Month: February 2020

This blog is a little late as I have a cold and no energy.

When we left the copper foundry we were walking back to the bus minding our own business when we spotted a few people from our tour in a small brewery. We decided to stop and share a beer until we found out that one of the beers had CBD in it. Now we had to have one each. They were good and helped with the aches and pains from climbing the mountain two days ago.

There were a number of stills on display in a few of the stores but Rosalie wouldn’t let me get one.

They say that copper has a lot of beneficial health properties, Some are based on scientific studies and I’m sure some are a myth. So, I Googled it and found that although copper is essential to our diet, there is no evidence that wearing it as Jewelry helps. I’m going to wear mine anyway as I hear that it helps to fend off werewolves.  

At lunchtime, we went back to the hotel. We wanted to get money from the ATM around the corner but there was a huge lineup even though there were about eight machines in there. In the middle of this crowd, there was a lady calmly mopping the floor.

The trip back to the bus was by a Colectivo. Dan and Roberto were unable to get close to the hotel for once. Colectivos are a cross between a bus and a taxi. Ours held about fifteen people. It was a bit cozy but another a new experience.

That afternoon, we went to Tzintzuntzan. It’s better if you break it up “Tzin-tzun-tzan” The Z’s are pronounced as S.  It means “The place of the hummingbirds,” although we didn’t see any. There are ancient ruins there (not just the people from the bus) and some have been restored. (Again not the people from the bus. Most of us are unrestorable.)

The parts that have been restored have small rocks inserted to show that it is a renovation and not the original. On the way in we saw an albino squirrel. Probably another one of Alan’s Mexican relatives.

After that tour, we went to the local town to see two graveyards featured in ”Coco” a movie about the day of the dead.

Because it was Valentine’s Day the hotel laid on a special meal with entertainment by some of the local natives. The video doesn’t do it justice. The dances had boards attached to their shoes and the noise was deafening Another great day.

Today we went to Santa Clara. It’s amazing to see our huge bus wend it’s way through the narrow streets. The bus has steerable rear wheels as well as a great driver Roberto so that helps. 

We never really know how far we have to walk when we leave the bus as it’s hard to park in such a small town. But Dan does a really good job and with Roberto and some times a few pesos, we don’t often have to walk far.

Today we were at the copper foundry ‘El Puertón’ in the town of  Santa Clara del Cobre. They gave a great half-hour presentation of how they make the items from scrap copper. They use copper from old wire, electric motors, old pots and pans and anything else made of copper as the mines ran out years ago.

The copper is melted into chunks of various sizes depending on the size of the piece being made and then the pounded flat like this:

All the items are hand made and some take up to six months to complete. The only mechanical thing in the place was the fan to blow air for the forge.

When he took it out of the water it was clean and ice cold because copper is such a good conductor.

The copper trade is a very generational thing. One of the guys, Miguel, is the fourth generation of crafters and his son is also Miguel or Miguelita. Miguelita is like an apprentice. He goes to school during the day and learns his trade in his spare time. They have to start young to find out if he’s any good, also to see if he wants to continue in the trade. He says he’s liking it so far as the tourist give him tips.

After the presentation, we went to the store and because there was a lot of stuff, Rosalie bought most of it. She said that, as I had purchased a $130 guitar, she had the leverage of $1,300. Of course I jest. We have been really good on this trip and kept spending to a minimum. Having said that, we thought we would need to visit an ATM to top up. We did, however, buy a copper water bottle. It’s quite beautiful and of course very healthy.

Our day didn’t end here so now we are off to see some architectural ruins.

 

Up early again. Breakfast at seven and on the bus by eight. We had another two and a half-hour ride to the mountains.

On the way up we had to stop as we were crossing from one municipality to another. We had to pay a “toll” as the municipality we were leaving receives no revenue from the butterflies,

When we reached the town of Ocampo and got off the bus, we had to walk uphill a bit to get to our ride up the mountain. Walking doesn’t sound too bad until you realize that we were at 10,000 feet and the air was thin.

We had the choice to walk up or ride on a horse. We chose to ride as we had another 2,000 feet uphill to go. It was very steep, rough going. Each horse was accompanied by a guide who walked or ran alongside or behind. Halfway up, Pat came roaring past, hanging on for dear life. At the top, we got off and took a minute to calm ourselves and wait for Mike. 

They rotate the horses at the top so that they get a good rest. Not the guides though, they ride/gallop back down to get another customer. They have to be very fit because they have to run up 2000 feet at that high an altitude

There was still another 300 meters for us to climb and it too was rough going. It was worth it though as the Monarchs were spectacular. We had to be very quiet and no flash photography. They are mostly huddled together for warmth against the trees and branches and don’t want to fly too much as that burns energy. There were hundreds flying around though.

