Hola Everybody:
Once again hope you're all well. I'm combining these two trips together because I'm on a rented computer and it's always trickier to spend a lot of time composing messages and checking for messages.
Our trip to Patzcuaro worked out really well. We left on a Wednesday and came back to Chapala on a Friday. The weather was glorious as usual. We decided not to take the quota highway but try our luck instead on the "libre" road. Suffice it to say that it took us 7 and a half hours to cover a distance slightly under 300 kms. So yes it was a bit of a mistake and I lost count of how many topes we had to go through. Our car is holding up really well though so that's a definite plus. Patzcuaro is another one of those "pueblos magicos" and it's also in the state of Michoacan. Michoacan is a lot greener and prettier than the state of Jalisco. It's very pastoral with a lot of agriculture and the mountains look beautifully green not brown and arid like in Jalisco. The outskirts of Patzcuaro are nothing to write home about but the colonial centre is beautiful. It consists of one large plaza surrounded by trees and porticos with a huge fountain in the middle. The arches of the porticos lend a European flair and are very pleasing to the eyes. There are a lot of cafes where one can sit and people watch. We stayed in a really old (17th. century) building which retained all of it's ancient architectural flavour. Our room was huge, there was even a loft as well as a small balcony looking out onto the plaza. There is another smaller plaza not quite adjacent to the bigger plaza and that plaza is more animated because there is a huge permanent "mercado" labyrinthine in size. We didn't even get through all of it. We visited two very old churches as well as an old convent which now houses artisans and is called "the place of 11 courtyards". It did indeed have 11 courtyards. Artisans in Patzcuaro work in leather, wood, straw and enamel. We didn't buy anything except 4 little jumping straw frogs. Stan is always loathe to buy anything because we're running out of space where to put all the stuff in our basically tiny house. I don't disagree with him because if I did I would probably buy it anyways. We're not being very consumer oriented on this trip, not that we were ever frenetic but this time around there are only so many "cosas" one can buy.
Patzcuaro can get quite cold at night and in the early morning, a lot of people wore parkas. On Thursday we took a bus, a harrowing ride through very winding, narrow streets and headed to the lake. The lake itself is more polluted than the one in Chapala and much smaller. It too is filled with water hyacinths. We took a boat ride to the very famous island where day of the dead celebrations take place. Patzcuaro is famous for its day of the dead activities. The island is tiny and unbelievably crowded with the ugliest statue of this heroic general at the very top. The statue is huge and I mean huge. You can climb all the way to the top of his hand which is held up and there are murals all around and on the ceiling. Nothing exceptional in terms of the art work, style "naif" not much perspective but vivid nevertheless. It's hard to imagine so many people living in such a tight space. A great many of them have shops or restaurants where they are all selling the same basically mass produced things.
Coming back to Chapala we took the quota which was heavenly although we did have to cross Morelia and that was a bit stressful. Morelia is also a very famous colonial city but we weren't up to braving the traffic in a city of over half a million. We did see the huge cathedral from a safe distance so we will have to be content with that. The worse thing we saw driving was a huge semi-trailer truck passing another semi on a blind curve. It's strange how Mexicans can be so patient for some things but are incapable of showing any restraint on the road. They tail, they honck, they pass when there is absolutely no visibility, it's pretty freaky. Coming to Melaque on the "libre" all hairpin turns and blind spots a passenger bus passed us and two other cars in front of us on a blind curve. Honestly it's almost like they have a death wish. Of course there are some cautious drivers but they are few and far between.

O.K. so we're in Melaque now. Melaque is a relatively small, sleepy, funky beach town. We have a really cute two bedroom apt. All the apts. except for one, are rented to Canadians. Yes it's Canuck ville there but the people are all really nice and friendly, not stuffy in the least. Melaque is a little on the grubby side, roads aren't paved, there is garbage around, most hotels haven't been renovated in years, there are lots of shack dwellings, all in all it's a bit of a mess so you have to be a little "special" to really like it here. The town of Barra de Navidad which is at the other end of the bay is slightly more posh with cobblestone streets and more upscale restaurants, boutiques and hotels.
Life in Melaque consists of three things which all start with the letter S and not one of those words is SHIT! Haha...
Yes I'm talking sun, sea and sand, not too onerous a proposition when you consider the other S alternative: snow, slush, sleet. We're having a really good time here. The water is warm at about 70 degrees. There are lots of places to eat on the beach and you can just relax under one of the palapas with a beer in your hand. It's like one of those Corona commercials. In the mornings the beach is almost empy and it doesn't get very crowded in the afternoon either so it's perfect. We had a really cool experience the other day. It was around 11:00 and this flock of pelicans came swooping down following a whole bunch of small fish. These small fish were pursued by bigger fish. Stan was in the water trying to catch one with his bare hands, of course that didn't work. There were so many fish jumping that I was being hit on the legs by them, big and small. Wow, it was something to behold. Stan was in seventh heaven. He has tried his hand at fishing here but is finding it hard to throw the line out into the water. Apparently it takes some practice. Yesterday we went with some of the people in our building to a transvetite show in a seedy outdoor club where beer was plentiful. You bought the beer by the bucket, a dozen in a bucket and they served you little appetizers. The show was no Las Vegas but it was fun if incredibly loud. I´will post some pictures when we get to Baja California. It´s too hard right now to drag everything here. Hope there aren't too many mistakes. I was letting the Spanish confuse my English spelling, the last time. Love to hear from everybody. Please write once in a while.
Lots of love, Hasta luego,
Josiane

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