Michoacan

Hola todos,

I hope everyone is doing well. I am once again recovering from an exciting weekend. I went to a few different places around Michoacan, which has a bad rep, but was completely safe.

We arrived in a city called Patzcuaro on Thursday and pretty much just hung out that night. There were a ton of street venders and small restaurants and stores. It was a pretty cute little town.

On Friday, we went to Angahuan to visit the Puricutin Volcano. The last time it erupted was in the 1940's. The lava covered an entire village, but you can still see the top of a church sticking out of the lava rock. The church was called (and I'm not joking) San Juan Parangaricutirimicuaro. We ended up taking horses down to the lava field and climbed around the rocks for a while. It was breathtaking. I've never seen anything like it before.

After a delicious lunch of homemade green tortilla quesodillas, we visited a national park. It was beautiful, but I was a little disappointed. All of the waterfalls and landforms were clearly man made. But I guess you can't win them all.

(above) Me hanging out in the lava

(below) View of the volcano from the lava field

(above) The top of the church that wasn't covered in the eruption

(below) My guide and horse that took me too the lava field--yes he was half my age

On Saturday, we went to Tzin Tzun Tzan, which is a small fishing village located on an island. It seemed like something out of a movie. The boat ride was perfect. The water was calm and mountains surrounded the lake. As we started to move closer to the island, we saw a ton of fishermen with huge butterfly nets. The island itself was very tall. All of the streets winded up to the top of a hill, and were cluttered with every kind of shop you can imagine. I could have walked around there for days.

(above) Fishermen

(below) View of the island from the boat

(above) View from the boat

(below) One of the streets on the island

After the island we went to see some pyramids called "Las Yacatas." There were five of them, identical, and lined up in a row. It was pretty interesting, but looking back on my pictures, I seemed more interested in the landscape.

From there, we went to Morelia, where we spent the night. We had a walking tour of the city after dinner and hung out in town.

On Sunday we wandered around the city again until it was time for the World Cup. I watched it in a bar with my English professor of all people. But, it was fun. She is an incredibly smart and interesting woman, but she loves to gossip. I don't know who watched the game, but it wasn't all that exciting in and of itself. We were both rooting for Holandia, but it was clear everyone else was happy that Spain won.

Anyway, I should probably start on my homework. I'm in my last week of class and have a presentation and three papers due before Saturday. Yikes.

But I will be home be for you know it.

I miss you guys.

Love,

Katlynn