We also saw hundreds of dead ones lying around. One of the guides would pick some up and turn them over and then put them to the side. I think he was looking for tags. 

We chose to walk down as I didn’t fancy riding down on that steep hill. The walk wasn’t too bad but we had to stop a few times to rest our knees and get our-breaths back.

At the bottom, we were surrounded by vendors and people trying to get you to eat at their taco stand. I found it very annoying at first as all I wanted to do was rest up. We found a restaurant with Mike and Pat and had a bite to eat.

Afterwards, Rosalie was surrounded by kids selling stuff. She bought two shawls but then noticed a third little girl who hadn’t sold one. So now she has three, as well as a bunch of other stuff. I just stood to one side with my wallet open as Rosalie had left her purse on the bus. On the way back to the bus we walked through a gauntlet of stalls.  At the end was a little girl wearing butterfly wings so I took a picture. She immediately demanded 20 pesos which was way too much so she only got ten, which was also too much.

The drive back to the hotel was uneventful except for a glorious sunset. Rosalie and I went out for a snack and then tried to buy some white wine. We tried three places but could only find red. I started to panic but Rosalie calmed me down, pointed out that we had enough for the evening and we could get more tomorrow in Patzcuaro. Phew!

We had to be up early as our bus left at 6 am. We were off on our tour to see the butterflies at Morelia in the state of Michoacán. We walked to the taxi stand at 5:30 only to find it empty, so we decided to walk. It took us twenty minutes and we had to haul one carry-on case, one backpack and another bag.

We arrived on time but the bus didn’t. It arrived at about 6:20 but that’s Mexico. Nobody complained, we stood and chatted while we waited.

The trip took eight hours and we had frequent stops on the way. Also, we were given snacks on the bus. We arrived at three-thirty and after checking in went on a short city tour. While on the tour we were told that there was a special event at the cathedral at 8:40 pm. That of course bought a laugh as nothing here is that precise.

We met up with Mike and Pat at 7 pm and went for a really nice dinner. Then, we walked to the cathedral to watch the show. They do this event every Saturday but there was a special group in town so they did it today instead. Our tour guide Karen said that we were the special group. Yeah right!

The elevation in Morelia is 1900 meters about 6300 feet. It makes it a bit harder to breathe but not too bad. The temperature is a lot cooler and we had to bring heavier coats and long pants.

The Monarch butterflies migrate from Canada and the Eastern States from October to March. About 100 million of them fly 2,000 miles to Mexico. It takes them about two months. They converge on an area 50 miles wide near Texas and proceed as a group the rest of the way. They go nowhere else in the world just Michoacán where they stay for about five months,

They fly at 10,000 feet and rely on the air currents to carry them to save energy. Over the Great Lakes, if bad weather hits they will land on boats and anything else that floats until they can take off again

They arrive in Mexico in late October and early November. The Mexican people believe that they are the souls of the dead and have a huge celebration culmination in Las Dias de Los Muertos (“The Day of the Dead”) November 1st.

This is the fourth generation in one year, because, on the way back they stop in Texas. They mate, the females lay about 400 eggs each and then die.  The new generation then does the same thing further north and  finally again in Canada. Where the whole process starts again. It takes nine months to make the trip back.

It’s amazing to think that this little creature that has a four-inch wingspan and weighs less than 1/5 of an ounce can achieve such a feat. They have never flown this route before but still, they know which way to go. 

An experiment was done to see what would happen if butterflies were taken from Kansas and released in DC. For the first few days, they flew south toward the Gulf of Mexico, Then, they realized something was wrong and changed direction and headed southwest to join the rest of the group. No one knows how they do this.

The Monarchs eventual destination in Mexico wasn’t discovered until 1975, The sanctuaries are protected but there is a lot of illegal logging in the area and a great threat to the monarchs as well as the local guides.

 

 

What the heck! it’s raining! It hardly ever rains here, What to do, we have no rain gear and the temperature dropped to 27C. I think it’s because we were going to mock you guys and your snow. Karma, as follows:

Us, enjoying the sun you’re not getting.

At least the hammock is undercover so I can have a nap later. I may need a blanky though, it is a bit chilly. They just announced that the fashion show Rosalie was going to tomorrow has been cancelled due to rain. Oh well! There go my few hours of freedom.

I feel a bit bedraggled.

