THE ROAD TO PATZCUARO

Well, really it's two roads - the 200 and 37D - but for us - today's road would be taking us north and up to Patzcuaro.

We left early Sunday morning to beat the traffic build up in Zihuatanejo. It's not a particularly large city (around 100,000) but since we haven't driven through it many times - and in fact haven't been driving for 2 1/2 months - we wanted a nice clean exit.

Sunday morning we were up before the sun. My thought was to be on the road by 7:00 am - but things always take a bit longer than planned - right?!

So - it was 8:00 am by the time we pulled through the El Manglar gates.

It looks a bit sad here now with three of us RVs leaving in the last week,  but it's been a great home for the last few months. 

Throughout the time that we have been at Playa La Ropa - the main road has been under construction. Everyone must take the detour which did cause some problems for the larger RVs. Glad in this case that we are small and made it through without a hitch.

The last stop light on the outskirts of Zihuatanejo.

The 200 north is nice along this route.

On the way down there was quite a few gravel spots. Nice to see that they have all been paved over the last few months. 

No pictures again until we are on the 37D - toll road - headed north.

Not much else to say - take a look at the route. To see it on the way down you can go here from 2012 or here from last November.

Nothing too special about this picture except that we were noting that the bus is very tall. One of the slowest bus drivers we have come across.

Sugar cane is our guess.

From Zihuatanejo to Patzcuaro we climb 7,000 ft! Although we love the beach - we truly love to be in pine country.

Here, we've just passed through our third casita - toll booth - on either side of the highway is a truck/rest stop.

Nice to be back in an agriculture zone. Not sure what these are though.

Growing right up on the hills - avocado I think.

The last 50 kms or so are pretty steep. Not a surprise since we came the other way in November … but a lot less fun. The van is very slow up such a steep climb. But lets remember here that we made it - with our last fuel pump we would have been parked on the side of the road by this time. Good that we can ride on the shoulder.

There are three ways into Patzcuaro. We take the first exit to get in the 'back way'.  

It's a good free (libre) road - just watch the sides - there are a few places with a nasty drop off.

We took this route two years ago. I still remember when we saw the Isla de Janitizo for the first time. 

Thankfully it is super easy to get to Villa Patzcuaro Hotel and RV Park - plus they have good signage.

It's like coming home….

Our usual spot.

The trip took us 4 hours - we arrived at Villa Patzcuaro Hotel and RV Park around noon. The steep ending slowed us down a bit but looking back it took us the same time from Patzcuaro to Zihuatanejo.

The 200 is a free road but the 37D has a toll - we passed through four casitas with a total cost of 220 pesos (around $18 CAN). 

After lunch and a bit of a rest we headed to El Centro. All the combi taking in Zihautanejo gave us the confidence to seek out the combi here - which we found at the Bodega store near us. We usually walk in but it takes about 20 minutes and then we still need to walk around the town. 

This morning we returned and spent the entire day there! 

All those pictures next post.

Our plan was to stay two nights but we are going to add a third. It's as hard to leave here as it was the beach.

Teresa

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