Mexico 2017

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A good breakfast in the dining room was included with our room. Not bad for about $20 a night! The hotel contained a lot of marble and wrought iron rail and wall dividers.

This morning we went out to explore the city. It is difficult to know how to dress in Morelia. It is 37 degrees at 5am, 57 degrees at 9am, and 77 by 3pm. We began by walking some of the side streets near the hotel. You see many balconies with wrought iron railings and plants. We heard many pet birds (probably parakeets or parrots) behind the windows. The city is very clean and well kept. We tried to find the Michoacan state museum (Museo del Estado), which contains details of Michoacan' s past. But unfortunately it was all boarded up and under reconstruction.



We walked east along Avenida Madero, one of the main streets. The street runs along the aquaduct, which has been around since the 1500s. A big park runs along the road in this area. This road is closed on Sundays to auto traffic. Instead it is filled with bikers, kids on trikes or bikes with training wheels, rollerbladers, and skateboarders. Many were out walking their dogs. One woman had five on leashes! Several dogs were wearing kerchiefs with animal society emblems. We walked by a very colorful tree and discovered the trunk was covered with wads of gum. Bob said that was a real gum tree. We seemed to be the only American tourists in the area. We walked by a couple of blocks of tents and plastic tarps over sticks. These probably belonged to protesters in the city.



There are many, many churches with big plazas in the area. Most plazas were filled with vendors selling balloons, plastic animals and toys. There was a big police presence in town today. In one area we counted 17 police trucks with riders in full riot gear. There have been a lot of student protests in the last few weeks, complaining about education and the admission requirements to colleges in Mexico. There have also been protests about gasoline prices and other issues. Protesters had the entire street by the cathedral blocked.

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[D MJ Binkley]

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