Michoacán
February 18 – March 3, 2008

Planning and Special Thanks

Many people were very helpful in planning this trip.  In addition to guide books we cruisers also listen intently to other’s adventures.  The following cruisers were very gracious to share their experiences with us; Susan, “Two Can Play”, Peggy, “Interlude”, Karen, “Meridien,” and Merry from the boat “Air Ops.”

Land Travel

Our first accomplishment of the morning of February 18^th was jumping on the bus from the marina and going to the Hertz office.  We had requested a standard compact but since they did not have one of those models available, we gladly accepted a 2007 red jeep for the same price.  This turned out to be the perfect car for some of our out of the way places where a pot hole might swallow a car or a “tope”  speed bump might bottom out the if taken at too fast.  With the car all packed we headed north on highway 200 along the coast until it meets 37D.  Highway 37D is an autopista or toll road that has toll booths along it but also is extremely well maintained and gives you the ability to pass other cars easily with having to worry about blind curves. The speed limit is 110 kilometers which is about 65 mph.  A word of warning when you rent a car from Hertz in Mexico.  I only accept the liability insurance and rely upon our credit card to provide collision collision insurance.  However the down side of this is that Hertz puts a hold on funds on your card until you return the car.  Sounds good right?  Well in theory it is but make sure the rental company releases these held funds upon your return, in our case Hertz did not.  We had planned to leave a week earlier and we rented a car but Betsy got sick so I returned it.  Apparently Hertz did not release the hold and when we went back on the 18th to pick up the car we found out that this hold was still showing up on our card.  After much hassle and calls to Hertz and American Express we decided to use another card that has insurance as well.  Don't get me wrong we didn't have to pay the hold fees they just jammed up our limit. 

Cities

We visited the following cities and towns.  Click on the hyperlinks to go to a webpage dedicated to each.  We decided to break it down to avoid a overly long write up. 

Pátzcuaro is known as the crown jewel of highland Michoacán for its serene plazas, impressive churches and pretty cobbled stone streets.  Santa Clara del Cobre is just a short (17km) drive from Pátzcuaro. 
Taxco is known for it's silver.  It used to be a mining town but now is a lovely town built on the side of a hill where you can get some real bargains on silver and a great workout walking the steep streets.
Zitácuaro is a small, busy city known for its baked bread and trout farms, and by itself doesn't have much for tourists but is a great base for visiting the butterflies.
Morelia is the capital city of state of Michoacán and is a UNESCO word heritage site with so many well-preserved colonial buildings that you could spend days seeing everything.
Uruapan is the second most important city in the state of Michoacán and is also known as the "Avocado Capital of the World."
 

Links

Lodging

In Michoacán there is an association of Bed and Breakfast boutique hotels called Tesoros. We stayed three of them and were very impressed.  The Tesoros hotels are indicated by a (T) after them.  Some of these we booked on the internet and found a nice discount.  The prices listed below are the rack rates in pesos before discounts, if any, and taxes ( 17%).    Parking is a premium in almost any Mexican city or town so if you are driving make sure to take into account if there is a charge for parking and how far parking is from the hotel.  Those where parking was not included are shown by a $.  In most towns we opted to leave our car parked and take cabs thus avoiding the parking hassle.

Shops

D’Arte-Sano--Copper factory in Santa Clara de Cobre where they will do custom work.
Zanfeld--Silver factory in Taxco, lovely silver plated statues and jewelry.
Los Castillo--Copies of famous designer silver jewelry, including William Spratling, Antonio Castillo, and others.
 

Back Home 3/03/08

Our last day, we were tired of driving and looking forward to being in our own bed.  After check out we had to drive back to Santa Clara de Cobre to pick up our table that we had ordered.  We got to the store at 10:40 and no table was in sight.  David the young man who was running the shop said it should be here at any time.  We had coffee and then at 11:30 we decided to take David up to the factory to see what was up.  Long story, no table, they didn’t have the wood for the legs, but we got 9 tiles and a large copper vase instead of a table.  We drove off leaving Santa Clara at 12:50.  We arrived at the boat about 4:30, unloaded the car, went to the market for provisions, unloaded them and then went out for dinner.  That night we realized again how good it was to be home and how great our bed felt to us!