Chapter 6, NC to Mexico

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January 2008
Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico
Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/Ches.Alli/Chapter6NCToMexico

It's been 3 months since we last wrote. What happened? We've been on the move constantly it seems without a set time to sit and write with an electrical connection. Anyway, here we are in Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan listening to KUNM online at our campground, the Hotel Villa Patzcuaro with both electricity and internet. This is a beautiful spot next to a quaint town known for its many artisans and we should be here into the new year.

Back to the travel log and to October 7 when we left Allison's mom after a wonderful long and relaxing visit. We headed to Florida to visit Ches's mother, Sistee, who lives in Stuart. Now lets' face it - neither of us cares much for Florida. It is hot and humid, very crowded and lots of long endless freeways. After a night camping in a South Carolina we made it to the Ocala National Forest the next day. If we have to be in Fla. one of our favorite places is Juniper Springs in the Ocala. It is a 20' deep, 100' diameter spring lined with a stone side built by the CCC and the water is 72 degrees year round. At 20' deep, the water is so clear you can see the grains of sand on the bottom. As one person said, “it is like swimming in water that is cleaner than the water we drink.” Another way to look at it is that it may be the best swimming hole ever. They have a pretty nice campground there that was virtually empty so we spent a couple of nights as we came into Fla. and a couple more before we left. The weather was hot and humid, and tons of mosquitoes, but the cool water was just perfect. There were also some pesky raccoons in the camp that tormented Rain by peering in the van and then hiding under it. We'd chase them off and they'd be back again - you could almost hear them laughing. Nothing is safe from raccoons. You must tie down your cooler and dispose of your trash as soon as possible. You'll see a not very good photo of one of the raccoons shimmying up the light pole to investigate the bag we had hanging. When we left, we passed into the tropical zone to Stuart to see Sistee. We spent only two nights there as the combination of heat, humidity and mosquitoes were too much for Ches. Once again, raccoons raided our campsite and took one of Ches' sandals, which Allison found in the brush.

We got three days of visits with Sistee before she got a little tired of the commotion. The one thing that she did seem to enjoy though was bringing the kitty into her apartment at the assisted living home. It was way to hot to leave Rain in the van,and it gave the kitty a break and new place to explore. After an all too brief meeting with Ches's sister Anne, who was arriving to see Sistee as we were leaving (Sistee can't handle more than one visitor at a time, so even Allison and I were an overload), we headed up the road to Sebastian to spend the night with our friends Jerry and Marsha who we hadn't seen in many years. Stepping into their house, within view of Sebastian Inlet and the Atlantic Ocean, was like stepping back 50 years. It had been built about then and they have faithfully left it true to its original Florida modern open floor plan style. Their yard is planted with all native vegetation and they even have pineapples growing. They are the consummate recyclers who can fix anything old from cars to appliances to houses and then use them in the style and with the love they were originally intended, as if they they were old friends. After a short but fun filled visit - not to mention a delicious seafood dinner caught by Jerry (in the fishing boat he fixed up) - we left the next morning back to the Ocala Forest this time to Hopkins Prairie, a high spot in a large shallow lake filled with bird life. Walking around our campground which was dominated by a beautiful grove of Live Oak trees were a pair of Sandhill Cranes almost as tall as we are. We made up a total of 4 people in the whole campground. There was a heavy price to pay to camp in this serene spot as we got covered by microscopic seed ticks and as we felt the tiny tickle of them crawling on us or spotted a moving freckle, we were hunting and pulling them off for days thereafter, freaked out that such a thing could happen. It did not help our opinion of Florida either - mosquitoes, raccoons, ticks, what could be next? Another stop at Juniper and a brief visit and swim at Wakula Springs not to far from Tallahassee and we were on our way out of Florida on Thursday October 18 in a driving rain storm all through the panhandle. There were tornadoes as we drove through Pensacola and we came upon an awful car wreck along I-10.

Safe to say we were happy to be headed west and late in the afternoon as we were driving across Mississippi the sun finally came out. Keeping a sharp eye on the weather which seemed to indicate a nice weekend, at the last minute we decided to head a little bit north to Eureka Springs, Ark. to their little city park just outside of town that offers a small lake, hiking & mountain biking trails as well as camping. The park is another project of the CCC. As we watch the gradual disintegration of the infrastructure of our country, it is good to be reminded what a government can do. We spent a nice weekend exploring the town, stocking up on groceries, and doing laundry as well as hiking the trails. Monday morning as a front moved in and it began to rain we drove through the hills and mountains of western Ark. and eastern Ok. before hooking up with I-40 headed to our friends Susie and Ray's house in Albuquerque. It was great to be back in New Mexico. After a couple of nights, the weather looked good enough to make a late season trip to Ches's favorite place on earth, Valley View Hot Spings( www.olt.org), and spend a relaxing 4 days soaking and swimming and resting in the sauna. Back to New Mexico we visited friends in El Rito and Medanales before heading south to finally explore the possibility of buying real estate in Silver City.

