| Remembering the Highlands - Uruapan, Morelia and Patzcuaro |
by Stuart Wasserman
March 2003
Something was different and for the life of me I didn’t know what it was. I’d come from the cold and wintry Northwest and landed in a summer climate in the semitropical highlands of Michoacan Mexico where the Sierra Madre is known as the Sierra Madre Occidental.
What drew me here was one of Mexico’s best kept secrets, a national park — located about 10 blocks from the main town square in Uruapan. The Eduardo Ruiz National Park is built on three levels with terraced gardens and pathways and bridges and waterfalls reminiscent of something out of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world. It even had a unique world of smell—a sweet smell produced from the lushness of all the thick vegetation and profusion of scents from flowers just after the September rainy season. That’s how it was more than a decade ago on my very first trip there.
Last December I found myself visiting again. Upon arriving in Uruapan I headed to a favorite small hotel, The Mansion Cupatizio, which is located just across the street from the park. The Mansion de Cupatizio has a sizable swimming pool and a garden setting of its own but the park was the real draw for me.
I walked across a bridge leading into the park. I stood on the banks of the rushing river, the Rio Cupatizio, which means in English, the “River that Sings.” I remembered the sound of that rushing river but I noted to myself something was different.
What was it? I looked around. Hanging from a tree extending over the middle of the river I noticed two wild orchids dangling. Just a lonesome pair of orchids. When I was here last the orchids were in full bloom. There was an army of orchids—hundreds and hundreds of them everywhere and their sweet smell filled the canyon walls. Indeed, one might think of Hawaii more than Mexico when one thinks of orchids but I’m here to tell you that you can put orchids and Mexico proudly in the very same sentence. That canyon was pungent.
Sheer pungent bliss — that’s what I recalled about Uruapan’s national park, enough to cause an inhalation riot in more populated areas of the globe. Just like on my first visit to Uruapan, I spent three days in the area and each day I made time to come to the park for walking or meditation or people watching.
And what an introduction to the State of Michoacan it was.
The hotel offers a nice garden setting for a breakfast of delicious huevos rancheros, loaded with salsa, fresh tortillas and of course good fresh coffee which used to come from the region. Today coffee production has been surpassed by the avocado. There are a number of comfortable accommodations in the town of Uruapan, a city built mainly during the 16th through the 18th centuries in a Spanish colonial style with big plazas adorned with fountains.
Uruapan is a wonderful base from which to explore Eduardo Ruiz National Park and other treasures nearby like Paricutin, a volcano that rose up in a cornfield in 1943 and the town of Paracho which is considered to be the guitar-making capital of the country. About 35 minutes south of town there are grander waterfalls than the ones in the national park. These are called Tzararacua which drops about 90 feet and a smaller but prettier falls 2 km upstream called Tzararacuita. The falls are located about 35 minutes south of town and are accessible by buses which depart daily from the main plaza.
Although late September and October are best for orchids and the pungent sweet smells they produce, I found that December wasn’t a bad month to visit Michoacan. December through April brings the butterflies — the Mariposas Monarchas — that nest in the five protected nature reserves.
Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, is the closest big city to the reserves and a good place to base another bit of Michoacan travel. Morelia is a bustling university town with cafes, neighborhood restaurants, museums and cultural centers including a renowned collection of masks from all over Mexico which is housed in the Casa de la Cultura. And there are two museums dedicated to the second most important liberation leader of the 19th century — Father Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon— from whose name Morelia is taken.
Morelia offers quite a choice in comfortable dining. Two restaurants of note are located across the street from each other a few blocks west of the zocolo. Centenario Gastronomía is the newest of the two. A colorful mural graces the wall of a 200 year-old building and light emanates from a large skylight in the central courtyard. It is bright and lively inside. The chef here used to work in the Casa Roja in Mexico City, the house of the nation’s president. Live music accompanies lunch three times a week with ballads sung in English and Spanish. Among the offerings are spinach lasagna for $5 or a florentine lasagna filled with salmon for $7.
Just across the street at Guzman 47, Fonda Las Mercedes specializes in Argentine beef. It features an outdoor garden perfect for margarita tasting and a classy interior dining room graced with a tall stone fireplace. The owner likes to speak about his life in San Francisco during the 1970s.
On weekends at the Alameda Hotel across from the zocolo’s impressive Hotel Virrey Mendoza, the Dance of the Viejitos is performed. This dance performed by men wearing masks was originally danced by Indians as a form of ridicule of the Spanish overlords. Most of the masks show wrinkled European faces. The Spanish were said to wrinkle much earlier than the native Indians.
here are plenty of upscale accommodations to choose from. A good choice to visit or eat at if not stay at is the popular Hotel Soledad located at Zaragoza 90 on the corner of Ocampo. It features a courtyard restaurant open to the public for traditional Mexican breakfast lunch or dinner. And up on a hillside overlooking town with fireplaces to warm the rooms on cold nights and a swimming pool to cool off in during the day is the ritzy Villa Montana. The rooms and grounds are infused with artwork. The view from the Villa Montana takes in a full sweep of the city and all the church spires.
