March 6, 2018 - Pátzcuaro, Mexico

Today was a great day! We took a collectivo (small vans equipped to hold 10+ people) into the Centro. We got out right by the Plaza Vasco de Quiroga where there is some major road construction going on. The workers are placing the bricks and cobblestones by hand and will come back and put in the mortar later to hold it in place. No asphalt or concrete to destroy the authenticity or character of this city!We had no set destinations in mind when we got here, so we just took our trusty tourist map and started walking.

This is the Templo de San Francisco. In the interior there is a Christ made of corn paste made in the 16th century and an oil painting representing the two most important figures for this religious order: the Pope and Saint Francis of Assisi.The construction works of El Sagrario (below)began in 1693 and came to an end two centuries later, resulting in a mixture of architectural styles. This building housed the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Health until 1924.The Basilica de Salud was built in the 1530s. It is the most important temple of Pátzcuaro, whose peculiarity is that it is not located in the central part of the city, near the headquarters of the civil power, as in most of the cities. It was built by the order of the first Bishop of Michoacán, Don Vasco de Quiroga, on a pre-Hispanic ceremonial center, which meant a religious transformation. Vasco de Quiroga was respectful of the indigenous beliefs and felt that Christianity should not replace their religion, but complement it.

Now the grounds around the Basilica are the location of many vendors selling everything from typical clothing to medicinal herbs.The building below was constructed in 1576 as an Augustinian Convent. In 1938, General Lázaro Cárdenas declared it the site for La Bibliotheca Pública Gertrudis Bocanegra. The library is interesting not only because of its architecture, but , as well as for the beautiful mural inside. How often do you see a card catalog in a library now days?Much of our afternoon was spent wandering through the markets – and there are many!  This lady was selling “corundas,” a tamale like food made of a corn dough and cooked in corn husks. We had to try one since they were only $10 pesos (about 60 cents). She peeled it and put a cream sauce and green chili on top. Not bad!After our corundas, we stopped at this stand to have tacos for lunch.These are just a few shots of different things in the markets.Need Fruit Loops? You can get them in bulk.How about some dried shrimp?Or some fresh fish?Medicinal herbs?SpicesWe bought 2 kilos of mangos (10 mangos!!) for $15 pesos here. That is about 9 cents a mango!! We got a pound of strawberries for 5 pesos (25 cents!).It was a good shopping day!!We saw this fruit for sale at many of the roadside stands all over Michoacán. It is a small, sweet, yellow fruit which has a very pungent and distinct flavor and smell. The taste was hard to compare to any other fruit, but the closest we could come would be a cross between a pear and an apple. We tried them, but didn’t care for them.These were some of the streets we wandered.Lobby to a hotelOne of our final stops was the Casa de Los Once (11) Patios. This rambling colonial building was originally a Dominican convent built in the 1740s. Today it is home to small handicrafts shops, each specializing in a particular regional craft. We wandered through jewelry, clothing, leather, and fabric craft shops selling tablecloths and napkins.We even had an opportunity to see one man working on one of the old hand operated weaving looms.We got back to the RV about 3:30 on the collectivo – just beating a HUGE thunderstorm! The rain lasted about 30 minutes and cooled the temperature down quite a bit. Tomorrow we are planning to go touring on the motorcycle. We will get an earlier start to avoid any afternoon showers!