Patzcuaro, Michoacan

This is a return of sorts: I first visited in 2007 and returned again a few years later. In 2012, I took a memorable all-day drive through Michoacan, up from the coast and then meandering southeast from just before Colima. That turn, off the Cuota (tollroad), wound up being a seven hour excursion with only a Lonely Planet guide map. We drove through Mazamitla, a heavy rainstorm, stopped in Uruapan for coffee, and finally ended up here in Patzcuaro. I am tempted to return to Ajijic on the same roads, if only to save the tolls and to see the many small towns that dot the western Michoacan highlands up close and personal. I would also like to dispel the media rumors which pass as fact as to the danger cartels pose in this region. I know they are present and disrupt daily life. But this is not Iraq of 2004. People basically go about their day-to-day lives but, I assume because the state has made the issue political, I have seen more masks than anywhere in Jalisco.