Mexico - Morelia

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Suzanne here...

The bus friom Zacatecas to Morelia left on time, 12.30am, and we hoped to settle down for some sleep. Unfortunately the people behind us talked non-stop until gone 3am, most vexing. In the end we slept very little, maybe dozed slightly. At about 7am we pulled into a bus station and heard the driver shout ´Morelia´. David checked it again with him as we got off and he confirmed it, so we collected our backpacks and looked for the exit. Now, the thing I hate about bus stations in Mexico is that they never tell you where they are. Elsewhere you´d have a massive sign saying ´Welcome to Kuala Lumpur´ or wherever you are. In Mexico you have to guess. So even though we´d checked it was Morelia we wanted confirmation. We were slightly concerned that it seemed so small, and that we were the only ones who got off the bus. We were still looking for some clue as our bus started to pull away. Then we spotted a small, faded map with the words 'bienvenido a la ciudad Moreleon´. Crap, we were in the wrong city! Who would have guessed there was another stop so close to ours with such a similar name? We ran like loons after our bus shouting for it to stop. Luckily it did, and 45 minutes later we actually arrived in Morelia.

Morelia is the capital city of the state of Michoacan. We´d heard that there was travel warning for the state due to, what else, problems with drug cartels. It was the same story in Jalisco and we´d not seen any problems there. Admittedly there did seem to be a lot of police in Morelia (I mean A LOT) but that was the only sign anything was amiss.

It was only 8am so we stopped off at a posh cafe by the cathedral and treated ourselves to a nice breakfast. I´ve become very fond of Huevos rancheros - fried eggs served upon lightly fried tortilla topped with tomato chilli sauce and refried beans. We then began the familiar slog for a hotel. We tried six different places before we found somewhere we liked, a record for us I think. Most of the rooms in our price-range were scruffy and dismal. Eventually we found a nice hotel (Hotel Colonial) near the city centre with a small but clean and modern room for under M$400.

We decided to lie down for a rest... and woke up at about 2pm. Oh well, we needed it . We quickly had showers and headed out for a look around, and a beer or two. We found ourselves in a sweet little plaza by the famous Tarascas fountain. It was a Saturday, and it seems that this is the place for wedding parties to get their photos taken. We saw eight brides in all, some of them in very elaborate, colourful dresses (one had fairy wings). In the evening we made our way to the square by the cathedral. Crowds had gathered for the weekly firework display. There was also music playing, including a song that went something like ´Morelia, we love you, you are brilliant and amazing and the best city in the land´(Ok, I actually got lost after ´Morelia´, but I´m sure that was the gist). A group of teenagers asked if they could have their picture with David. He thought they said this was because 'he was not normal´, which would have been funny, but they actually said ´because he was not like family´, which I suppose is similar but less insulting!

After stuffing ourselves with tacos and burritos we headed to what we suspected might be a metal bar, Fuxion. Previous experiance meant our hopes were not high, but low and behold we heard Iron Maiden playing, so in we went. I admit it did have rather the feel of a youth club about it. Most people seemed very young, and were drinking coke. The place was also infested with cockroaches - we soon discovered it was best to keep our bags off the floor. Still, the music was good. Then the first band came on. Oh dear, his singing was as flat as a pancake. Still, we gave them some support and I did get a moment of hilarity when the guitarist said ´thank you Dave Mustaine´to David. Worse was to come. The next band, a group of young girls, really looked the part and we were hopeful.... they were terrible. The ´singer´really could not sing to save her life, they made the band before seem positively professional. We left halfway through them murdering ´For whom the bell tolls´.

The next day we visited a rather disapointing art gallery and equally disappointing museum. Oh well, spoilt by Zacatecas I suppose. Still, Morelia is a nice enough place just to wander. We spent a pleasant afternoon lingering over a couple of beers in the Jardin Las Rosas. That evening we had dinner at Iglesia La Inmaculada, a food-court under a church run by volunteers. For M$100 we ate as much as we could manage. It wasn´t the most amazing food we´ve had in Mexico, but decent home-cooked style fare and an interesting experience. It then poured with rain and we had a rather soggy walk back to the hotel.

On our final day we went to Morelia Zoo. Not the best zoo ever, but at £1.50 a bit of a bargain. We enjoyed most of it, the majority of the cages were reasonable, but a few were a bit small and bleak for our liking. We got back into town and had a final wander around. Morelia is a pretty place and worth a visit. Next stop, Zihuatanejo.

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