November 15, 2023 Patzcuaro

 November 15, 2023 Patzcuaro

We left our B&B and got an Uber to breakfast. As we waited, I noticed that there was a hardware store next door and they were stocking new merchandise. A man was unwrapping hoses and hoisting them with a pole to hang on a hood near the second floor. Take a close look…

Near the restaurant where we had breakfast, we visited Romance Alley. People attach locks to the heart sculpture before wandering down the alley to do…what lovers do, I guess.

We took an Uber to Patzcuaro which took about an hour. We found an …ahem… interesting ice cream shop with some interesting …ahem… sculptures….

The ice cream was heavenly.

Next we decided to visit the “Casa de Los Once Patios” (House of 11 Patios). This is touted as an area where one can see artisans at work. Yes, we saw artisans at work BUt they were all making lacquer boxes and lacquer bowls and lacquer jewelry and lacquer, laquer, laquer…. We went through shop after shop of exactly the same stuff made of black lacquer with colorful designs. Sorry, no photos of the 11 patios of lacquerware.

Next, we decided to look for the restaurant that my friend Dru suggested we go to that overlooks the “Once Patios” (11 Patios). We knew we needed to go UP to get to a restaurant overlooking the patios so we kept going up and up and up….

At the top of the stairs, we rested and enjoyed the view.  

On the way down, we looked for a restaurant on the second level that we had missed. Even the stairs to nowhere didn’t help us.

 

We gave up. I wondered what Dru was talking about so I went back to her email and discovered that the restaurant was overlooking the central plaza on the patios side. Oh well, we saw a beautiful view of the area and lots of lacquerware.

So here are a few random photos for your viewing… including some murals and the chocolate shop where I bought my cousin, Sally, some chocolate.

A couple of other interesting things I’ve noticed is that the streets are very clean and there are not any tents of homeless people anywhere. (I discovered that they live at the dump.) Everyone works. Maybe they sell a few treats in the square or wash windows at a stoplight or any number of things. At one small square, I saw a man washing car after car parked alongside the square. Then there are the recyclers. They pick up the garbage around town and separate it right on sight. Here are a couple of pics of that….

One last interesting thing was the sign over the door of the basilica. If you are from the old Catholic church, you will understand it.

It says: 

How to earn a plenary indulgence. (Forgiveness of all sins. A free pass to heaven…until you sin again)

    1 Visit this Basilica

    2 To be in grace or go to confession

    3 Participate in Communion at Mass

    4 Pray for Pope Francis

The next entry will be about going to Tocuaro to visit the mask-maker. 

Final note: This blog is taking a long long long time to write because #1- We are always busy experiencing stuff, and, #2- the only place I can get adequate wifi to upload photos into this blog is on the toilet tank in the bathroom of this hotel room…. sometimes. It’s a rather uncomfortable place if you think about it. So, and therefore, it could be awhile before I can get to this. Again. Stay tuned!!!