January 12, 2019 - Morelia

Good morning!  It’s another perfect day.  We’ll be staying around Morelia today so that we don’t have to worry about getting Fred and Marissa to the airport on time.  Adan will drive them to the Merida Airport for their flight to LAX, where they’ll have an eight-hour layover before flying home to Belingham.

Everyone gathers for breakfast, even the kids, who were out last night riding the strange bike contraptions!  Fred even took a video!  Very impressive!!  I’m having so much fun sampling the breakfast breads with hot chocolate and waffles with bacon!  It will be hard to go back to being bread-free!

After breakfast some of us go with Juan for a short trip to see the aqueduct up close.  It used to mark the end of the city during colonial times.  We enjoy the colonial architecture and stop in a beautifully manicured park which features a statue to Morelos, for whom the city it named.  He is the second leader of the freedom fighters.  After three hundred years of Spanish rule, the children of the original Spanish conquerors are tired of being second-class citizens and, under the leadership of Hidalgo, a Catholic priest, revolt.  When Hidalgo is killed, Morelos, also a priest and father of five (as Juan said, “he was a liberal”) took up the cause of freedom for all Mexicans.  He was of mixed ancestry, with one parent being a black slave.  You can distinguish him in photos and statuary by his head scarf.

We visit Morelos’s family home which is now a museum and see an animatronic presentation that would have made Disney proud.  Morelia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so the colonial structures can’t be destroyed to make way for “progress”.

We pass a sculpture made of local, red marble -  it is happy frogs!!  Tomorrow we’ll be going to Guanajuato, the place of frogs.

We come back to the hotel and give Adan a bit of time off.  We’re going on a walking tour of the part of Morelia that is close to the center of town.  

We get a closer look at the Cathedral and are treated to a quinceanera girl and her cadre of young males relatives and friends!  Juan says that each family saves up for about five years to afford the catered party for two or three hundred guests with live music!

We see a statue to Juarez who was president before and after the troubles with the French.

We stop into the ….hotel to see the Tiffany glass ceiling.  (Sorry - I'll get the name later!) They say you can’t take pictures, but this is a phone photo, so maybe it doesn’t count!  It is smaller than, but as lovely as, the one we saw in Mexico City.  There is a candy market!  It also has other market goods but I’m looking for a smaller sampler pack and Marilyn still needs a shirt for her grandson.  We satisfy both needs!

Ginger has gone on ahead to find us a lunch spot.  Cynthia had recommended a place, but some are too hungry to wait any longer.  Fred and Marissa have gone with her and as Juan guides us in the right direction, the kids come back to make sure we find it.  Ginger has ordered a large pitcher of lemonade and that really hits the spot. We’re trying to order something small.  That doesn’t seem to be possible here!  I hardly ever see an overweight Mexicans and I don’t know who eats all this food!  Ginger, Marilyn, and I order taquitos, expecting four or five.  There are twelve!!  The three of us could have shared and been full!  Fred and Juan order the small baguettes and they could have shared, too!  Fred takes his to the airport later for dinner and Juan keeps his as well.  He doesn’t even join us for dinner.

After our late lunch we all agree to go back to the hotel, either to rest or organize our suitcases for tomorrow morning’s departure.  After we drop our stuff, Ginger comes with Marilyn and me to the artisans’ museum and market.  As we cross the square, we watch part of the process of taking down the huge Christmas tree!  The downstairs has museum-quality furniture that would be beautiful and unique in any of our homes!  I can’t imagine the cost to ship it, though!  When we get there the upstairs is closed so people can get some lunch;  but by the time we’re through downstairs, we can go up to see the little shops and the regional displays.  Ginger heads back to the hotel when we go up and pretty soon we follow her.

Back at the hotel we make sure we get a chance to say good-bye to Fred and Marissa.  The group will sure be different after they’ve gone.  The average age will go up by about thirty years and the activity level will probably drop by about the same amount!  Young ‘uns are great!

  

After naps and packing our few remaining travelers meet in the lobby and agree that we don’t really want to go out for dinner;  we’d rather just go upstairs for something small and turn in early.  There are only six of us, since Juan has his sandwich.

Ginger and I each have a bowl of Mestiza soup with beans and corn and mushrooms and split a salad with avocado, goat cheese, and hard-boiled egg.  I have a glass of the house red which is very nice.

And it’s off to bed for everyone!  The last night in this beautifully-appointed hotel.  :)