This is an orphaned draft of a blog post that I started writing in February 2016. I’ve decided to release it with minor modifications in November.
Every day is so full of new things, and there is no time to write the blogs I have planned. Yesterday we were supposed to experience our first rain day of the entire trip, but we had just one thunderclap and a few drops of rain. So we took a taxi to the top of the extinct volcano, and then walked all the way down. It was beautiful to see almost all of Lake Patzcuaro from such a height. On the way down we saw peacocks in a private yard, and kitties, and drug addicts in the square. And we had tacos made from cueritos (skin) at the carnitas place that sells out in one hour flat every single day. So many stories to tell! The new experiences come in torrents and dribbles as we make our way across new lands.
It’s been very dry and you can see how parched is the landscape. It looks like some farmers have had burn-offs, maybe intentional. Pretty soon the rains will come and the lands will green up again. In the meantime the berry farmers are going great, with all types of berries growing in sheet-plastic greenhouses across the countryside. On our walk down the volcano we saw wilderness, dry farmers’ fields, and evidence that horses or donkeys had taken these paths. The road was rough and rocky, with the original fist-sized stones exposed and jumbled, but the foot paths alongside were a doable challenge.
Around 1540 the benevolent priest Vasco de Quiroga brought artisans from Spain to install a unique handcraft industry in each of the local indigenous communities, assuring that they had ongoing ways of making a living without competing directly against each other. We have enjoyed seeing the artwork and I regret that we can’t take much of it home with us.
