El Fuerte, Sinaloa and the Copper Canyon
Pretty Sunset Trailer Park, Lo de Marcos, Sinaloa
Chimulco Water Park, Villa Corona, Jalisco
When we arrive there are two caravans of bigrigs in the park. The park was built for trailers / campers up to 30ft or so which means the big busses and bigger 5th wheels are hanging onto the lanes. A good half a day of entertainment is watching a "camper" with a F450 crew cab dual wheel pickup hook up to a four slide 5th wheel and get it into a position that was pointed out of the park. Then he was able to go to bed. Bigrigs notwithstanding, RVers are a critical source of information. We notice a woman with a fantastic haircut, and note down the place in Puerto Vallarta where she had it done. Jean is feeling a bit shaggy at this point.
The park is a laugh a minute. Very quiet through the week, but on weekends or a holiday it is full of families from Guadalajara. There are kids of all sizes with their parents. The water is drawn from hot streams and not chlorinated, but they change the water every day. There are quite a few different areas. The "splash pail" is popular. The kids stand under a giant pail which fills with water and is then dumped on them. Result - screaming kids.
The park looks after the RVers well. A special pool is filled each night with hot spring water and the RVers gather for gossip. There is also a hot morning pool around 7, but we don't get up that early. As we are in the mountains, morning temperatures can be 6 degrees and we are too comfortable in the Argo to go our at that time anyway.
Sunday is market day in Tonola, an eastern suburb of Guadalajara. Despite a couple of warnings, we set out. We have never experienced the inside of an anthill before, but Tonola on Sunday is an anthill. There are more vendors than we have ever seen anywhere, but with a few exceptions the quality of the stuff is cheap and junky. We could have seen that at Wallymart without all the the difficulty. Nevertheless, we expect to be surprised and surprised we were.
We took a couple of out trips to nearby craft villages. There are places that specialise in pigskin furniture, belts, knives and a village, Tapalpa, high in the mountains. Zacoalco de Torres has quite a few furniture stores. We passed on the pigskin furniture, which in finest Mexican style is clunky and uncomfortable, but bought a nice summery shirt and had his new shoes shined. In Atoyac, the belt town the mercado was closing. We had a poor example of birria a beef barley kind of soup from the bottom of that day's pot, but made up for it with one of the best milkshakes ever and the church is beautiful. We found one belt shop, but were not impressed enough to buy anything. Skipped the knife town and drove 20km on a narrow, winding mountain road to Tapalpa. It seems to be a mountain resort with vacation homes going up in the area. Sort of a cottage country for Guadalajara. We had a close up view of a wedding. As they came out of the church, the bride and groom got in to a small car, obviously the limo and waited for a picture. Then they got out of the car and walked away. The "limo" drove off empty.
Near Villa Corona is the mirachi town of Cocula. Sunday is mirachi day so we are off around mid day. What we don't know is that the shows start around 4 and lacking in North American style of advertising the restaurant where the show is held is hard to find. We ask a few locals, most of whom give conflicting answers and taking an average finally find the right place. Two hours befors show time. The cover is 70 pesos, less than 8 loonies which we find high for Mexico. We wait for the performance. Have you ever been to a band performance which started on time? Nor have we. The band finally starts without the lead singer. The room is full of families eating and drinking. We wonder how they get such a crowd considering the cover. The sounds are great, but the singing is not tops. When the singer arrives the show really begins! The crowd knows tha traditional songs and they all join in. What a sight! When the performance is over and we settle up, we find the cover is 70 pesos PER TABLE. Everything in Mexico is a bargain by our standards.
Villa Corona seemed quite sleepy when we arrived. Trouble is every town runs on a different schedule. Once we find out the schedule and where everything is, we are golden. We eat great comidas for 80 pesos and dine in a fine seafood restaurant for $15 loonies.
There is a great street market on Thursdays where Steve buys a nice shirt and we also find kitchen supplies. They have vendors in the Zocolo and two internet cafes. What more is there?
