Morelia and Patzcuaro

We spent 4 days last week visiting beautiful Morelia and Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan. Morelia is a gorgeous colonial city built by the Spanish in the 16th century. This is a vibrant city, full of history, architecture, great food, music and art everywhere. Morelia is the state capital (which was moved from the former capital, nearby Patzcuaro), and was built from the ground up to resemble cities in Spain at that time. It clearly does. The city feels very European walking around the historic center. Patzcuaro is about an hour away from Morelia, and is a beautiful smaller city and is charming in its own way. We spent a few hours and had lunch there, and plan to definitely be back and spend a few nights in Patzcuaro. Lake Patzcuaro is huge, the third largest lake in Mexico, and we visited the island in the middle of the lake and watched the ancient technique of fishing with butterfly nets. Also nearby is the prehispanic capital of the Purepecha culture, known as Tzintzntzan. Having toured many archaeological sites throughout Mexico, I found this site particularly fascinating for both the architecture built around a citadel with 5 circular pyramids, and also the story of the Purepecha culture and their overlap with the Spanish in the 16th century. We had an amazing couple of days in Morelia and Patzcuaro and will definitely be back!