March 2nd – El Pozo in Patzcuaro

Brrrr, it’s cold this morning.  At 8 am, the thermometer registers 2.2C outside and 5C inside the rig.  It shows that the temperature went down to 1.5C overnight.  Our car has frost on it! We turn on the furnace to take the chill off while we eat breakfast.

The managers car looks exactly like our first new car, a 1974 Chevy Nova. Yes, that is frost shining on the trunk and roof!

Later in the morning we went into Centro Patzcuara with its many historic buildings. We walked around the town, visiting the Basilica (construction started in 1540), the Plaza Vasco de Quiroga (the Grand Plaza) and the Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra (also called Square of San Agustin). Across from Plaza G.P. were the beautiful old buildings containing the Library and the Teatro Emperador Caltzontzin. The library building was built in 1630 as the church of Saint Agustin, part of the Convent of San Agustin. The three arches of the movie theater on the left were originally the cloister’s façade. The next block contained the market area which is open Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays. We wandered through the market, marveling at all the goods for sale, the meat  shops, clothing and just about everything else. We stop to buy ½ kilo of strawberries for 7 pesos ( less than 70 cents CAD)!  We wandered through many shops surrounding the squares around town selling goods made of silver, copper, glass, woven straw, rugs, tablecloths, etc.  There was a beautiful Galleria situated in the original home of Don Vasco de Quiroga.

 The Library

 The Tourist Police tool around Patzcuaro in this lovely electric vehicle.

These are made b y Global Electric Vehicles, in Fargo,, North Dakota.

While visiting one store a Mexican lady, who spoke excellent English, approached us to ask where we were from.  She thanked us for having the courage to come to her country to visit.  She said so many tourists had stopped coming due to the negative news items. She told us how all Mexicans appreciated us being here. We were truly touched by her comments and added to our love of this vast country.

 

A typical meat shop in the market in Patzcuaro.

Leaving the downtown area was a big problem though. We were using the GPS and thought we were going in the right direction to get to the highway. Instead we ended up in Nowhere Patzcauro on a rough cobble street…and blew the front right tire. We had to stop on the street and remove the bicycles from the rack, the table and chairs and other stuff from the back of the car in order to get to the spare tire. One slightly disabled young guy was eager to help and another woman helped with directions to get us back to where we started. With the spare tire installed, we then had to re-load all the stuff back into the car and bikes onto the rack. We the found our way out of the downtown and finally to the highway. At the first tire shop, we got the tire replaced for 890 pesos…about Cdn$89, mounted and balanced. Of course, I had to go through the bicycle removal routine again.

We got back to the campground in time for happy hour drinks. Aaah, nice.