We arrived in the afternoon yesterday, checked into our hotel, and then wandered around a little. Later that night we had dinner with a family, friends of Candace, who were easily one of the nicest families we've ever met. The plan was to meet at their place at 7. When we got there just the two kids, Gonzalo and Natlia, were there. They served us tea and we all chatted for a while until their mom arrived. Everyone in the family has studied English with Candace, so the conversation all night was, for the most part, in English. Mom arrived around 8 and we learned that their dad was at a meeting and wouldn't be home until much later. We chatted some more and more time passed. At this point, having hardly eaten all day, the four of us were all on the verge of passing out. All in all, we didn't end up eating until about 10:30, and I don't know if it was the food, the company, or the fact that we would have eaten our napkins at that point, but it was one of the finest meals we'd ever eaten. We had tacos al pastor, chile relleno, frijoles, and for dessert, capulines (kind of like a tiny cherry with a big seed, served in syrup), and atole to drink. I'd been wanting to try atole, so I was pretty psyched. It's basically like porridge, a thick, semi-sweet drink with corn in it, and I think a little cinnamon. Pretty yummy. I could actually imagine having it for breakfast. There's also a chocolate-y version of this called champurrado, which I'm also excited to taste. It's safe to say we all slept pretty well that night.
This morning we went out for breakfast and met another family friend who took us to the top of the hill where we toured the ornament factory. Tlalpujahua is famous for and is one of the biggest producers of Christmas tree ornaments. It seriously felt like we were walking into Santa's little workshop. We saw men handblowing the glass into various shapes and other men and women handpainting them one-by-one. It was impressive, especially when you consider how much time goes into each one. At the end of the tour we were able to buy them, at about 50 cents apiece. Crazy.
We came back to Morelia today, where we were greeted by our lovely hosts, the owner and manager of the inn, who had arranged for a massage therapist from Pátzcuaro to come and give us massages and made us an amazing burrito dinner with homemade guacamole, beans, and rice. Yum. We also had palomas, a margarita-like drink made with tequila... a Mexican spa day, if you will. Needless to say, we are all feeling pretty spoiled and very appreciative of all that we have experienced here so far.
The doors and windows here are really interesting, so much color and texture.
Did I mention there are a lot of churches here?
Ornaments in the making.
What a painstaking process. Each individual ornament is painted and glittered by hand.
Here's Shayna showing this little girl the picture she took of her. She wanted us to buy her paletas, which Shayna paid for but didn't take.
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