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| The Colorin bushes are blooming in the New Year |
I ended my last blog entry with a photo of a sunset over Lake Patzcuaro. On the morning of December 28th, here's what the sunrise looked like:
A nice start to the day, for sure. And it continued with a hike on one of the more obscure trails in Mal Pais. Just before I branched off onto the side trail, this coyote crossed the trail up ahead and watched me as I snapped a photo:
The trail petered out before too long, and I decided to climb a small, rocky hill and enjoy the view before heading back. To my delight, when I got to the rock where I was going to enjoy a snack, I spotted these beauties:
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| Orchids |
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| More Orchids |
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| And even more Orchids! Late in the season, these were just opening |
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| And a wild Dahlia. I've seen several of these in Mal Pais - some on large plants with many other blossoms that had already faded. |
On the 30th, Joe and Maurice, the organizers of the local expat hiking group, lead Basil, Henriette and me on a hike to try to get to a meadow on the saddle of a mountain near Cuanajo.
We circled around to look for a trail up to the saddle between this peak and the one behind it.
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| Basil and Henriette, with their dogs, on the back side of the mountain. |
After cutting through a farmer's field (with his permission), we found a trail that took us where we wanted to go, up the back side of the mountain to the meadow.
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| View from the trail that gradually climbed up and up... |
We made it to the sought-after meadow on the saddle!
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| The Meadow |
We walked to the far end of the meadow, to a shelter used by farmers who come up to tend the fields and horses.
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| Resting at the shelter |
And at the far end of the meadow we found a trail that took us down the other side of the mountain and to our cars. Success!
The new year arrived and I decided to start off on the right foot right away - so I took a 12-mile hike up on the mountainside above Erongaricuaro, to the village of Zarzanora and back.
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| Christmas tree on the plaza in Eronga -covered in reed mats made locally. |
From Eronga I walked up past the old railroad station and continued up the mountainside on a dirt road through the forest - and it eventually became a grassy lane between fields that led to the paved road to Zarzamora.
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| Red-tailed hawk in a dead tree in a meadow |
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| View from where the grassy lane met the paved road. |
It was a long walk on the relatively level paved road - which luckily had little traffic - to get to Zarzamora.
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| Young Joshua tree in a meadow along the road. |
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| View over a wavy wall as I entered Zarzamora |
And an overlook in Zarzamora provided a great view down to Lake Patzcuaro:
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| Lake Patzcuaro |
When I did this hike last year, I took a combi from Zarzamora to get back to Eronga. This year, however, I walked (and walked) down a lovely old dirt road to complete the loop.
In places along the road, pine sap was being collected to sell to companies who use it to
make turpentine, varnish, oil-paint thinner, furniture wax, lamp oil,
soap, etc. It seems the big gashes in the bark would expose the trees to disease and an early demise.
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| Pine pitch oozing into a plastic bottle. |
Among the pine trees and oaks grew madrona trees with their variegated bark
and their lovely flowers, which bees seem to love:
And of course there were more lovely flowers along the way:
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| Tropical milkweed, I believe. |
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| And lovely Lupine. |
Nearing Eronga, I managed to get what I think is the most gorgeous butterfly pic I've ever taken. The light was just right!
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| Mexican Silverspot |
The hike took about 5 1/2 hours - and I was bushed! So instead of cooking dinner, I walked over to the German restaurant, Campestre Aleman, and had a delicious dinner of roast rabbit.
And speaking of food, I'm delighted that this year I've been able to buy Cabot Extra-Sharp VERMONT Cheddar, aged over 2 years, at Don Chucho's little market in Patzcuaro:
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| Life is good! |
On January 3rd (and many other mornings) I awoke to a fog-covered landscape:
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| From my terrace. |
Before too long the fog cleared and I decided I would finally get around to the other side of the lake, which I had never explored. So I hopped on a combi for a very scenic ride around the lake - and managed to get a seat with a great view.
