Pátzcuaro

Pátzcuaro sits above a lake at more than two thousand metres in the Purépecha heartland, and its houses follow a rule from the colonial period: whitewashed walls, red-brown timber and wide overhanging eaves, kept consistently enough that the two main plazas feel like a single composition. Vasco de Quiroga, the sixteenth-century bishop, encouraged each village around the lake to specialise in a craft, and they still do: copper at Santa Clara, lacquer at Uruapan, guitars at Paracho, masks and pottery elsewhere, all of it sold in the market here. Boats cross to the island of Janitzio. The lake villages hold the best known Day of the Dead vigils in Mexico on the night of 1 November.

History

The Relación de Michoacán, written in 1539-1541, says that two chiefs, Páracume and Vápeani, came with their people to the place then called Tarimichundiro and began to build temples by setting four large rocks together; since the chiefs died in 1360, the founding is usually placed around 1324, and the town became the capital and later the ceremonial centre of the Purépecha (Wikipedia, Pátzcuaro).

What to look for

• The two plazas - whitewashed arcades and red timber, unusually consistent.
• The village crafts - copper, lacquer, guitars and masks from around the lake.
• Janitzio - the island in the lake, reached by boat.
• Day of the Dead - the candlelit lakeside vigils on the night of 1 November.

When to go

October to May is dry and the altitude keeps it mild, with cold nights. Day of the Dead at the start of November is the peak by a wide margin, with rooms booked months ahead and the lake villages very crowded. The rest of the year the town is calm and the crafts are still there.

Good to know

The Day of the Dead vigils are a family observance in a cemetery, and the crowds of visitors with cameras have become a real strain on the communities; if you go, go quietly, ask before photographing and consider the smaller villages rather than Janitzio. The lake itself has shrunk and is polluted in places, so it is less scenic than the setting suggests.

Nearby

Morelia is an hour east; Uruapan and its national park are an hour southwest.

Key facts