A lovely, art-filled hotel has opened in an important 16th century manor house in Michoacan’s central city of Patzcuaro. Located just half a block from the beautiful Plaza Vasco de Quiroga – considered by some to be the most beautiful colonial square in Mexico – this divine oasis of five guest rooms, giving on to a courtyard garden of old stones and lush planting, provides reason enough to visit.
But the state of Michoacan in Mexico’s colonial heartland, is a must to visit. It is an artistically creative state and naturally very beautiful. Patzcuaro, a charming town, was an important ceremonial center of the Indians who settled here at the beginning of the 14th century and who developed the most sophisticated pre-Columbian society in Western Mexico. During the Colonial period, it served as the capital of Michoacan, and this dual heritage has given it a fascinating blend of Indian tradition and colonial architecture, extraordinarily varied craft, and one of the most haunting venues for that famous Mexican festival, the Day of the Dead, held on November 1st and 2nd.
Stay at Casa Real de la Real Aduana, hire a car, and wend your way from village to village. The Purhepecha Indians, artists of mixed traditions, cultures and beliefs, produce exquisite craft in diverse media. Craftsmen of fabric, wood, stone, and clay and the famous copper artisans of Santa Clara del Cobre, cluster in craft-specific villages. Seek out the craft masters, identified and described in the gorgeous book, Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art. It will be your roadmap, the bible to your trip.
If you can choose to come during February and March, make sure to visit the Monarch butterfly sanctuaries in the mountains of Michoacan. These are the best months to witness the natural wonder of thousands of monarchs who come there for a winter’s rest.
Be like the monarch and come here to catch your breath and revive.
You can also take a look at my new line of itineraries at Willing Foot. We have a wonderful itinerary designed around Michoacan and the Monarch butterflies.
Since 2007, when fashion designer and philanthropist Donna Karan founded the Urban Zen Foundation, an inspiringly beautiful holiday market appears at 705 Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan. Each year, Karan creates a marketplace that combines humanitarianism with consumerism, promoting shopping with a purpose. The Foundation is dedicated to three initiatives: preservation of culture (past); bringing mind, body and spirit to healthcare (present); education (future.) The opening last night featured more than 40 artisans from countries as diverse as Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, India, South Africa and Mexico, artisans that exhibit at the International Folk Art Market in the Southwest each summer. The space is the perfect venue in which to display fabrics and objects, photographs and fashion in such a way that they - and you - feel instantly at home.
Of particular beauty were the feather light shrugs, coats and jackets of Farzana Sharshenbieva from Kyrgyzstan; the magnificently, finely tie dyed bandhani silk scarves of Gujarati Abduljabbar Khatri; the sensuous Zulu pots of Jabulile Nala whose mother is considered a national treasure. I adored the heavy, indigo dyed raw cotton jackets of Laotian Boukhong Signavong that greet you as you enter this magical space.
There is nothing more healing, nothing more inspiring, nothing more warming than to be in the presence of passionate artisans who draw beauty from their souls to share it with others. It was hard to leave Urban Zen last night, so hard, in fact, that I shall return tomorrow."
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