South of the Border and Back Home

Hi Adeline,
I am writing from Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, México. That is a long name: Pátzcuaro is the name of the city; Michoacán is the state, and México is the country. It took two more days of driving to get here from Texas.This part of the trip was 1,058 miles. Here's a map to show you the rest of the route:

The first thing we had to do on Thursday morning was cross the border from the United States to México. We got up nice and early, had a breakfast of some fruit we had brought with us -- you can't take fruits or vegetables across the border, you know -- and headed for the International Bridge.

The border between the state of Texas and the country of México is a river called the Rio Grande, which in Spanish means "Big River." It is a long river, but it is not very wide, and it is possible to walk across the bridge over the river. Some people take a bus to the border, walk across and then take another bus in the other country. But we had a car, so we drove across.

Leaving a country is pretty easy. You just go across the border. Getting permission to enter another country is harder. To visit México, we had to get a permission form called a visa. That tells the government of México who we are, where we live and where we plan to stay in México. It lets us stay for six months. We also had to get a special sticker for our car.

Visitors get their visas and car stickers in one big building under the International Bridge after crossing into México. Usually this takes about half an hour, or maybe a little longer, depending on the crowd. We crossed on Thanksgiving Day. We did not think it would make any difference since México does not celebrate Thanksgiving. Were we ever wrong! Thousands of Méxican families who live in the United States had four days off work and school, and they decided to return to México for the long weekend. The line stretched out the door and into the parking lot. It took us three hours to get all the way through the line, but finally we had all our papers and were on our way. 

Flat Stanley waits in the car while Larry and Geni stand in line for visas and a car permit.

We drove south for five hours, passing through the states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas and into the state of San Luis Potosí, where we spent the night in the city of Matehuala. The next morning, we resumed our journey south. About lunchtime, we turned west at the city of Queretaro in the state of Queretaro. (As in the United States, some states have cities of the same name. Can you think of any?)

Doesn't this fruit look good? It sure was!

We were getting hungry, and we were really happy when we spotted a fruit stand beside the road. The stand had cups and bags full of cut-up fresh fruits and juices. I saw bags of sugar cane and coconut, but we took a cup of watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, pineapple, mango and papaya. It was great! And the man who ran the stand posed with me and Geni for a picture.

The man who sold us our fruit lunch
didn't speak any English.

The fruit stand was next to a big highway called a "cuota." We had to pay a toll to drive on it.

 Another three hours brought us to Pátzcuaro, where I spent the next month. Pátzcuaro is a very old city. It is as Spanish Colonial city, which means that people moved there from Spain and built the city. This was around the year 1538; however, the Spanish were not the first to settle there. At least three indigenous groups already lived there, and had been there since about 1324. 

Pátzcuaro lies at the south end of a large lake called Lake Pátzcuaro. On the east side of the lake are two other towns, Ihuatzio and Tzintzuntzan, and all three cities have relics and ruins of the indigenous civilizations, as well as buildings that date back to the first Spanish settlers.

Ruins called Yacatas at Tzintzuntzan.

The pattern was engraved into a stone
at the Yakatas over 700 years ago.

Spanish Colonial buildings in Pátzcuaro

Lake Pátzcuaro

Pátzcuaro is high in the mountains of southern México in the state of Michoacán. From the lake, mountains rise on all sides. These are mostly extinct volcanoes. They are all volcanoes, but they don't erupt anymore — at least, they haven't erupted for a long time. But with volcanoes, you never know when one might wake up. 

I thought it would be hot in Mexico, and it was hot as we drove through the desert. But once we got into the mountains, the temperature dropped a lot. Winter and summer don't mean the same in Mexico as they do in Ohio or even in Alabama. The days in Pátzcuaro are never very cold or very hot, usually around 75 degrees Fahrenheit in winter and up to about 85 degrees in summer. It never snows. Winter is the dry season and summer is the wet season. Rain falls every afternoon in summer, but may not fall for six months from November to May.

Because it gets so much rainfall during the summer months, the state of Michoacán is sometimes called México's "green state," The state produces much of the food that México eats, and plenty more to export to other countries, including the United States. I'll bet some of the fresh foods in your grocery store right now come from Michoacán.

Monarchs on flowers at El Rosario butterfly reserve in eastern Michoacán.

Maybe the most special thing about Michoacán is the butterflies. You have probably seen Monarch butterflies in Ohio in the summer. Have you ever wondered where they go in winter? They go to Michoacán! Millions and millions of Monarchs fly from Canada and the United States deep into México every fall. They gather in fir forests on the mountaintops in eastern Michoacán and stay there until March. They like only one kind of tree, Oyamel firs, which grow on mountains that are 12,000 feet tall. So many Monarchs cling to the Oyamels that they weigh down the branches and can even break them. They alight on the trees when clouds cover the sun, but when the sun breaks through, the butterflies lift off the trees in whispering orange clouds and head for the flowers. Monarchs have not been doing too well in the past few years. They need for people to plant milkweed in their flower gardens. If your class would like some seeds, Geni will send you some.

After I spent a few weeks in Pátzcuaro, I caught a ride back to the U.S. with a new friend, Marlene. Marlene took me with her on a plane to New York. New York is one of those cities that has the same name as its state. It is the largest city in the United States. New York is so big that it is divided into five sections, called burroughs, which arethemselves bigger than most other cities. Marlene lives in the burrough of Brooklyn, which has the largest population of the five burroughs, 2.6 million people. Brooklyn is more than 350 years old. It began as a Dutch settlement called "Breuckelen." It joined with New York City in 1898. Brooklyn sits on an island across the East River from Manhattan. They are connected by the famous Brooklyn  Bridge, which was finished in 1883.

Marlene took me for a little tour of New York, and then sent me home. I think that by the time you get back to school after the Christmas and New Year's break, I will be waiting for you. 

Flat Stanley in Union Square, New York.

Flat Stanley in 6th Avenue, New York.

It has been a fun trip. I have seen a lot of new places and learned a lot about how other people live, but I am very happy to be going home.

XXOO
Flat Stan