What's up Tangerineys! From a brand-new state to us in Mexico, Michoacan.
Specifically the city of Morelia.
If you're new to our channel, my name is Maddie, and I'm Jordan, and we are
Tangerine Travels! We've been traveling through Mexico for almost a year now and
our first time in Morelia, there were a lot of things that shocked us, that we
weren't expecting.
One thing that we love about the city is there are so many colectivos! If you
don't know what a colectivo is, it's a van-looking thing that a whole bunch of
people will pile into to go various destinations. And it's one of the
cheapest, most economical ways to get around town, and it's also one of the
cleanest. It's much nicer, I think, than having a whole bunch of buses that emit
lots of diesel fumes and such. So the noise pollution is a lot less, the actual
pollution is a lot less. But what shocked us is that we've never seen a city in
Mexico, before Morelia, that had quite so many colectivos!
One big attraction in Morelia is the aqueduct that's supposed to be pretty
Incredible! So we're going to try to take a colectivo there and see if we can
manage to figure it out. We don't really know how to know where the colectivos go
here. If anyone knows how these work, please let us know! We noticed some of
them have signs on them and we have seen some that say "acueducto," so we're going
to look for one like that. But a lot don't have a sign saying where they go,
They just have a number. So I don't see "acueducto."
On any of these. This one
has some, it says where it's going, but doesn't say aqueduct.
It says the zoo, Centro, and Carrillo which is one neighborhood in Morelia.
This one says San Juan, Cathedral, Centro, Walmart, monument, mercado abastos.
This one says Centro and number two.
And this one says "acueducto," so we're going
To try to get this one.
To the aquaduct, please.
In Tulum when we took a colectivo, we paid after the ride, as did everyone else.
Here, he said it didn't matter whether you paid before or after. But it seemed like
Most people paid right when they got on.
This is the Morelia Aquaduct.
Acueducto. With two hundred and fifty three arches made out of limestone 1.2
Meters? Meters? I mean kilometers.
1.2 meters long, an absolute masterpiece!
1.8 kilometers long. And built in the 1700s. And built in the 1700s, like I was saying.
[Laughter]
We didn't think this was a very well-known spot for tourism based on what we
had heard - that it's kind of a hidden gem.
But we don't find that to be true. We've
seen people from all over the world! This is the only place in Mexico where we've
seen stuff written in eight different languages! We've seen literally people
from all over, whether they're Spanish speakers, or Mexicans visiting from other
parts of Mexico, or people from visiting the US, or Canada, or China, or
Portugal, and Brazil. From all over!
There's tons of tourism here! And that
was really surprising to us, based on what we heard. One of the things that has
personally shocked me about Morelia is the amount of staring that there is.
It's pretty common when we go to new cities, especially smaller cities, that
people are like "ooh gringos, we don't see them around here very often." And yes,
I do realize that when holding a camera out, we're gonna get a few more stares
than normal. But I'm talking about just your average walking down the street. And
when you catch someone staring at you here, they just continue staring, so
that's the part that shocks me. The main difference is it's everyone stares for
extra long. For extra, for an extraordinary amount of time. Which is uncomfortable. I feel
like it's pretty rude but that's just the way that it is here. And this has
never been the case in any other city in Mexico that we've visited. So I'm curious to
know if there's a reason for that?
Is it my clothes? Is it my smile? My hair?
Is there something in my teeth?
But it's not just people staring for an awkward amount of
time, it's men staring at me like I'm a piece of meat, and comments that they're
making in Spanish they think we don't understand, that just make my skin crawl.
It happens every day, multiple times a day. Anywhere we walk, no matter what
I'm wearing. And I do hear people in the comments saying "well you
you dress more conservatively." But I am wearing the same clothes here in Morelia
that I've worn the entire eight, almost nine months, that we've been in Mexico.
Except more conservative because you're wearing pants here instead. One
Thing that surprised us about Morelia, considering we're right in the middle of
Mexico, is the cool weather here. This is the coolest city we've been in but
that's probably because we're at a 6,200 feet above sea level. And it's November
but you know, who's keeping track? But in all seriousness, many people have this
idea of Mexico that it's just tumbleweeds, and desert, and Cowboys, and
things like that. And hot throughout the entire country.
And hot throughout the whole country. You wouldn't believe how many comments we get
saying "How does your husky survive here?"
In the heat. "It must be so hot!" Apparently it's
hot everywhere, so this might surprise or shock some other people too, that's why
we're bringing it up. Something that shocked us about Morelia in the best way
is the gorgeous architecture, especially this Cathedral that's right behind me
here! But even the buildings too.
Like this. Also like this. And like this. And this!
The town has such a great aesthetic to it, but specifically, this incredible cathedral!
As you guys might know at this point, our go-to for finding rentals in a new city
Throughout Mexico is Airbnb. If you haven't signed up yet, please use our link in the
description to get $40 off. The point I'm trying to make here, is that in Morelia,
the Airbnbs are pretty much comparable to the hotels around. Usually
you can save twenty or thirty dollars (per night) by getting a nice Airbnb as opposed to
getting a hotel in the city. But it's just not really the case here. Something
that really surprised us about Morelia is how affordable the city is! We can
finally afford to eat at some of the nicest restaurants in town. At least
occasionally. Right now we're at Lu Michoacana
which has become one of our favorite spots in town. It's right next to El
Centro. This is something that on Yelp, I believe, has like three or four price
signs. ($$$) Although this is a very high-end
restaurant, that I think in the US you'd probably be paying thirty to forty
dollars per plate, the last time we were here my entree was 102
pesos, and yours was? 93. So pretty darn affordable! And you're right in the
Center of town! Great ambiance.
