This morning was clear but crisp, so we put jackets on and walked back to the mirador at the restaurant for our final look at Volcán Paricutín before taking off. Now that we know what it looks like, it was easy to spot the cinder cone in the distance. We also had a good view of Antigua Iglesia de San Juan Parangaricutiro (the old church buried by the volcano). I would recommend that if you plan to visit, you walk out to the mirador and take a look before getting on your horse for the journey out to the volcano. It will give you a much better perspective before you start your trip!
According to the Lonely Planet, “Angahuan is the nearest town to the incredible Volcán Paricutín. It is a typical Purépecha town: there are wooden houses, dusty streets, as many horses as cars, women in ankle-length skirts and colorful shawls, and loudspeakers booming announcements in the Purépecha tongue.” We could hear the announcements last night as we walked back from town and they continued for a couple hours before starting up this morning about 7 am!
These are a few pictures as we made our way out of town.
This was one of the WIDE streets that we traveled getting out of town. There were a couple times I had to get out of the RV and walk in front of Tobey to guide him when there were cars or trucks parked on the street!
There are many little restaurants like this Comida Economica and we often stop at them for meals.
We headed back 40 kilometers to Uruapan, stopping to fill with propane on the way into town and to the Firestone store for an oil change. 
We followed one of the police cruisers as we made our way through town and passed what looked like a prison. I couldn’t find out information about it, but there were people in all of the guard towers and barbed wire along the inside of the walls. Looks like a prison to me!
At the Firestone I asked about the oil change and told the man we needed 5W20 weight oil. No problem. He pulled the rig in (thank goodness!) because there was a rack of tires along the wall we needed to miss! Okay, they drained the oil and then came and told us they didn’t have any 5W20 oil, they had 10W30. Well, now that’s a problem. They called a few other places to see if they could get it, but no luck. We were stuck getting the wrong oil and they charged more than other places we have seen – and Tobey had his own oil filter. Oh, well. At least they backed the RV out for us, too.
The drive from Uruapan to Pátzcuaro on the toll road went by pretty quickly. It is hard for us to remember that we should drive halfway on the shoulder to allow for passing, even with a continuous yellow line!
We climbed through the hills passing many farms and arrived in Pátzcuaro with its elevation of 7343 feet around 3 pm.
We checked to see if the campground we stayed at last time (El Pozo) was in business, but it is closed down. We continued into town and was able to get a place at Villa Pátzcuaro Hotel/RV Park. They only had one spot left so we took it.
Pátzcuaro is a large town located in the state of Michoacán. The town was founded sometime in the 1320s. After the Spanish arrived and took over, Vasco de Quiroga worked to make Pátzcuaro the capital of the New Spain province of Michoacán. After his death, the capital was moved to what is now Morelia. Pátzcuaro has retained its colonial and indigenous character and has been named both a Pueblo Mágico and one of the 100 Historic World Treasure Cities by the United Nations.
The Mexican government created the 'Pueblos Mágicos' program in 2001 to recognize places across the country that have certain characteristics that make them unique, historically significant, with great traditions and offer magical experiences to its visitors. We visited Pátzcuaro when we were here six years ago and we are looking forward to spending a few days in the region rediscovering some of its magic!
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