Semana Santa vol I

In Mexico the easter hollydays are very important, and everyone has one or two weeks off from work and school. Also the kids of casa San José whent to family or volunteer families, and in the end of the weekend there were only four girls leaft in the casa.
The volunteers were divided into two groups, and each group got one week of vacation. The first week I stayed at Casa with Karin, Terry, Eva and Tamara. We worked on several projects, like painting the swimmingpool and one of the playrooms. The four remaining kids were kind of bored, and we wanted them to get a feeling of vacation; so one day we borrowed the white van from the Casa, and drove all the way to the beach with them. They loved it, and I don't think any of them had been to Manzanillo before.

Saterday came, and the other volunteers came back from their vacation. Terry, Tamara, Karin and I decided to go to Morelia; Michoacán. So I whent to the "terminal de autobuses" and fixed the tickets, and at 12 45 a.m. we were on our way to Morelia. Six hours later we were tired and in Morelia. The taxi driver whom drove us from the bus station was really grumpy and played "banda" music (really happy happy music, and REALLY annoying if you are tired...).
We didn't realize that it was easter sunday untill we tried to find a hostel. A lot was full and we had to go three different places untill we found a place; to sleep a couople of hours more and leave our stuff to explore the city.
We wandered the streets of Moreia and just enjoied the city.

We visited several art museums. I especially liked the artist Alfredo Zalce with his original and amazing sketches and paintings. Michuacan is known for its lokal candys, and Morelia has a big marked "Marcado de Dulces" primary for candy. We tried several interesting sweets.

By coincidence we ended up in a resturant with a buffé of trditional Mexican (delicious) foods. We spendt three hours just sitting; enjoing the foods and atmosphere. We decided not to stay in Morelia one more day, and the next day we took the bus to Pátzcuaro.
Pátzcuaro is an incredibly charming little town, still with a Spanich colonialistic influence on the arkitechure. There were many little shops with beautliful Mexican handcrafts, and not just the kind to please the turists.

Around the two zócalos we could buy all the fruit and pastries you can possibly ask for, and very cheap.

We signed in at hostel "Posada de la Rosa", and the room was just fine for a couple of nights. It had a TV, and with a channal only playing "banda" music the party was on... However, Pátzcuaro is not the town for night life. At 10 p.m. we whent out to have a drink, and being in good company we sat and talked for an hour. When we came back to the hostel is was 11.30 p.m and the gate was locked, and the doorbell did not work. So we started to knock on the door. First gently, but after 15 min of gentle knocking we more or less slammed on the door, and yelled to wake the staff up. Must have been some sight. However, from the condition of the gate, we could tell we weren't the first once to get locked out. Finally, after approximately one hour a guy came down and let us in.

The next day we decided to go to an island called Janitzio close to Pátzcuaro. We whent there by boat, and it was a great trip. The people living on the island are very poor, and you get kind of tired when they all try to sell you stuff...
On the highest point of the island was an enormous statue you could climb inside, and all the way to the top. From the top of the statue we had an amazing view over the lake and the islands around.

For dinner we ordered fish, and quite un expected we recived a whole fish on a plate-with skin, eyes, tale and all…. We couldn't help it, we just had to play with the food.

The evening came and we whent back to our hostel in Pátzcuaro, and whent out to a bar kind of place to enjoy some live music. The music was so great that we bought the CD of the guy playing. Out drinks had alot of alcohol in them, mine included, and after one piña colada we got kind of giggly.
We got back to our hostel just in time before they closed the door. Tamara and I watched the rest of “the Gladiator” on the TV in our room. Karin fell asleep and started to snore, and Tamara and i couldn’t stop laughing...
The next day we packed our stuff and continnued our trip in Michúacan.