Here are some highlights from the past several weeks.
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| The moon setting the morning after the solstice |
On December 21st Henriette, Basil and I joined the Morelia group for an
early start on a long hike up Cerro Quinceo above Morelia - with about
a 3,000-foot gain in elevation.
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| Mistletoe blooming along the trail |
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| View as we neared the summit |
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| Heading back down |
On the 23rd, after walking up to the mirador on El Estribo, I climbed the 417 stairs to the crater rim:
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| Looking up the stairway |
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| View over Patzcuaro |
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| Corn growing down in the crater |
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| Flowers along the road |
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| Pale sicklewing butterfly |
In accordance with what has become my Christmas tradition, on the 25th I
took a leisurely hike through the Mal Pais forest, then stopped at
Campestre Aleman, the German restaurant. I sat outside overlooking the
fish pond, where I wa content to see 7 geese a-swimming (no swans
available). I savored a glass of wine with my dinner of trout covered in
macadamia nuts, then sipped a cup of coffee while enjoying a piece of apple
strudel.
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| Prickly Pear in a pasture |
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| My kind of Christmas tree - adorned with egrets |
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| View of farm fields fron the ridge I go up to get into Mal Pais |
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| Orchids blooming on Christmas day! |
On the 28th Basil, Henriette, Bruce, Jeff and I hiked up between stone walls, through a pine forest and past the ancient ruins in Ihuatzio.
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| Bruce led us up to this view of the pyramids and surrounding countryside |
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| Lots of stone walls around here! |
On New Years Day seven of us hiked from the town of Ajuno, passing between the twin volcanoes to the petroglyphs and on to Arocutin:
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| The happy hikers: Basil, Henriette, Bruce, Gabriel (a Mexican botanist), Jeff and - kneeling - Carlos (a Colombian entomologist) |
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| One of the twins looming over a pasture |
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| Petroglyph |
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| Carlos the entomologist specializes in dung beetles - and he found one for us. |
On the 2nd I joined the Patzcuaro exploratory hike and enjoyed the views and wildflowers:
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| Mountains rising out of the fog. |
On the 3rd I walked up Calle Serrato, across from my place, to a little church and its cemetery:
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| Church of El Cristo |
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| Floral decorations around a grave. |
On the 4th Basil, Henriette and I joined the Morelia group for about
a 7-mile loop through a huge meadow and a
mountain forest to get to a series of waterfalls and pools - where several others and I jumped into the chilly water. Then on
the way home we stopped for great barbecued ribs.
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| Cows in the meadow |
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| Row on row of ridges |
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| Pat and Fermin headed for a shower under the big waterfall. |
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| By the stream at the top of the waterfall we toasted with mezcal to celebrate making it up the steep slope |
Traditionally in Mexico it is Los Reyes Magos - the three kings - who bring gifts for the
children. The kings arrived in Patzcuaro the evening of the 5th (passing right by my door), and
the next day, on the Feast of the 3 Kings, the children received their
presents.
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| Melchor |
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| Gaspar |
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| Baltazar |
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| Little jesters on Baltazar's float. |
On the 6th we took another hike in Ihuatzio. Only
a small section of the ancient ruins there are restored and open
to the public. As we drove up to the well-known site, I noticed a row of three un-excavated yacatas (pyramids). This is one of the three, with rounded bump-out on the back like the ones in Tzintzuntzan:
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| I could see the rounded bump-outs on the back on Google Maps' satellite view). |
On the 8th I took a nice walk in the woods on Cerro Blanco and down to the highway near the
town of Tsurumutaro:
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| Eroded bluff in the woods |
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| Multi-colored meadow in the valley |
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| Meadow, corn field and mountain |
On the 11th my friend Francis and I went exploring in Mal Pais. We followed a trail we knew, then bush-whacked in a rocky valley with little
caves and climbed some interesting hills that were basically piles of
volcanic rock. And we didn't get lost!
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| Forest, fog, mountain and cloud |
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| Francis with a bouquet of medicinal Gordo Lobo (Fat Wolf) flowers |
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| Agave flower stalk, gone by |
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| Moss, lichens and ferns on the rocks |
While exploring we saw some interesting flowers:
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| Flowers that bloom on rubbery stems before any leaves appear. |
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| Wild clematis gone to seed |
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| Upright bromeliad flowering |
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| Pendant bromeliad gone to seed |
That brings this post pretty much up to date. I'll end with a few shots from around Patzcuaro:
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| Stone cat on a funeral parlor roof |
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| Dragon door on a restaurant |
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| Cool chimneys on Calle Ahumada |
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| Calle Ahumada on a quiet morning |