We get a new rear wheel bearing for Eddie. Just as we feel at home, we must head out for Puerto Vallarta or we may never get to the ocean.
and Barianca del Cupatitzio National Park
In February 1943 a farmer in his field near the village of Paricutin felt the ground shake and witnessed the eruption of a new volcano. For 9 years the volcano erupted and the cone reached 450m high. The lava spread out and engulfed the village. The only evidence of the village today is the church steeple sticking out of the lava.
The drive to get close is through a village with the worst cobble streets encountered to date. There are also dozens of guides with horses ready to take us for a trip to the buried church. We have had about enough adventure after the butterflies and decide to view from the hillside opposite. Actually we have a good view of the church and the cone itself.
It is Sunday and we also want to see the National Park in Uruapan. Of course it is family day and the locals are out in force. The park itself is a marvel of hydro engineering. Around a river valley is built the most elegant series of fountains and paths we have seen so far. The natural beauty of the tropical forest is not compromised by the fountains or paths.
The signs say "no swimming" but in true Mexican fashion, there are un-sanctioned high divers to entertain in the couple of places where the pools are deep enough.
We have already delayed our butterfly trip because the weather has been overcast and cool for the past week. The butterflies hibernate during cool weather and come out on sunny days and later in February they come out to mate.
The altitude is well over 3000m which means the climbing is literally breathtaking for us. The route starts out with a steep stairway, then paved path then dirt path. There are no butterflies to be seen in the forest as we climb. We finally reach a hillside which has been marked off with ropes. On the opposite side of the ropes, the trees are heavy with hibernating butterflies. Even though it is noon, the time we expected the sun to come out it is still overcast.
We wait for about two hours and only see a couple patches of sun in the forest. In those patches, a few Monarchs leave their branches and fly around. We leave without seeing the storm of butterflies that occur on sunny days.
The drive back on the main road is harrowing. This part of Mexico seems to have drivers with no fear for their lives. Back in Patzcuaro Steve needs aspirins and Tiger Balm to free up his neck and shoulders.
We do some research on the El Rosario butterfly sanctuary which is about 200km east of where we are camped. We decide that the terrain is too mountainous to be much fun pulling the Argo, so we plan to drive over on the scenic route one day, stay in a hotel and the next day we will see the butterflies and drive back on the main highway.
The scenic route was built around 1930 and is high, winding and broken down at this point. The good news is there is not much traffic, especially few trucks. But there are always the memorials to those who died on the highway as you can see in the picture of Steve near the edge of a sheer drop. They are a constant reminder and rightly so.
The worst of the highway is the animals on the road, the broken surface on the worst corners and yes, logs on the road at one point. When we arrive at Anguangeo, nearest village to the sanctuary, we check into a very nice hotel and rest up for the morning trek.
One of the suggested side trips from Patzcuaro is a visit to Santa Clara del Cobre, del Cobre meaning "of copper". It was once a copper mining town, but the mines have played out. Even so, the artisans remain and the amount of copper stuff on display is staggering. We want to see artisans working, but turns out the siesta lasts until 5pm here.
We kill some time and then walk down a side street in search of a "fabrica". A local shows us to a spot way in the back of an ordinary looking home. We find an artisan pounding a huge sheet of copper, take his picture and are introduced to the proprietor. He explains that they make pieces for an outlet in Texas.
Then he shows us drawings of things they can make. We are intrigued by the mailboxes, because we have not seen any on display in the shops. We ask if he could make one with the Jean's Guest House logo. Silly question. In Mexico they can and will do anything. We order the mailbox and return for the finished product a few days later.
Our Guidebook to Mexican Camping claims there is a Bally shoe factory in Uruapan. I am sick of having only China made apparel so would like to buy a pair of shoes "hecho en Mexico". Uruapan lies at 1500m altitude which makes it slightly tropical. Patzcuaro is above the lake which is 2200m and that is the reason we have been having nights near freezing. We wind through the hills on the free road and are amazed at the extent of the avacado groves on the mountainsides. But for this reason Uruapan is "avacado capital of the world". The zocolo is much more modern than those in the more indigenous towns. We make a couple of enquiries about shoes. What shoe factory? Apparently the guidebook is wrong on this one.
