More World Heritage Sites — Morelia and Zacatecas

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Bryan Keith

Somehow in just a few weeks in Mexico, without even realizing it until after the fact, I’ve visited seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I’ve already written about five of them: the historic centers of both Mexico City and Puebla, the Monarch Butterfly Reserve, Teotihuacán and Xochimilco. The two latest were the historic centers of both Morelia and Zacatecas.

Wendy and I hadn’t actually planned on visiting Morelia. We had decided to spend Christmas in Querétaro. Before leaving Zitácuaro, I asked about buses to Querétaro. Yes, tomorrow morning at 11. Then I double-checked, “are you sure there’s a bus tomorrow? It’s the 24th!” Yes, yes. Trying not to be annoying, I triple-checked. “You realize it’s Christmas Eve tomorrow. Will the bus to Querétaro run?” Of course.

Sure enough, in the morning there were no buses to Querétaro. It was Christmas Eve after all. There was, however, a bus leaving shortly for Morelia so we made the last minute decision to spend Christmas there. I had been to Morelia before and remembered really liking it so I was excited to go back. Wouldn’t it be great to see a couple of the museums that I missed during my first visit to Michoacán’s capital?

I’m sure it would, but that’s not, of course, how things work on a holiday. All museums were closed, but masses were held almost continuously at the cathedral. Wendy and I caught the Christmas Eve posada. Disappointed that no music was involved (and hoping for some during the service), Wendy convinced me to stay another hour for the Catholic mass. Her subtle last-minute technique vaguely reminded me of Ann getting me to stay for a Friday (?) Hanukkah service at a synagogue in Havana a few years ago. I occupied my monkey mind just as I did in Havana — listening intently to the priest’s story — and was happy they didn’t pull any Hebrew (or Latin or Arabic) on me.

DSCN3008 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Teotihuacán and Xochimilco

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Bryan Keith

December 21, 2012.  The world didn’t end.  I was surprised how much talk there was about this date in Turkey before I left.  On the streets of Antalya I heard multiple people discussing the Mayan prophecy.  “Do you know where the Mayans are from?”, I asked.  India?  China?  “Mexico,” I said and told people that’s where I was going for the solstice.  Meksika?  Won’t it be hot… and dangerous?

The latter refers to the frequent newspaper articles about the drug violence, the former because many Turks think Mexico is hot and steamy year round.  I find it fascinating to hear people’s stereotypes of other countries.  I remember meeting an Australian, a Hollywood fan, who couldn’t believe I was from the US and had never witnessed a gun battle in the streets at home.

Teotihuacán is the collection of pyramids, including the world’s third largest, a little to the NE of Mexico City.  Certainly not Mayan but seemed like a good place to be for the end of the world.  However, instead of cult ceremonies and dance circles of mystics, the only unusual thing at Teotihuacán that day was that the museums were closed so the staff could better handle the expected increase in visitors.

DSCN2652 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Monarch Butterfly Day!!! by Wendy

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Bryan Keith

This is an e-mail that Wendy wrote just after spending the day with the butterflies, a couple days before Christmas.  I’ll only add that the “small city” is Zitácuaro, Michoacán’s third largest city. The reserve area we visited is called Cerro Pelón. Our trout lunch was in Macheros. I added the photos too.  Bryan

Hola from a small city somewhere in Mexico!

We saw the monarch butterflies today and I could come home right now a happy girl!  It was everything I dreamed it would be!

DSCN2885 by bryandkeith on flickr

We chose to go to the least touristy of the five butterfly reserve areas: partly because it was the newest and had the best preserved habitat (no logging), and partly because… who likes crowds?  When we arrived at 8am after an hour of minivans and taxis, nobody was there.  No tourists, no employees, and NO ANNOYING SOUVENIR SELLERS!  In Spanish, the sign said it was open 9am – 6pm.  The same sign, translated in English, said 8am – 4pm.  It also said we must hire a guide.  Since there was nobody to pay, we started hiking up the trail – alone.

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Playing tourist in Mexico City and Puebla

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Bryan Keith

Virgin de Guadalupe is about as Mexican as you can get.  You see her image all over Mexico, in houses, in shops, on buses, even burned into people´s cloaks.  The most important shrine in Mexico is the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.  People come from all over the country, by bus, by bicycle, and on foot to celebrate their patron saint´s special day, December 12.

I joined them for the last five kilometers as I walked from San Juan de Aragón to La Basílica.  It´s not unusual to carry an image of the Virgen of Guadalupe during the pilgrimage.

DSCN2322 by bryandkeith on flickr

Of course if you didn´t bring your own virgin, they were plenty of places to buy one, but images of La Virgin weren´t the only thing for sale.  There was lots of food, including local specialties like chapulines.
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A hop across the Atlantic — to Mexico

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Bryan Keith

Five days from Antalya to Mexico City, the magic of air travel. I took an overnight bus from Antalya to Ankara and had the chance to see Sabiha, Banu, and Deniz during my day in Ankara.

Very early the next morning (@2:30am without having slept) I took the bus to the airport only to learn hours later that my flight to Munich was cancelled. We had passed immigration and were waiting at the gate when this decision was made.

Back through immigration they cancelled the exit stamp, and hours later I was rebooked through Istanbul and Paris. Back to Ankara I went to Sabiha´s only to discover I had left my camera in her car the night before. What a lucky bugger I am. Just a few days earlier I was similarly lucky: I had backed up all my files to the internet and the very next day my computer died for good (bozuldu, descompuso).

My next flight out of Ankara was late.  I raced through the Istanbul airport, they reopened check-in for me, and I made the connection to Paris.  Late that night in Paris I was excited to see the Aeromexico plane and knew I´d easily make that connection.

Ha, ha!  Overbooked and I didn´t have a seat.  26 hours in Paris.  So that´s how I found myself walking through the center of Ankara one day, the center of Paris the next day, and the center of Mexico City the day after that!  I´ll probably never do something quite like that again.

DSCN2162 by bryandkeith on flickr
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