we could buy more MX Junk. I somehow think the tour guides get a cut for bring us to the market,  however I  made it quite clear I was not paying him to watch us shop so we quickly returned to the Van and returned to our camp site. In hind site this is the only way to see the important site of this city and i was glad we use the tour guide.

Patzcuaro is situated on a large lake and there are 5 island located in the lake. The largest  island is about a 15 min boat ride from Patzcuaro and is inhabited for reasons i will never understand. It is in fact a small mountain, with many restaurants and boutiques that sell MX Junk . You can walk up or down , there is no level ground. Of course we visited island , stayed for lunch and bought some junk, so i guess the Mexicans had plan after all.
After spending 4 hours on the island we returned to Patzcuaro and visited the town square. The square always has activities of some kind. We settled for watching the people and having a coffee and dessert.

In MX some small towns are often known for making one thing. Santa Clara is known as a  copper town. Most people are directly or indirectly associated with  the manufacturing of copper  products such as pots, pans, tables, bath tubs, picture frames and any thing you can think of. We first visited a store to admire the products and then Carroll ask if they made there own products in town. The sales clerk took us to the factory about 2 blocks away and we were blown away. All of the products are made by hand without the use of a bending machine etc.  They simply take a sheet of copper and hammer, shape and bend with only a hammer and piece of wood. There is one exception ; they do have a welding machine to weld the seams of large items such as a bath tub. I should add that they change the colour from shiny to dull by heat it with a tiger torch. We also ask about wages; if you can hammer all day you get 15.00 USD a day, if you have some knowledge of shaping and bending you get 20.00 per day but if you can weld you may get up to 30.00 per day. oh! did mention there was no union. ha ha. when we seen the fancy bath tub , sinks and mirror we ask who the customers where because we knew the workers could not afford them. The said all the fancy stuff was ordered from the USA and Dubai.

Carroll and I visited another town with a pop of 5000 and they only builds furniture products made of wood. We visited about 20 stores just to admire the products and  most stores had a shop in the rear where they make the products. We also seen at least another 20 workshop which cause us to say… who is buying this stuff. However we did notice a difference in quality so I’m sure the good quality is going to the high end stores, hotels and out of country. The lesser quality furniture is probably going to majority of the middle and lower class Mexicans.

Our last trip was to Morelia which was 50 KM down the road. Morelia is the capital of the state of Michoacán. It is a very old colonial city as a result I “think” the guide told us that 21 blocks of the downtown area has been designated by UNSECO as a Historical area and as such the building exterior and interior can not be altered ever from its’ original state. A little history now. MX obtained its’ Independence 200 years ago but the church still had too much influence on the Government and a gentleman named Morelia lead a group of mostly men but some women too Reform the country by making the church look after religion not government. This fight took 15 years but Morelia and his group finally Reformed the country and separated the church from the government. Thereby allowing Mexico to become a Democratic country. As a result of Morelia’s fight the city’s name was changed from Michoacán to Morelia and became the capital of the state.  The city tour last 2 hours and cost 40 P  per person ( about 4.00cdn ) and the guide was excellent and the tour was great. In fact one of the better tours we have had in MX.

Our next blog will our trip to San Felipe and the butterflies.

 

Villa Corona to Patzcuro

While in Villa Corona I stop to chat, as usual, with a couple from Nova Scotia who where on their 1 st trip to MX in their Motor Home. As we swapped story I told them we were heading for Patzcuaro and they said they too were thinking about going there. So we told them which way we were going, which was not the exact route they had planned, then they reconsidered and followed our route since we may have sounded like experienced travelers. We also changed their mine as to which camp site we would stop at in Patzcuaro. They left Villa Corona about 1/2 an hour ahead of us so we did expect to see them in route. However we made another small navigational error, thanks to a lack of signage, which cost us another 1/2 delay. However we made up the time by taking a toll road for part of the trip.

Most of the trip was uneventful , and we were again amazed at the different types of agriculture. As we got close to Lake Chapala ( there is a city called lake Chapala and a huge lake called Lake Chapala) , we drove around the south side of the lake as the city is on the north side, and there were acres and acres of Raspberries and Strawberries. As we traveled around  the lake we seen a few fields of Tequila, corn , some oats, several  feed lots and some dairy farms with Holstein cows. One particular farm near La Barca was milking cows by hand. They had 10 open air stalls so I honked the horn and they  beckoned us in to help them.

