Morelia: is the road from Mexico City safe?
Replies: 14 - Last Post: Oct 31, 2012 8:43 PM Last Post By: dylanmendes
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Morelia: is the road from Mexico City safe?
Hello,We had our hearts set on spending at least a couple of days in Morelia. However, we're a little shaken up by reports of drug-related crime in Michoacan in general and Morelia specifically. Can anyone provide an update on the situation (I've read some of the posts already up on this subject)? More importantly, is it safe to take the bus or rent a car and hit the road between Mexico City and Morelia? Or will we have to resort to the air?
Cheers,
Dylan
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Mexican friends just took 14-D to Morelia from the coast then 15-D to México. Nothing out of the ordinary. La Voz de Michoacán online has all the latest gossip.Discos parlores de billares and clubs with live music would be the venues I avoid. Rural off the tourist track areas in eastern and northern inland Michoacán are IMHO worthy of extra caution.4
Thanks all for you reassuring response!@skoenig, thanks specifically for your detailed reply and your Patzcuaro tip; will put it up on the whiteboard. Checking out your blog now.
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Tip: if you are in Morelia and want to bus to Pátzcuaro, it's unnecessary to cab out to the Camionera Cenyral, out on the northern loop road.Instead, ask a taxi ~$40, to take you to Xangari, at the salida a Pátzcuaro and there you ca get a cheap bus to PATZCUARO. In fact, you can if you wish ask to be let down at la Estacion instead of la Central. But it's a tossup which is more convenient to Centro.
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Thanks, Stewbear. I forgot about the taxis colectvos, probably because I have never used one. But I have taxied between on several occasions.The second class buses often have local color, you know, The Real Mexico. Twice I've enjoyed a husband and wife duet playing accordion and guitar and singing Mexican oldies but goodies.
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Tremendous - we'll probably look to get a mix of collectivos and local buses for the experience.A couple of further questions to fine-tune our itinerary:
1) we can squeeze Patzcuaro in, but cannot afford more than a day there. should we (a) do a day trip and night in morelia (b) stay the night in Patzcuaro or (c) not bother cause it's not the sort of place you can squeeze in a day.
2) if we were to spend the early morning in Teotihuacan, and then bus it to Morelia... is there an easy way to do this directly instead of battling traffic in and out of Mexico DF?
Appreciate the assistance.
PS: I do realise our sort of itinerary may not suit the ideal Mexican travel experience, but we make do with what we have! :/
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#9:2) By car you can but not by bus. You are looking at around 5 hours of travel Teotihuacan to Morelia by bus.
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Pátzcuaro can easily be visited on a day trip from Morelia, but in order to get the most out of a visit is to spend a couple of nights in Pátzcuaro, touring the towns and villages around Lake Pátzcuaro, especially for the amazing, specialized artisanry localized there.Moreover, the scenery is beautiful. We moved there 7 years ago and never tire of it.
The Pátzcuaro area is best appreciated at a leisurely paced visit. You can see the highlights of the Morelia Centro Histórico in a day. The Pátzcuaro area needs more time to savor it's pleasures and treasures.
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Yes I personally love the second class buses. I oncw went from Manzanillo to Lazaro Cardenas a trip of about 6 hours. All of Mexico rode that bus. Peddlers, families, school kids, musicians, repairmen you name it. I however was the only gringo & the only person who went the entire way.13
As we were driving back towards Pátzcuaro from Morelia yesterday, we saw well armed Federales troops, some with serious weapons, apparently setting up a post at the highway junction of Tzurumutaro. This is, I'm confident, a move to preserve and enforce security in the region during Día de Los Muertos.Update, October 31, 2012: I drove by there twice today around noon and there was no reten or checkpoint. No sign of Federales, Ejército and maybe only a lone Policía Estatal vehiculo.
While I didn't go into Pátzcuaro Centro, the approach roads did not seem unusually busy to me.
By the way, at the Glorieta Tangaxoan, where Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas meets Libramiento and Calle Las Nueces as well as Calle Obregón, they have set up a beautiful ofrenda, with incense burning in stone bowls at the corners of the little park in the middle of the glorieta. There are folding chairs set up for perhaps a ceremony.
Edited by: Anonimo Update October 31, 2012 12:53 PM
