moving on

So day 3 C and I intended on an early morning breakfast a quick wander around the city before we left Mexico city and headed for Morelia - thats not how it worked out, C and I had been struggling a little with the time change and still recovering from the long flight, in the morning we had been setting multiple alarms to get up, it was hard but we had managed it, today however we weren't so lucky. We still aren't 100% sure what happened but I'm pretty sure we slept through 5 alarms and woke up at 11am. Needless to say it was a rushed and crazy start to the day. But we managed to buy our ticket and arrive at the bus terminal 5mins before the bus left, perfect timing.

At the other end things went a lot better, we managed to get a taxi driver that spoke a little english and taught us a bit more spanish. the 1st hostel we tried had just had a cancelation so they had a free room, and the city was awesome.

We walked around it for some time - all of the buildings were restored colonial buildlings from the time of spansish rule. The centrepiece of the city was, without doubt, their amazing cathedral.When lit up at night, it is a very impressive sight. So we had some dinner, wandered into the cathedral and generally walked around, sampling the regional sweet specialities, and generally checking the place out.

The next day, we got up and walked down the markets to a church at the end of the street that we heard was pretty weird/amazing. No sonner had we come upon it than a weird mexican catholic parade of marching band and dancing old ladies marched down the street, into the church and started with all kinds of dancing and partying. The inside of the church was truly something to behold - it was like Salvador Dali and Lewis Carroll's love child, however that would work. The inside was ornate gold filligreed wood carving pretty much everywhere the eye looked, with pink and green patterns everywhere, truly creepy carvings of various saints, the virgin mary and many other catholic figureheads, flowers everywhere, candles, incense, alters, symbology, blah blah blah - it was over the top x 1000. The parade into the church added another level of truly odd, and then the icing on the cake was provided by those amazingly dedicated individuals who WALKED ON THIER KNEES down the ~1 KM OR SO OF COBBLE-STONED STREET to the church, inside and up to the alter, presumably as some sort of petition or penance. All I can say is that it would hurt beyond imagination, and the looks on their faces pretty much confirmed that in my books.

Anyway, after this, we spent the arvo visiting a few museums, eating some mighty fine mexican and drinking a couple of cervezas, and forumlating the next part of our trip - off to Guadalajara tomorrow!



Women dancing in a marching nad parade in your local Morelian Catholic Extravaganza.


Just the dome of what must surely be the most ornate church interior in the world... The photo really doesn't do it justice.

Another quiet little corner of Morelia.

Old colonial government building in Morelia.

The Morelian cathdral - truly an awe inspiring sight, particularly at night.