We traveled thru several small town on this trip, which is nothing new but a few did provide some challenges as usual. The navigator is usually the one under pressure as the driver is busy watching for topes, ( speed bumps ) stop lights , close encounter with narrow streets  and poor parking habits and those who take advantage of a Gringo driver because they know we don’t want to have an accident. After several hours of negotiating our way thru the small towns we headed to La Barca and the Toll road. The main street in La Barca is also the truck route, which it not surprising as the street is 4 lanes with a boulevard and two lanes on each side which i would can collector lanes. However we know just enough Spanish  to know that a  “sign” say all trucks must use the collector lane and by MX definition we are a truck. So now I have to navigate my way off the main street onto the collector lane , which we did as quickly and safely as possible and before the police notice my error. We now hit the toll road which allowed us to travel at 100 Km/h for a change but not with out paying the toll of 144P ( 12.00 Cdn ) . After our sabbatical on the toll road it was back to the small towns. One particular town was having a celebration on the main street and it looked like a great party but the street was so crowded we had to creep thru , mainly to avoid hitting people and several times we were stopped so we snapped a few pics of the different stalls selling goods. We had hoped to find a PEMEX ( gas station ) so we could park and take in the festivities but this town did not have one on this street so after about 20 min we cleared the town.

Pics of the town hosting some sort of celebration

                              

You will note the venders are on the street so when you add street parking it does not leave much room for us.

We had hope to arr in Patzcuaro before 5 PM so we could set up before dark. We knew that we had to make a right turn in a town/city called Ouiroga and we had hope to see a sign directing us to Patzcuaro. Now this town was again blessed with narrow streets but there was a Coke truck ahead so I knew if he could get thru I could also. But what we did know was the sign to Patzcurao was missing and we missed the intersection until we past it. Now we had to find a place to U-turn. After a few blocks i found a small parking lot that had the potential for a U-turn assuming there where no police in the area. Carroll was suspicion about my ability to do it but after surprising a few Mexican on-lookers I made it. Now we headed back to find the correct intersection which we did find and we are on our way and only an hour away from our destination. Once we got to Patzcuaro  we had to follow our MX travel bible to find the camp site. It reads ; follow Hwy 14, it is also hwy 120 thru the city , merge right when you see a sign to Santa Clara, follow the sign to Autopitsa ( means expensive toll road ) , cross  the Autopisa and drive .6KM and turn left and take the immediate left road. Road, my eye; it was is a 1/2 Km of a ploughed field coupled with several topes and a few craters. Now doesn’t that sound easy. However, we did reach  the camp site which is located on a ranch about 500 ft above the  city and also has an excellent restaurant.

 We arrived just before Happy Hour and where glad to get here. Our friends from Nova Scotia arr 35 min before us. We had a beer and agree to test the restaurant food.  Carroll and I had Cordoue Bleu and a drink and it cost a total of 200 P or about 18.00 cdn. this was certainly a cheap supper.

Incidentally ,we are located at about 6500 ft hence the temp at 6:30 AM, when I get up is as low as 3 C but by the time the Sun gets up at 8;30 or 9 AM  it is shorts and tee shirt weather.

The next blog will be about this beautiful area. cheers T and c

 

Etzatlan/Magdalena to Villa Corona

On Monday we drove to Magdalena, with the truck only, so Carroll could, as she phased it,  “ check out “ the Opal shops. I knew that meant buying Opals but she insisted it was just to admire them. First we check to see if there was a better route thru the town for our return trip. There was not. Then we hunted for a parking spot. We found one. Then we headed for the Opal shops, we found them.

While being bored looking at “polished rocks” I ventured around the city to find a better parking spot as I was in a 1 hour spot and I knew Carroll would be longer than an hour. I was standing in the town square when i seen a huge gravel Crushing rig coming thru town on the same street that i would have to travel on my trip out. He would have to make a sharp 90 degree left turn at the square followed by a sharp right and he would need both lanes. Well he accomplished the manoeuvre without even stopping so that made me breathe easier as he was much larger than our rig. With that problem solved, I then found a parking spot and went to get the truck. When i got back to my parking spot it seemed to shrink in size and i had to back a short distance down a one way street to get into it. A friendly Mexican notice my struggle so he directed me into the spot. The problem in small towns is that they put the power pole on the street side of the curb and I have to touch the curb with my tire or there is not enough room for vehicles to pass. Finally, I found Carroll in an Opal shop and she had ordered a couple of items but they had to make them and they would not be ready for 3 hours, which really meant tomorrow.