Several travel agencies in town offer tours to the butterfly reserves but they can easily be seen on one’s one at a much reduced cost if you have the time and inclination. Bus transportation to the neighboring towns is just a fraction of the tour costs and my simple lodging in the old mining town of Angangueo was under $10. I risked food from the street vendors. I ate well-cooked beef ladled into tacos which I saw prepared right in front of me. Three small tacos and a bottled soft drink cost $2. I had no internal repercussions. Transportation the next day was easy to find. Surburbans patrol the one main street in town scouting for out-of-town visitors. Everyone who comes to this town no doubt is coming to see the butterflies. The cost of the round trip is about $3 to $4 when a van is filled up with seven or eight people. The road is rough and dusty though a rental car could handle it. And for those who like to hike, the trail to the El Rosario butterfly reserve leads up the hill from behind the old market and takes about two to three hours to reach the entrance. Late in the season I’m told is best for butterfly viewing. When it is cold and cloudy the butterflies are inactive. When the sun is out millions of butterflies flutter about. Entrance fee is $2.
One magnet that has drawn me back to Michoacan time and time again is the town of Patzcuaro which is located about 35 minutes from Morelia. Two views standout. One of the town’s main square or zocolo and the view down from its hillsides overlooking Lake Patzcuaro and one of the main islands in the middle of the lake called Janitzio.
The main square or zocolo is named after Vasco de Quiroga the Bishop who brought peace to the region in the mid to late 1500s taking over for Nino de Guzman, Cortez’s second-in-command who committed crimes in the region worthy of an international tribunal.
The main zocolo features a bronze sculpture of Vasco de Quiroga, fountains and lots of greenery. While many colonial towns just have one zocolo Patzcuaro has two. The main zocolo is surrounded by buildings from the colonial epoch and one of them has been made into a hotel with front rooms that overlook the square and all the activity of the day. The hotel is called the Mansion de Iturbe — an 18th century colonial house that has been operated as a gracious family-run hotel for more than 20 years. It’s location on the square is ideal.
Choice in accommodations is expanding in Patzcuaro with some recent entrants into the hotel field. Casa Bruson is run by an American couple from Northern California who refurbished a colonial house two years ago and converted it into a three room B&B each room with a private beautifully tiled bathroom. It is located a half block from the Casa de Once Patios (House with 11 Patios) which houses several shops and folk art galleries.
Another American couple from Santa Rosa, California, René and Shelley Ocaña recently opened the Hacienda Mariposa, a rambling hotel in a hacienda style on acreage about three miles out of town. This is an all-in-one getaway and offers activities such as horseback riding or guided tours to nearby highland Indian villages. Also, Priscilla Madsen’s, La Casa de los Sueños Hotel is a beautifully restored 17th century home now special category hotel with eleven suites, on Ibarra street a short walk from Patzcuaro’s main square.
Patzcuaro has a large daily fruit market to wander through where one can gather up oranges and bananas and bread for under a dollar. Each Friday a regional craft markets takes place a block from the main zocolo. Here vendors from the neighboring villages which are known for ceramics, leather and copper crafts truck in their goods for sale.
And if you happen to be visiting in mid-December as I was last year you could find yourself on the streets engulfed in the middle of a Mexican Christmas procession known as the Posada. Señora Arriaga, the dueño of the Mansion Iturbe, encouraged me to attend a Posada one night and I was glad I did. “You only have to be out on the streets,” she said, “and you quickly find yourself amidst a whole neighborhood of revelers.”
Young children are dressed up like Mary and Joseph as they parade down the streets, knocking on doors and joining in song, requesting lodging for the night. This happens time and time again at the house of neighbors and friends. Each time the children are refused entry like Mary and Joseph. But at the last stop the children are welcomed in and there they find all their relatives and neighbors whose doors they had knocked upon earlier. They are all gathered together and ready for a Christmas party with plenty of seasonal foods and “ponche” (punch.) The Posadas go on for nine nights beginning on Dec. 16 until Dec. 24th. They are very colorful events to witness. Michoacan indeed is a colorful state to behold and one that touches all the senses.
If You Go:
Morelia located south of Guadalajara and north of Mexico City can be reached easily by plane or by first class bus service or rental car from either of these larger cities. There are also direct flights to Morelia via Mexicana Airlines flying from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago or by Aero Mexico or Mexicana flights connecting flights from Guadalajara or Mexico City. Most major U.S. airlines fly to Mexico City or Guadalajara.
Uruapan
Mansion del Cupatizio, garden & swimming pool located across from Eduardo Ruiz National Park. E-mail: huc@proturmich.com
Morelia:
Hotel Villa Montaña: www.villamontana.com.mx, e-mail: hotel@villamontana.com.mx
Patzcuaro
Hotel Mansion Iturbe, Portal Morelos No. 59 Plaza Don Vasco, 61600 Pátzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico; E-mail: Patzcuaro@mail.giga.com.
14 rooms in 18th century mansion, Rate includes breakfast, TV, bicycles.
Hacienda Mariposas is a nonsmoking resort. 800-573-2386; E-mail: haciendamx@aol.com
La Casa de los Sueños Hotel, Ibarra 15, Centro Patzcuaro, 61600 Patzcuaro Michoacan, 11 suites in a 17th century mansion, with 2 restaurants and spa.
Stuart Wasserman is a writer/photographer who specializes in writing about Mexico, he made his first trip to Mexico in 1973. His Mexico photography can be seen at www.agpix.com/themexicofile
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