We drove 10 hours from Mazatlán along route 15D Cuota through Tepic and Guadalajara, took a right at carreterra 15 through the misty mountains through Zacapu and other villages over hundreds of topes (naturally) to Quiroga right onto 120 and into Patzcuaro. Interstate Route 15D is like a well maintained race track where the only place you have to slow down is when you pay at the casetas de cobra. Carreterra 15 to Quiroga is slow going by comparison but it does give you opportunity to pass through towns with names like Zacapu and Tzintzuntzan. Names that once you start saying them you cannot stop - Itzihuapa, Huiramba, Tingambato, Uruapan, Puacraro and again Tzintzuntzan. Names from the language of the people indigenous to this area, the Purépecha.
Patzcuaro has many great hotels in the downtown area but we chose Portón del Cielo because it has the second most spectacular view we have seen in Mexico (the most spectacular is from a hotel overlooking the Copper Canyon in Divisadero)The hotel is ten minutes from the centre of town up a cobbled road and it sits on the edge of an escarpment overlooking Lake Patzcuaro. The whole of the hotel frontage is glass and wherever you are in the hotel whether taking breakfast or sitting in the bar or lying in your bed, you get a view of the changing weather sweeping in over Lake Patzcuaro. The hotel faces north so you see the sun rise to your right and watch is set to your left. In July that is when the rainy season is happening and clouds can build into spectacular formations. With a bottle of chilled vodka you can sit on the balcony and quite easily get lost in the spectacle and quite easily, if you get drunk, fall over and plunge to your death. It would certainly be the place to spend your last moments if you wanted to dive over and end your sorry life.
more after the jump
