Some of the tour companies offer a one day trip to Morelia with 6 people in a van. There were no pending van trips so we made some connections and hired a great cab driver to make the trip with us. Morelia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site - built in the 16th century, the capital of the State of Michoacan, about 650K population, and 150 miles north/east of Ixtapa. It took about 3 hours either way on Hwy 37D which is a toll road. Costs about $20 worth of tolls. We paid our driver $170 each and tipped him too. He stuck right with us in Morelia and walked everywhere we did. I think he was worried about us two gringas wandering off. The historic district is also a University district and the streets were filled with University students. There is also a large music conservatory there and we had a chance to drop in and sit in on some practice in a fantastic old building with amazing acoustics. There are approximately 12 cathedrals/churches within a 12 square block area. The historic district is expansive, the streets are narrow and quaint, lots of beautiful wrought iron work, everything is very clean, the sites were awesome and we were the only two Anglos I saw there. That alone was great....knowing I'd broken away from the typical Anglo tourist routine!
We spotted some wonderful small hotels in the historic district and my next trip to Ixtapa will include a couple of nights in Morelia to continue to explore this gorgeous city.
I'll just post random pictures from this awesome day....
The drive took us through high mountains, farm lands, desert, pinetrees, lakes, rivers .... some sites of Mexico I never knew existed....
Will post more Morelia pics as soon as I get them loaded....