Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico

This is the story of my experiences living as an ex-pat in Mexico since 2003. It's to culminate in a published book. With your help, I'll be editing, selecting a title, and cover art: a participatory project. Your comments encouraged!

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Night view of the main cathedral. Photo by author

Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacan, is in central Mexico. It's a four hour drive northwest of Mexico City. The population is three quarters of a million. I traveled there to attend a five day conference, but was a tourist for a few extra days. In this article I will share with you my enthusiasm for this city. It is beautiful in unique ways, clean, and inexpensive for tourists.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Morelia is in a valley surrounded by rolling hills. Photo by author

The city of Morelia is in a valley surrounded by gently rolling hills. Although it is a large city, it is very clean. On weekdays, one hears a bell ringing to announce the trash collection. The hotel I stayed in is at the edge of the central historical district. Below is a photo of public art nearby.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Top right: A sculpture court a couple of blocks from my hotel. Bottom left: A statue in a park near there. Bottom middle and right: murals. Photo by author

To give you an idea of how clever and creative they are, here is an image of multi-colored windows, followed by a video of activities on a main street closed to traffic on a Sunday.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Mulit-colored windows. Photo by author

Architecture of Morelia

What makes Morelia unique and impressive is its massive old style Spanish architecture. Here we will take a tour of different businesses and various churches, and then take a look at some other unusual structures.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Note the fine detail in these two buildings. Photo by author

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Top: A portico with massive arches, common in the city. Bottom left: A roof topped with minarets having a series of knobs. Bottom right: Similar knobbed structures surround doubly tiered enclosed observation rooms. Photo by author

Additionally, as one might see in most Mexican cities with old Spanish architecture, here are a fountain in a park, and a kiosk at a main plaza.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Fountain in a park next to a church. Photo by author

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Kiosk in the main central plaza. Photo by author

There were many museums housed in massive old style buildings that were open to the public and with free admission. I only had the time to visit the one shown below.

In the introduction to this article, I mentioned how my trip to Morelia included attendance at a five day conference. Although the conference was the main focus of the trip, I do not highlight it here. Perhaps I will in another blog. Please ask me about this in the comments if you are interested.

The name of the conference was The Greater Reset Activation, Part #3: Integration. The date of this conference corresponds with that of The Great Reset of the World Economic Forum, and is an alternative or offset to it. The latter is a move towards globalization and centralization of world power, while the former, the one I attended, fosters the creation of community based alternatives. The motto is "exit and build."

Part of what is encouraged at this conference is to form local branches of an international network set up in 2015, called The Freedom Cell Network. I put Tepoztlán, where I live, on the international map, and now we are a thriving model of what a cell can be. If you are interested to know more, please click on the links. You can request that I do a future blog on this in the comment section below, or send me an email.

Here is a video of some of the rap music entertainment after the conference. Derrick Broze, a co-founder of the network and conference, is featured first. You can find his music on SoundCloud and Audius: @33IsHere.

His journalism is here.

After showing him, we see various artists from the conference performing at a local club.

In closing, here is a photo of a sign in front of a small restaurant a block from the conference hall. Ironically, it portrays a quote from one of Derrick's books.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. A sign in front of a restaurant near the conference. Photo by author