Patzcauro - Pastors, Peaks and Parkas

With Mexico experiencing a trucker strike, we settled into a motel's RV park in the historic mountain town of Patzcauro for four nights. We had the place all to ourselves, the only gringos for miles - even the Mexicans were hesitant to risk getting stuck inland.

Stone carving typical of the area, this one embedded in our motel wall

Our motel pool with its statue and glorious garden

Close up of the statue, with our communal cabin behind. There's our van in the distance

The wooden fairy bridge we had to cross to go to the bathrooms at the RV park - even a toilet trip was magical

Patzcauro was by far my favourite town in Mexico when we were here last, and I was so happy to see that the place has hardly changed. Then again, it hasn't changed much since the Mexican Revolution, when it was first preserved, according to most reports.

Founded some time around 1320, the village is one of Mexico's first "Peublos Magicos" and is unique in that it still maintains a strong indigenous presence despite the years of colonial rule. Plus, the gardens! Don't even get me started on the gardens.

So as not to bore people with the essays I could write on my favourite Mexican town (so far), below are our top 5 experiences in Patzcauro:

1. Patzcauro Chic

The town walls and signs are all maintained in a unique, unified style that immediately lets you know where you are. Some of the stores (and some of the clothes) might make you question what century you are in, but the aesthetic lends a feeling of earth and straw, mud and sky, wood and water - all set against the smell of charcoal grills and pastor tacos turning on spits. Walking the cobblestone streets takes you back centuries.

Typical store signage with red and black letters

A typical tienda

Another tienda, still decorated for day of the dead

Typical ceramics

Inside a Patzcauro indoor patio

Patzcauro courtyard

Templo del Sandtuario

2. Cerro del Estribo Grande

Despite being really high up - so high up I had to don my puffy jacket at night - we ran up or hiked up a mountain pretty much every day, often stopping at the top to use the Mexican exercise equipment, which pretty much consisted of one rusty bike, a sit up bench, and some weird, retro "waist whittler" called the FLZ Body Twister. Don't knock that thing - I felt sore in my waist for days afterwards!

Our favourite hike was the Cerro del Estribo Grande, which takes you up 422 steps, then across a steep ridge overlooking the city. We climbed those suckers twice (stopping midway each time to bend over double and catch my breath) - that's how much I loved that hike.

Estribo Grande hike along the cliffs

Autumn flowers on top of the cliff

Our van, looking out at Lake Patzcauro

3. Janitzio Island

See that island in the middle of the last picture? That's Janitzio, an island that is covered, every inch, by houses. Once, the island housed fishermen specialized in "butterfly fishing". (Watch a 15-minute 1937 documentary film, "Primitive Patzcauro" on it here.) They only do it for the tourists now, and it does look like it was a lot of hard work for some very tiny fish, to be honest, so I get why they don't fish that way anymore.

Now the island is full of people selling boob mugs and ypenis mugs. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get a picture of them and they are not available online, so here's the closest  (cleaned-up) approximation to what lines the historic steps of Janitzio. 

There isn't a stairwell that isn't packed, but still, it's pretty amazing to see how they fit a high school gym in the middle of those labyrinthine streets, along with a graveyard. The highlight was the boat ride with a mariachi band, and climbing up into the statue's wrist to look out across Lake Patzcauro, You follow a twisting, steep, not-for-the-afraid-of-heights-crowd staircase to the "wrist view". All the way up are these graphic paintings of the life of local hero José María Morelos, one of which has a guy getting decapitated and the final mural (gigantic) is Morelos getting shot by firing squad. Dramatic and mesmerizing all at the same time.

Approaching Janitzio

Almost there!

At the top, ready to climb Jose

Stepping down. Carefully.

View from Jose's wrist

4. $15 Peso Pastor: While we did eat in the expensive tourist restaurants around the town square, the best food we had was the cheap eats at the bus stop where locals ate before going to work. We're talking $15 pesos ($1.15 CAD) pastor tacos with all the toppings. Top foods were street tacos, artisanal pizzas, "pasta" nieve (Patzcauro ice cream), and michelados.

Special of the day: 4 Tacos el Pastor and a Mexican Torta (sandwich) with a drink for $110 pesos (~$8 CAD)

The $15 Peso Taco. Never to be forgotten.

Michelados, three for one special!. Ooey, gooey, sticky chamoy on the glass' edge, embedded with crushed peanuts. Inside: beer, lime, lemon, Worcester sauce and other choices, such as shrimp, gummy worms and other tasty treats.

5. Fire in the Hearth: My final favourite memory of Patzcauro is having a wood fire in their ancient clay hearth in our campsite's tiny, shared cabin while we watched the sky darken over the nearby pond. Because it doesn't get better than that.

Fire in the hearth

But after a three nights of toques and puffies, it was time to head back to the sun and sand to warm up, refresh the rapidly fading tans and make our way to our favourite beach haunt, Peurto Escondito.

Hope you are all keeping well, and warm, and sending some Mexican fire your way!