Bells

I am in Patzcuaro, Michoacan. Guess this is my third visit here, but it still feels like the first time.

Arrived tired, yesterday afternoon, after a day and night of nearly nonstop driving. Did stop at a hotel at Tocomen for nearly four hours, but found it too noisy for sleep. I seem to not only to be growing old, but dumb too. Arrived here with my tail dragging, one shock too. Slept well, but awoke a couple of times with a charlyhorse in my right calf. Twenty hours at the accelerator, it seems, was too much for it.

Church bells are still important to people all over Mexico. Their weight, tone, age are important. The strength it takes to toll them is too. As an aid to mindfulness of God and history is also import. There is comfort in hearing and having heard a given bell for 10 or 20 years, or 30 or 50.
One may become well attuned to a give bell after 80 or 90 years.

Memorable on this trip so far is my stay in the old suites on the Malecon in Guaymas, My stay at the French couples place in Tuito, and here, now. The hotel is poorly set up and run, but I like its looks. And, it was quiet last night. I am very grateful for that quiet. The crow of the cocks and the toll of bells this morning were just fine.

I will probably stay here in Patzcuaro in hopes of another night of quiet. Tomorrow I can head for Morelia and look for a decent mechanic and a quiet place to stay. There has been so much tourism here for so long that it is difficult to find decent food. There are Christian and non Christian pilgrimages here to. Pilgrims seem as ignorant of excellence as are tourists. Still, both are often willing to pay well.

On the Road

Entered Mexico at Nogales this time and said a little prayer at the church of the Immaculate Conception there.

I don't drive as well as I did. I've lost shirt and a pair of levies. Very hard to find hotels and motels that have the serene atmosphere I desire. Age. Still, I'm grateful that my humor remains good.

I've realized that I can't afford long term travel in a way that is truly comfortable for me.

From Nogales drove through Hermosillo to Guaymas. Of the two Guaymas was the more pleasant, but I went on to Empalme before I stopped and had some seafood. Took an expensive hotel room in Navajoa, but found its neighbors so noise that I left about 11 PM to sleep happily in my van.

It was not far form Navajoa that while I was traveling with 'Mando and my brother Gary long ago that Gary stepped very close to a coral snake with his bare foot and I a bit later fell from a train breaking hip and pelvic bones.

Ate jaiva and got an offer of a place to stay in Empalme.

A gentleman told me that the Mexican Government entered this downturn pretty flush. Seems the Fox administration was so tied up that it couldn't arrange to spend much so ended with a large surplus for Calderon administration.