I headed out into Patzcuaro for my coffee first thing in the morning and found Mo and Ken wondering around checking out all the sites close to the hotel. Seeing as how we had a little bit of time before everyone else was out and going, I guided them to one of my favorite spots in town but before we got there we stopped in to see the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de la Solud. This church was completed on the hill overlooking Patzcuaro in the early part of the 19th century. It’s a very nice church but not one that is the most beautiful, architecturally speaking that is… the site that I was going for is the Templo de Sagrario.
I really find this a photographers dream. The interior is in need of a lot of TLC and as the exterior continues to be exposed to the elements without any work being done it will soon crumble. Well we had to look, shoot (our photos), and hurry back to meet the others for our bus ride to Santa Clara del Cabre (the copper city). The last time Louise and I went to Santa Clara, we walked up to the bus station and caught a bus, but this time we lucked out and found a “combi” (similar to a VW van) that could take us all the way. Fortunately we were some of the first on the combi so we all had a seat for the 40 minute drive in some pretty warm weather.
Most of the stores are centrally located around the plaza and ALL display and sell the coffee cups,
plates, pots, and anything else you can think of made of copper or not...
There are a number of places that will allow you to go into the back of the stores and watch the copper being formed into the finished product. At one of the places we were even coached into taking hammer in hand and pound out a design into a pot.
We all had a great time in Santa Clara del Cabre but with time running short, we found another combi to take us back to the docks at Patzcuaro. There we caught a small boat to Isla Janitzio, the island in the center of Lago de Patzcuaro (Lake Patzcuaro).
Boy were we ever caught off guard… Last year when we were here, the whole island was covered with tourists, both those from the states, Canada, and Mexico, but this year we found we were the only “Gringo” tourist there and I’m sure that there was but a half dozen Mexican tourists there as well. This is the island that features a small pan fried fish. They are about the size of a small sardine and cooked well done…I must say it’s a crispy little morsel… Well, were here and we’re going to enjoy some before we climb to the top of the island. The climb to the top is “a climb” and the reward is two fold…the view
and the huge statue of Jose Maria Morelos.
On the way down I lucked out and found a very delightful item that I wanted VERY much.
The only problem was that they (2 of them) were pretty large and I had to carry them all the way back to the hotel ( I got the word, “You bought them, YOU carry them”).