Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 60 – Feb. 24, 2012 Patzcuaro

Patzcuaro is a cultural and artisan center for the state of Michoacan, Mexico. Founded in the 1320s, the name Patzcuaro was "Tzacapu-ansucutinpatzcuaro" which translates as "door to heaven" or "place where the blackness begins."  Today was market day and flag day, both adding to the excitement as we began to explore this beautiful city.

We started off at the central plaza named after Vasco de Quiroga. Vasco de Quiroga was the first bishop of Michoacan, Mexico and one of the judges that governed New Spain in the 1530s.

  

He moved the capital from Tzintzuntzan to Patzcuaro in 1533 and built a large basilica. He also founded the Colegio de San Nicolas Obispo in Patzcuaro.
Today the plaza was filled with school children. There were several activities celebrating their flag day.

The Templo de la Compania de Jesus was built between 1540 and 1546.

Just across the street was El Sagrario Church. Construction started in 1693 and ended two centuries later, resulting in a mixture of architectural styles.

As we walked north we came to the Basilica de Salud which was built in the 1530s.  Vasco de Quiroga was respectful of the indigenous beliefs and felt that Christianity should not replace their religion, but complement it. The community and people are deeply religious today, and is expressed in many ways. Patzcuaro is widely known for its celebration of Day of the Dead.

As we crossed one street, we noticed the traffic backed up for several blocks. Those white vans are “collectivos,” or a collective bus/taxi.

We had lunch in the market. The little restaurant stall was only about 8’ across and had 2 women working. The long quesadillas were $12 pesos – just under $1 USD and quite tasty! We shopped for fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish. If there was something you wanted or needed, you could probably find it in the market for a good price. 

We went to the Casa de Los Once (11) Patios. This rambling colonial building was originally a Dominican convent built in the 1740s. Today it houses small artesanías (handicrafts) shops, each specializing in a particular regional craft. We wandered through jewelry, clothing, leather, and fabric craft shops selling tablecloths and napkins.

We also were lucky enough catch the parade with the students at Colegio Josefina.

 

All in all, it was a busy day! We are loving Patzcuaro, even though the temperatures are much cooler than on the coast. It dropped to 43°F overnight, but did warm into the 70s today.

GPS 19.54634°N, 101.60065°W

Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 59 - Feb.23, 2012 Zihuatanejo - Patzcuaro

We took the scooter back this morning to see about getting the other brake switch replaced and Francisco wasn’t there. We called and he said he would be there in about 20 minutes. Okay, we wait. He arrives and doesn’t have another part. He took it out, sanded the corrosion off, and it worked good as new and was no charge. We gave him $20 pesos for his time and were on our way.
We pulled out of El Manglar RV Park at 11:15 and followed MEX200 up the coast almost to Lazaro Cardenas. We then drove the Cuota 37D (toll road) to Patzcuaro. It saved a lot of time, but was expensive – $446 pesos ($35 USD). Presa Infiernillo ("Little hell") is a huge reservoir that follows the road for miles. The dam is an embankment dam on the Balsas River near La Union, Guerrero, Mexico. The dam supports a hydroelectric power station containing six turbine-generators.

We crossed several bridges over the reservoir and most of them were in the process of being painted. 

As we climbed higher into the mountains, we passed areas of citrus groves, mango trees, and fields of tomatoes.We left sea level and a temperature of 86°F at Zihuatanejo and climbed to an elevation of 6781’ in Patzcuaro with a current temperature of 56°F!

There were three campgrounds listed in our guide. We decided to check them out – unfortunately I missed some of the written directions and tried to get us here with the GPS. Bad idea. An hour later, several wrong turns, and turn-arounds, we found the first one. This was the view of Patzcuaro from the restaurant area of Rancho La Mesa, the first campground. It was very pretty, but a long way out of town.

