We sampled a few of the delights of Zihuatanejo with Greg, before seeing him off on the bus to Acapulco late at night on the 10th. Tane played a couple of sets at the open mike at Rick's bar on Friday (11th).

The plan was to leave by bus for Patzcuaro on Saturday morning. On the night Tane played, we picked up a couple of additional tourists --- Barry and Anne from the yacht Cat's Paw IV. The bus ride Saturday to Uruapan was on one of Mexico's first class buses, with two movies, tons of foot room, and interesting scenery. The bus from Uruapan to Patzcuaro was not nearly as fancy, but very interesting. This area is over 7,000 feet, and you drive through lush pine forests and massive avocado groves.

Patzcuaro is a beautiful old colonial city, founded in the 1500's. The downtown area is very reminiscent of areas of Europe, with tiled roofs, and all buildings having 16 foot ceilings. We stayed for two nights at the Hotel Los Escudos, in a room overlooking the main plaza. On our first night, we went to Mistongo's restaurant, where the live music was supplied by a lady named Julia and her Mexican husband. They invited us to a party later that night, and everyone but me made it. Apparently it was quite fun. Located in an area of town known as Gringolandia, it took some finding as the taxi drivers didn't seem to know it. There, they met up with the party host, Jeremy, who is 35 years old and doing a masters degree in ethnobotany, the study and documentation of the plants used by the local indians, the Purepecha.

The following day we hired a taxi, and with Jeremy, attended the 20th anniversary of a music festival in one of the pueblos on the edge of lake Patzcuaro, then made our way to the shores of Lake Zirahuen, where we first visited the main town on the water's edge, then went in a vain, two-taxi, search for the mysterious Casa Grande. After a two-hour circumanavigation of the lake in the fruitless search, on an horrendous road, we finally emerged on the cobbled road to Santa Clara del Cobre. This is one of the small towns that the Jesuits designated for a specific craft, in this case (as is obvious from the name), copper work. My taxi driver needed to find a piece of fuel hose as there was a significant leak. It was well after dark before we got back to the hotel in Patzcuaro.

Barry and Anne left the next morning, and Sal and Tane settled in to some serious shopping. The city itself is really amazing---really beautiful, with all of its really old buildings, and in some areas, steep cobblestoned streets. The shopping, too, is wonderful and we came back with a number of interesting items.

On the last night, we moved to La Casa Encantada, a truly enchanted bed and breakfast, complete with lush courtyard and all in wood and plaster.

We returned by bus today, first going to Morelia (in the opposite direction) to pick up the non-stop bus to to Zihuatanejo.

The plan is to provision, clean the bottom and check out tomorrow, then head south on Thursday. We think we'll skip Acapulco and go straight to Puerto Escondido.