Friday, January 23, 2015

Over the Rainbow.......



Well, this isn't really the Land of Oz, but it sure is a wonderful place to spend the winter!   I get to see beautiful place like this waterfall south of Tacambaro - which I'll tell you about below.


My friend Georgia is "madrina" (honorary mother) for a local family with 3 children, and she invited me to the wedding of the parents at the church here in Arocutin on Jan. 10th.  Georgia and I were the only gringos present.  Here are the bride and groom being serenaded before the ceremony by the Mariachi band, which Georgia sponsored:


I took a few short videos of the Mariachi band playing & singing both before and during the service, and of the Banda, which played their very different style of music after the service as they led the wedding party through the streets of Arocutin and then played for the dancing.  I've tried uploading a short video of the Mariachi band - we'll see if this works!.


The next day I took a bus trip with friends Tom, Kim and Rocky to Tacambaro, a Pueblo Magico dubbed "The Balcony of the Hot Lands", perched about 1300 feet lower than Patzcuaro and looking down on the hotter lowlands. It's warmer there than here - lots of banana, mango and avocado trees grow at this lower elevation, as well as huge fields of blackberries, most of which are exported to the U.S.

View toward the lowlands from Tacambaro
We wandered through town and bought natural fruit drinks at the market, then took a taxi (nice to be able to split the fare!)  down to a nearby small crater lake.

Great tangled roots of a huge yellow tree by the parking area.
Several locals were fishing there - and cooking their catches on the spot over wood fires.  We chatted a bit with the families and this sweet little boy offered us a dead bat his family had found in the water:

We politely declined!
We checked out a couple of  short trails along the shore.  One took us to an isolated spot where Tom went for a skinny-dip (the water looked a bit too dirty for my comfort), and the other took us to this view of a large oak tree leaning out over the water:


A mirador on a hill overlooking the lake gave us a view of the surrounding countryside:


And a friendly Mexican tourist used Rocky's cell phone to take a pic of the four of us above the lagoon:

Rocky, Me, Kim & Tom
We walked back out to the main road and caught another taxi down to a road that led in to a beautiful waterfall.  Along the road were more yellow trees with tangled roots clinging to the cliffs:


And the waterfall was no disappointment:


The waterfall was next to a swimming pool and a little restaurant.  There we met a couple of local gay guys who were eating lunch and drinking cocktails and who invited us to sit and talk:

Alfredo and Miguel
Alfredo only spoke Spanish and was pretty quiet, but Miguel had spent some time in the States and spoke some English, and we chatted in a mixture of Spanish and English.  They told us about a local dish that was available at a little restaurant in their nearby village - and then called and ordered it for us.  About 20 minutes later a guy arrived on a motorcycle with our bola - a filling of cooked dried beef, beans, cheese and spices wrapped up in many little tortillas so that it looked like a flower bud:

The bola, partially unwrapped.
It was delicious, washed down with a Mexican beer.  We ate it at a table overllooking the swimming pool, palm trees and the waterfall:

The pool looked very inviting - but I hadn't thought to bring a swimsuit.

Back in Tacambaro, we wandered through the interesting little town some more:

Fountain on the Plaza

A newer church had lovely stained glass, a gorgeous view out its doors - and great acoustics.  I sang a bit of Gregorian chant, which reverberated off the walls.

Looking up into the dome of the older church on the plaza.

Every once in a while there's a great free concert here in Patzcuaro.  Often there isn't much publicity about them, so I'm very grateful to David Haun, who runs a Yahoo group dedicated to the arts in the area called Michoacan_Net.  Through the group I learned of a lovely concert on the 16th:  A soprano and a mezzo-soprano, accompanied on piano,  singing works by Mozart, Vivaldi. Bizet and many others.  What a treat!

On the 17th I finally took a boat ride out to the steep-sided island of Janitzio,  which I can see from my bed.  It's topped by the 162-ft. statue of Jose Morelos, a hero of the Mexican revolution.


Notice the fishermen in their canoes with their butterfly nets.  Many men used to make their living harvesting fish from this huge lake - before the water level declined and the pollution level rose.  Now they mostly pose for the tourist boats and then paddle up alongside to pass the hat.



 I purposely went on a weekend day to get the full tourist experience with the many Mexican visitors (I didn't see any other gringos). Walked up through the town that clings to the side of the hill, past many tacky souvenir shops and restaurants (in one of which I had lunch & a beer for about $3.75) to the huge, hollow stone statue at the top. Paid my $.70 and nervously climbed the winding, mural-lined stairway that clings to the inside wall:

Looking up inside the statue, with the stairway winding up along the walls

The stairs go up through the body of the statue and then a small spiral staircase goes up through the  upraised arm to the observation deck just below the statue's wrist. Great views!

