Mexico 2017

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Since the butterflies are up in the mountains and in cooler temps, we left a suitcase of warm weather clothes like shorts and swimsuits at the hotel. We will be back at Hotel Kioto in four days after our Morelia trip. We left our stuff with Enrique, the guy at the desk. We have him new Minnesota Twins hat. We got a big smile, so I think he was happy.

Our bus to Morelia left at noon. We took a cab to the depot ($1.50), much simpler than walking that distance with luggage. The depot is open and quite warm, pigeons flying in and out. But we later found out we had first class tickets, so we could use the A/C waiting room. The bus we had was from the Parhikuni bus company. The bus we was quite comfortable, A/C' d, lots of leg room, and individual screens with earphones for movies, music, games, and Internet (although this didn't work!) Upon boarding the bus they gave out drinks and snacks.

The bus left exactly on time. We went through Ixtapa, north along the coast to Lazaro Cardenas. We then turned inland on the main highway, past Uruapan, Patzcuaro, then to Morelia. The road was excellent and we rolled into Morelia at 5:00.

We were originally seated in seats 5 and 6. This was too far forward to get any good views. Since the bus wasn't full, we moved back a seat. The landscape along the way was varied, some areas with lush greenery, some with cactus, fir trees, orchards, totally rocky areas, and mountains in the background.

Our next adventure was getting a bus ticket for our next leg, to Zitacuaro on Monday. We decided to figure out the Anangueo leg once we got to Zitacuaro, since no bus companies at this depot had that route. We bought a taxi ticket at the depot, then took the cab to our hotel. That turned out a bit confusing too. We asked for a ticket to Hotel Plaza Morelia, but we got one for Plaza Morelia, which is a shopping center. After driving in a circle and paying a bit more to the driver, we arrived at our hotel.
The hotel was centrally located, close to many important city sights.

In the evening we walked the area, past some interesting old stone and brick buildings. The cathedral is just a few blocks away and is the hub of activity on a Saturday night. The area around the church was packed with people. Many singers, costumed dancers, clown acts, people dressed in Shakespearian-like costumes. Just before the two towers of the cathedral were lit up, a fireworks display went off. Very impressive.

This is a very old, very impressive city.

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