We explored town on our bikes, looked at houses with our realtor and generally got to know the town, while we stayed at the Silver City R.V. Park, a well-run place right in town. While at the R.V. Park we met one guy who was finishing up his walk of the Continental Divide Trail all the way from Canada to Mexico. And if that were not enough, a Colorado couple came into the park who were riding their bicycles from Prudoe Bay, Alaska to Chile and Argentina for Ralph's 50th birthday in a two year journey. Their adventures are inspiring and put us to shame (http://ralphandpat.wordpress.com/). After eleven days nothing jumped out at us but we learned a lot about the market there and realized many people have yet to come to terms with the state of real estate. Very little was moving and what was moving was very competitively priced. Many contracts were being broken because buyers couldn't sell their properties or in one case buyers forfeited their deposit because they got scared. As the weather got colder and our homework being done, we got ready to head to Arizona to prepare for Mexico when we got the news. As we were having dinner with Ralph and Pat, our friend Bill called to say Terry Moffitt had suddenly died from complications from diabetes. We were thunderstruck. Terry was a close friend Ches had known for almost 35 years, had been his next door neighbor for 7 years, and who we always looked forward to seeing and who we expected to see again. He was a kind and generous person ( for a slide show of Terry's life and photos of Potrero Canyon go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/colinmoffitt/TerryMoffitt/ ). That left us in a quandary. Should we continue on or head back north to be with Terry's friends and family?

While we waited for arrangements to be finalized, and with the November temperatures finally cooling off, we decided to head into Arizona to Roper Lake State Park where they had a single hot spring pool and we could warm up. Roper Lake is a beautiful area near the Gila River, which irrigates cotton fields, and is surrounded by sky islands (mountains rising straight up from the desert floor). Copper mines are all over this part of Arizona and New Mexico. At that point, we decided to take Djann and Lisa up on their generous offer to spend Thanksgiving at their house in Medanales and stay for Terry's memorial service. It was a no brainer. We spent a wonderful week there with them and their friends Doug and Anne from California. Thanksgiving dinner with Ray and Susie and others was delicious with among other things a turkey cooked to perfection. (The secret is an organic turkey soaked in a brine for 24 hrs.) The only thing different from last years' Thanksgiving was that Terry was not there. The service for Terry was held on Saturday and it was of course very moving and a tribute to his life. It was no surprise the number of people there and the many walks of life from which they came. Sunday was spent helping Djann and Lisa plant thousands of garlic for next year and then it was time to head south once again.

By Tuesday we were at Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus NM. ready to cross the border into Mexico and the next day we were touring the Indian ruins of Casas Grandes a few hours south of the border. From there we headed deeper into Mexico with a pleasant drive through the huge state of Chihuahua. The country side is beautiful, the towns spread out so traffic was not bad until the state of Durango which has the absolute worst roads in the world and if we come this way again it won't be taking that route. The Sprinter cargo van and we just cannot take all the bouncing around on torn up pavement and over topes (speed bumps) -physically or emotionally.

It took us 3 days to get to Zacatacas and when we arrived there we were excited by the beauty of the city and the walkability from our campground. It is a gorgeous old silver mining town, very colonial, built on the sides of a series of hills. The houses and apartments are a riot of color set amongst cathedrals, many museums, narrow streets and stately buildings. It is really a gem of a city unknown to many outside of Mexico and more than once people assured us how safe it is. Our campground was really just a parking lot of a fancy hotel with access to a fancy clean toilet and a shower. The location was excellent, unfortunately it was way out of our budget and we felt depressed that we could not stay longer to continue exploring the city. With the help of the Hotel de Bosque head desk clerk who spoke very good English and was a great guy, we checked out a nearby efficiency apt. Unfortunately, the apt manager raised the rent as we looked it over- presumably because he saw us as wealthy Americans, although he said it was because there were 2 of us (something he knew from the first phone call). He doubled the price of the flat! Frustrated by our inability to communicate in Spanish in a city with very few English speakers (although twice people stopped us on the street to offer us help in English as they saw us pouring over maps) after 3 days, we decided to move on to the next old colonial silver mining town to see how it compared.

A hard day's drive brought us to Guanajuato, the capitol of the state of Guanajuato. It is very similar to Zacatacas, except that it has a large university that gives the city a very intellectual, arty, hip edge. It is a wold class city unlike any we have ever seen. Every October they put on the Cervantes Festival with theater in the cities' many grand theaters, art, music and more. Cars are a liability here as the few streets are incredibly narrow and most houses and apartments are on narrow steep alleys and walkways with no vehicle access, much less parking. It also has numerous plazas. Big ones, intimate ones, some with parks, others with entertainment. There are restaurants, espresso bars and markets every where you go. The city seems a maze of up and down hills and filthy streets and other times, it is an adventure finding beautiful buildings from the 1500-1600's and attempting to speak Spanish with varying degrees of success. We checked into Morrill's campground, a simple, small but nice place and only a 20 minute march into town. We checked out 4 or more possible rental situations and saw some cool places and met very nice Mexicans who could not speak any English, but who were happy to help us with our Spanish. Unfortunately, there was no secure parking anywhere in this city and keeping the kitty inside when there are no screens on the windows was always a problem. We ended up staying at Morrill's Trailer Park for 3 weeks sort of day by day. In that time we were the only Americans in our campground. We met a young couple from Switzerland traveling in North America for 2 years, two different French families both traveling from Canada to Argentina in their Fiat campers, another couple comprised of a Spanish woman and a German man also going from Canada to Argentina and numerous Canadians mostly from Quebec. (A couple of times Ches talked to people who felt there were way fewer Americans in Mexico either because of fear of terrorism or the economy. Certainly Canadians, and most definitely Europeans, were taking advantage of the sinking dollar. The Peso is tied to the dollar.)

