James Metcalf, Stephen and Maureen Rosenthal and Vasco de Quiroga have a lot in common. Each was a foreigner who came to Michoacan’s hills and dales surrounding Lake Patzcuaro, married art with commerce, infused heritages from around the world with local custom, emphasized training of artisans, and raised the utility of ordinary objects to art […]
Continue ReadingWe weren’t sure what to expect as we wheeled into Hacienda Mariposa’s entrance, greeted by German Shepherds. Of course, we’d visited the website, https://www.haciendamariposas.com, but we knew how deceptive some sites can be. Rounding the bend past the nursery, the property came into full view, and sure enough, the website was deceptively understated. What lay before […]
Continue ReadingLIVE BETTER SOUTH OF THE BORDER, by “Mexico” Mike Nelson. (USA: Roads Scholar Press, ISBN 1-889489-02-6, 2nd ed., 1997, $16.95) Available from Amazon Books: Paperback SPAS & HOT SPRINGS OF MEXICO, by “Mexico” Mike Nelson. (USA: Roads Scholar Press, ISBN 1-889489-26-3, 1997, $16.95) Available from Amazon Books: Paperback Visiting Mexico is one thing. Living here is another. Basking amid […]
Continue ReadingThe Monte de Piedad, or National Pawnshop, bears little resemblance to the usual perception of the tawdry pawnshop, bordering the bail bondsman’s office in a not-so-savory part of town, patronized by the luckless, amid the milieu of Sidney Lumet’s film “The Pawnbroker.” A respected government institution, it represents more than the mere lender of last […]
Continue ReadingFrankly, most “how to live in Mexico” books — from Ken Luboff’s Live Well in Mexico: How to Relocate, Retire, and Increase Your Standard of Living, John Howells and Don Merwin’s Choose Mexico, 8th: Travel, Investment, and Living Opportunities for Every Budget, and Mexico “Mike” Nelson’s Live Better South of the Border — spout the same line. Even the most recent […]
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The town had been sort of a laughing stock, ignored by outsiders,one of those dusty lonely little burgs where no one seemed particularly interested in much beyond survival. Like sad and decrepit towns scattered across rural America – towns named Promise City, Gravity, and Dumas – its inhabitants bore looks of quiet desperation. Tzurumútaro was […]
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They call it “the place where the flowers bloom,” this steamy edge of subtropical landscape, as rich in history as it is in surprise and beauty where superlatives and contrasts abound. It was the early 80s, and Uruapan was merely a waystation on the road between Morelia and Ixtapa. It struck me as a nice […]
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A short kilometer from Santa Clara de Cobre, on the way to Ario de Rosales, a bust of a young Lazaro Cardenas nods toward Zirahuen. “I’m sort of proud of this road, now that it has been improved,” I remarked to Hank, my travelling companion of the day. He shot me one of those incredulous […]
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Lauded as the most Spanish of Mexican colonial cities, thanks to a century-old historical preservation code requiring all downtown buildings to maintain original facades, Morelia is the most comfortable Mexican city I know. English is widely understood (Michoacan’s leading export is its citizens), European style abounds, but the flavor of colonial Mexico has adapted to […]
Continue ReadingFew places in the world have the magic of Pátzcuaro. Surely the Purépecha Rey Curateme had to have known that back in 1324 when he founded the town. For many visitors, Pátzcuaro spells the Island of Janitzio, the Basilica, the two main plazas, a library with the great Juan O’Gorman mural, picturesque red-and-white tile-roofed buildings, […]
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