We thought we’d go visit Volcán Parícutin, fifty miles and two buses away from Patzcuaro. I’m not sure why we thought we could do this, a day after the kids narrowly escaped puking all over a bus. Actually, we thought it’d be all right because it would be a full size bus, not a kombi van. Well, the bus was packed solid, we were stuck in aisle seats with the kids on our laps, and the drapes on the windows were mostly pulled shut. This left the kids with no fresh air, no view, and mountain corners taken at a speed that required us all to brace ourselves using feet and hands.
It didn’t take but ten minutes for Lowe to start showing signs. Five more minutes and it was clear he was going to blow chunks if we didn’t do something. We were smack dab in the middle of nowhere, but when the bus pulled over to pick a few more people up we bailed out anyway. We’d covered twelve miles. Fortunately there must have been a town down the road from the intersection we got dropped off at and it didn’t take long for an empty taxi to come by. We hopped in and were happy to get dropped off right back at the plaza in Patzcuaro.
I don’t blame him, because the buses have been pretty terrible, but Lowe was never our seasick baby. I half expect this sort of thing from Ouest, but I wouldn’t have guessed it with Lowe. Thank goodness they don’t get sick in our bus.
Lowe is happy doing nothing but driving his cars around the water fountains in the plazas. He seriously requests this as something for us to go and do. When we were at this fountain a few days ago a homeless guy who was acting strange came over to me and Lowe. I had been talking to him for a few minutes when Lowe accidentally dropped his car in the fountain. You can see in the picture that it isn’t very deep, so I started to roll my sleeve up when all of the sudden the guy yanked off his shirt and about dove into the water. He stuck his entire upper body underwater and came up spluttering. Lowe took the car from him, with one eye on me, and a look that basically said, “WTF?”
Literally every fountain in every plaza.
We have found great food in every nearby town, but we have totally struck out in Patzcuaro. Quiroga, fifteen miles away, is spilling carnitas in the streets, and yet carnitas haven’t seemed to find their way here yet. Tzintzuntzan was frying up gorditas fresh on the sidewalk, but I couldn’t find one here. The restaurants we did eat at were unmemorable, to put it politely. But the other day when we were down the road at the bus stop, well away from the center of town, we noticed a birrieria restaurant that looked okay. We had a very good birrieria de borrego, and fifteen steak tacos. Count ’em, fifteen. Granted, they are tiny—only three good bites—but still, fifteen? Food is my biggest fear regarding our family finances. Good thing these were only seven pesos each.
After dinner we walked around the neighborhood a bit. We were hoping to get lucky and be there when a train came by. We told Lowe, “We’ll sit here a few minutes and see if a train comes.” He promptly sat down with his feet on the tracks. We may have to move back a bit if a train does come.
This guy was happy to have me take a picture of his truck. He even tried to get Lowe to sit up on the hood for a shot.
18 Comments on “More Patzcuaro Wanderings”
Love the live-in boxcars.
With the satellite dish on the roof!!
Your photos are always good, but these are beautiful!
wait – WHAAAAAAA?????? you haven’t found the food in Patzcuaro?! We stayed in the Hotel Posada de la Rosa and we ate mostly in the market by the hotel, and around the small plaza. The birrirria for breakfast was amazing, I mean, HOLY COW, amaz-ing. Then at night, the guys went nuts in the stalls with their knives and carnitas. Oh, and did you go to that bread store by the big plaza? Some of their breadly product was truly outstanding – and we got a kick out of how old the place was – the stones were sloping in areas from wear. OH – and before I forget!! I don’t know if you guys like Mezcal? But there is a Mezcaleria (how do you even say that? sorry, my Spanish sucks) that is by the upper small market by the church. It’s SO GOOD. You can go in with the kids and the kids get juice/popcorn and you can sample various Mezcal with choice snacks (bugs!). We are not big drinkers, but we had a great time there. Really nice guys and we learned a lot about mezcal from different regions
If I ever run for office, remind to rent a campaign Beetle.
Funny about Lowe. Byron was the same way — bulletproof on any boat and most car rides, but he would get blue in the gills on this one road out of Santa Barbara (San Marcos Pass, if you remember it). Never could figure it out. He has done fine since, even on the Hana Highway which famously has 52 bridges and 600 bends in the road.
We’ve driven the Hana Highway. Good times. Ali’s sister was married on the beach in Maui and we spent a couple of weeks when we were like 19 years old I guess.
Pat: the photo of the tile roofs? It could have been taken near our house in Taiwan.
LOVE the train track shots. So my question is… the guy who dove in the fountain for the car… was he looking for a tip for his efforts?
Yep, he was.
Doesn’t look too different from my town in rural Pennsylvania, where we wear it out, use it up, or do without.
On many buses in those Southern countries, the bus driver has a stash of plastic bags – one bus in Ecuador was full of school kids and every one ran up for a plastic bag. Not a pleasant ride but pretty clean anyway.
We’ve always got a couple on hand as well.
After reading the lousy review of your book in the comments a few days ago, I bought your book, because it sounded like a good read. It is and I am ejoying it. 🙂
Hi guys, jeez your photos make me want to go back to Mexico again, The red truck in your photos is the same year and model as the one I built a camper on and toured Mexico and Central America way back in 1970. Your photos bring back such great memories. Back then there wern’t drug cartels, but they called them banditos, I know you say you dont read the news but some nasty stuff is going on only 130 km from you now, near Zamora. Be safe and happy travels.
I’d love to see a picture of that rig if you’ve got one.
Been following you since way back when. My goal is for a boat, slightly delayed by an adventure with a camper and two dogs currently going from the east coast to seattel,wa and back again. maybe back and fourth a couple of times.
Any overall thoughts on how you got to this point? OH forget that question,I’ve been reading so it’s mostly there for me to see.
Maybe a question would be “is there some point in time where you REALLY would have liked to turn left instead of right?”
And now that I type this I think the question is pointless. We pick our path and go forward from there.
Maybe, what part would you have liked to have done better/ different? Is there a major point where you would like a “do over”?
Is it strange that the answer to all of those questions is no? I’m pretty damn happy with my life, and all the twists and turns that have gotten me to where I am today. No regrets. And as for do overs, I don’t feel like I need any do overs. If there was something I wanted to do over, I would just do it now, or sometime in the future. It’s not as if any of life’s past possibilities are now out of reach for me.