We visited the huge Friday Market in Patzcuaro Centro today. Colours, smells and noises pleasantly assaulted all the senses. It was a wonderful experience. We bought a few things, such as a large head of broccoli for seventy cents and a head of very fresh lettuce for thirty cents. Here are some of the sights we saw. The colours are off because of coloured tarps acting as sunshades:
Yesterday we arrived in Patzcuaro in the Mexican State of Michoacan! It is a Colonial city with a population of 65,000 and is situated 7,150feet above sea level. This altitude makes for some chilly nights. When we woke up this morning there was frost on the ground but by 10 it was starting to warm up and by noon it was t-shirt weather again.
Patzcuaro was an Aboriginal capital of the Tarasco and other people from 1325. When the Spanish appeared in 1522 they were welcomed by the people of Patzcuaro. In 1529 the Spanish returned, this time lead by Nuno de Guzman, a conquistador of legendary cruelty. His treatment of the local population was so inhumane that the Catholic Church and the Colonial Government felt compelled to step in and dispatched Bishop Vasco de Quiroga from Mexico City to clean up the mess. Quiroga established an education system and encouraged agricultural self-sufficiency, employing village cooperatives based on the ideals of Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia”. The village based craft traditions he initiated survive to this day with each village specializing in some item.
Please be patient with me on my posting frequency here in Patzcuaro. There is no WIFI in or near the RV Park and a visit to three Internet Cafes in the Centro today resulted in no working services. My Spanish is not good enough to determine if this is a city wide problem or the individual cafes. One told me to come back “in an hour”, another “at 4:30” and the third simply said he had no Internet. We have heard of a place in a neighbouring pueblo that we will try tomorrow.
Today we left Playa Azule for Patzcuaro on Mex 37D. It is a beautiful new Cuota highway that my GPS does not even know about. It rises into the Sierra Madre and then into the high plains and finally into the Colonial town of Patzcuaro.
As we approached the first toll booth we saw unusual activity and dozens of parked cars. Two of the three toll booths were blocked off with parked cars and the open one had many people around it and no “toll taker” in sight. As we approached the booth all the people started talking at once in Spanish. They were all well dressed and smiling so I did not feel at all nervous. I was trying to see someone to take my money but the booth was empty and the demonstrators were holding out a can for money. I dropped ten Pesos into their can and they handed me a sheet of paper and waved us through.
As we drove away Norma started to translate the paper and we discovered it was some sort of a Teachers protest. They call themselves something like “Alliance For A Quality Education” and they had “occupied” the toll booths. The money they collected was going to the Red Cross which (I believe) operates the Ambulance Service here.
The next toll booth was similarly occupied and this time I dropped a more reasonable $100 Pesos into their can. There was a teacher among the demonstrators who spoke to us in English, telling us they were teachers fighting for better education and thanking us for our support. The next booth was also occupied but this time there was no collection and we were just waved through.
There are more Federalies, State Police and army in evidence in Mexico right now than we have ever seen. It is in response to the current drug wars along the USA border but it is hard to go any distance even down here without noticing their presence. In fact, eight or ten Federalies were staying in the hotel in front of last night’s RV Park and they used the RV Park to park their vehicles in. My point is, if the government wanted to put a quick end to today’s demonstrations, they could have. The Highway patrol usually goes through the toll booths but today they were making u-turns before they got to the booth areas in what was clearly a “don’t ask, don’t tell” manoeuvre so they could tell anyone who asked that they did not see a thing.
I don’t have to tell most of you what would happen in Canada if a massive demonstration interrupted the Government’s cash flow for the better part of a day (at least). Heads would probably not literally roll but they would be bashed. These Mexican teachers and their supporters turned the day into a huge party and I am sure the Red Cross collected a small fortune. A win – win situation and for the Red Cross, the teachers and us travelers, this was indeed a Good Day!
We got a late start this morning! I disconnected, dumped, loaded the chairs and pulled out to hook up the dolly. As I stopped in the driveway I noticed with great alarm that the battery “Idiot Light” was on, indicating a no charge condition! As luck would have it our very friendly neighbours, Gord and Donna Rudichuk from Kamloops, BC used to own a car parts place and Gord can fix anything! We had been talking to him last night about our intended journey and he said, “I don’t want to scare you off but you should know that V-10’s are not sold in Mexico and nobody knows how to work on them or has parts for them”. Thanks Gord for that bit of depressing information!
In desperation called Gord over and he confirmed that 1) I was an idiot and 2) my light was on. I unhooked the dolly and backed into the spot I had just vacated while Gord went for his test gear. He told me the alternator field is fused and that is the first thing to check. He started checking all the fuses he could find while I discovered that we did not have a Ford Owners Manual. The fuses all checked good but we could see the battery was not charging and was sitting at 12.1 volts with the engine running. He started checking the fuses again and when I glanced at the dash, the Idiot Light was out. We had done nothing except test the fuses with a test light so what must have happened was when he pressed the probe into the fuse, it moved it enough to restore contact. All is well again and I now have a pretty good idea of what to do if it happens again. My job jar now includes removing the fuses one at a time and squirting them with contact cleaner. Thanks Gord!
