Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Mexico Travel Update

We are still here in Patzcuaro, enjoying the people and culture immensely. I have an internet connection that is better than what I have had recently, but this is not home and broadband apparently has a different meaning down here. I wanted to download the latest update to my Garmin and it would take 4 hours!!! I also wanted to get the Garmin map for Mexico, but I wouldn't have enough time for that either. OK, back to the trip, and this goes back awhile. Please be patient with me.

Going back to Hacienda Contreras over a week ago, a bunch of us went to San Jose, a nearby pueblo where we got to see some stone carvings by the local artist.




This is one example of the work done by this man.


Here are some more examples. The sun carving in the middle will be sitting near our pool in Florida.


Back at the Hacienda, the farmers were gathered to sow chick peas.




Here Sal, Ed, and Pete are discussing the planting progress, maintaining the tractor and tiller and generally warming the air.


Sal sowing the chick peas by hand. He casually tosses the seeds along the surface. Then he ran the roto-tiller over it once more to get the seeds in the ground. It surprised me, but the chickpeas are so big that they will push up from deep in the earth.


Then it was off to Patzcuaro. Of course this is Paul and I have a reputation to uphold, so an easy days travel was filled with unexpected turns and I got lost again, twice! Given the choice at a fork in the road, I will invariable choose the wrong road. It's especially sad because I had explicit directions from Brian, which I forgot about. Eventually we got to Rancho La Mesa and parked beside Brian and Sue.



This is Pazcuaro from our campsite and it really doesn't do the city justice. The city is really beautiful with numerous churches and basilicas, shops and restaurants galore. But more of that in a later blog. I'm only going to catch up a little today.




Here you can see a meeting of the dog walkers, Brian, Tilly, Sue, Sandy, and Helen, that's left to right. Plenty of area for the dogs, but with horses and steers walking free, we really couldn't play much with them.



Coming down from Once Patios (more later) we came across some of the revelry connected with this week of celebration. A lot of the "entertainment" involves a "Toro" of one design or another.



Here you can see a performance of one group of "Toritos". These are very young children and they are reenacting a bull fight. Bullfights are still a part of Mexican culture, but Helen and I will npot be sampling that bit of culture.



A cute little girl in costume.



Here's another cute little devil!



The little boy in the horse and rider costume played one of the parts in the bullfight play.



Another group of "Toritos".


Now for a lesson in Mexican driving. In the picture above you will see the green arrow on the right side of the lights. This means that you have to stay to the RIGHT if you want to make a LEFT turn. Seems simple enough, but it's not always that way. Sometimes you make a left turn from the left lane.




This is the sign you have to look for. It means "get in the right line to make a left turn. But this is Mexico and with or without the sign and lights, some drivers will make a right turn from any lane and left turns for any lanes at all. Also, red lights are a matter of judgement. Some drivers stop, some don't. Drivers in Mexico...BE WARNED!



This is a chick I picked up at the Rancho La Mesa Restaurant. She was very quiet and I bet she wouldn't complain about my driving.


The view from our table at the restaurant, where3 I just happen to be writing this blog.


More characters at festival time.



Just one of many beautiful churches in the city.


A gringo caught trying on a sombrero. Another street character.

OK. Thjis brings us up to about a week ago. I'll try to catch up a bit later. Please be patient. I'm immersing myself in the Mexican culture. Get used to it! I'm bringing the "mañana" mentality back to Inverness, Florida

My two mottoes: Bad decisions make the best stories and Mañana

Adios!

3 comments:

  1. adios!!..great recap of your adventures!!..nice sombero Gringo!!

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  2. I don't know about the sombrero. all the real Mexicans I see are wearing Texas style cowboy hats. MMMMM. Maybe you are a Gringo after all.Hope the girls are doing fine and enjoying their vacation. Rigg's is wanting to go anywhere he will run right to the truck or the trailer if I let him off the lead.Have a great week. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

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  3. Remind us when we are on our way to your house to ask Helen for directions! :-)
    Great pics.

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