We enjoy hamburgueas on the square. We are surprised that the fruit stands are not laden with avacados. Folks must have their own trees at home. After we enjoy some people watching on the square we head back to Patzcuaro on the toll road. A 50km drive costs $50 pesos, about the same as the full length of the Indiana turnpike. But of course the highest mountain in Indiana is actually a highway overpass.
Back in Patzcuaro we have tacos at our favourite stand and Steve locates a pair of Flexi brand shoes "hecho en Mexico" His worn out Chinese shoes are dumped in the garbage at the store.
Sunday is family day in Mexico. With this in mind we decide to make the boat trip to Isla Janitzio, in the middle of Lake Patzcuaro on a Sunday. We expect the tourist boats to be full and most of the shops and restaurants to be open.
We have guessed correctly. Yesterday, Saturday, the very few tourists who wanted to take the boat trip were waiting aboard one of the boats for a load. There was no ticket queue. But when we arrived at the dock on Sunday around 2:00 there was a long queue for tickets and the boats were pulling away regularly. Each boat has a capacity of 60 passengers, but being about ten feet wide, the seats are along the sides and the length must be at least forty feet. The boats are long and narrow, and like many things in Mexico were probably engineered at home.
The local souvenir for the kids is a fishing net, which is similar to a small landing net you might find at Canadian Tire. They are fashioned of wooden dowel with a coarse netting. The dock and the boat are just as dangerous as the ballpark on bat day. The kids are running around trying to net everything, other passengers, weeds in the water and so forth. We just think "family day, family day". The kids have a great time and apparently no one loses an eye.
On our way to the island we have a demonstration of the traditional fishing technique. The fishermen hold their nets deep in the water and surround the fish. Then they raise their nets in unison with their catch. In this case, they paddle over to our boat for a tip. There are fish for sale everywhere. They are all quite small 5cm, a couple of inches long. We would consider them minnows. They can be bought raw, deep fried, smoked, dried. But the disconcerting thing is they are prepared whole, with their little eyes still looking at you.
The island itself is a third world version of Mont St Michel in France. After you land you walk upwards past all of the usual restaurants and vendors. The focal point is a masonry statue of Morelos, one of the four major heroes of Mexican Independence from Spain. For $6pesos you can climb up inside the statue and even go out on to the reservation platform in his torch. A "statue of liberty" wide open to everyone.
We travel by bus to Morelia, about 50km away, because it is usually a nuisance to drive and park in a large, colonial city.
It is the state capital and therefore has a selection of museums and government buildings. They are particularly well maintained and it is fascinating to look inside at the murals and arches. We entered a fabric store and were reminded of Galleries Layfayette in Paris. Not as large and no name brands, but quite elegant for a fabric store.
The tourist office suggested a restaurant with local flavour which we try and Jean has the Tarascan soup - lots of beans and yummy.
There are pretty squares all over town. The main street also has upscale shops and discos. By evening we are tuckered out with the walking. It would be easy to spend more time exploring this city.
We drove from San Miguel to Patzcuaro on January 18 and checked in to the Villas Patzcuaro RV Park for one week. Turns out they have wireless internet which helped with the decision to stay a second week.
The town has an indigenous flavour, and very few gringos. There is an extensive market and quite a few good places to eat. We didn't do any fine dining, but found it easier to stop at a taco stand than to cook and wash dishes. This was shopping central for us. We bought a small, brass statue of Don Quixote, a pair of leatherwork foot stools, and a pair of shoes for Steve. Extravagent!
There was an adobe factory behind the campsite. Every morning the horse would tramp straw into the mud and for the rest of the day the workers would put the mud into molds and set the bricks out in the sun to dry.