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| Lake Patzcuaro from the north shore |
I stopped and walked through the traditional village of Santa Fe de La Laguna:
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| The village church, whose yard is mostly surrounded by an arcade |
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| Yellow wall and red door on a side street. |
After
stopping in Tzintzunzsan for a coupe of tasty gorditas (stuffed
tortillas), I ended up in Patzcuaro - for a coffee by the plaza, a
glimpse of the Dance of the Little Old Men and some shopping.
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| Dance of Los Viejitos on the Plaza Grande in Patzcuaro. |
Back home, I made use of a great product available here in the market (as well as in Ecuador) : a
bag of hand-chopped veggies. Combined with sautéed onions and
garlic and a base of refried beans mixed into water in which brown rice has
been cooked, it makes for a delicious soup which is a complete meal
(especially with some sharp Vermont cheddar cheese grated on top). I sat down to a bowl - accompanied by a glass of wine - out on the
terrace. As I say so often here, life is good!
On a combi ride home from Patzcuaro one day I noticed a scene that I liked and wanted to photograph, so the morning of the 6th I walked back to the spot.
These
are the corn stacks, with the volcano in the background, that I had spotted. This is one of the volcanoes that covered Mal Pais with
lava around 1460.
And on the way back home I took advantage of another photo op:
The next day I decided to climb El Estribo, an extinct volcano, on the outskirts of Patzcuaro, whose summit is about 720
feet above the town. When I did this hike with my friend Paul Cameron last year, it had been very
foggy, so I was looking forward to clearer views. It's a pleasant walk up a grand, tree-lined
cobbled road to the mirador (viewpoint).
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| The elegant tree-lined road up to the mirador (viewpoint). |
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I rested and snacked at the mirador while enjoying the view out over Lake Patzcuaro:
Then I climbed the 415 steps up to the rim of the crater:
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| Looking back down some of the stairs. |
I walked around the rim of the crater, which now holds farmers' fields:
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| Looking down into the crater. |
And from the crater rim there's a great view out over the town of Patzcuaro:
And zooming in a bit with my camera, I could see buildings around the Plaza Chica:
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| The
former church in the center is now a library, with an amazing mural on
the inside back wall. To the left of it, with the twin towers, is the Teatro
Emperador Caltzontzin (where I'm going to a movie tonight). And on the right is the Santuario de Guadalupe. |
On the 9th I did another nice hike with the Friends of Cerro Blanco.
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| Heading up the hill above Joe's house (after I had walked from town and up a big hill to get to Joe's). |
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| View to the north from the top of the hill |
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| The mountain in the background is the one I climbed on the exploratory hike on Dec. 30th. |
The next day, after a lazy morning, I checked out the birds at the Jaracuaro bridge in the
afternoon. Lots of herons, egrets and pelicans as usual - and these guys (among
others I couldn't get good pics of):
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| Black-Necked Stilt |
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| Cinnamon Teals (Male and females) |
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| Turkey Vulture |
On the 11th, I took a not-very-direct hike to Eronga, taking dirt roads and then a paved road up to the railroad tracks, on which I curved for miles up above the town and then descended for lunch.
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| Corn Stacks not far from my casita. |
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| Los Cuates (The "twin" volcanoes) above colorful fields. |
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| View from the paved road. I'd be very happy to be driving a car and come upon this view! |
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| From farther up the road |
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| Looking down on Eronga from the railroad tracks. |
And, as usual, lovely flowers bloomed along the way:
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| Castor Bean flower stalk. |
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| Yellow flowers. |
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| Not flowers, but lovely seed clusters of wild clematis. |
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| Purple Flowers |
And this little guy continues to attack its reflection in my bedroom window, probably thinking it's another male invading its territory:
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| Rufous-Capped Brushfinch. |
When I arrived in December, mangos, which I love to eat, were scarce and
relatively expensive (for here) at about $1.25 a pound. Suddenly
yesterday there were lots of them at the market, and I bought these
tasty smaller yellow ones for $.51 a ib. I am happy!
Well, this cool, rainy day has given me the opportunity to get an update posted. Now I'm off to the movies ($ 1.12 Senior Rate) with a friend.