The next one had a difficult entrance into the RV parking area and there were two taxis blocking the way, so we skipped it and went on to the third, El Pozo. We found it and both decided that we were not going any further!  It is $180 pesos ($14 USD) for the night. There are two other RVs here, one couple from Germany, and one from Colorado Springs, CO! Small world.

We drove 202 miles today.












GPS 19.54634°N, 101.60065°W

Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 58 - Feb. 22, 2012 Zihuatanejo

Tobey and Cal took the scooter in this morning to see about the repair and it was ready this afternoon. He replaced the right break switch which seemed to be shorting out, drawing on the battery. 3pm and $150 pesos later it was “repaired.”

This morning I washed the RV – at least the top layer of dirt and bugs. The water pressure wasn’t good enough to get the hose to spray to the top, so I was tossing buckets of water up to rinse, sometimes landing it back on myself. Glad America’s Funniest Videos wasn’t around!

Zihuatanejo was was a sleepy fishing village until the 1970s when Mexico’s tourism board began developing the area as a tourist destination. Sport fishing is still a big draw to this area. The beach we are on is called Playa la Ropa (Clothes Beach). The name Playa La Ropa  refers to the sinking of a merchant ship near the bay during colonial times. Its cargo of fine silks, belts, cloaks and fabrics from Bombay washed up in this beach. It is long and the waves are quite mild compared to some of beaches where we have camped.

When I walked back from the beach this afternoon, I saw the smaller of the crocodiles that live in the mangroves. He is about 8’ long and was in the water under the footbridge from our campground to the beach. Fortunately, they have the water fenced off or he would be finding many tasty morsels sunning themselves on the playa!

After we got the scooter back we decided to check out Ixtapa. Ixtapa is a government-planned tourist resort that was begun in the early 1970s and constructed on what was once a coconut plantation and mangrove estuary. There are lots of resorts lining the beach, but it lacks the substance of “real” Mexico. We walked on the beach and saw lots of “gringos.” There were several parasailing operations and jet skis for rent.

We did see this blow fish that had washed ashore. He was about 8” long and puffed up in his finale farewell.

We also drove down to the Playa Linda RV Park developed by Fornatur, the government tourism department. It is a huge parking lot with about 70 sites, all on asphalt. While it is on the beach, it didn’t have any real appeal to us. There were only 5 RVs there!

We headed back to the RV when Tobey noticed the other brake switch on the scooter wasn’t working properly. It looks like we will need to make a stop at the repair shop in the morning before we head inland to our next stop.
GPS  17.62647°N, 101.54465°W

Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 57 - Feb. 21, 2012 Playa Cayaquitos - Zihuatanejo

We left Play Cayaquitos and drove 54 miles up the coast to Zihuatenajo.
We arrived early and found El Manglar RV Park. It is $250 pesos ($19.80 USD) with electric, as long as we don’t use our air conditioner. With AC it is $300 pesos/nt. We have a good ceiling vent fan that keeps us fairly cool, so that isn’t much of a problem. We are tucked in on the right – not any view here, but it is a short walk past the restaurant and over a bridge to the beach.

We took the scooter into town for lunch and a grocery shop. We had a torta, which is a sandwich. Ours was similar to a sub sandwich and each had a smoothie type drink; Tobey’s chocolate, mine strawberry. It was quite good.

We needed to find a thumbscrew and bolt for the scooter ramp and went to four different stores in search of “tornillos” (screws). None of them had thumbscrews, but we FINALLY found a couple wing nuts that would work.

Next stop, Comerical Mexicana, one of the “superstores” with everything from groceries and liquor to housewares and motorcycles! We stocked up and after loading everything into the scooter trunk and our backpack, the scooter wouldn’t start! This is starting to be a real pain. Tobey found a fellow that had jumper cables and he got us going and on our way back to the RV park.

