November 22, 2023 Morelia Tour

 November 22, 2023 Morelia Tour

This day was memorable because we took a fantastic tour of Morelia. Raymundo was our guide.

It was just Michele and I and he drove us around in his car. This guy knew everything…every church, monument, and MURAL.  AND he could name people and dates right down to the day and year. Once he learned that we were especially interested in murals, he took us into out of the way buildings to show us the most spectacular scenes— mostly of the revolution. True history was brought to life with the murals and with his explanations. It was a definite highlight of the trip. 

I can’t explain the murals but I’ll show you a few.

Do you recognize anyone in this next one?

This next mural was the most impressive to me. It’s very bold, vivid and fiery. Raymundo told us that once, when he was explaining this mural to 6 tourists, a man stood to the side listening. Come to find out, the man had painted this mural 20 years earlier and was quite impressed with Raymundo’s explanation. He, the artist, invited him to his seminar. Now that is the best recommendation one can get, right?

One of the churches we visited on the tour was spectacular. The inside appeared to be covered in gold leaf. Raymundo said it was real gold leaf. We went back later and spent more time looking at it.

I was especially intrigued by a couple of paintings depicting the missionaries converting the indigenous people during the Spanish conquest. 

We also discovered a very odd statue of St Francis of Assisi who was balancing 3 large blue balls over his head. At first I thought the balls were additions to the structure, but they are attached to the whole piece like they were originally there. What’s that all about? Even Google was vague on this.

Raymundo also took us to an ex-convent that housed Dominican sisters. Each sister, back in the day, had a dresser, a hairstylist, a masseuse, a cook, and a personal assistant. They came from wealthy families. I guess a few centuries ago, each family was expected to produce at least one priest and one nun. Maybe that was the family's ticket to heaven? Sounds like Northern Idaho to me.

Anyway, at this ex-convent, there was this interesting structure…

It’s fashioned after the aqueduct. Do you know what it is? Of course you do… the local laundromat for the nunnery. HA!

(I can’t believe I didn't get a photo of the real aqueduct!)

We wandered the streets a bit more that day. The city was getting ready for Christmas and we saw workers decorating the streets and the squares with lights and baubles. And we saw Christmas displays in the stores.

Finally, here is a cheerful photo of some food workers to end the day.