Friday, March 06, 2009

A nice new road to Zirahuen




The other day we had breakfast in Santa Clara, I always seem to order the same dish, the Huevos El Camino. They are some delicious scrambled eggs swimming in a nice mild red chile salsa. The coffee at the El Camino Real restaurant is superb, especially when you ask for an extra shot, to be added.
Satiated, I decided to show our visiting guest a little more of Santa Clara.
While exiting the pueblo, I noticed a new sign on the main street, one that commanded large trucks to use the bypass.
Pretty good idea since a lot of the streets are not wide enough for a tractor rid to maneuver, let alone allow the traffic that is already sluggish to have to endure the prolonged waits. We took the bypass and wound up on the outskirts of town....

Since we already were on the tour mode, I figured why not show our guest a little of the road to the lake. I knew that after about 2 kilometers, I would give up and turn around since the cobble stones end and dirt road entails.

2 kilometers, and still no dirt road.

5 kilometers and still no dirt road.

Could it be that the the complete road is now paved?

Unbelievable, progress has come to little Zirahuen.
I was later told that the road was open to a lot of opposition late last year. So now the residents both have a less vehicle mashing thoroughfare with more turistas into town. They were basically against the tourists.....at least the residents, not the businessmen.

Arriving into town I wanted to show the neat little restaurant and and hotels that dot the banks. One was the the Zirahuen Forest Resort. ( 443,326,3301)
We decided to stop there, walk around on the long pier and have some refreshments while enjoying the view. The place has nice cabanas and sports a nice large restaurant and salon de fiesta.
Along the pier are lots of small individual restaurants offering fresh fish along with various local dishes. You can also hire a motor boat for about 400 pesos per hour. They will take one or 16 people for the price and view the homes and mansions that dot the banks around the lake.

With the new road and some nice places this is going to allow people to visit a lot easier.
One of my fellow bloggers had also sent me information on a new restaurant that was featured in LaVoz, one that had a first class chef and used first class ingredients.

We didn't look for it, but something tells me that we are going to be coming out here for short getaways and social Fridays.

The new upscale place is called Miralago. This will give me a quest to conquer on my next trip.

Years ago, we had looked at property here and almost purchase except for then it took about 1 hour to get here from Patzcuaro. Now with the autopista it's down to about 15 minutes and 30 minutes on the old road . I can predict this will be a nice place to settle down with a weekend home or getaway.
Except for the escalating prices on property now.

2 comments:

Don Cuevas said...

Ken;
I've only eaten, many times, at the other El Camino Real, next to the Pemex station on the outskirts of Tzurumutaro.

The Huevos El Camino are one of my favorites. In reality, they are a riff on "Huevos AlbaƱil". The Pemex El Camino Real also features some of the best teleras ever, from a wood burning oven hidden away in a bakery, "La Espiga", on a back street of a colonia, far far away.

Yesterday was a big, homemade comida here, featuring Filetes de Pescado a la Veracruzana, plus more stuff, and today I'm resting.

Saludos,
Mike

Tancho said...

Well now at least I have someone who understands my rut!
For some reason the Huevos Camino Real is a perfect not high fat, healthy dish that has plenty of character and is also delicious at the same time!