Mom and Dad Visit Mexico!!

My parents braved a journey to Mexico! And survived!

Mom and Dad came to visit on Christmas. They got to see where I live and enjoyed the area around the Bosque, which was fun and nice. The little town nearby really is cute and quaint, and we sat at the bullring and drank crappy Mexican beer and watched the kiddos do crazy things to impress the gringos.

Then we headed to Uruapan, where we were able to do a day trip to Paracho, the guitar making capital of Mexico. Cool place! My dad loved it and got to buy some wood to make a new guitar with.

Uruapan was not a highlight for me. I'd never been, so it was nice to see a new place, and we've talked about going there to tour coffee farms, but the city itself was crowded, smelled terrible (it is in a valley and pollution here is pretty terrible-- no emissions standards), had loudness forever.

Uruapan does have a nice park area that is fun to walk around and enjoy. After we went there we enjoyed fresh trout at a nearby restaurant, yum! And there is a cool fabric making place that is fun to look/shop around. So, the city has attractions, but is otherwise noisy and irritating.

Next was Patzcuaro and Janitzio. Patzcuaro is a wonderful town, and Janitzio is always fun. We got jarros locos, of course. And my mom had fun shopping around downtown Patzcuaro. Cute shops with local artisan crafts, etc.

Morelia was the final destination. Both the parents got sick, unfortunate. But we all enjoyed the butterflies! All the monarchs fly to areas near Morelia during the winter every year. Strange phenomenon. We saw an insane amount of monarchs! They fly around when it is sunny and you can hear them all fluttering their wings, and when it is cloudy they form clusters on branches of fir trees. The branches sag with all the weight.

Morelia is a nice place to spend time in. We enjoyed walking around the downtown areas, and I enjoyed watching silly sitcoms (in English!) at the hotel.

Yay parents! It was great to see them and was great for them to see where I live!

Happy family.

Now to convince brother Tom & Wendy to visit. Hmm...

Happy 2008!