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.