Uruapan

Driving NW on the autopista toward the city of Uruapan we realized that avocados were big business here for we learned that Mexico is the world’s largest producer of this fruit with the majority of them grown in the state of Michoacán, especially Uruapan.  We arrived in town at 11:30 AM and checked into another Tesoro bed and breakfast called, Mi Solar.  We got a “cama matrimonial,” double bed for 2 nights with breakfast and parking included.  This hotel had been refurbished in 2006 and they did a wonderful job.  Our room was small but very nice.  After getting settled in the room we went out looking around the town.  We found the weaving factory down by the river, it wasn’t in production at the moment, but we bought a table cloth and napkins.  We went into a furniture EXPO which was interesting to see what they were selling.  Finally we headed back to town to see what there was to eat.

Restaurants

 We ended up at a little place called, Ostioneria La Marinera

Seating was family style and we shared the table with another woman and two other couples.  You had a choice of types of sea food cocktail; I had a medium shrimp cocktail for 40p.  It was fantastic; I only wish that I had ordered the Giant size for 80p like everyone else at the table. 

 At night we ended up at the Fonda area off the Mercado de Antojitos Tipicos, I had a chili relleno dinner for 35p which was cooked right in front of me, and it was excellent.

Hank had a chicken mole with tortillas, with drinks our total dinner was 100p.

Points of Interests

We went for a drive north of Uruapan.  Hank wanted to visit Paracho where they make good quality guitars.  To get there we passed through Capácuaro which appears to be a very poor Indian town that makes furniture.  It also appeared to need water delivered because we saw a truck filling up big 50 gal drums at several places.  When we got to Paracho it was market day and the town was alive with food venders.  Most of the regular shops were closed and the traffic crawled through town.  Since neither of us had any great musical talent, we decided not to get out and try to look at guitar factories.  We also decided that we didn’t want to try to find the volcano Paricutín in the national park since the roads appeared so unclear on the map. 

 We headed back to town to the Parque National Barranca del Cupatitzio.  It was 12p each to enter and since it was Mexican family Sunday, there were many people visiting the park as we entered at 12:00.  This is a beautiful park built using the river Cupatitzio to make waterfalls, fountains, and diving pools.  The vegetation is lush and the paths are good except there are many steps.  At almost every bridge area there are food venders who have set up restaurants.  They all seem to sell the same thing, we had a cheese and squash flower quesadilla and then a cup of coconut and a cup of mango.  We were there two hours and really could have stayed longer.