El Viaje Michoacano: Waterfall and Uruapan

To say that I had an action packed weekend would be an understatement. You could argue that it was over packed. Fun out the wazoo? Yes, of course. Exhausting? Definitely.
We started out on Friday morning at our normal bus meeting location, Jardin del Cantador. We had to be there by 7:30 and we made it about 20 minutes early. Finding the buses, however, was a different story. We looked all around that huge garden until they finally appeared. We got on board, secured our seats, and then we were off. Our trip to the city of Uruapan, Michoacan was nearly nonstop, however, we ran in to a huge traffic jam in the state capital of Morelia. From there, we took a detour and ended up having to stop at an Oxxo (a Mexican 7-11). We eventually made our way to the most beautiful waterfalls you can possibly imagine.

We got off the buss and were immediately greeted by hoards of people trying to rent us their horses. It was a nice thought, but I have legs that work just fine. After navigating through the set of horses, we began down the trail. After a walk of about 20 minutes, we found the first waterfall. It was huge and beautiful, however it was extremely polluted. It was slightly better than the smell that you sniff when passing over one of the sewer vents here in Guanajuato. However, it was not entirely different. We hiked down a slightly longer and tougher trail to the second waterfall. There, we encountered crystal clear water and a little wading pool at the base. It was nearly the perfect waterfall. I just wish I could have spent more time there. I could have swam around for hours!

After the waterfall, we headed to the hotel and to the center of Uruapan. The hotel was wonderful. It was extremely clean and well decorated. It may not have satisfied the ultra snobby American's wishes, however, since it was only $35 a night, it was wonderful. I would stay there again in a heartbeat. After showering and dropping off our stuff in the hotel, we then ventured into the main Plaza of Uruapan to find a place to eat dinner. Yeah, so good luck with that one. The only places to eat around the center are street vendors. We were slightly wary of eating street food after our problems with food down here thus far. We eventually found a little cafe a few streets off the center and were satisfied with their offerings. I ended up eating a grilled chicken hoagie. Very Mexican, eh?

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and flipped on the TV. There was everything from Tyler Florence fixing tacos (dubbed in Spanish, by the way) to oldie Mexican movies. However, we settled upon Hotel Rwanda. Lance had never seen it, but I had seen it a time or two before. If you've seen this movie before, you know that it is not a good one to watch before you try to get a good night's sleep. It was frightening enough to give Lance some creepy dreams which caused him to wake up in the middle of the night, proclaiming that we had to go. I advised him that it was 1:00 AM and that I was going back to sleep.