Day 5 - Janitzio & Patzcuaro

Today was reserved for Patzcuaro and near vicinity exploration. We started the day for us rather early - 8:30 with a breakfast at our lovely B&B. We got a few pointers from fellow travellers and soon after breakfast (crepe filled with spinach & some fruit salad) we headed out to check out Janitzio - the island nearby Patzcuaro. Our guidebook said it was only 3km from downtown so I had a brilliant idea to walk there, we have walked more right?! The only think I didn't consider during my planning stage was that Lucka & I (Monika is writing this not Chris) would be wearing skirt & a tank top. This outfit proved to be rather popular with the local drivers as we got more attention than we have asked for. After a few minutes I decided - despite the hot weather - to put on my long sleeved shirt just to cover up at least some parts. Lucka on the other hand was enjoying this unexpected attention. I thought my walking idea was that much more stupid since we didn't have a map and we were sort of feeling our way to the lake... we all thought about the US advisory about travel to Mexico when we found ourselves in the middle of a construction zone, surrounded by many interested eyes... at that point... I had to agree with Chris that TAXI may have been a better idea. Luckily about an hour later (3km my @#$%) we finally arrived at the pier for Janitzio. The most interesting think about this island was the ride there with an extremely bad guitar player and the ride back with a pretty good full blown band! The island itself was not all too remarkable. On the way there we were able to see the local fisherman in action and that was pretty cool. We also climbed the many many many steps up to the statue on top of the island... but that was about it. By the time we decide to head back we were all way too hungry, but afraid to eat anything on this island... as the hygiene was not the primary concerned here... but we at least had a beer to fool our hunger.
Once in Patzcuaro we stopped for a wonderful meal and explored this amazing colonial gem. The town is truly beautiful, and soooo full of life, it is amazing. I believe my photo albums will be filled with pictures of churches as that is the main thing here. Tomorrow we are heading out after breakfast to URUPAN national park for some waterfalls and from there to Ixtapa. We shall see how good Heidi (our GPS) will be!!!