After leaving the Monarch sanctuary (which isn’t too far from Mexico City) early the next morning and starting our 600 plus miles back to La Penita, we found ourselves looking for “just the right” place to have a true Mexican meal. We had a good “Taco Stand” lunch the day before at Ocompo the day before but wanted something and somewhere else for this breakfast. Our destination through the morning and into the noon hour was going to be Morelia so our route took us to a little town beside Hwy 15 called Francisco. It was a great find because right as we were going to turn onto the Hwy we found our restaurant. It was just opening up and after getting out of the car we were taken in with the wonderful aroma of handmade tortillas and tacino (bacon)…we had just found our perfect breakfast spot.
It wasn’t structurally up to “American” standards but it was perfect. The coffee was brewed with the slight cinnamon taste, which isn’t one of my favorites, but it was still worth having my 3 refills. My huevos rancheros were amazing and the others of the group finished everything and couldn’t stop talking about it. We were also treated with a new treat for us. It was like honey but then again, it wasn't...it was sweet, sticky, dark in color, and tasted sorta like molasses/honey mixture but better. What was it, no one could tell us... With our want for food taken care of, we headed east. Our first stop was at the overlook for one of the Parque Nationals (National Parks of Mexico). We were still in “high country” so the views below and across were stunning. It’s great to see that Mexico has set National Parks aside like this for all to enjoy.
We only stayed for a few minutes because we wanted to see and spend some time in Morelia before heading further west to Paztcuaro for a couple of nights. Morelia is the third largest city in Mexico and a huge college town. It is also boasts one of the finest cathedrals in Mexico. Last year when we were there, Louise and I spent hours sitting across the street from it while enjoying drinks or a meal and admiring the beautiful structure and grounds. This year unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky. We were all walking up the road to the cathedral and all of a sudden traffic came to a halt. The sidewalks started to jam up, and cars started making a “U-turn” right in the middle of town…the teachers had planned a major protest and that collimated just as we were within a block of the cathedral and “THE” place that all that kind of thing takes place. I really wanted to get closer but the books tell us to “avoid ALL protests” if possible, so we turned back and found a sidewalk café about a mile back
…all turned out good except for not seeing the cathedral. Well now we’ve got a 50 mile drive to Patzcuaro ahead of us, so back on the Hwy and in a hunt a hotel.