Since it was now lunch time we decided to grab a Loungie (sp) from the street vender, of which there are many and eat it in the Town Square and watch people. Loungies are the MX version of a cheap “Subway " sandwich with a choice of chopped  chicken, beef and sometimes pork. You add your own condiments, which includes a sauce, if you want it,  but you better ask which sauce is for Gringos because the MX sauce is Hotter than boiled water once it reaches your tongue. Of course we used our best Spanish to order and we order 2 Loungies, we thought, however  we apparently order “ two orders” which means we each got 2 Lounges. I can not eat two loungies but we took them anyways. We also ordered a bottle of water and the cost for our lunch was 30 P or approxi $2.75 cdn. I really don’t know how these people can make a living at that price .

After lunch we decided to drive 22 KM to Tequila just to “scout it out” and to make arrangements for a tour of a Tequila distillery for the next day. I must tell you the road to Tequila is probably the best 2 lane hwy I have ever driven on in MX. The road was as wide as ours in N.A. and it had passing lane which is a rarity in MX and you could drive safely at 100 Km per hour.

When we arr in Tequila we were surprised at the size but we did not do any research on the city before  so our vision of it was just another small city of 10 or 20 thousand. Once we seen that the main street was 6 lanes with a boulevard , this  quickly changed our impression. Anyhow , we continued with our drive-thru and happen to notice a small trolley outside a Distillery so we stop to inquire about a tour. As it happened, an English speaking tour , which consisted of 6 young Auzzies , had just started so we joined the tour. Our young tour guide spoke fairly good English and was very knowledgeable on the processing of Tequila. I will not bore you will the entire process but I give you a few of the highlights.

The Tequila plant will only grow in certain areas of MX and require lots of Sun but does not require much water hence no need for irrigation as a little rain will do. The plant takes 7 to 10 years to mature and the fruit, which is called a Pineapple weighs between 120 to 200 pounds and is the size of a 5 gallon pail. The leaf is left in the field for fertilizer and the pineapple is loaded by front end loader onto a truck. Once in the distillery the pineapple is split in half and loaded by a  loader into a large horizontal boiler type cylinder and then steam is induced to produce the juice. The pulp, when dried, is used for making paper, insulation, animal feed and many other items. The juice is further processed and distilled into differed qualities of Tequila much our whiskeys. 

Loading the boiler with the Tequila pineapple

This tequila Pineapple weighs 150 lbs or more

This the plup after the boiling process

This a mature Tequila field

 

This the tasting room in a small ( less than a 1000 L per week ) Tequila distillery. This room was probably 10 times the size of the distillery hence they sell all the Tequila they can brew.

Our tour guide gave us a 1 hour trolley trip around the city to show us some of the other distilleries and advising us that the population of Tequila was 60,000 and that 85 % of the working population had a job related directly and indirectly  to the Tequila industry. Incidental, there are 35 distilleries  in Tequila, however most are small which by definition , small means they produce 1000 L per week and as a result they  do not pay any  “ booze” taxes. Large distilleries do pay the taxes. Another thing I found interesting is that you can buy real good Tequila  by the gallon in a plastic container for about 15.00 Cdn but a 1 L glass container would cost over 20.00 Cdn. All glass bottles are Hand Blown and as a result drives the cost of Tequila higher.

We left our camp site after 3 days and headed down that dreaded road to Magdalena on our way  to Villa Corona. As mentioned the road had a zillion pothole, some large enough to be called a crater. The 20 KM trip took 35 minutes mainly because I did not want to break a spring nor an axle. After passing thru Magdalena on the way to Etzatlan I was a little apprehensive about my return trip, as these small MX town are not all constructed with a Gringo and his 32 ft 5th wheel. However, as has happen many times, we made it thru another small town without incident. We decided to take the Libre “ free road” from Magdalena to Guadalajara because I hate paying the tolls even if it is faster. The trip was uneventful until we got close to Guadalajara. We again made the decision to avoid Guadalajara by taking hwy 70 and going to Ameca on our way to Villa Corona. Apparently there are no “hwy 70 signs” in MX, oh yes there is a hwy 70 , just no signs. Also we expected to see a sign for Ameca since it was on hwy 70. Apparently there are no signs for Ameca in MX either, so as usually happens, we ended up in Guadalajara along with the other 4 million people to share the road with. However all went well and we made it to Villa Corona and enjoyed the hot pools for 2 more days. Our next blog is our trip to Patzcuaro. Carroll say it was stressful trip and she wasn’t even driving.  Stay tuned.