{"id":161,"date":"2014-05-23T20:51:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T20:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/donniemeals.net\/?p=161"},"modified":"2018-12-12T20:51:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T20:51:59","slug":"patzcuaro-and-big-eyed-minnows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/2014\/05\/23\/patzcuaro-and-big-eyed-minnows\/","title":{"rendered":"Patzcuaro and Big Eyed Minnows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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May 23 \u2013 Today we left Morelia for Patzcuaro and, except for one wrong turn that cost us an hour of drive time, the drive was pleasant and picturesque. \u00a0The countryside is hilly and moist. \u00a0We found convenient street parking and walked into an abyss of minivan taxis. \u00a0Patzcuaro is a quaint colonial town with loads of character and very friendly locals. \u00a0We walked towards what I thought was the direction of Lake Patzcuaro, wove through the minivans, through a massive, tarp covered market, into\u2026 nothing that resembled a lake. \u00a0Cab time. \u00a0My natural sense of direction was only about ten miles off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake Patzcuaro has a port with a line of cheap restaurants so we caught a good lunch of chicken enchiladas that looked nothing like what we expected, yet quite tasty. \u00a0All the vendors also featured \u201cCharales\u201d, basically breaded and pan fried guppies. \u00a0I was offered 5 or so freebies. \u00a0I don\u2019t need to try them again. \u00a0Kind of like fried flour with eyes.
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We walked to the dock and caught a \u201cLancha\u201d\u2018 a covered long boat that took us (slowly) to the large, main island across the murky grey lake. \u00a0The island is like a large cone sticking out of the lake and it was quite a hike, through endless vendors, at a 45 degree angle to the top. \u00a0So as to not look winded, Sharon and I climbed the stairs and ladders inside the Morelos monument just so we could be at the highest vantage point of the entire island. \u00a0We gasped for air and retreated to a bar as a storm blew in.
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Back on the mainland we found the car and secured a hotel room for the night. \u00a0The Mision Patzcuaro was inexpensive, well kept and quite comfortable. \u00a0The exception is their restaurant. \u00a0Also, it seems quite secure since 11 or 12 Federales are staying here, complete with automatic weapons and Kevlar.
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May 24 \u2013 We decided to give Patzcuaro another day and booked another night at the hotel. \u00a0We left the car at the hotel (next to a Federale pursuit vehicle) and hailed one of hundreds of minivan taxis. \u00a0They\u2019re not really taxis but \u201ccollectivos\u201d, sometimes crowded but \u201cif you can fit in you can git\u2019 in.\u201d We walked the beautiful large plazas in central Patzcuaro, talked with Phillip Seymour Hoffman\u2019s doppelg\u00e4nger and had an exceptional breakfast al fresco. \u00a0We walked off breakfast touring the centuries old cathedrals and strolled the cobble stone streets, admiring some impressive arts and crafts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is more to Mexico than hammocks and sombreros. \u00a0We decided days ago that if we found something we really, really liked, we wouldn\u2019t talk ourselves out of it like we usually do. \u00a0Well, come by the house when we get back to witness the newest addition to our Mexico menagerie.
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New art piece in tow, we took a real taxi back to the hotel to beat a fast developing storm, (3rd day in a row). \u00a0A mid-afternoon tequila, under the sombrilla as the thunder rolled through the hills was the perfect prelude to a nap. \u00a0We\u2019ll collectivo back to the plaza to see what a Saturday night in Patzcuaro is like.<\/p>\n

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May 23 \u2013 Today we left Morelia for Patzcuaro and, except for one wrong turn that cost us an hour of drive time, the drive was pleasant and picturesque. \u00a0The countryside is hilly and moist. \u00a0We found convenient street parking and walked into an abyss of minivan taxis. \u00a0Patzcuaro is Continue Reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donniemeals.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}