Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 61 - Feb. 25, 2012 Patzcuaro – Quiroga - Patzcuaro

We took a boat to Isla de Janitzio, the largest of the five islands located in the Lago de Patzcuaro this morning. The island is inhabited by Tarascan Indians. It is a “touristy” kind of thing to do, but we enjoyed it. The round trip boat fare was $45 pesos each ($3.50 USD).

  

Steep stone sidewalks weave their way to the top of the island where there is a huge statue of Jose Maria Morelos, a hero of the Mexican independence struggle. We paid our $6 peso entrance fee (about $.45 USD) and went inside. We were able to climb the stairs all the way up in the arm. Once at the top, there is a small bench and Tobey climbed up to the window to look at the view. There are vendors and restaurants all along the walkway and the steep steps reminded us a little of Greece.

When we got back to the dock area we saw the fishermen doing a demonstration of how they used “butterfly” fishing nets. Now it is just for show, but in years past these type of nets were used by all of the fishermen.

After our trip to Janitzio, we took the scooter up to Quiroga, a pleasant town near the north shore of Lake Patzcuaro. It has served as a marketplace for surrounding towns and villages for more than 500 years so it was fun shopping.

The stands on south end of the main plaza are famous for their excellent carnitas, so we made that our first stop. Carnitas are tender bites of steamed and fried pork served with a stack of tortillas and freshly made salsa, or as a filling for tacos. Many of the vendors were giving samples trying to tempt us to buy from them. We got pork carnitas tacos from two different stands just to check them out. The meat was delicious, but the pico de gallo was really spicy!

We wandered the streets and looking at the handicrafts from several vendors, many of which are from neighboring towns.

We enjoyed sitting in the late afternoon shade at the square doing a little people watching.

Restaurants and shops line the arched walkways surrounding the square.


On our way back to Patzcuaro we did a quick stop in Tzintzuntzan to look at some of the crafts, pottery, and stonework. Many of the vendors were closing up shop because it was after 5pm, but there was still a lot to see. The long garlands were made from straw or pine needles and for every occasion. Some looked like Christmas decorations, others looked like they were for weddings or birthdays.

While we were in Quiroga, Tobey thought we should have the scooter looked at again since it was not running smoothly at the high altitude. We found a repair shop and they actually seemed to do more damage than good. On our way back to Patzcuaro, the scooter died and Tobey had to push it quite a ways before there was a place wide enough to stop. He left me with the scooter and took a collectivo back to get the RV. He came back and we loaded the scooter, called the repair shop, and headed back to Quiroga. They changed a spark plug, fiddled with it some more, and it seemed to run. We loaded back on the RV and headed back to Patzcuaro AGAIN, this time in the dark. Neither of us very confident about the fix and will probably be taking collectivos or taxis to do much of our sightseeing from this point forward.

There were several things we didn’t see in the area surrounding Patzcuaro, so we have added it to our “we are coming back here” list!

Tomorrow we head back to the beaches and work our way north.