We continued South, actually more East because we are now following the coast towards Guatemala. While we were in the State of Colima the roads are wide, smooth and straight. As soon as we entered the State of Michoacan they became just the opposite: narrow, crooked and rough. We went through numerous small villages, each with their own proud collection of topes, some marked but most not. It was very slow going and the speedometer seldom got above 40 KPH. We knew we were going to get caught in the dark which would have been a very bad idea in tope country so we started looking for a safe place to pull over for the night. Suddenly we saw a sign for an RV Park and we turned down a steep dirt path to the beach. We are in a neat little park right on the ocean with no hookups but with a palapa restaurant. She charged us $80 Pesos to park for the night and offered us electric for a small extra charge but it would have required running extension cords about 100 feet to the restaurant. We did not bother and are using the generator to make coffee after a delicious meal of steak for Norma and TWO, count them, TWO deep fried red snappers for yours truly. The fish was six dollars and the steak eight. Not bad. We have the RV Park to ourselves tonight.
It is a short 120 KM drive tomorrow on what looks to be a straighter road and then the decision on what to do next. Continue down the coast towards Acapulco and Chiapas or turn inland and get to Chiapas that way. Either way I will not miss Chiapas and San Cristobal as these will be the highlight of the trip for me..
No Internet here of course so this post joins the Queue to be posted next.
UPDATE
We have now arrived in Lazardo Cardenas (actually Playa Azul, a seaside community nearby). It was about three hours of bad twisting road and I lost an unimportant part of the dolly on a Tope. No problem a stop at a local hardware store fixed it. The park here at Hotel Playa Azul meets only the bare minimum requirements with unusable electric. I plugged in and imediatly got a shock from the motorhome frame as I hooked up the water. I checked the power and there is no ground. We will use the generator again tonight. The good thing is, there is Internet in the lobby and a pool. Worth the $200 Pesos even without electricity.
The road along the coast does not get any better so we have decided to leave the coast and head inland from here towards Morilia on a new Cuota (toll) highway. It will be a nice break from the turns and topes. So for now, in Playa Azul, Mexico, Life is Good!
As usual we are not making any long term plans but just making the itinerary up as we go. We would like to leave the motorhome at the coast and take the car to Patzcuaro and Morelia for a few days in a hotel. Both these are on my list of places I want to see and as a bonus, a fellow Blogger lives near Patzcuaro and we might get a chance for a cup of coffee with him. These plans are just “penciled in” and we will fine tune them as we go. In any case, adventure is just around the next corner. In the meantime, this is tonight’s sunset, photo taken right behind the motorhome.
Some RV Parks in Mexico have WIFI available right at your space but most do not. In these, like the one we are in now, you have to take your computer to the area that their router covers. In this case, close to the office. They have a couple of tables set up in the shade up for the use of their customers, of which there are usually three or four using it at a time.
In a few places last year, there was no Internet at the RV Park at all and in these cases we had to go and find some coverage. There are Internet Cafes where they usually charge around ten Pesos ($1) an hour to use their services. Other times you simply find a hotel restaurant that has access to the hotel’s WIFI and for the price of a cup of coffee, you can surf and email to your heart’s content. Sometimes the waiters know there is Internet available and other times they do not. I do not think many Mexicans have computers or access to the Internet. It is simply not all that important to them.
If you do not have access right at your RV it is nice to have the ability to compose a post before you go to wherever you have to go to get onto the Web. I use Windows Live Writer, a free program from Microsoft (yes, I know…) that integrates perfectly with Blogger. I can prepare all my posts, complete with photos, and post them later. It is very convenient. I now have four posts ready to upload. Keep reading….
On the way back from Manzanillo we drove into Barra de Navidad for dinner. We found the Sea Master, a small restaurant on the beach with many doors open to the nice onshore breeze. We had a perfect Margarita (OK two. They were two for one). Norma had Rib Eye steak and I had camerones cooked in pineapple, peppers, cheese and Grand Marnier ($16, the most expensive thing on the menu). I am finishing off the evening with a nice Single Malt and my Blog. It has been a great day and for right here, right now, in Melaque, MX, for Croft, Life is Good. I am content.
If I had to pick a city on the West Coast of Mexico to live in it just could be Manzanillo in the Mexican State of Colima. It is big enough to warrant a WalMart and Sorriano (higher quality grocery store) but small enough to still fit my definition of “Mexico”. It is very clean, the main language is Spanish and it does not (yet) cost an arm and a leg. It has beautiful surfing beaches and tons of small, reasonably priced restaurants on these beaches. It has an airport but it does not have the hustle and bustle and constant beeping horns of Mazatlan nor the annoying condo salesmen of Puerto Vallarta. It’s beaches are better than both of the above.
Here is the beach viewed from the restaurant we had breakfast in. Perfectly poached eggs, beans, fried potatoes, toast and jam for $40 Pesos. No charge for the view.
The Malecon and a 1940’s hotel on the Malecon
That I, 1) actually parked in this space? And that I, 2) actually got back out of it?
I have become a Mexican driver! This was the only parking space on the south end of the Manzanillo Malecon. It was no more than ten inches longer than the car and I actually got in and back out! I waited while the previous occupant manoeuvred his way out in a similar sized car and figured, if he can do it…..
Ask me why we tow our dependable old beat up ‘89 Honda to Mexico...
