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Published: February 23rd 2012
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Michelle and I rode three miles on brutal wooden saddles.
In the foreground, Michelle on Conquistedor and me, your humble blogger on Maestro being led by our guide Enrique. Saturday, 18 February, we left the beach and headed north back into the state of Michoacán. This is considered to be the most beautiful state in Mexico. The forested Sierra Madre is sometimes compared to Switzerland and New England – without the snow of course.
It will take a few days to acclimate from warm sunny sea level beaches to the higher and cooler elevations we’re in now but our plan this year is to do the “educational tour” through Mexico’s colonial cities. Day time temperatures are moderate but we’ve gotten out the blankets and sweats for when the sun goes down.
We are camped on the site of the Hotel Pia de la Sierra above the town of Uruapan. We, Ed and Michelle and Ray and I are the only campers but the hotel is full of guests. This is primarily an agricultural region renowned for avocados and macadamia nuts. We passed a calavo packing plant and numerous orchards. Avocados are not in season. None of us are familiar with macadamia trees so if we passed any we did not recognize them.
Our exploration of Mexico’s interior will no doubt be educational for us as Ray and
I know very little about our southern neighbor’s history beyond the fact that Mexico was invaded by the Spaniards and plundered for its gold and silver in the early 1500’s. The inhabitants were forced into slavery to work the mines and haciendas. Throughout most of Mexico, Spaniards intermarried with the locals but pockets of indigenous groups survived.
The area of Michoacán which we are in now is populated by an indigenous society called P’urhepecha. They speak a language of their own but do learn Spanish in school. Men and children dress in ordinary clothes. The women wear tradition clothing. Their skirts and blouses are very elaborate. Many of the blouses are of a lacy organdy material. Skirts and aprons appeared to be silk and or velvet. The silk skirts are intricately pleated. Some of the little girls were also costumed. I wonder how they create and care for these elaborate outfits! Because of the language and cultural barriers, it would be impossible to discuss.
One of the main tourist attractions here is the site of the Paricutin Volcano. There seems to be conflicting stores of the event but what is agreed upon is that on Feb
20, 1943, a fissure began in a cornfield owned by a farmer, Dionisio Pulido. Neighbors and the nearby villages were notified and 4000 or so inhabitants were evacuated to the towns of Angahuan and Nuevo San Juan with residents carrying their iconic 500 year old image of Christ called Lord of Miracles to the site of their new church in Nuevo San Juan. (We did not visit that village.) The volcano erupted for nine years but no human lives were lost due to the actual eruption. All that remains of the original village are the spires of the ruined Temple San Juan Parangaricutiro protruding from a sea of black lava.
Today was an amazing day which none of us will ever forget. We took a taxi to the village of Angahuan which is closest to the volcano, then hired a guide with horses to lead us through the forest to the lava fields. Well, I should say Michelle and I rode horses. Ray, Ed and our guide Enrique walked. The horses were saddled with brutal wooden saddles. Our bottoms will be sore for a few days. It has been about thirty years since I’ve ridden a horse. Enrique led
both horses for some distance but then handed me the reins and told me how to direct my pony Maestro (which means teacher in Spanish) left, right and stop. Needless to say, I was nervous at first and Maestro did everything she could to punish me for interfering with her day such as trying to brush the skin off my legs on trees and barb wire. After I got the hang of it, she stopped doing that but every time Michelle’s pony Conquistador came close to getting ahead of her Maestro rushed to stay out in front. Actually, I think her goal was to get far enough ahead so she’d have time to nibble the lupines while everybody else caught up. Conquistador never stopped to eat. The trip was an hour and a half each way plus time spent clamoring over lava rocks for some distance to get a view of the ruins. Quite a walk for old guys like Ray and Ed especially since the terrain was pretty rough in places.
Before we headed back down, we stopped for lunch of freshly made blue corn tortillas stuffed with all kinds of good things including nopales (cactus) which tastes
much like and has the texture of green beans. Nopales are a Mexican staple and we’ve seen crops of it growing in fields we’ve passed.
Enrique told us that he had attended school for three years and had picked up Spanish and English from the tourists. He wore a San Diego Padres ball cap and told us he played baseball. He pitches. He only works weekends when the tourists are here. His wife works during the week. They have four children between twelve and two. There is internet in the town and his oldest child uses it. He was anxious for us to post his picture and do a little advertising for his business on our blogs.
You may have noticed in the beginning of my narrative I mentioned that the volcano began to erupt on 20 Feb. What luck that we should be here this weekend as today the town was celebrating the anniversary of the volcano plus there was a wedding party in process.
Ed and Michelle stumbled onto the party while Ray and I were watching the activities in the town square. The bridegroom whose name we all failed to get, spoke English pretty
well and seemed very happy to have us at his party and was disappointed that we couldn’t stay longer as we had to catch a bus back to Uruapan but he told us that if we ever get back to Mexico we must revisit his village. He is traveling to Los Angeles later this year and will call Ed and Michelle. We didn’t get to meet the bride as she had gone off with his mom to prepare for the major festivities this evening. Village gentlemen danced with both Michelle and me. Most of the ladies were cradling bottles of tequila in their arms along with small plastic cups hidden in their shawls from which they generously shared their tequila. One of these ladies seemed quite taken with Ed. After we left the party she followed him to the town square. We’ll tease Eduardo about his amiga forever.
Standing along the zocalo watching the action Jose, who had lived for sometime in Fresno struck up a conversation. Even in the tiniest villages it seems somebody has spent time in the U.S. and wants to visit with us or practice their English anyway.
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