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Information, discussions, attractions, and activities in México with a focus on Michoacán, El Alma de México.
 
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 San Jose de Gracia, Mich.

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cheenagringo
Amigo
cheenagringo


Posts : 334
Join date : 2011-02-21
Location : Albuquerque, New Mexico
Job/hobbies : Importing Quality Mexican Products

San Jose de Gracia, Mich. Empty
20110228
PostSan Jose de Gracia, Mich.

Not sure from a regional standpoint if this belongs in this section?

One day when doing a "loop drive" out of Patzcuaro, we ended up finding San Jose de Gracia almost by accident. We had wandered into Patamban and Ocumicho looking for artisans and then headed for the highway junction at Camecuaro. All of a sudden, there was the town of San Jose de Gracia (no sign).

Since Kathy has an interest in Pina Pottery, we had to stop an look and naturally purchase a couple of pieces. This is the town known for developing the Pina style and some of the workmanship and talent is incredible! We did find that it wasn't an ideal time of the year (the August rainy season) since the humidity affects the clay and firing process.

Small Slide Show of San Jose de Gracia:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Chinagringo/SANJOSEDeGRACIAMICHOACANMEXICO#

Extensive Slide Show of Pina Pottery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/HaciendaMagnifico/PINAPOTTERYSANJOSEDeGRACIAMICHOACANMEXICO#
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http://Coming Soon: www.HaciendaMagnifico.com
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San Jose de Gracia, Mich. :: Comments

Peter
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Wed 23 Mar 2011, 23:03 by Peter
I was going over all the forums and seem to have missed this topic when you first posted it. This is a place I was not aware ofm not by name anyway, but the style of pottery looks familiar. I was a bit confused at first by "pina"- pine but see that is most probably "piña" - pineapple. I recall you asking about accents and diacritical marks. Did you get those figured out for your keyboard?

Getting a bit off-topic you also mentioned Camecuaro. Did you get a chance to stop there? So far I have only made one trip to Zamora but it was somewhat hurried and didn't include a stop at Camecuaro so that is still on my to-do list bor places to see. Everyone says it is stunning. All I know of it is from photos and it certainly looks like a place worth stopping to get a look.

Amazing some of the places you managed to visit in your business travels and scouting missions. You seem to have found many places many residents that have been here for awhile have not seen. Information about these small towns makes for great posts and very informative. Too bad I managed to miss this post when you first put it up. Thanks.
Don Cuevas
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Thu 24 Mar 2011, 07:23 by Don Cuevas
Peter wrote:
"Everyone says it is stunning."

We've been to Camecuaro, and IMO, it has a certain charm, but I'd hardly call it stunning. It's a pleasant lake, with some recreational facilities and a pricey hotel.
The cypress tree-like ahuehuetes are cool, or creepy, depending on your point of view.
San Jose de Gracia, Mich. DSCF0010

As a stop on a longer trip, say to Zamora or nearby Tangancícuaro, it's fine.
Viaje a Tancancicuaro
cheenagringo
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Thu 24 Mar 2011, 08:34 by cheenagringo
Peter:

Sorry about not using the accents and diacritical marks and to be very honest, I haven't taken the time to figure that one out as of yet.

We didn't stop or even drive around Camecuaro since we were running low on time. By the time we reached there, we had already been to San Francisco Pichataro, Paracho, Cocucho, Patamban and Ocumicho looking for artisans and wanted to assure that we got back to Patzcuaro before dark. We didn't even spend the time in San Jose de Gracia that we should have.

Interestingly, I had done some research on San Jose de Gracia but everything that I read indicated that the town by that name was located not far from Mazamitla off the south shore of Lake Chapala. I had never found this particular location in any searches I had done. Anything indicating a name to this town had "San Jose" but there wasn't a sign of any sort from the direction we were traveling.
Peter
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Thu 24 Mar 2011, 11:24 by Peter
I hope you marked it on your GPS. I didn't find it on the Guia Roji 2008 version I have, perhaps if I scour it more thoroughly. There are so many little artisan villages in this area it seems a person could make a new discovery a week here for the rest of their lives. It's really great the places you have found. Like I said, most longtime residents here haven't gotten so adventurous.

It really is rather commendable the backroads searching you have done. It's doubtful you would find that many people who know these areas much better than you already, and quite likely you've found places they don't know either. That may be over-stating it a bit but you are well on your way to being very knowledgeable about this area.
_____

The accents are fairly easy if you want to do them. On a Windows computer open the control panel for your keyboard and add US International keyboard so you can select that one as you want it. Use the apostrophe key just before the vowel you want to accent and it will appear with the accent. You can also use the "alt gr" as you you type the vowel or an n to get the ñ when you have that US Intl keyboard selected. Since there are a couple of quirks to get used to when you use that one you may want to switch back to the US standard keyboard for most of your typing standard English.

No big thing either way, most words become obvious in their context. Yahoogroups boards will create a bunch of junk characters if you try to use those - Ygroups will also create the junk characters even using a standard apostrophe as well. So, no matter if you wish to use those or not. Most times you will be understood either way.
cheenagringo
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Thu 24 Mar 2011, 14:12 by cheenagringo
Even though we do have a GPS, we would never travel without our trusty Guia Roji. As is my habit, I did a great deal of research on my old desktop and hard copied info on virtually everywhere I thought we wanted to search out. If one enters San Jose de Gracia, MICH, Mexico on Google maps, the result is as follows:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Jos%C3%A9+de+Gracia,+MICH,+Mexico&aq=0&sll=19.804016,-102.210875&sspn=0.026407,0.057163&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=San+Jos%C3%A9+de+Gracia,+Michoac%C3%A1n,+Mexico&ll=19.988836,-103.020859&spn=0.211007,0.457306&z=11
If you zoom out, you will note that it indicates that it is over near Lake Chapala and we had written off a side trip to this location because of time constraints and potential for productivity.

