Patzcuaro Adventure

On the sunny square with Susie

 We had such a nice, if short, visit to Patzcuaro--a small city in the Mexican state of Michoacan, with our friends, Mart & Bob Larson and Susie Morgan.

Our drive there took a little over three hours--which was just about right, since the five of us were crammed into a little Nissan Versa.

A couple resting near our rental house

Unfortunately, our drive back to SMA took about seven hours, as we got delayed for more than three hours outside of the city of Morelia.  A gasoline truck overturned (just about five minutes ahead of us), and the police had to close the road to clean up all the spilled fuel.

But we are so happy that we made the trip.  Patzcuaro is very different from San Miguel de Allende.

Although a town that attracts a number of tourists, you notice them a lot less.  It is quite peaceful with many colonial style buildings and some beautiful vistas.

Sue posing with a Gertrude namesake

We rented, through AIRBnB, a wonderful three bedroom house just a couple of blocks from the picturesque and charming main plaza. It was very comfortable and full of local arts and crafts.


Some of the highlights included:

1. The Gertrudis Bocanegra square that honors a female hero of the Mexican struggle for Independence;

Entire history of Mexico on one wall

 2. A 1942 Martin O'Gorman  mural in the local public library, depicting the history of Mexico.

Mexico, unfortunately, has experienced so much corruption and violence and its people so much repression, even today.  The mural was a great history lesson as well as an exceptional piece of public art.

Card Catalogue

It was interesting and nostalgic to see and use the card catalog--something that most American public libraries have abandoned.

The card catalog, though, was the mainstay of most libraries throughout the 20th century and still can be very useful. (You can take the librarian out of the library, but you can't take the library out of the librarian.)

Larry, Mart and Bob in the Casa de Onze Patios courtyard

3. A beautiful and historic old convent, called the House of Eleven Patios (Casa de Onze Patios) that featured a wide variety of small stores that sold local arts and crafts.

Unlike many tourist sites, the shops all seemed to be quite different, often specializing in one type of craft like textiles, lacquer goods, musical instruments, toys, or jewelry.

We spent a couple of hours walking around and shopping.  It was so peaceful, entertaining and interesting.

4. A very interesting museum (Museo de Regional de Arte Popular) where a guide lead us through rooms displaying local crafts from prehistoric times to the present.

In the center were ruins of an ancient prison, where some wall portions were still intact and showed dots prisoners had dug into it to mark the days.

Lovely fountain and courtyard in a smaller building

Same building as above, but showing balconies

Larry and Bob posing at nice fountain in Casa de Onze Patios

Display of figurines in Museo Regional de Arte Popular

View from middle balcony of our rental house

Larry in our rental house bedroom, ready to leave

Bob, Susie and Sue seated; Mart and Larry standing

Even though our AIRBnB house had a great and fully equipped kitchen, none of us really wanted to cook.  Fortunately, we found a great local restaurant called Lupita's.  We ate a couple of meals there and had a great time relaxing and being with our friends.

There are so many places to see and visit in Mexico--and we have done so few--but we know that we have them to look forward to.