#uriangato

Mexico 2025, week who knows

I'm like 3 weeks behind on posting, so I'm gonna catch up one week at a time.

This week our second sessions started, we do two 3 week sessions each summer, each session we earn about 8 credits and it's the equivalent of about 3 semester long courses. This session I'm taking an art history class and a pedagogy class. For our art history class we got to visit a couple different museums during the week which has been fun. I'm learning a lot about art Latin American art and history which is super interesting. My schedule this session is also nice, I have an 8-10am class, a 12-2pm class, and a 4-6pm class which means I get to do some exploring of the city in between classes. Adriana and I have been discovering some great cafes.

Also as of Tuesday I am now finished with antibiotics and am free from the intestinal parasite (thank goodness). I can finally eat normally now.

Over the weekend, Adriana, my host family, and I went on a road trip to the nearby state of Michoacán in southwest Mexico. I'd never been to Michoacán before, so I was excited to go. My host family also invited along a member of their congregation who was from Texas and had just moved to Guanajuato, Linda. We left early Saturday morning and got back Sunday evening.

My host family, Javier and Loyda, have such interesting stories. They traveled all around Mexico and Central America in an old jeep in the 80's and 90's, and were missionaries in Honduras for a long time. They told us stories about how they had a pet monkey for a long time, or about how they would drive across rivers and through war-zones. Javier drives like he is in the Fast and the Furious, it was a wild ride. At one point we needed to take an exit and we were four lanes over and he managed to somehow make it while Adriana yelled “¡Vamos! ¡Usa las alas del carro! ¡Sin miedo al éxito! (Come on! Use the wings on the car! Don’t be afraid of success!) 

Our first stop was in Uriangato, Guanjuato. This town is famous for clothes, it is where a lot of stores throughout Mexico will get their merchandise. Clothes of all kinds are sold at a very cheap price.

Next we drove through the town of Cuitzeo, Michoacán, which is a very idyllic town painted all white. Then we stopped for lunch in Morelia, the capital of Michoacán. We saw some kids dancing the viejito dance (the little old man dance) which was hilarious.

From there we went to the town of Patzcuaro, which is nearby Lake Janitzio. It was such a beautiful town, apparently the Day of the Dead celebration there is legendary, and it was where the backgrounds for the movie Coco were inspired from. We drove through the rain and found a hotel room. Then Adriana and I wandered around town for a long time exploring the artesania shops and markets. We ended up in a bar on the main plaza that played Mexican alternative rock where we had sweet potatoes with marshmallows, corundas (similar to a tamale but square), and margaritas. It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday we had breakfast of Purépecha Chilaquiles at a place called Doña Paca's, which may be the best food I've had in Mexico to date. Then we explored a building called Los Siete Patios, which is an old building with 7 different courtyards, each one surrounded by small little artisan shops. There were weavers, metalworkers, painters, carpenters, everything you can think of. It was very cool to see. Then we drove quite literally 100mph back to Guanajuato. We stopped at a viewpoint of Lake Janitzio on the back. There is apparently an island in the middle of the lake where the Indigenous Purépecha people have a thriving community. I'd really like to come back to Michoacán someday, it is such a cool place. The climate is almost identical to Oregon somehow.

Entrega SECTUR Guanajuato premio de México Desconocido a la expresión uriangatense

León, Guanajuato.- Juan José Álvarez Brunel, secretario de Turismo del Estado de Guanajuato, entregó hoy al municipio de Uriangato el premio “Lo Mejor de México” que otorgó la Revista México Desconocido a la Alfombra de Flores realizada en la Grand Place de Bruselas, Bélgica, en el año 2022. Este premio fue recibido por Anastasio Rosiles Pérez, presidente Municipal de Uriangato; Roo Aguilar…