Now if one enters San Jose, MICH, Mexico on Google Maps, here is the result:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Jos%C3%A9,+MICH,+Mexico&aq=1&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=22.848409,58.535156&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=San+Jos%C3%A9,+Michoac%C3%A1n,+Mexico&z=11
Zooming out on this map will show you that it isn't hard to find.

Now why didn't I think of that? Well every research article I had read on the Pineapple Pottery clearly indicated the town by the full name and I hadn't considered shortening it. Since you mentioned the GPS, I just went and check and failed to save the location but no big deal since we now know where it is. Just out of curiosity, I checked the GPS maps and the town isn't to be found on there either. Then again Santa Clara del Cobre isn't in the GPS either but it's other name of Villa Escalante is.

You also mention us finding out of the way places, possibly unknown by others. I have always been a "drive-a-holic" and getting off the beaten paths has provided many new experiences and an expansion of our knowledge. To us, that is the fun of travel! The irony in the roughly 200 miles that we traveled that day came that evening when enjoying an evening adult beverage in the courtyard of Meson de San Antonio and checking the laptop. That very day, the over-reaching US Consulate had issued a travel warning for the back roads of Michoacan!

Thanks for the repeat tutorial on the accents and I promise to learn in short order.
Peter
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Thu 24 Mar 2011, 15:11 by Peter
Living in Mexico can be a new adventure every day for gringos, and a real nightmare for Hobbits. Its adventures don't just happen on a single-plane of existence either, all areas of life here have different facets of living. It's good you have that spirit for travel on the back-roads.

Later today I will initiate a thread about the various combi routes in and around Morelia, and about some of the other areas if I can get some more input about those. According to some recent visitors us "locals" should know all those things and be able to provide details to them on-demand. So, that's my new mission, to see if I can tie all the relevant information about living here all up in a neat little bundle for them on this site.
Don Cuevas
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Fri 25 Mar 2011, 05:29 by Don Cuevas
Peter wrote:
Living in Mexico can be a new adventure every day for gringos, and a real nightmare for Hobbits. Its adventures don't just happen on a single-plane of existence either, all areas of life here have different facets of living. It's good you have that spirit for travel on the back-roads.

Later today I will initiate a thread about the various combi routes in and around Morelia, and about some of the other areas if I can get some more input about those. According to some recent visitors us "locals" should know all those things and be able to provide details to them on-demand. So, that's my new mission, to see if I can tie all the relevant information about living here all up in a neat little bundle for them on this site.

Buena suerte.
Peter
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Fri 25 Mar 2011, 08:53 by Peter
Don Cuevas wrote:
Peter wrote:
Living in Mexico can be a new adventure every day for gringos, and a real nightmare for Hobbits. Its adventures don't just happen on a single-plane of existence either, all areas of life here have different facets of living. It's good you have that spirit for travel on the back-roads.

Later today I will initiate a thread about the various combi routes in and around Morelia, and about some of the other areas if I can get some more input about those. According to some recent visitors us "locals" should know all those things and be able to provide details to them on-demand. So, that's my new mission, to see if I can tie all the relevant information about living here all up in a neat little bundle for them on this site.

Buena suerte.

You may have detected a note of sarcasm in my tone there. Nevertheless, it is my goal to put together a number of informative articles to cover some of those things that are obviously done very differently here along with other relevant and useful information. Failing that it would be a good writing exercise at least.

The problem with doing an article on the combis is that I would want to generalize and say combis on a given route run every 5 minutes from approximately 5am to 9pm. Some people want (demand) more specific schedule information than that. I already had one person write to Admin as board owner to lodge a complaint against me for generalizing about the buses leaving every 10 minutes to Pátzcuaro. Yes, they were demanding more precise schedule information with actual times listed.


Last edited by Peter on Fri 25 Mar 2011, 11:58; edited 1 time in total
cheenagringo
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Fri 25 Mar 2011, 11:32 by cheenagringo
Apparently that person has not been anywhere close to current airline schedules which tend to be approximate at best! Next thing they will want to hold you accountable should the combi run late!
Peter
Re: San Jose de Gracia, Mich.
Post Fri 25 Mar 2011, 12:36 by Peter
cheenagringo wrote:
Apparently that person has not been anywhere close to current airline schedules which tend to be approximate at best! Next thing they will want to hold you accountable should the combi run late!


If it would make her feel any better I would take full responsibility for that. I remember now that "former" member was actually complaining about me on our Yahoogroup board, of which I am also the site owner. Seem to recall a couple days ago someone telling me she was asking around about who was our club president so she could complain about me to them also, just not her day I guess.

Sadly though, in the past few minutes I got an e-mail saying she has unsubscribed from our Yahoogroup board. But it is now at the end of her two-month visit here and is heading back to Canada where she should be relieved to know I do not take part in any community activities there.

Really, I am sad that I could do nothing to please her with the advice she sought, I did try to be helpful. It goes against some people's grain to not need to rely on such rigid schedules. Here in Mexico with buses leaving for Mexico City and Guadalajara approximately every half-hour and buses going out in all directions to the smaller towns and villages every ten minutes I merely suggested she not worry about purchasing reserved tickets at a downtown kiosk then trying to make sure she was at the bus central at the precise time to use that reservation - which outside of busy holiday travel days is not necessary to make reservations - but advised she merely go to the bus central when she felt like travelling and then take the next bus.

I did really try to give good advice to someone that sought it. I feel bad it did not please the person inquiring. But I am also finding a great deal of humor in the situation also.
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