By David Eidell (11/04)
Patzcuaro Michoacan one of the top ten RV destinations in Mexico. Located about 150 miles west of Mexico city, Patzcuaro is a colonial town of perhaps fifty thousand souls. Situated in the heart of Tarascan Indian country the local "Purepecha" indigenous inhabitants are famous throuout Mexico for their basket, face mask, wood carving, and modest weaving talents. Indeed, it is the 15th century cathedral and surrounding low buildings that give the town its unique flavor.
Situated in a small valley at 7,100 ft. altitude Patzcuaro seldom warms up to the point where an air conditioner would be switched on --- indeed, in the deep winter, frost will glaze foliage and lawns. A typical summer day will have temperatures near eighty degrees and an overnight low in the forties. Subtract ten to fifteen degrees off those values for a January forecast. The area is thickly forested with pine, oak and eucalyptus. Life (and tourists) revolves around two plazas separated by a city block. The small plaza to the east "Gertrudus Boca Negra" is by far the busier of the two while a weekly Sunday crafts market is held in the larger Don Vasco de Quiroga plaza.
As usual I am going to skip over the information that camping books and guide books abound in, and furnish the lowdown on information that could save RV'ers a lot of time:
There are two RV parks here and both are nice, the one closest to town "Villas de Patzcuaro" is the cuter of the two, but access is a little tight for rigs longer than say twenty-five feet. Note: Like most old towns here, do not try to drive even a modest size rig any further than the Villas de Patzcuaro turnoff --- the streets get impossibly narrow and what little space there is, is choked with innumerable taxis and tiny VW van collective buses.
The RV park "El Pozo" is two miles further out of town on the road from Morelia the capitol of the state of Michoacan. This means that you will encounter the El Pozo first (which will be on your right), then you make a left at an intersection (there's a sign with arrow that says "Patzcuaro Centro --- Centro means "downtown"). As I mentioned earlier both RV parks are nice, but as always there's a catch: Patzcuaro is a minor teminus for railroad trains headed to the coast. There is a large steel mill and seaport in Lazaro Cardenas. Because the El Pozo is situated adjacent to the railroad tracks, the blaring of a locomotive's horn will be quite apparent especially at night. If the noise drives you up the wall, take a collective or taxi to the Villa Patzcuaro and carefully note dimensions of the access road to the park. With patience and skillfull driving huge rigs sometimes appear at the tiny park.
Grocery Shopping: Proceed to the smaller village Plaza via the normal route that taxis and the minibuses take. Go to the street bordering the north edge of the park and take note that straight ahead of you is an outdoor market. It goes on and on for almost an eighth of a mile. Here you will find vegetables and fruit. Just to your left a parallel walkway leads to refrigerated butcher stalls where you will encounter some wonderful cuts of beef, pork and chicken.
Had you not proceeded into the market but made a left turn on the street that borders the north side of the plaza, keep walking until your clear the plaza and enter the one-way street the will join with the Plaza de Don Vasco de Quiroga. About five doors down on the right will be the entranceway to a very large market that is broken up into four rooms with quirky concrete ramps to enable shopping with a cart. This is a well-run supermarket that has most of the staples you need except for fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. The deli counter at the right-rear has an excellent selection of cheeses, cold cuts.
About ten blocks away is the federal health care store by the name of "ISSSTE TIENDA". The public is invited to shop and this store seems to have much of what regular Mexican markets do not --- American brand peanut butter, cereals, chinet paper plates, Healthy breakfast cereals, tabasco sauce and what have you? The prices are substantially lower than in a regular market. After shopping the management will gladly call a taxi for you if needed.
Further down the one way street from the supermercado and on the same side of the street is "Mega Net" an internet cafe with cable modem connections, fast computers and mostly 17 or 19 inch screens. Cost is 12 pesos an hour or about a dollar ten cents. Across the one-way street from the Internet Cafe is a bank (Bancomer) with ATM machine.
Thirty eight miles to the Northeast of Patzcuaro via a four lane highway is Morelia the Capitol. Refer to your RV or camping guide for a complete list of things to see and do but I am going to tell you where you can find a WalMart superstore and a COSTCO WHOLESALE. Even huge rigs can go there with no sweat. Follow the highway to Morelia until you reach a busy multilane intersection signed PERIFERICO SUR (this is the southern bypass loop around Morelia). Turn right onto the periferico and proceed for just a couple of miles. You can spot the WalMart on the left and COSTCO off to the right and you will need to jog onto a spur road that leads right to the entrance to the parking lot. Amazingly, the COSTCO meat department has the same superb selection of beef from Canada and the USA. I've never had to do it, but COSTCO assures me that they will warranty one of their RV tires purchased in the USA although they do not change RV tires there. There is no SAM'S CLUB in Morel! ia. Oh yeah, COSTCO even has a good selection of best sellers in English.
Scattered throughout Morelia are upscale businesses that custom french roast premium Mexican coffee beans, auto and truck parts stores that can obtain hard to get service items, audio dealers that sell the latest in digital car stereos, stores that specialize in hard to find NiCad and Lithium batteries for cameras and electronics, and all of the other services (even veterenarians that specialize in cats). Morelia is one of Mexico's more affluent cities of a half-million inhabitants.
Saludos de Uruapan!
David