On to Patz

Our plan was to take a bus from Barra de Navidad, Jalisco to Patzcuaro, Michoacan. We found there wasn’t one so we were just going to go to Manzanilla and hop on a bus to Patz. Then just to Colima, the just to Zomora, 11 hours later we spent the night in Uruapan, and got a bus to Patz. the next day. It was actually really fun, we had a lovely day of changing landscapes and different flavored cities.

Here is a video of our day in a nutshell, there were actually a few city buses and cabs too. Hopefully you can get a sense of the change in climate and landscape.

Before heading to Patz, we spent the morning wandering around Uruapan’s beautiful Parque Nacional. Our hotel was very near the entrance. The Park was a public works type project in the 1920s and is a maze of paths through a semi tropical forests and waterfalls, rivers and fountains. It was glorious to be immersed in the green greeness of it all and the sound of rushing water.

We went straight from there to the bus station, so we saw very little of the city. It had a very good feel though, and I am looking forward to going back. I will be spending some days there soon, talking to teachers and observing in schools.

The trip to Patz took about 2 hours because we took a local. A direct would have only been 1 hour. We road through many small towns, picking up people anywhere along the way.

Michoacan has very strong, visible indigenous roots. It is also one of the more progressive states in Mexico, so you see more people reading the La Jornada the lefty newspaper, more posters about current issues, there are generally more strikes and protests going on than in Guanajuato, the most conservative state in Mexico. People seem to have more hope and assurance that their actions make a difference.

We met up with some old friends of D and L’s at the library. (They lived here for about a year, 14 years ago.) Everyone was so happy to see eachother and meet Mikko, Matthew and me.

The library from outside.

This is the inside of the library - I thought I had pictures of the friends, but that must have been someone else.

This is the Plaza Chica, from the library - our hotel was over on the right.
One fellow was a teacher, so I interviewed him and the next day went to his class to speak English to his students. He teaches English in a public secondary school (like middle school.) The kids wee very sweet and asked me lots of cute questions: Do you like meat? How do you spell your mother’s name? What is your email?

I had to pretend I didn’t speak any Spanish, which was hard because I like to speak Spanish, and feel kind of proud that I can. In fact the interview was great and meeting all of D and L’s friends. We had spoken so little Spanish for the past few days that I had that fear of losing it - but then I found that I could just slip right into it again, which is so reassuring and makes me feel that I have achieved a certain level. Still so far to go though - poco a poco.

Being in the school was a wonderful experience and got me excited about the observations I will be doing after spring break.

I went to the hospital that day too. My stupid ol’ tendonitis came back, (I got it for the first time about three weeks ago.) I had to go to a doctor, because there is only one kind of antiinflamitory I can take because of being on the blood thinner - such a hassle. But the doctor was very thorough and not only gave me the prescription but gave me exercises to do, unlike the doctor in Guanajuato. I thought it was cheep going to him - 200 pesos ($20) but the doctor in Patz was only 80 pesos ($8)!!

The hospital is the door on the right.

We took some lovely walks, did some shopping, some visiting and just lollygagging and then were off to Morelia for our last two days.

Mikko with the mom of a friend that we visited.

In the combi on our way to the bus to Morelia.