Some Kind of World Traveler: January 2017

Sunset clouds from my terrace

Well, almost a month has flown by without a blog post - I've been busy doing lots of hiking! - but I caught up today.

When I go into town, I usually take a combi (shared van) to the outskirts of Patzcuaro and then walked up tree-lined Calle Lazaro Cardenas toward the main plaza.

Calle Lazaro Cardenas

And even though it's winter, I get to see roses blooming as I walk up to town.

The last stretch is then on Cale Ahumada, lined with colonial buildings painted with the colors typical of Patzcuaro's historic center.

Calle Ahumada. leading to the Plaza Grande

In December they set up a nativity scene of huge figures on the Plaza Grande. These photos show a sample, with a background of buildings surrounding the plaza:

Sheep and Shepherdesses

Masked figure representing the local indigenous Purépecha

Figure covered in Monarch butterflies, which migrate from the U.S. and Canada to spend the winter here in the mountains of Michoacan state.

While I was checking out the nativity scene, a family was in the plaza celebrating the quinceañera of a daughter. Fifteenth birthdays are often a huge occasion for Latin American girls:

Dressed for her Quinceañera

Here are three food & beverage tidbits from Patzcuaro: 1) In the supermarkets here, there's usually a large section for jams - almost ALL of which are strawberry. Preferring to take advantage of the wonderful tropical fruits available here, I scored mango jam at the natural food store and passion fruit jam at Don Chucho's general store. 2) After attending a movie and a couple of art openings, Georgia, Fher and I went out for pizza. It turns out that lots of Mexicans - including Fher - put ketchup and mayo on their pizza! 3) Americans associate Mexico with beer, tequila and mezcal. A very popular drink here, however, is a michelada - beer mixed with Clamato juice! Since Georgia ordered one at the pizza parlor, I thought I'd give it a try. I wasn't able to finish it.

By the 21st of December I'd had a mild cold for a few days, so I'd been resting up. I had to get out on the winter solstice, though. I started out for a short stroll on a familiar trail in Mal Pais - but discovered a new trail and ended up coming out onto my usual trail way out by the other side of the woods - so I made a loop.

View from the far side of Mal Pais

View as I headed home

The next day I wandered through the agricultural fields between Arócutin and San Bartolo, passing this wetland view on the way:

As I walked through the fields, a flock of egrets flew overhead:

And as I walked through San Bartolo to catch a combi home, I spotted this swallowtail on a bougainvillea:

I wasn't very hungry on Christmas eve, so my dinner was a bowl of fresh strawberries accompanied by a glass of white wine and mango juice sangria, enjoyed by the fireplace while listening to music of the season.

On Christmas morning I looked out the window and covering the area was a thick layer of fluffy white..........fog! I received two great Christmas presents: 1) I got to be 4 years older than anyone in my immediate family got to be! 2) In the night Santa delivered - via the internet - my 111-page digital guidebook to the 300-mile European Peace Walk that I'll be doing next summer.

I ate my Christmas pastries out on the terrace while listening to roosters crowing, burros braying, birds singing - and fireworks exploding. And I got a visit from the Blue Bird of Happiness (a blue mockingbird):

I enjoyed a lazy morning, then went for a walk to the Jaracuaro wetlands and returned through the streets of my village

Mexican Prickly Poppy along the road.

Canoeing through the reeds

Juvenile Northern Jacana about to take flight in the wetlands

Kestrel on the wires by the wetlands

Corn - for man and beast - drying on a village roof

On the evening of the 26th, my neighbor Frances and her daughter Gabi led me into Mal Pais to see a tree draped in Spanish Moss - the only one they know of around here.

Frances and Gabi in Mal Pais

Mal Pais oak draped in Spanish moss

Cool seed pod along the trail

I had told my friends Basil & Henriette about the European Peace Walk - and now they're planning to do it! Unfortunately they couldn't get the same starting date as me (you have to register), so they'll be several days behind. Meanwhile we're doing longer hikes together to get in shape. On the 28th we took a 9-mile hike past the petroglyphs, up to and along the railroad tracks, and then down to Eronga, where we had a tasty lunch at Doña Mary's.


Evergreen decorated with egrets, on the way to the petroglyphs

On the 29th I walked with Frances past the spring we had visited before and found our way on sketchy trails to the trail to Tocuaro - where we ran into the same Horta brother that I had met when I found that trail 2 years ago! We saw LOTS of Bromeliads, especially along the trail to Tocuaro. There seems to be a bumper crop this year!

Hanging Bromeliad Flowers

Upright Bromeliad Flower - a bit more rare here

This tree had at least 30 bromeliads in bloom. If you look carefully, you can see at least 20 in this one section.

There were still orchids blooming!

We found some kind of colorful seed pods as well

On the 31st I walked up the cobbled, tree-lined road on El Estribo, the small volcano on the edge of Patzcuaro.

They're about to replace the long cobbled road up to the pavilion - and there's concern that the new work will damage the roots of the great trees along the edge.

At the parking area near the top I met the other expat hikers who had driven up. At the pavilion we enjoyed the view out over the lake.

