Catching Up

Bob has posted some great pictures and, miraculously, a video clip of the Indian dancers in the zocalo at Patzcuaro. Let me see if I can recap the last few weeks. My friend Joni Batten and her husband Bob Cooke were here from Tarpon Springs. Joni and I have been friends since we were kids, and it's really amazing to get together in faraway places and consider just how far (and how long!) we've come. Bob Cooke is an artist of photography and he mentored my Bob (our parents had no imagination when it came to names!), sharing tips on technique and photoshop. We drove to Patzcuaro on Thursday, July 12th. It takes about 4-5 hours through the green (for now) highlands of Mexico. Patzcuaro is over 7000 ft. in altitude, and the landscape reflects that. Some places reminded me of the mountains of NC. It was much cooler there, and we had to wear jackets or sweaters in the evening and morning, but it was very pleasant, in the 70s, during the day. Our B & B was beautiful and very convenient to everything. Once we had parked the car when we got there, we didn't move it again until we left two days later. Patzcuaro is another colonial town that dates from the early 1500s, just after the Spanish conquest. We saw churches from those colonial days and the remnants of the temples from pre-conquest times that had been ravaged by the Spanish to build their churches. Fascinating history with so many layers and complexities. Textiles are a major industry in the region, and the markets had beautiful shawls, tablecloths, rebozos, ponchos, etc. woven from cotton and wool. The markets can be overwhelming. So many things, so beautifully made, and so inexpensive.

While we were in Patzcuaro, we met a couple of women traveling together. Debbie and Arianna met while they were teaching in California some years ago. Arianna's husband isn't quite the traveler she is, so she and Debbie have big adventures every year. Debbie is the principal of an elementary school in San Francisco and Arianna has retired to the California hills, Grass Valley near Tahoe. We picked them up in a restaurant, as expats are wont to do, and they were trying to decide between going to Guadalajara or Ajijic next. They decided on Ajijic, and we gave them a ride back here in the back seat of our van. (Arianna's husband was a little concerned about how careful a driver Bob would be.) Meeting other people here is so interesting. Debbie and Arianna stayed at a B & B down the street from us where we stayed last November and joined us on a day trip to Guad.

Driving through the heart of Mexico on superhighways, seeing the most dramatic and beautiful landscapes, is a real treat. Sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, we're in Mexico! It's so unlike--most of the time--American stereotypes of Mexico.

Tzintzantzun and Patzcuaro Jul 07

The four of us hit the road for a couple of days last week to explore the region just south of here. First stop, the village of Tzintzantzun, so named by the Indios for the sound that a hummingbird makes. Highlights included a Church compound built in the 16th century, with great architecture and olive trees still surviving from that era. Also, the Straw Market, with everything from Christmas decorations to cooking stuff. For pictures of Tzintzantzun, click here.

Then, on to Patzcuaro, a picturesque town on a lake at around 7000 feet. Cool enough for jackets in the morning and evening. Stayed in a very nice B&B, La Casa Encantada, just off the main Plaza and wandered the town for two days, visiting the many markets and museums and eating very well. Highlights included Los Viejos, a masked dance troupe that performed in the Plaza. I've tried to load a video. Hope it works. Here's a short video clip of Los Viejos.


Meanwhile, for more pictures of Patzcuaro, click here.

Flash! We're still here!

We know it's been a while since we last posted, but it was only a short time between Ed and Kris' departure and Joni and Bob's arrival. We stayed quite busy with the latter, posts re our travels to follow shortly. Anyway, having a great time-- and getting used to being "unemployed." (Photo courtesy of Bob Cooke.)

Manzanillo July 2007

Drove to the coast with Ed & Kris to explore the small town of Manzanillo, a couple of hours south of Puerto Vallarta. A scenic drive, through the mountains and across salt flats (beginning to flood with the seasonal rains), through miles of coconut palm groves, underneath which are planted banana palms. Unfortunately, didn't stop to take pictures. However, we had reservations at a very nice hotel, on a bay, first class. We were going to stay two nights, but the second day turned up cloudy and drizzly, so we checked out and came home. Learned a valuable lesson-- don't go to the coast in July!! The humidity was high enough to even bother Ed and Kris! Anyway, very pretty and worth a return visit-- but during cooler weather. Click here for more pics.

Guadalajara

Last Tuesday we took a guided tour of the Centro Historico of Guadalajara while Kris and Ed were here. Actually, the guide drove us around a few neighborhoods where famous (and infamous) people had lived first. Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico so it's quite cosmopolitan but also very old. The earliest churches date to the early 1500s. I guess the conquistadores had barely conquisted before the priests were right behind them converting the Indians. Anyway, we saw some lovely buildings and very stirring murals by Orozco, Mexico's second most famous muralist (Diego Rivera being the first). We also strolled through la Labertad, the largest market in the Americas. Fortunately, we'll have lots more opportunities to explore Guad (as it's called here) since it's only about an hour away. Another day we visited a town on the edge of Guad, called Tlaquepaque, which has 20-something streets of Mexican art, crafts, furniture, textiles, etc--very overwhelming. We only managed to get through about 4 square blocks, barely touching the surface. For more pictures of Guad centro, click here.

San Juan Cosala

Every village in Mexico has a patron saint and when their saint's day comes around, they have a festival to honor him (her?). The little village of San Juan Cosala is about five miles, mas o menos, west of Ajijic, still on Lake Chapala. It's very small with just a few streets, but has a lovely church and its own little square. For a week, villages celebrate their saint, but on the last day, the celebration culminates with a procession from the church, around the streets, and back into the church for mass. Since this village's saint is St. John the Baptist, most of the floats depicted scenes of his life from the Bible. In addition, many of the little boys (including a couple of babies) are dressed in fake fur wrappings, a beard drawn on their faces, and carrying a staff as St. John did in the wilderness. Little girls wear their communion dresses (why not? Before they grow out of them!), and much of the village walks behind the procession, some carrying candles and walking barefoot in penance. The parade also had a mariachi band that later played inside the church before the mass. There was also a brass band and several groups of adults and children dressed in Indio costumes, dancing with bells and shaking rattling things. Very cool to see. All around the square were booths set up selling food and beverages. Bob and I each had a chicken tamale steaming hot from the steamer pot. Some booths have fresh fruit cut up that you buy by the extra-large cupful: mango, pineapple, guava, watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe, a sweet cactus fruit, and so on. Several grills were set up to grill meat and veggies to stuff into tortillas. Some stands were selling beer and tequila and aguafrescas, a sweet but light drink made with various kinds of fruit. It was a very lively scene. We didn't wait around for the fireworks though which would have been a few hours later.

The "other" Gabriella

For the record, we also have a Gaby in our Mexican lives - that's her, on the left, with her niece, Diana. Gaby is our housekeeper and comes three mornings a week to help keep the place clean. She's 22 and from San Juan Cosala. Practically no English, which is not a great bother for Betty, but limits my communication significantly. But she's eager to learn English and we quite often trade translations of things, assuming we've been able to agree via sign or context what we're talking about.