The murals on the colonial buildings in Morelia are no less than amazing. Exploring the ancient city Saturday with Lucía, my fabulous personal tour guide (who, when not acting as guía extraordinaire, also doubles as university student and GEO Juvenil Michoacán coordinator), I took in the world-famous "dulce" market, craft vendors, incredible baroque architecture, and lots of yummy enchiladas/sopes/tostadas/ate/poztole/elote/etc. Stayed in Lucía's family's lovely home, where I was warmly welcomed and enchanted by all the wood details - doors, stairs, furniture, and other fixin's (the state of Michoacán is known for its copper and wood products, as well as beautifully painted decorative plates and boxes). Turns out Lucía's oldest brother (the only one I somehow didn't end up meeting) is an artisan who makes paper mâché beads and boxes. Sol, Lucía's younger sister, presented me with three necklaces from which I was to choose one to possess. Honoured, I picked the light blue, a colour that doesn't tend to suit me; the painted images - a golden happy sun with stars on the reverse - were too much to resist.
Saturday night, we wandered past this huge pink house called la Casa de la Calzada, which Lucía explained used to be abandoned and scary and ugly before it was bought and fixed up by a rich family. She didn't know much more. Peering through the open windows revealed an impressive display of all sorts of art and artefacts, set up explicitly to give glimpses to passers-by. We chatted with some fellow wanderers, who were delighted by my Canadian-ness and took my e-mail address. Then, just as we were readying ourselves to leave, the two of us passed by an open doorway, and somehow started conversing with the people there, resulting in an invitation to actually go in and visit the legendary museum (which, as we learned, is in fact a store) the following day - like, inside!!
Sunday, February 1, Lucía & I headed to Pátzcuaro to check out the Fuego Nuevo celebrations in honour of the Purépecha New Year. Estimates placed more than five thousand Purépecha representatives in the town, where the church-front stage and surroundings were alit with colourful dress and excitement. Indigenous culture and traditions appeared in performance, sport, music, language, and play. Goodies being thrown into outstretched arms inspired me to pass off my camera (which I'd decided was worth the risk to take out for the weekend, despite its injury) and join the crowd in frantic attempts to catch one of the ribboned sombreros, traditionally used in the dance of the old, soaring above our heads. Alas, I didn't catch one, and the bread I snagged later on didn't quite make up for that earlier bajon - I really, really wanted to win a souvenir Fuego Nuevo sombrero (like I’m already not going to have transportation issues getting my stuff back to Canada ;))! Tamales and fruit and dried blue corn kernels also flew, and free food was served all day, but my post-amoeba consciousness just couldn't justify the risk. Got back to Morelia just in time to go to the surprise serenada in honour of Lucía's grandparents' wedding anniversary, where the hired quartet began its set in the street before the house was opened up and we were all (me and the whole, huge family - their 9? children, grandchildren, etc.) invited in.
Since we didn’t go to the pink mansion as per the invitation on Sunday, and weren't able to reach Yuri (the store manager) by phone Monday morning, we pretty much gave up on the idea. We stopped into the candy factory and I bought some ate (natural fruit candy typical of the region) for the folks at the office, went home for lunch, and headed downtown, where we ate nieve (otherwise known as ice cream, and also quite famous - in fact the most popular ice cream chain in Mexico is named for the region). On our way back to the house, we again passed la Casa de la Calzada, and it so happened that Yuri was there. We turned down his offer of cookies, but happily accepted the chance to take a gander (got lots of pics!)…
Rushed back to the house, already an hour after my original departure time… Lucía's mom actually shed tears over my leaving, insisting on gifting me with more jewellery and snacks for the road. I didn't want to go yet (apparently a motif to my travels), but it was almost 7pm, and el D.F. is 4 hours away from Morelia on the fastest express buses, and arriving in the city after midnight alone is not a happy prospect. Lucía's dad drove us to the Central de autobus, and on the way I rescued a cute lil’ inch-worm stranded inside the car.
On the bus, they showed 2 reasonably bad movies. Can't remember the first, but think the second was possibly Canadian ("Cause of Death" perhaps?). Arrived safely at home via metro and micro (don’t know if I’m getting more street-smart or stupider to be taking public transit so late), and was very content to be asleep soon thereafter.
For Spanish info on la celebración del Fuego Nuevo o Año Nuevo Purépecha, see:
http://www.turismomichoacan.gob.mx/img_secciones/noti_2.htm