We have really great neighbors here in the RV park and they have been really helpful. Art, our next door neighbor, has a battery charger, so he helped Tobey get that going. Keith & Yvonne called a friend who volunteered to go with Tobey tomorrow to a repair shop to see if they can finally figure out what is wrong with the scooter now. Most of the folks have been coming here for 9-10 years and stay for 2-4 months. It is like a little community that we are happy to be a part of for a couple days.
We finally got to the beach about 4pm, but it was overcast so we just took a walk. As we crossed the little footbridge from the restaurant area to the beach, we spotted one of the crocodiles that are in the mangroves. Apparently there are a couple – this was the small one – about 8’ long! I will take my camera next time …
GPS 17.62645°N, 101.54465°W

Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 56 - February 20, 2012 Playa Cayaquitos

We watched several local fishermen, some with nets, some with small fishing lines. They walk out into the surf and gather in small fish – about 8” long. We couldn’t communicate what the name of them was, they were popular with the pelicans, too!

This is a nice long beach to walk and it was a good day to relax, read, and nap, so we stayed put.
We have been amazed at how many birds there are here. Neither of us is very good at “birding” but we enjoyed watching them. There seems to be more pelicans than anything else, and they hang out where the locals are fishing (or the locals fish where the pelicans hang out).

Along the beach there were other types of birds, all looking for something tasty to eat.

This afternoon we spotted another starfish and sand dollar on the beach, as well as some crabs.

After dinner we spoke to some teenage girls that live near here. We were asking them about the turtles and when they hatch. What we thought were turtle egg shells are actually chiquilique shells. Chiquiliques are a Pacific sand crab, or mole crab. Apparently the birds like to feast on these guys, too. We learned something new. The girls had fun giggling at our Spanish, but I think they appreciated that we tried.

Another great sunset, even the birds were enjoying the late afternoon walk on the beach.





GPS 17.30236°N, 101.05253°W

Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 55 – Feb. 19, 2012 Acapulco - Playa Cayaquitos

The sound of the waves crashing on the beach is much more pleasant and soothing than disco music. We didn’t wake until 8:30 this morning! There were several RVs at the Acapulco Trailer Park, mostly from Canada. We met two couples from Quebec and visited with them a while. One of them has an interesting Class A RV; it is 24’ and the queen bed lowers from the ceiling. It was pretty cool.

Because we have been to Acapulco twice before, neither of us had the desire to go back to the city to do any of the “tourist” highlights or fight the crowds in the markets. After lunch we decided to get on the road.

Less than an hour down the road I kept hearing a new “squeak” that didn’t sound good. I went to investigate and it sounded like the microwave was jiggling loose. Tobey stopped at the next place wide enough for us to pull over and he took it apart. Sure enough, one of the bolts holding it to the cabinet was working loose. He tightened it down and it seems to have gotten rid of the squeak. Topes and rough roads seems to be taking a toll on the RV, as well as us!

We drove through miles of coconut groves and mango trees. There were several places where there were huge mounds of coconuts – and then others where there were piles of the husks. A very popular refreshment here are the coco frios. They chop the end off the coconut and you drink the liquid. We have seen lots of places using the husks as fuel for their cook stoves. We couldn’t figure out what these piles of coconuts were for. Coconut palms, mangos, and bananas lined the road.We knew we didn’t want to drive too far and we had read about a couple beaches that are only a few miles apart and were supposed to have camping spots. We checked out the first, Playa Ojo de Agua, but didn’t really see anywhere that looked promising to park for the night. The second, Playa Cayaquitos about 1 km further north, was much better. We are camped along the beach road with our dining room facing the water. There is a little restaurant and hotel just across the road behind us. The owner said it was no problem for us to park here at no cost.We had a nice walk on the beach – it is more than a mile long. Of course, I didn’t take my camera and we found a starfish which Tobey rescued back to the sea. We hope it survives! We also saw remnants of a sand dollar and lots of turtle egg shells. We may try to see if any baby turtles are hatching in the morning.We traveled 90 miles today. The roads were fairly good and even with the microwave repair time and stopping to check out the first beach, we were only on the road 3-1/2 hours.

GPS 17.30236°N, 101.05253°W