A Trip around Lake Pátzcuaro – a Must-Do on Your Next Visit!

A trip around Lake Pátzcuaro is an excellent option we recommend to our guests at Hotel Mansión Iturbe. If you want a different experience – enjoying nature in a relaxing and quiet atmosphere, enjoying the biodiversity of the area – you’ll love this excursion.

Lake Patzcuaro

Lake Pátzcuaro is located in the center of the State of Michoacán (which means “place of fishermen”).  This is due the pre-Hispanic era when the first human settlements were found near lakes, such as Lake Pátzcuaro, Lake Cuitzeo, Lake Zacapu, and Lake Zirahuén.

Lake Pátzcuaro’s surface is 13,000 hectares (32,123 acres); the total shoreline length is 50 kilometers (31 miles); but its mean depth is only 9 meters.  It size surprises many of our visitors.  It has a very peaceful feeling to it, with dozens of small communities with deep cultural roots full of history.  The new visitor will be amazed by the folk art andartisanware to be found in each of these villages.

The most panoramic part of the trip would be the clockwise version (from Pátzcuaro), heading toward Erongarícuaro (Highway 14D), passing Tócuaro (masks), Jarácuaro (hats, and where the “Viejitos” began).

A view of Janitzio Island from Arocutin

A favorite place to stop for a meal is the town of Oponguio, on the other side of Erongarícuaro.  Many restaurants are situated immediately off the highway, high above the lake.  While dining on traditional Michoacán cuisine of fresh trout, delicious corn tortillas, charales, and other exotic treats, you can enjoy extraordinary, picturesque panoramas of the lake and its islands – right out your restaurant window.

Traditional Michoacan Food

If you like mezcal, Oponguio is also famous for its mescal craftsmanship.  Look or ask for the distillery “Palomas Mensajeras,” which is noteworthy for not using any industrial processes; everything is natural, and its product is widely known for its quality.

Late afternoon skies can be as impressive as the lake.  Pull over and breathe in the surrounding tranquility, watching as the sky turns colors as the sun sets.

Sunset at Lake Patzcuaro

Sunset at Lake Patzcuaro

Continuing your clockwise journey, you will come to the famous Santa Fe de la Laguna where you will find the first “Hospital Village” founded by Don Vasco de Quiroga in Michoacán in 1533.  This pueblo is known far and wide for its high-gloss, black earthenware.  If you are with a licensed tour guide, he or she will be able to get you into one of the artisans’ workshops for a first-hand look at “how it’s done.”

Now well into your second half of the tour, you will enter the larger town of Quiroga.  If you like carnitas (pork), you will have come to the right place.  People come here from far and wide to enjoy a plate of carnitas – just one of many delicacies you will taste on this expedition.

Carnitas from Michoacan

The next main point of interest before coming into Pátzcuaro is Tzintzuntzan (on the same highway).  The temples and the ExConvent (Franciscan) are a must-see, as are the thirty-three 500-year-old olive trees in front of them.  The temples will be to your right as you are leaving town.  Tzintzuntzan is also the archeological site of the Yácatas – ancient pyramids of the indigenous Purépechas.  The site is to your leftas you are leaving town.  And if you’re lucky enough to be in the area around Day of the Dead, you mustn’t miss the cemetery of Tzintzuntzan, with its massive display of golden marigolds and other flowers.

Day of the Dead Season in Tzintzuntzan

Day of the Dead Season in Tzintzuntzan

After a long, hard day on the road, return to Hotel Mansión Iturbe, lay back, relax, close your eyes, and digest all you have heard, seen, smelled, touched, and tasted during this amazing encounter with our Lake Pátzcuaro.

*Text and pictures property of Hotel Mansion Iturbe.

We invite you to check more post in our blog, you will find information that we hope will be helpful for your next trip to our colonial town in Mexico.

Here are some post that we suggest you:

Folk Art and Its Economic Importance to the Communities around Lake Patzcuaro

Don Juan Horta’s Family Workshop in Tocuaro, Michoacan

How to get to Janitzio from Patzcuaro

Hotel Mansión Iturbe

Portal Morelos 59

Plaza Vasco de Quiroga

61600 Pátzcuaro, Mich.

México


For more information about our Hotel in Patzcuaro

Reservations online at Hotel Mansion Iturbe

Tels: +52 (434) 342 0368 / 342 3628

Fax: +52 (434) 342 3627

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