As you can imagine, it was pretty tough and rough to get up the next morning. Fortunately, a very typical Mexican breakfast is a great cure for hangovers: 2 "kekas" (quesadillas - tortillas with melted cheese and a filling of your choice) with a little bit of superspicy red salsa, and a large "jugo de naranja" (orange juice), and you feel much much better right away. Here, I also had a chance to practice some serious Spanish smalltalk, as we were joined by some of Anelore's Mexican friends/colleagues. And I think I did well! Especially considering the fact that I was "cruda" (hungover).
Two of Anelore's friends, Verenice (Mexican) and Celine (French), came on the weekend trip to inland Michoacan, a region with lots of small little villages ("pueblitos") with local arts & crafts, the perupecha towns of Patzcuaro and colonial Morelia.
On the way to Patzcuaro, we stopped in tiny Capula and Tzintzuntzan, to look at (and buy) some beautifully handpainted pottery, and pyramids in the shape of a kolibri respectively (Tzintzuntzan received its name from the sound that the wings of a kolibri make : apparently tzin-tzun-tzan). Unfortunately it rained quite a lot on that day (and when it rains in Mexico, it pours...) and the sightseeing was therefore quite limited. We stayed for the night in the traditional Michoacan town of Patzcuaro, where every house is painted in the same style and the town is listed as a Unesco Heritage site. In Patzcuaro, you can shop for nice colorful textiles that nicely brighten up your home.
Since Anelore & I had some sleep to catch up on, we finished the night early but me not without trying a local speciality: the "Michelada". This is your favourite Mexican beer with the standard squeeze of lime juice, but has an additional twist: some chilli powder sprinkled into your beer, giving your drink a whole other sensual experience (that burns on your lips basically) and makes beer so much more exciting and interesting for a non-beer drinker!
The next day, after another hearty Mexican breakfast, we had another stroll around town and a peek into the church, where a wedding was going on (there's always a wedding going on, with lots of Mexican music, especially guitars).
We drove to Morelia, the beautiful colonial town with Spanish architecture & culture. It's the home town of Jose Maria Morelos, a hero of Mexican independence. We learned quite a bit about Morelia and its history, as we were invited by a young and very nice Mexican guy, David, at Morelos's birth house. He was keen to give us a tour not only of the birth house, but also the government palace, which was simply fantastic. Celind liked the tour (and perhaps the guide) so much that she decided to stay for the evening's celebrations that were happening in Morelia in honour of the 468th anniversary of the town (yes, they celebrate every year). The rest of us drove back to Guanajato/Irapuato with all our "shopping" , picking up some tacos on the way home in a traditional tacqueria.
