Friday, October 29, 2010

Where is everybody????


First the tide goes out......waaay out. When it returns the Tsunami hits, mowing down everything in it's path.

This is probably the first time in my 15 years of schlepping around Patzcuaro that I have seen the following street scenes devoid of cars and people. Patzcuaro is empty..... for a second or two before the wave of wall to wall hombres.

Kind of spooky, like everyone went home.....
But then spooky is now, Halloween and Days of Dead.....

In a few days, there will be tour buses, group buses, school buses, VW buses, motorcycles and motorcycle club members, visitors from far, visitors from near. People from Europe and North America....

Our little town swells up big time.

People selling flowers and Katrina's love it.

My own personal feeling is that I try to make do with stocking up at home for at least 3 or 4 days. If something really needs to be purchased we sneak off to Morelia early in the morning or late afternoon combining a mid-day meal in the big city. Then back to the house without every setting foot in town. It's a treat to go to Morelia. You know, big city life, traffic, vendors blowing flaming gas out of their mouths as you wait at a stop light. Then the next lite sqeegemen cleaning flaming gasoline residue off your windshield, for a few pesos....

Personally I like the two teenagers who paint the whole upper torso of their body in silver paint... I wonder if they know how dangerous that task can be?


Perhaps one of the most busy times of the year it is a boon to merchants, artisans and hoteliers.
For the first time in about a dozen years we don't have any friends dropping by..... That means we can rent our our spare rooms for the Juannito-come-latelys.

Don't think so. We enjoy our privacy so to speak...that is unless I get an offer that I just can't refuse.
Day of the Dead is a wonderful holiday and holy-day. It celebrates not the death of a loved one but the continuation of their journey in to the next world.....kind of like the Twilight Zone.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man it is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity it is the middle ground between light and shadow between science and superstition and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge this is the dimension of imagination it is an area which we call- the Twilight Zone.

Now I am sure there are more Spiritual descriptions that would also bridge the gap of the celebratory times....

While at Morelia in the new Liverpool and Sears I gaze at Christmas tree displays and stack and stacks of overpriced Christmas decorations. I bought mine at a substantial savings last year a few days after Christmas....they'll be new for us this year.

So, enjoy downtown Patzcuaro you crowd lovers.....Meanwhile, I'll enjoy my Kindle by the fire and have a nice hot cup of Earl Grey Tea or an Irish Coffee depending on the cold outside.

Please support our local merchants and artisans, they need the pesos more than the big bad Chinese copy cat factories. Although I haven't seen a Katrina with a made in China sticker yet.....

8 comments:

Bob Mrotek said...

I like to go to Morelia and I would go there more often if there were more places to park. Parking is really a hassle especially in and around Centro. The real estate must be too high to use land for parking lots but if there were more parking lots perhaps more people would make repeat visits to Morelia, no?

Tancho said...

Bob, When we go to Morelia, we usually need to go to Sears etc, they have a nice parking lot. Then if we need to go downtown to the Centro, we hail a cab, let them ferry us downtown and then zip back to our parked car...a ton less stress that way.
There are public parking lots in the Centro, which were designed for the VW bug, not for a P/U truck which we usually drive..
Next time try my cab routine...it's worth the 10 or 20 pesos.

JerryL said...

Too bad you can't erase that lone car. Funny that there weren't any bodies around.

Tancho said...

Jerry, If you click on the picture you will see 3 Indian women talking about something.....
And in the distance there is life abound.
I may take a after shot in the next day or two.

Don Cuevas said...

I drove into Pátzcuaro yesterday to meet some friends and I was surprised at how light traffic was. But I parked on the very outskirts of Centro, near Mariscos La Güera.

Tancho wrote: (in re: Morelia) "Next time try my cab routine...it's worth the 10 or 20 pesos."

I've not found a cab that cheap in years. We often park at Wal-Mart or Costco, nearer the "Salida a Pátzcuaro" (that means the way out of Morelia back to Pátzcuaro) and a cab to the far reaches of Av Camelinas is $35 pesos.

A taxi driver at Costco on Wednesday wanted $40 pesos to take us to Star Médica, but my Señora got him down to $35. He somehow managed to overshoot our destination and had to turn around at Plaza Camelinas, across Ventura Puente from the Centro de Convenciones, and backtrack. ¿Quien sabe?

Typical fare from Centro back to Costco is $35 to $40, depending where and who picks you up.

Yes; it's true: some parking garages in Morelia require careful maneuvering to get in and out. Luckily, we have collapsible side mirrors on our vehicle, or we'd never make it.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

PS: A few photos of Pátzcuaro Centro yesterday can be seen, beginning at
http://tinyurl.com/PatzMuertos

Tancho said...

Sr Cuevas, The last time we hailed the cab, I let La Senora negotiate the pricing. We parked the car at Ace Hardware and needed to go to the Centro. I am sure it was less than 30 pesos for the ride. If you tell them that you need to go to multiple places you can usually get them at a better deal sort of the hourly rate. I am also quite sure that the rate will be higher if you want to do all of this during peak traffic times. We were in Morelia on Thursday and traffic was light pretty much all day. Kind of strange. If you really want to save the pesos, there is always the Combi. Just as long as it's not on a real hot day, it is a worthwhile "E" ride.....
I did see you walking back up Federico Tena on the way back to your car yesterday.. There were plenty of spaces behind the Basilica. Oh, I also saw Felipe searching for one of his "Free" spots yesterday morning without too much success. It will be interesting to see the traffic with the whole plaza blocked off this year. We walked around a little yesterday and found it enjoyable with nice wide streets for perusing the same o'l stuff. La Senora did manage to find some "stuff" .......

Don Cuevas said...

I'm really amazed by your pictures of an essentially empty Plaza Grande. At what time were they taken? 8:00 a.m.?

It was fine for me to park on Ten at Libramiento, as our friends live close by, and in that way, I didn't need to drive into Centro.

I do know of spots closer in, but anyway, I needed the walk.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

The Secret Word is "sicstios".

Michael Dickson said...

There were fewer people here for Los Muertos last year, and there are fewer this year. Than "normal," I mean. A few years back on this weekend, the weekend just before the Big Night, it would be shoulder to shoulder in that market in the Plaza Grande. Yesterday I walked through it quite easily. Part is the economy and part is leftover fears of narco violence. Pathetic, all of it.