To amuse myself, if you can call it that, during this wet and turbulent time,  I have been setting up Rosalie’s new iPhone. Once I finished with it I nervously handed it to the boss and my problems began. “Chris! This won’t work. Chris! That won’t work. How do I turn it on? Where is it?” The questions are endless.

Rosalie is a very intelligent woman until she touches anything electronic. Then she becomes a Neanderthal in the first degree. It’s fun though to see her face light up when she discovers things like face recognition and wireless charging.

When Rosalie looks at me like this and asks for help, how can I refuse?

When most of it is working okay, I say most, because the drama never really ends, Rosalie is happy with a big smile on her face. I, on the other hand, I am a snivelling wreck and need a shot of tequila to calm me down.

The main thing we have to set up is her library accounts. She has been using ‘Overdrive’ but now it wants her to use ‘Libby’ so now I have to set this up. I know little about ‘Overdrive and nothing about ‘Libby’. I finally got it sorted out and just needed to sync her phone with her iPad. After more confusion and not a little cursing, I got it figured out and pressed the button to generate a sync code… Nothing! The internet was down. Probably some water in the Frizzle box. Or maybe they ran out of steam and had to send out for some. Who knows?

Of course, I have been typing away but have no way of saving as the blog is saved online. Oy vay! as Peter would say. I will keep typing and hope for the best. It all turned out Okay or you wouldn’t be reading this.

There I go, making fun of Rosalie again. But she’s a great sport and laughs as hard as I do at all this nonsense. I didn’t intend to write a blog today, just make a few notes and stuff but my fingers got away on me and here we are. We do have to keep ourselves amused as apparently, we have nothing else to do down here anyway.

 

While learning the various ways to tell the time in Spanish I got to thinking. It hurt my head a bit but I managed.

We are constantly being asked, by friends and family in Canada, what we find to do down here. So here is a typical week. This doesn’t include grocery shopping, time learning Spanish, writing blogs and generally sitting around doing nothing. Oh, and drinking wine.

Sunday:

We saw Cathy and Al off by taxi to catch their bus to PV. Relaxed for the rest of the day and entertained Bill and Connie who dropped by. We were invited out to dinner this evening but chose not to go.

Monday:

We went shopping uptown to get stuff ready for dinner tonight at Mike and Faye’s place. We were joined by Bill and Connie and had a really nice evening. I missed the Leafs game but I’m so loyal to anyone who wants to give me a free meal.

Tuesday:

More of a relaxing day today. Mike and Pat dropped by and we had yet another good visit.

Wednesday:

It’s market day so we had to go to that and get supplies for me to make jalapeno poppers for tonight’s party. There was an invitation to Dave and Roz’s house, we really wanted to go to that one, to meet more people and refresh acquaintances. The music was terrific as usual. One guy limped up to the mike with his autoharp. He can’t play the guitar anymore because of arthritis, so he learned the autoharp. Arthritis doesn’t stop him; he just keeps trucking along.

Mike was nice enough to drive us home so we didn’t have to scramble for a taxi. I missed another Leafs game but a guy from Ontario and I kept up with the scores together on our phones.

Thursday:

George, a guy from Liverpool whom we had never met before, had phoned and wanted to meet up with us to talk about our Brit pensions. We met him and his wife Sue at the local coffee shop. We had a nice visit with them and agreed to go on a plantation tour with them next week.

Friday:

Another new friend, Denise, dropped by to show Rosalie how to make salad rolls. I sat and let them get on with it but agreed to be the chief taster. I wanted to supervise but seeing they both had sharp knives, I backed off. The rolls were great. Now I want to learn how to make them and put in my own peculiar ingredients. This evening we were invited to Mike and Pat’s house in Barra for a lamb dinner. Jim and Ylda were also there and a few stories were told, a great time was had.

One of Pat’s famous mango Margaritas

Jim, Ylda, Rosalie and I caught a taxi back to Melaque. I gave the driver directions in impeccable Spanish and only got us lost twice. I didn’t miss any Leaf games as there weren’t any.

Saturday:

Rosalie’s sister Suzanne and her hubby Vic arrive today so once more up to town for supplies. When we got back I hopped on the bike and went back, to get, yet more wine. I made my special jalapenos with big shrimp and cream cheese and wrapped them in bacon.

As I was writing this, Bill, Connie, Mike and Faye dropped in. Mike and Faye left after a few minutes but Bill and Connie stayed for a glass of wine. Mike and Faye may come back later on.

Vic and Suzanne arrived safely and we had them to dinner. They brought with them that elusive iPhone, so Rosalie is happy. I drank a few too many tequilas and we had a nice evening. I missed yet another Leafs game. They won all three, so there is that.

Me, at the end of the week.