We hiked a loop below the upper slopes of the volcano, through woods and meadows. Several of us had brunch afterwards out under the arcade at the Gran Hotel on the Plaza Chica. My Omelette Florentino was delicious.

Tropical milkweed along the trail

On New Years Day my friends Henriette and Basil went with me on a 13.5 mile loop hike up onto the ridge above Eronga, over to the pueblo of Zarzamora and down the old road back to Eronga. It was great practice for our long walks this coming summer. We worked up pretty good appetites on the 6-hour hike, so we especially enjoyed our New Year's dinner at Doña Mary's. I had a delicious roast rabbit dinner, and with a beer and tip it came to $8.00.

Me by a Joshua tree in a meadow up on the ridge

Crested Caracara in a dead tree above the meadows. Some sources say that this is the national bird of Mexico, while others say it's the Golden Eagle.

Mating Tropical Buckeye butterflies in a meadow near Zarzamora

View up on the ridge

On January 5th, for the first time, I walked from my casita in Arócutin to the center of Patzcuaro - about 8 miles. The first part was on a path along the main road, but then I was mostly on grassy country lanes.

Corn stacks and volcano along the road

Eucalyptus flowers along the road

The old church in San Bartolo. They've built a bigger, newer one

Lane through the open land below El Estribo

View from the lane

As I passed through the pueblo of Santa Ana, I had stepped into a little shrine dedicated to Santa Muerte (Holy Death).. "Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte (Spanish for Our Lady of the Holy Death) is a female deity of Mexican folk religion, venerated primarily in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees.... The number of believers in Santa Muerte has grown over the past ten to twenty years, to an estimated 10-20 million followers in Mexico, the United States, and parts of Central America." (Wikipedia)

Santa Muerte

Interestingly, Santa Muerte is something of a 'patron saint' for some members of the LGBT community: "Santa Muerte is also seen as a protector of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender communities in Mexico, since many are considered to be outcast from society. Many LGBT people ask her for protection from violence, hatred, disease, and to help them in search of love." - Wikipedia

I spotted these Mexican Silverspots mating while out for a walk on the 6th. Previously I've posted separate pics of this species with wings spread and with wings folded. Here you get to see both at once in a mating pair!

There were 28 of us on the hike I led on the 7th out to the petroglyphs - almost a record for the expat hiking group. It is a beautiful walk!

Photo, taken on a different hike, of the fields the trail to petroglyphs passes through along the treeline in the middle of the fields

Some of the group returning from the petroglyphs

On the hike I noticed a couple of plants blooming for the first time this season:

Lupine

Colorin

On the 8th I took a great 12.5-mile hike with friends Basil & Henriette, from Eronga up to the railroad tracks which took us along the mountainsides above Lake Patzcuaro. We enjoyed sunny skies, a lovely breeze and gorgeous views. After walking down to the pueblo of San Andres, we took a combi back to Eronga and ate a tasty meal at Doña Mary's. The Modelo Negra beer was very refreshing after the long walk and the salmon was delicious. Unfortunately my camera battery died at the start of the hike and I forgot my spare - so no photos.

The next day I led 5 friends on a 9.5-mile hike from Eronga up the ridge to Zarzamora and back to Eronga by way of the old dirt road. And then, of course, we had to have lunch at Doña Mary's.

View from Zarzamora

Farmyard on the old road to Eronga

I'm always delighted at how inexpensive fruits and vegetable are in the markets here. At the Patzcuaro market on the 10th I got an especially good deal: a medium-sized head of broccoli, with a large stem that I peeled and dice for soup. Price: 3 pesos (14 cents U.S.)

And here's where I get to eat most of the food that I prepare at home:

My table on the terrace

And I get to look out at this from my terrace:

On the 11th, Joe led us on a hike to explore some trails east of Patzcuaro for a future hike for the expat group; We had hiked here before - but we needed to find ways to get through newly-added barbed wire fences - which we did.

Our group, up on a hill above Patzcuaro: Basil (with Calle), Joe, Morris, Bruce, John, Kurt and Henriette (with Tennyson & Bonnie)

Looking down on the Basilica

On my way to the hike I had stopped in at the basilica of Our Lady of Health and taken a photo of the interior:

After the hike I stopped in at the building, formerly a church, that houses the Patzcuaro library. It doesn't seem to have a lot of books, but on the back wall is a wonderful mural, painted in 1941 by Mexican artist Juan O'Gorman (his father was - surprise! - Irish).

The mural, depicting the history of the area, is on the back wall of what was once the church sanctuary.

The indigenous Purepecha people

As usual, when the Spanish conquerors arrived they did not treat the indigenous people well


When the benevolent Vasco de Quiroga was appointed bishop in 1538, however, he got the villages around Lake Patcuaro to form cooperatives for mutual aid and each village took on a craft with which to sustain itself financially.

And finally, yesterday I led friends on one more hike - up to the Eronga station ruins and along the tracks, then down to the village of Puácuaro and the shore of Lake Patzcuaro (about 6 miles).