Patzcuaro

I´d be lying if I said we weren´t nervous entering Michoacan. David and his familia, who opened their amazing home to us, told us western Michoacan was dangerous. We´d been warned back in Baja as well, but with enough conflicting reports from others, we decided to give it a go. Not on the typical tourist path as recommended, but on back roads until now. We are fine! No drug cartels that we could see, just gunshots in the air due to wedding celebrations.

Michoacan has been beautiful, beautiful. We summited a volcano a couple of days back, just outside of a village where the locals dont speak spanish. To get to Volcan Paricutin, we had to ride a horse for 2 hrs, then scramble the last bit to the top, where the volcano was still active. Steam vents were everywhere, and sitting on the cinder cone warmed your butt nicely. gorgeous country.

Leaving that town, we got back on the highway for the first time in a week, and again, I considered quitting. Catching a bus out of Mexico because these direct highways are just too much. In a new twist on Mexican driving, we are discovering that the drivers use the shoulder as another lane to aid in passing. To their credit they are always aware of us and give us plenty of space, but still. It´s a tad tense, and we can´t wait to get to Morelia when the traffic splits considerably north toward Ciudad de Mexico, which we will avoid on backroads to get to the Monarch Butterfly Reserve, then put together an awesome route to get to northern Oaxaca, then the states capital proper, then work it over to the Yucatan. This all takes weeks of course, and hopefully tomorrow I´ll be able to throw up some photos in Morelia, where we hope to have some couchsurfing lined up.