Since the last blog we have been to the interior of Mexico and come back. Not exactly as we had planned to do it but enjoyable all the same.
We left here on the 10th of Feb. and headed south along the coast. We had to make a stop in Manzanillo to provision and get a few other things done. We happened to be at our last stop before continuing south, when Ian started up the van and it make a big racket. It ran but sounded awful. He looked at belts and obvious stuff but couldn't spot the problem. He went out on the lookout for a mechanic. Lucky for us there was a shop across the road. The mechanic came over and poked around in the engine and started it up. He diagnosed a loose sparkplug which is sort of what it turned out to be. If only it were that simple! What actually happened is the sparkplug must not have been properly installed and overtime it worked itself loose and ruined the threads along the way. Because of where the engine is and because it was the furthest away plug a simple job of rethreading was complicated because they couldn't line up straight to do the job. It needed a heliocoil and in order to do it right the engine had to come out! Another mechanic came and looked at it because our mechanic wasn't set up to do that job (he is really just a tire shop), anyhow all of this took 2 days to get a quote done. In the meantime, we stayed in the van inside the mechanic's shop. At 8pm when he closed he would lock us in for the night (we had an emergency escape) and at 8am we were unlocked.
They told us the job would take about a week. Now what? We could either rent a hotel in Manzanillo for the week - not something we really wanted to do, or instead rent a car and do at least a part of the interior trip that we had planned. So that's what we did and had an awesome time too.
We drove south to Playa Azul and then headed inland from there. Our first stop was in Patzcuaro. A beautiful little historical town full of beautiful 400 year old architecture. Lots of churches and historical hotels. You could hardly walk 20 feet and there was a cafe with pastries to temp you, or a cart selling tamales. There were several town squares which every Mexican town has, but here there was a main plaza and a block out almost either way another smaller square. One of those squares had more street food that I think I've ever seen. We ate at one place and I was quite disappointed in the quality. But on another evening we found one that made up for it. We did lots of wandering around looking at shops and churches and going into the hotels just to see what they were like. Our hotel was pretty awesome especially for the price. Less than 50 bucks a night and we were right on the main Plaza.
From there we went to Morelia just for the afternoon and one night. Beautiful colonial town which almost looked European. Saw one of the more beautiful churches I've ever seen - Cathedral de Morelia. Our hotel there was very modern inside an old exterior.
Next day we set out to Anganguero which is the town close to the Butterfly Sanctuary Sirrea Chincua. We found ourselves a hotel and then discovered our friends Anne, Dick, Fran and Jean-Guy were in town only a few blocks away. We were scheduled to meet up in a few days in Patzcuaro but got lucky and spent some extra time together. The first day we went to the sanctuary, it turned out to be a cloudy day and the butterfles just stayed in their clumps opening their wings if the sun came out. The need a few hours of sunshine to warm up so that they can fly. It's mating time and they want to fly but have to have that sunshine. After about 4 hours we decided to call it a day as the clouds showed no sign of going anywhere. We had hired a guide for the day so he took us to another village where we had a tour of one of the old gold and silver mines.
Next day Ian and I were heading out back to Morelia and Patzcuaro but we woke up to a blue sky and lots of sunshine! We couldn't resist so we returned to the sanctuary and were rewarded with lots of open clusters of the Monarchs and lots flying around. We had arranged to meet up with an old friend in Morelia for coffee so we didn't linger more than a couple of hours. Glad we got to see them in the sunshine.
We met up with an old friend/coworker of mine from 25 years ago! Coincidentally him and his wife were also in the area and I found on on Facebook that they were there. It was fun to see him again and to meet his wife. 25 years really dosen't feel so long ago! From there we returned to Patzcuaro for a few more nights. We went to Santa Clara de Cobre a town near by which seems to just work with copper. Every store in town sells copper ware and if you walk down the side streets you hear banging everywhere which is how they work the copper by pounding on it. Tough job - it takes 2 full days to make a bathroom sink which sells for just over 50 dollars! Beautiful stuff.
On day 9 we turned the car around and headed back along the same track we came, back to Manzanillo and our van which was now ready and waiting for us. We decided to come back to Punta Perula because with the expense of fixing the van and staying in hotels and renting a car, our inland budget was spent. In a few more days we will leave here and head north. A few stops here and there including at the boat, and then we hit the US and make a run for home. It's not going to be a sightseeing trip on the way home. Hope to be back in BC for mid March.
I posted a new gallery of photos called Patzcuaro so have a look