From Guadalajara we went to Morelia. Morelia is an absolutely beautiful city! They have protected their centre core so that all the heritage buildings and cobblestone streets are still intact. Even BurgerKing cannot put their neon sign on the outside of the building…this translates into a beautiful coherent core city…which I found to be in direct contrast to the haphazardly developed and graffiti filled core of Guadalajara.

In Morelia, we found a wonderful place which specializes in tacos al pastor. Tacos al pastor is pork which is seasoned with spices put onto a vertical rotisserie along with a pineapple. Then a chef specializing in tacos al pastor very thinly shaves off slices of the pork as they are cooked. It is not like anything I’ve tasted before…even though I’ve eaten tacos al pastor in North America. The vertical rotisserie is seriously cooking…not like the limpid heater cooked vertical rotisseries like I’ve seen in Canada which always look lonely and abandoned! The tacos are then topped with diced onion, and cilantro. All the tables have common dishes of these sorts of toppings, as well as salsas. Since we were not willing to risk gastrointestinal illness, we did not partake of the condiments. But, the tacos were still delicious!

There is a huge church in the centre of Morelia. It has several different altars with different life sized altars to various virgins. Each virgin has her adherents, though, as each one had beautiful offerings of flowers. It also had various Catholic saints, like a life sized monk with a child. All saints and virgins look distinctly European. It made me wonder about the Virgin of Guadalupe who, according to my guidebook, was a previously incarnate as an Indigenous goddess…

Everywhere, the architecture is imposing and made of rock. On one hand, I felt very privileged to be able to see the beautiful colonial architecture of Morelia. But, because the city is so well preserved…it made me think about how the indigenous peoples must have felt in these huge, imposing environments. I mean, it is fun for me, because I have access to all the beauty and my life is not seriously impacted by the Spanish Empire. But for those who were being colonized and converted…the architecture was not a sort of romantic evidence of an older epoch…it represented a culture that was successfully taking over their own. The powerful pillars and arches were not for all to enjoy…they were the seat of power where decisions were made which forced so many people off of their lands and caused them to become landless peasants. It’s a little like going to the Maritime Museum in Bastion Square and admiring the beautiful building, and having a vague awareness that this is also the site of so many public hangings. Now, the Maritime Museum is a beautiful historic addition to Victoria’s landscape, but what was it before?

In both Guadalajara and Morelia, the streets are named for the heroes of the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican War of Independance against the French. I still don’t know the story of the children heroes, but there are streets of Los Ninos Heroes in both cities. And, I’m sure that it is a tragic one! Streets are named after heroes like Benito Juarez, and they are called Independencia or Libertad. It is a little like the Quebec license plate…je me souvien…I wonder what the psychological effect of seeing these street names is…or if there is any at all, like when you see something so many times…you no longer really see it like you did the first time…

Anyway, coming out of Morelia on the Mexico Cuota, we saw the sun rise on the Lake. It was beautiful, with the lake reflective of the lightening day. In the lake, you can see areas of plant growth. The thick plants are growing along the shore and in the middle of the lake. I am not used to seeing this sort of growth on a lake! I never before understood how Mexico City was built upon a lake, with artificial islands…but after seeing this, I can understand it! All they would have to do would be to encourage this sort of natural dense plant growth, and they would be able to build it up! It’s amazing how important it is to visit a site to really understand how things worked…because we only have the experience that is within us to try to make sense of things. The Okanagan Lake milfoil weeds could never prepare me to understand the type of plant growth here in Mexico!

The climate in this area is changing…now there are fluffy, stocky ponderosa pines.

The trip from Morelia to Mexico City, Distito Federal…

We were nervous about going through Mexico City to get into Puebla. Every time we stopped for gas, we would ask if we could detour and everytime the answer was “no”. So, we steeled ourselves to drive the”periferico” around Mexico City to get to the exit for the highway to Puebla.

The road leading to Mexico City goes through beautiful lush pine forests. The mountains all around are so similar to the Okanagan in the summer! As you descend into Mexico City from that lush mountainous forest, you are immediately struck by the stark contrast of the highrise modern urban metropolis. Before we knew it, we were driving on the Periferico…the very thing we’d been dreading and avoiding since planning the trip months ago!

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