I gave myself three nights to experience the state of Michoacan.  I didn’t really know anything about it except that capital is called Morelia and that there are some day trips from Morelia.  How did I even learn that much, you ask?  My roommate in Merida was a non-English speaking 21 year old from Morelia.  I asked him, in Spanish, where he was from and I did not understand his response.  He taught me that Michoacan is a state close to Mexico City.  Since then, this place has been on my radar, and apparently, no one elses (in the backpacking world).

Morelia will go down as the biggest surprise of my Mexican travel experience.  The sandstone architecture is consistent, clean, and absolutely beautiful.  I think Morelia has the most beautiful cathedral in the center of the city.  It is lit up absolutely beautifully at night.  The cathedrals of Mexico, in general, are quite beautiful because of their colonial architecture but I think Morelia’s offers some beautiful viewpoints from different parts of the city.  The main plaza still had its Christmas-thing going on, which was beautiful; seeing all of the families and happy children.  There was a light show as part of the Christmas-stuff in addition to traditional nativity scenes.  Morelia at night was lit up with beautiful Christmas lights.  There are some beautiful courtyards that used to be monasteries that offer really romantic photo opportunities.

I went to my first Sanborne’s because I didn’t know where to have dinner one night.  Sanborne's is the Applebees of Mexico.  That was a very “okay” experience.  I had a gringa with bacon and cheese and it tasted like bacon and cheese on a tortilla.  "Worse things can happen."  My first night I went to a really fancy restaurant and, of course, I had the seafood pasta.  I was sitting on a balcony with a view overlooking the plaza and the cathedral at night.  I had a beautiful conversation with the waiter about my travel experience and what I was doing there.  I think they don’t meet people who speak English in Michoacan... like ever.  He was kinda shocked that was I there and he asked me what I thought about Mexican culture.  Of course I told him that I thought it was special and beautiful and how it is very religious.  He said sometimes they force you to do the religion and it’s not so great.  I said, yea but what you get out of the strong religious values is a strong sense of family.  (And everyone I’ve said that family-thing to, I get a very factual nod back.  Family is everything here.)

When I arrived at the hotel in Morelia, I booked two day trips.  One to Uruapan and the other to Patzcuaro.  Let’s start with the first full day on the Uruapan trip.

Uruapan

I get into the car and the driver speaks in this weird Spanish accent.  I ask him if he speaks English and he responds with this Minnesota accent, “Oh ya.”  The other two people were from Alberta, Canada who were also giving me this “oh ya” thing.  So I spent all day in a car with English-speaking people who agreed with each other frequently with lots of "oh sure" and "oh ya".  Unfortunately, it was the first time in a while where I had to speak English all day and hear English all day.   But that wouldn’t last for long (see Patzcuaro below).

Our first stop was a small archaeological site called Tingambato.  Tombs have been recently discovered there.  There is also an unusual sunken ball court for pelota games.   Half of the site is still owned by a farmer who doesn’t want to give his land to the government so there is an entire pyramid covered on his property and the farmer is growing avocados on top of it.  One of the fun facts of Michoacan is that it supplies the country’s avocados, so every tree you see there is an avocado tree.  Our trip to Uruapan included this beautiful national park, called Parque Barranca, named after a local writer.  The site was originally owned by a wealthy local family.  It’s beautifully landscaped and manicured.  It’s a collection of waterfalls and streams that supply fresh, drinkable water to Morelia.  There is a fish farm on site where you can pick a live fish and then bring it to a local cook in the park and they will prepare a meal for you.  You can spend all day there admiring the beauty and eating.  It’s right in the middle of Uruapan!  We ended the afternoon with a small hike to see a beautiful waterfall from the distance.  Those are the last photos in the gallery above. 

The couple from Alberta wanted to be left in Uruapan, so it was just me and the Wisconsin driver, alone.  We were just shootin’ the shit.  He took me out to a local Uruapan coffee shop.  He told me about his energy healing business and how he does touch healing and massage therapy.  He explained his Christianity to me and how much he loves Jewish people.  He told me the story of his Jewish friend David who became a Christian missionary with him and how David looked like Jesus Christ.  This is all before I came out of the Jewish closet to him.  He brought this whole thing up because he wanted to talk about his love for Jesus Christ.  (I would end up meeting another traveler lady in Guadalajara, from Texas, who also wanted to tell me all about her love for Jesus Christ).  Once I told him I was Jewish and that I can speak Hebrew, he completely fell in love with me.  I tried to tell him not to worship Jewish people just because we are Jewish.  It didn’t work.  He has a vision from the Bible and he is dead set on it.  We returned back to the city, it was really quite a long drive.

Patzcuaro & Isla Janitzio

For my next day trip, the same dude from Wisconsin would pick me up from my hotel to transfer me to another tour provider.  He was really fascinated by me, it seemed.  We had quite a long drive home from the waterfalls the night before.  He asked me more questions about my religious and cultural background.  He further explained to me how great of a person he thought I was.  This was flattering and uncomfortable.  Did he like me because I was actually interesting or because he seems to think all Jews are great?  Oy.

Once he dropped me off, I got into the car of the other tour provider.  I was very happy to see that I was once again the only English speaker on the tour.  This day, we would see Patzcuaro.  This includes a small town called Quiroga, known for it’s local pork speciality dishes.  I got the breakfast pork soup: menudo.  I also ate a delicious sauce-covered pork taco.  I finished my lunch with a pineapple and kiwi ice pop.  Our chunk of the day was the Island of Janitizio in Lake Patzcuaro.  At the top of the island is a statue of Morelos, one of the famous independence fighters of Mexico, built in the 1930s.  Morelos is typically portrayed wearing a bandana.  We took these super slow old-school boats to get to the island.  Once you arrive, you hike up a bunch of stairs and make your way through many stalls.  The view from the top is peaceful.  I’m glad I went on a weekday though.

The final stop was town of Patzcuaro, filled with plazas and afternoon energy.  Their famous ice, “nieve”, is pasta-flavored.  It was quite good and tasted almost like the corn-flavored gelato you can get on Bleecker Street.  I saw lots of people eating seafood in cocktail glasses at the food stalls around the plaza.  Continuing with the theme of my Mexican experience, I decided that it would behoove me to eat some of that.  As I was about to order some shrimp cocktail, some boys were selling fresh lime juice.  I figured why not just have it all?  You can see in the pictures above just how great it all looked.  I’ll share with you that it tasted just as great!

Michoacan was a special experience for me because it exceeded all of my expectations  The only sad part of the story is the urban sprawl and air pollution issue.  Apparently I was visiting during the time of the year when farmers burn their fields to prepare for the next season's crops.  This left a fowl odor in the air.  In addition, Morelia is expanding rapidly and is a victim of urban sprawl.  The highway traffic between Uruapan and Morelia was for real and also contributed to the significant amount of smog in the air.  The good news is that solving smog problems is feasible.  Lots of other cities have done it.  I leave you with this beautiful photo of the Morelia cathedral at night: