Blogs from Michoacán, Mexico, North America - page 4

Super Bowl Sunday, we moved about 140 miles southeast of Puerto Vallarta to San Patricio – Melaque where we checked into Laguna del Tule Trailer Park. We lucked out. There was just one open space on the beach side. The pounding surf rocks our camper. Some of the waves sound like shotgun blasts. There are quite a few Americans here: Rigs with license plates from Maine, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Colorado (2) and Montana. (Actually the couple with Montana plates said they had escaped from Colorado when Fort Collins became too crowded.) Ray & I and our travel buddies Ed & Michelle represent the “left coast” but we Americans are still well outnumbered by Canadians. Hail, hail the gangs all here: Our amigos Paul and Terry had already settled in for the winter. In fact, Terry had ... read more

I didn’t want anyone to think that David and I killed each other! We have been so busy with our Spanish lessons and we haven’t actually travelled to another place, so I didn’t have anything to write about. Until now. Last weekend we took a trip to Morelia. Morelia is a beautiful little city of 630,000 about two hours South of Guanajuato. We went straight to the Plaza de Armas and parked the car. The whole town is very tourist-friendly, in that it has quite a few maps and directional signs telling how to get to someplace. It was quite hot last Saturday, as well as humid. We tried to grab some respite in the Catedral. The Catedral was absolutely beautiful; it took more than a century to build. The organ alone had 4600 pipes. But ... read more

Back on the road after five wonderful days in Cuastecomate -- a little village on a bay just South of Barra de Navidad. Our friends from Edmonton, Jame & Sharon Thompson, built a beautiful house there a few years ago and lent it to us for the week. It is high on the hill overlooking the bay and the Pacific Ocean with an absolutely spectacular view. The house has four levels with seventy steps from the front gate to our bedroom on the top floor. When J&S finally retire and move here, they will be the fittest old fogies around. When we arrived, we had an interesting experience with the lock for the gate. It was quite stiff and rusty from the sea air, and Tarjei (with superhuman strength), managed to snap the key off in ... read more

Wir sind heute früh am Mariposa Monarchfalter Nationalpark angekommen und verbringen die Zeit bis zum Abend mit Lesen. Eigentlich ist es mal angesagt, etwas über die mexikanische Küche zu erzählen. Vorweg gesagt – es gibt nicht d i e mexikanische Küche. Einmal ist es sowieso eine Verschmelzung der spanischen und indianischen Esskultur. Zum anderen bestehen viele regionale Unterschiede. Gleich bei der Einreise von Nogales aus fielen uns die zahlreichen Pollo asado-Stände auf. Hähnchen werden halbiert, aufgeklappt und so als „Halbes“ auf dem Holzkohlengrill (asado) gebraten. Mit Chilligewürz wird nicht gespart. Die Vögel sehen ganz lecker aus – wir haben bisher aber aus Angst vor der „Rache Montezumas“ (Durchfall) darauf verzichtet und haben uns im Supermarkt die Pollo rostizada geholt. Eigentlich nichts anderers, nur halt am Spieß gebraten und wir vermuten bei der Zubereitung mehr... read more

Yesterday was always going to be a long day. I was leaving the lovely Morelia for a trip to Patzcuaro (an hour away) and then on to Guadalajara. The first problem with that plan was that there are no buses from Patzcuaro to Guadalajara so I had to go back via Morelia, so another hour and then 3 and half hours to “Guada”. I spoke to the guy from the Morelia hostel about going to Patzcuaro and he reckoned I needed 2 hours to see the village, but that then I absolutely had to go to Janitzio (which would take another hour), a little island on Patzcuaro's lake, apparently one of the must do if you're around the area. That meant I had to get an early start, but I also wanted my breakfast so I ... read more