I made my way back down the hill via a paved road that circles down from the back of the  statue.  A couple views fromm the roadway:




Back at the base of the hill I followed a road that circled the island, enjoying the sights of the village (I passed a wedding banquet in someone's yard) and the lake:

Fishing canoe, nets and snowy egret.

Little Egret showing off his plumage
On the 19th I took another trip I'd been meaning to make for a while.  I took a couple combis to get to the nearby village of Tsintsuntsan (love the name, pronounced tseen-tsoon'-tsan). It was once the capital of the Tarascan (aka Purepecha) empire, which included the present Michoacan state as well as parts of several neighboring states, and flourished for 600 years, up until the time of the conquistadors. Visited the ruins of the Tarascan city - where, in contrast to my trip to Janitzio, I was the only visitor for most of my stay. Most of the city, which once held 30,000 to 40,000 people, was destroyed by the Spanish. What remains are 5 partially-restored rounded-rectangle stone platforms, called yacatas, which probably were topped by temples, plus the bases of a few other buildings.
 
Approaching the rectangular end of a yacata (temple platform) through the trees.


The rounded end of a yacata

Ate lunch in the village and had my first "gordita" - a little stuffed tortilla, much like the pupusas of El Salvador. These were the first I had seen made with blue corn and mine had a potato, cheese and spice filling. Delicious!


In town I explored the old convent of Santa Ana, with it's huge courtyard and a couple of churches.

Temple of Our Lady of Solitude



Mural in a little open-ended chapel

This is one of the olive trees planted in the courtyard of the convent by Vasco de Quiroga in the mid-16th century and still alive!  It's probably 20 feet in diameter.
Instead of heading back to Patzcuaro by the same route, I took a long walk on a little-used paved road that was carved into the hillsides above Lake Patzcuaro until I reached a combi waiting area near a dock and caught a ride back to Patzcuaro.

View from the road.  The dome is apparently on a private chapel
String of Islands on Lake Patzcuaro

And just 2 days ago I walked to my friend Charle's place in Eronga, then up to the ruins of the Eronga train station - which are quite a ways from the village. The tracks are still used for through freight trains, but there's no passenger service anymore.

Ruins of the old Eronga train station

This round building next to the station has a large rectangular stone chimney-like structure from floor to ceiling inside.  Not sure what it was used for.  There's a door at ground level, so it wasn't a water tank - but maybe there was a wooden water tank on its flat roof.
Had a nice chicken mole lunch in town afterwards for $2.45 - then had coffee and chocolate cake at Dona Mary's before shopping at the market.

So that brings us pretty much up to date.  I'm about half-way through this stay in the Patzcuaro, Mexico area - but I'm already thinking ahead to my next stint in Latin America - so I've used the last of my United Airlines frequent-flyer miles to purchase a ticket to Ecuador!  Planning to spend the summer in Cotacachi, high in the Andes.

Happy trails to all of you!

My favorite of all the pics I've taken here of a cowboy taking his cows to pasture.











Thursday, January 15, 2015

The weeks fly by....

Sunrise 1/14/15


Yes, the weeks have been flying by and the adventure continues, with more beautiful things to see every day.  I always enjoy getting to see new colorful birds here.  One I see often and have already posted about is one of my favorites, the Vermilion Flycatcher.  This is the best pic I've gotten so far, taken from much closer up than the others:





A Cassin's Kingbird singing its heart out.  I see lots of these as I walk the lanes toward Eronga.




















And while I'm on the subject of birds, here are a few more lovelies I've seen lately:
Lots of little cattle egrets around here - but also the  much bigger and showier  Snowy Egrets.

American Kestral sitting atop the flower stalk of an agave

Varied Bunting - shows bright blue when it flies

And the skulking Blue Mockingbird.



A couple days after Christmas I hiked into Mal Pais with my Canadian friends Tom & Kim, whom I had met at Casa del Sol when I first arrived.


Me, Tom & Kim
We took a trail I was very familiar with to the little meadow where I thought it petered out - but Tom poked around and noticed another distinct trail on the other side of the meadow.  We followed that for a little ways and I discovered that it was the continuation of a trail I had taken into the wilderness area from the other side - I found the stick I had leaned up against a tree on another hike.  I was excited to learn that I could now take a loop hike through Mal Pais!

On our way back out, we saw this natural tower of volcanic rock on a parallel ridge,  which my neighbor Frances had led a group of us to on another hike.  We weren't sure of the trail to get there, so we bushwhacked our way to it and Tom & Kim climbed it (it's about 15 feet tall).  I stayed put on the ground and watched - the view was good enough from there!  And we found our way back to the trail without getting lost.




