Plan A for Monica’s birthday was to rent a house from a couple of gringos who are friends of Jana, but at the last minute this fell through because they were going to go to the States for a month but neglected to perform the necessary bureaucratic acrobatics (bureaubatics?) to get a passport for their new baby. I don’t envy them in the slightest, they missed their flights, have to do all the paper and legwork and reorganise their holiday. Meanwhile, we just switched to Plan B which was staying in M & D’s favourite hotel, el Mesón de San Antonio for a couple of bucks extra a night.

Lovely place it is too, a vast patio, fireplaces in each room (already arranged for lighting, matches included), thick walls, cool floors, powerful showers, WI-FI, coffee and breakfast included and all just a hop, skip and a jump from the centre. Highly recommended. However, bring ear plugs just in case a local church is celebrating their saint’s day with regular cannon fire during the night…

We ate in Cha Cha Cha on the first day as the sun set and temperatures returned to a doable level and then I left Sita, Monica and Karina to start the initial stages of a craft buying frenzy and Daniel to his coding. After they came back we chilled in the hotel’s dining area, mellow as you like. Lovely.

Saturday morning we went down to the lake to have some breakfast snacks like Corundas (Michoacán Tamales) and investigate the crafts. From their we delivered Daniel back to his cave to keep on working and went to Tzintzuntzan where we were too early to get in to see the yácatas so just went on a craft frenzy instead. The climax of the spree was when Monica all but signed up to have a 1.5m diameter Aztec calendar table shipped to Tijuana to pick up later. However, somehow reason was restored and the plan came to naught. We still left with a boot full of bargains though.

In the afternoon I went exploring, snapping photos along the way as per usual, then we reconvened in El Boiler, an arty café place and hung out at the hotel all evening with booze and snacks (including Carne Seca, DELICIOUS beef jerky type affair that Karina brought down with her from Chihuahua).

Sunday morning, breakfast next door and a brief sight of the cabrones who’d been letting off celebratory rockets all night along with their colourful retinue. Then a couple more craft shops, because, hey, we’re in Patzcuaro and off home while M, D and K headed for Morelia.

We got a flat tire on the way home, but noticed it 1 block before a tire repair shop. 60 pesos (2 pounds 50p ish) for a repair and we were on our way again through thunderstorms and toll roads to arid, hot Guadalajara. A great way to celebrate Monica’s birthday and no mistake.

She’ll probably weigh in with more detail and photos over at ChiliCatinLA…

Other news… start my PHP course today. And Atticus smells of dog. Barbie Princess Champu time beckons.

Full photo set of the weekend in Patzcuaro and around here.
Blog entry on Michoacán in Feb, here.