There was so much to explore and experience in Guanajuato. We were spectators of the festivities around the Virgin of Guadalupe. Little boys - even the babies, are dressed as Juan Diego, the peasant Indian who saw the miracle of the Virgin and the little girls are dressed as the Virgin. They are all incredibly adorable. Children also perform a story-dance in masks of old men and women and the devil and there are plenty of photo “booths” with panoramic scenes or the classic depiction of the Virgin for the kids to sit in front of. Dressed in traditional costumes, the people take offerings of vegetables, eggs, or flowers inside the church. We wondered if the priests ate the food or distributed it to the poorest of the poor. During our time in Guanajuato, the city was also celebrating Posadas - the journey of Joseph and Mary looking for lodging. The holiday festivities entail lots of incredibly loud music, mostly bad, and setting off numerous bottle rockets throughout the night. Because Morrill's is set on a hill, the noise reverberated across the canyons and up to our van. Rain was terrorized and late that night fled the van when Allison got up to use the bathroom. Allison called and searched for 4 days, fearful that Rain could not find her way back home past the many dogs. We were hopeful that the surrounding foliage and many lovely birds would (regrettably) sustain her if she could not be found. We made a flyer and really got to practice our Spanish asking everyone if they had seen a gata gris con reyas con ojos verdes. It paid off when a guard from a defunct ceramic studio on a huge lot told Ches he had seen a gray cat. Ches investigated, but said it was not Rain. With renewed hope, Allison went to the lot after dark, when we knew Rain would feel safest. Calling and calling, she heard a tiny mew, and then Rain came running. Rain ate and slept for several days upon her successful return to her van home and now is back to her same ol' self.

After surviving the Christmas celebrations in Guanajuato, we decided to move on towards Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan. Patzcuaro is a small town - with another cathedral dating back to the 15th century - 35 miles from the city of Morelia where there is a Walmart and a HomeDepot! It is home to many Indians who lived here long before the Spanish and practice many traditional crafts. The town is also very traditional in sharp contrast to Guanajuato, which is more cutting edge and hip with it's abundance of young people. It sits on Lago de Patzcuaro which has several small islands that you can visit. Janitzio Island has a monumental statue at its peak celebrating Mexico's independence and hoards of visitors go there every day. Allison hooked up with two women, Pat and Molly for an excursion to the island, but upon seeing the droves of tourists, they opted to visit a smaller, residential island which the boat driver discouraged them from investigating. Much to their delight, the island was enchanting, quiet and tranquil. They visited the cemetery where evidence of the Dias de los Muertos remained - candle wax, flowers, wreaths, and food from the night of overseeing the beloved. Returning late in the day, Allison felt ill and spent the next two days sleeping with a fever. The day that Allison felt better Ches got sick and spent the next two days in bed. At least we rotated our times being horizontal.

We have decided to stay at Villa Patzcuaro, our small campground with a cocina (kitchen) and internet access another week. Our first week here we shared the cocina with a group of Mexicans who were celebrating the birthday of Fernando, a local furniture maker with a delicious shrimp pasta dish which required hours of preparation by the host, Arnie. When we arrived to prepare our meal, they invited us to join them, and now we have some new friends from Mexico City.

In closing we should mention some of the wonderful people we have met along the way. Janet and John from Deming, NM who have lived in an RV for years and just built a house as a base, and a young couple, Yves from Quebec, and Ann from France who have been traveling for 18 months around Canada, the U.S. And Mexico. Ted and Corey from Canada off to a wedding in Zamora and then 3 more months exploring Mexico. Corey is a thirty- something and Ted is a 74 year old Polish engineer, quite the odd couple and both with wives at home but both are VW camper enthusiasts. In Guanajuato we met Rachel, Rick, and daughter Gabriela, and their friends, Del and Pat who invited us over to tour the beautiful old yet modern home they were house sitting in for friends. The house was filled with antique furnishings and dishes and an indigenous mask collection. After drinks and hoursdeorves,we went out for dinner. In our campground here in Patzcuaro, we have made more friends as, like ourselves, people tend to stay for a couple of weeks at a time. There are too many stories to tell here.

Also a note about Mexico. Lest you get the impression that this is the perfect place by our descriptions and photos let us set the record straight. It is frustrating driving here with inconsistent roads and signage that is laughable if it weren't maddening. The air is polluted in many places, mostly from cars and trucks and there is trash everywhere. And the poverty can be gut wrenching. But is also all we have mentioned above and more. There are no free lunches. We love and miss you all. Ches & Allison

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Photos

costume contest
stairs of the theatre in Guanajuato