And it comes with this beautiful presentation. Beautiful presentation of these plates
So I got it jicama enchiladas and they were about 90 pesos, and Maddie got a
super delicious looking salad with hibiscus, which was about a hundred pesos. My
flight of mezcals, mezcales from Michoacan was 89 pesos, which included
an orange slice jamaica or hibiscus salts, and a few
cheeses, from the area, I believe. Although you can eat at a five-star restaurant
pretty affordably. If you're on a budget, you also have lots of great options, for
example, right here you can get huevos al gusto, which is eggs any way you want
them, and you can get it with bacon, chorizo, or something and beans for 30
pesos. The next thing that surprised us about Morelia, Michoacán is that it seems
like a less conservative city than just about any other city we've been to
Mexico. Women wearing more revealing clothing, sex theaters like this one, a
sex shop down the road that way, a sex shop down the road that way. Gonna do a
walk-by at this theater and sex shop but I do realize that it's possible that
there are sex theaters or sex shops in other cities in Mexico but I suppose
this is the most prominent that we've ever seen that. And also, we're not
looking, so it's possible they're just hidden amongst all these cities.
So..
One more thing that surprised us here was that all the restaurants, when
talking about drinks or liquor, they have all their measurements in ounces
instead of milliliters, which is super unique for Mexico. And something we
haven't seen except for the tourists towns.
Like Playa del Carmen, places like that. So we are now in the mercado de
Artesanias y dulces. And this brings us to our next one, which is there is a
lot of copper in Morelia.
So cute!
[Laughter]
We did some research to find out why this is and we
think it's because there used to be a lot of copper mining here in Morelia and
Michoacán in general. Now, there's not much copper to be had in these mines but
it is shipped here to be made into super cool things like sinks, pots, cool things
like this. [Laughter] And for a very very low price.
We also read that it's mostly shipped
here from electrical companies. So I don't know how true that is but if so
that's kind of cool. We thought a paleta sounded nice and we found the spot close
to Centro. This is a gazpacho-flavored popsicle.
We are still going to try gazpacho but this has pineapple, jicama, chamoy, and
mango. And spices too, she said.
Yeah, typically, from what we here gazpacho usually has onion in
it, so Maddie wouldn't be able to have the normal kind of gazpacho. But we got
popsicles! I need to get over this layer of ice in order to get to the actual flavoring.
Very slight chili flavor. I think I'd like it a little bit more with a little
bit more chili. Still tasty so far. and...
To me, it tastes a whole lot like chili and mango. Like we get those type of
popsicles all the time. This is good!
And it was 15 pesos. This is a more
expensive popsicle than what I would expect given the other prices in this
city. One thing we loved about living in
Guadalajara was that every Sunday they close down some of the major
streets, so you could bike, and rollerblade, and take your dog out, and go
on the street all morning long. And after we put that in a video, we found out that
Mexico City also has it. But we didn't know any other cities did, so that really
surprised us.
What are these? We really want some.
[Laughter]
That really surprised me!
I love that so many people come out to exercise in one day. You get
to come out and watch, do all the dog watching you want, see all the cute dogs
in one place. That's what I come here for, the dog watching. We went in search of
elote here near the Centro of Morelia and we thought there was a concert going on.
Which is right behind us right now but it's actually kind of an open-air
worship session, which is super cool. People can
just come out here dance around, sing, and worship. That's, that's really cool I think. And
What's also cool is this awesome elote spot next to this,
Elotes La Cerrada. I got a Dorito-lote which is like a thing of
Doritos, corn, and deliciousness. And they had like 30 sauces to choose from. This
is the coolest elote place we've ever seen! I'm sad we just discovered
it but if I get fat after this, you guys are going to know why. [Laughter]
So something that we get asked on our channel pretty
often is how walkable a city is, especially for people with mobility
issues, like back issues, or ankle, knee, things like that. Or they're in a
wheelchair. Something that really surprised us about Morelia in a really
good way is that the sidewalks are so nice! Yeah, yeah and they're mostly pretty
wide too. And there aren't like trees uprooting them or potholes within them,
and stuff like that. Compared to other cities we've been to in Mexico, these are
the nicest sidewalks we've seen.
So if someone is in a wheelchair they're gonna
have no trouble getting around the city.
Hey, you! So we're now in front of one of the many museums here in Morelia, and
this is the home where Morelos, who the city is named after, was born. As we've
mentioned in previous videos we're huge history fans or museum fans, however it
is really cool that Morelia has dozens of them within about a one-mile radius.
So you've got like the planetarium, science museums, historical figures like this.
If you're into history, this is a great place to visit! We are still in this
hacienda where Morelos was born, and if I learned one thing here, he certainly
came from a wealthy family. This place is huge!
When we got to Morelia, we wanted to grab some food at a restaurant but we
specifically wanted food that was local to here, so we were looking for those
kind of restaurants. And we got there, looked at the menu, and a hardly knew a
Single word. [Laughter] We're pretty much talking about Morelian food
or Michoacanian? Michoacan food. [Laughter]
Those words are a lot different so in talking about a tamal, here it's, what is it called? Corondas?
Corondas I think. Or something?
So all the words change just slightly because they're unique to here
but we were like "Um help!"
And then we were trying to translate the words and
because they're so unique to here, they don't translate anything.
So as you guys can probably tell, it took us a few days, maybe more than a few days.
Almost a week to record this video because the things that shocked us when we
first came to Morelia sort of changed over time. For instance, a whole
bunch of interesting characters were on the list. Colorful characters.
Yeah that was an item on the list
that we decided to scratch, because it turns out, we just ran it all of them on
the first day. On the very first day.
Hi I'm a bird!
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