We traveled to Patzcuaro in the heart of the state of Michoacan for a long weekend of camping with our good friends Naomi and Jose, Fulbrighters from Queretaro, and Annie, Super, Panzon and baby Elena. Thanks to a gracious invitation from Octavio, a Spanish tutor of Missy’s we had the luck to camp in Quercus, a wonderful little community outside of Patzcuaro, where we were treated to cool evenings, a wonderful campfire, and the lovely sounds of three collies howling through the night, roosters starting at 4 a.m. and a party up on a hill.
On the Day of the Dead, we traveled by boat to the small island Janitzio, on Lake Patzcuaro, where tens of thousands of people came to eat, drink and visit the communities on the island. Simply amazing amounts of delicious food and drink on the streets, as we climbed up a very steet set of steps to the top. We headed in for the night a bit before the huge crowds began to gather on the island.
The next day we saw Annie and Super and family off from the small community of Tzintzuntzan, a P’urépecha town which has the most beautifully decorated cemeteries. I shot very few photos because I felt that flying in and out of cemeteries and shooting on the fly was disrespectful for the families who had spent the entire night by the graves of their family members.
We tried to visit the archeological sites at Tzintzuntzan, but were greeted by a sign at the door that said it was free entry on Sundays, but only for Mexicans…so not wanting to take part in their racist rule of the day, (can you imagine such a sign in the U.S. “free only to Americans today”) we didn’t pay their entry fee.
