| So we left Pátzcuaro
heading for Morelia but this time to bypass it and travel onward. On the way
out we caught up with this combi minibus. This is a Nissan but Toyota
and Volkswagens are also common. They are the only means of public transport
for getting in and out of the old cities and they are well used. |  |
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I mentioned earlier about the ditches at the sides of the road. This is
shallower than some and at the edge of a hard shoulder. When there is no
shoulder and the carriageway is narrow it can get quite hairy. If your
wheels slip into this there is every chance that you will overturn. This is
why you don't drive at night! |
| The day was quite overcast and with some haze which
made the distance views rather unclear. The land seems to be a flat plain
surrounded by mountains often of volcanic origins. However this was a lake
albeit one that was drying out. |  |
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We are at 6000-7000ft here (and will be for most of the rest of our travels
in Mexico. This makes it a little cooler and also permits more agriculture.
Unfortunately Mexico does not have as much arable land as it needs to feed
its growing population and the relative inefficiency of a lot of its farming
does not help - we have seen a number of small fields being ploughed by one
man with a horse or oxen. |
| We see some strange sights on our travels but this is
one of the weirder ones. They are rucksacks hung on the side of the
generator wagon towed by a water truck. We think they contain the road
construction workers' lunches, but one wonders what happens if they lose one
as they bounce along. |  |
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There was little wind which made the water surface like a mirror so we had a
lot of shots like this in between the trees and bushes as we drove along the
edge of the Laguna Cuitzeo on Mex 15D north of Morelia.. |
| When the clouds became more defined they just added to
the picturesque look of the views. |  |
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Mind we took a lot of shots to get these. Digital cameras have delays which
meant we had trees, bushes, signs, and passing traffic spoiling the shots. |
| There are rest areas at most of the toll booths. These
nuns were enjoying their ice creams in the heat. |  |
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Jan is fascinated by the pine trees at these elevations. They are unusual in
that they have very long needles. |
| She also spotted these blooms. What you see is almost
twice life size - oh the marvels of computer editing of photographs! |  |
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There are lots of volcanoes in Mexico since it sits on the San Andreas
fault. There were two earthquakes in Mexico City while we were in this area
although the earth never moved for us. This looked as though it might be but
proved to be just a trick of the clouds. |
| We do cross some mountain ridges on this route which
means we do get to descend into valleys - occasionally! |  |
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It is populated but we are still far enough from the big cities to not be
impacted by them. About 60% of Mexicans live in the big cities. 14 million
live in Mexico City, Ecatepec (a close neighbour) is the next largest
and that has only 1.7 million. Geographers refer to this pattern as the
country being dominated by a primary city (defined as being larger than the
next four cities combined). |
| As we get closer to Mexico City we are more likely to
find old volcanoes. This was a likely candidate but our map was not good
enough for us to name it. We blew another tyre around here (turned out to
be the valve extender again) and so limped into Maravatio for repairs. No
problem and 60 pesos (about £3) to replace the valve. |  |
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We left the motorway where it turns south at Atlacomulco in favour of more
minor roads. This turned out to be a big mistake. Smaller roads pass through
villages and they love their topes! It was interesting though because we got
to see unusual sights like this church. We couldn't stop to look more
closely though. |
| The stalls and shops at the roadside were truly
amazing. Note that this is very definitely NOT for the tourists. I doubt
they get tourists down this road more than a few times a year. |  |
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Everybody works and they start them young. This girl and her baby brother
were minding the sheep as they wandered along the roadside. |
| They do like their topiary and all trees seem to have
at least the bottom few feet painted white. This may be as a warning on
roads but in parks it may be to prevent some sort of insect or animal
damage. These trees looked more like lollipops and were lined up along both
sides of the road. |  |
The problem with the tyre and the slow travel across the minor roads through
Villa Del Carbón found us in Tepotzotlan at
1800hrs still 35 miles short of our destination. Since we knew of an RV site
here we opted to stop. In view of how things turned out the next day we were
really glad we made this decision. However we did get to travel through Mexico
on roads not usually travelled by foreigners and so we got to see more of the
real Mexico. |