On the afternoon of New Years Eve I went to the 70th birthday party of my friend Charles Dews, at the home in Eronga that he shares with his "adopted" son Juan's family.  There were lots of people there, many new to me, and I enjoyed talking with a variety of them.  It was a bit strange, though, that all the gringos were gathered in the house and most of the Mexicans (including policemen with their machine guns - Juan is a local politician) were out on the back yard.  But the party was fun - and I was home by about 6:30.  No midnight revelries for me!

And I spent a lazy NewYear's Day. Went to bed early last night but still slept in. Spent time out on the terrace that afternoon alternating reading a novel and enjoying the view. This hill is actually the island of Janitzio, rising up out of Lake Patzcuaro (hidden by the trees) and topped by a 162-foot hollow stone statue of Jose Maria Morelos, a hero of the fight for Mexican independence. You can climb a spiral staircase inside the statue, up to its upraised fist, for a spectacular view. Haven't been there yet; it's on my list.


As you know, I take lots of walks.  Sometimes I know exactly where I'm going and sometimes I just head out and see where roads and paths will take me.  Took one of those on Jan. 2nd.  I  set out on a dirt road I hadn't explored yet and it led me through farmland to a quiet paved road that wound its way up to the railroad tracks.  Followed the tracks to a dirt road that brought me down to Eronga - where I was able to do some grocery shopping and take a combi home.  Along the way were some interesting sights, like:

This view of my favorite volcano, with wildflowers in the foreground.

These lovely red wildflowers along the railroad tracks.  They're very  common here - but this is the nicest specimen I've seen.

And this lovely view down to the lake.



And in the evening I got to sit looking out at the view as the lowering sun cast shadows that brought out the flowing lines of this mountain across the valley:



As I was sitting on the balcony reading on the morning of Jan. 3rd, an elderly Mexican man walked by on the road below, leading a donkey piled high with firewood past the driveway where Georgia's SUV is parked. A fascinating mix of the new and the old here in Arocutin!  Often cowboys also pass below, herding their cows to or from their pastures behind the town:



That evening I went to a great concert in Patzcuaro: a French couple on sax and clarinet and a Mexican guy on guitar, playing & singing beautiful Balkan & Mexican music, with a bit of Jazz thrown in for good measure. I was lucky to snag a ride back to Arocutin so I didn't have to leave early to catch the last combi - and was even able to stay for the very talented jamming by local musicians after the concert.

January 5th marked the end of my first month here in the Patzcuaro area of Mexico.  Out of curiosity I tallied up my expenses, and so far I've spent about $750! Of course I haven't really been spending money on travel, which I will be doing a bit of in the future, but still - pretty sweet for a frugal guy like me. And I've been eating out at least twice a week.  Some of the prices that allow me to live so cheaply here:
  • Rent, including utilities and drinking water:  $300
  • 20-mile round-trip ride in a van to Patzcuaro: $2 (that's about what I spend per day on just car insurance back home)
  • 3 avocados:  $.70; roasted, shelled unsalted peanuts for making my own peanut butter: $1.24 per lb.; granola: $1.11 per lb.; pecans: $5.55 per lb.; organic coffee $5.92 per lb.
  •  the gorgeous views:  priceless!
On the 6th I walked with Charles down through the land below Eronga that 40 years ago was covered by Lake Patzcuaro, whose waters have receded.  The area is now divided into farm plots separated by many barbed-wire fences:


I was struck by his harvested field with its golden stubble.

Went into Patzcuaro on the 7th to go to the ATM, do a bit of shopping and help out at the soup kitchen. I had checked on Monday and the woman in charge that day suggested I come about 1:00 on Wednesday to help. Got there a little before 1:00 and helped roll meatballs for the soup - and after 15 minutes they said everything was all set and they had enough other people to serve the meal at 2:00. Not much of a volunteer contribution by me! I'll probably try again  - or maybe I'll find another volunteer opportunity.

On my hike into Mal Pais the next day I decided to document some of the hazards that work to keep you on the trail and watching your step.  Among them were:



Spines on Agave Plants!




Prickly Cactus Plants!

Poison Oak!
























Thorns!




But I still go off the trail, to check out things like these volcanic rocks I'm standing in front of:


And near here I also got to see a great horned owl sitting on a tree branch about 15 feet away.  Unfortunately he flew off before I could get a pic.


The air around here often gets quite smoky because the farmers burn off their harvested and dried out fields.  They do it to clear the fields and because it reputedly makes potash available to the new crops - but it really doesn't help the air quality!  The do it by day:






- and by night!

I'll stop here and continue soon with another post.  Until then, here's a good-bye shot:

Late afternoon light on the wetlands.