Michoacan

Morelia - with its wide walls of pale pink and grey stone - there must be a missing mountain somewhere that built this town. During a pink and grey sunset the effect is quite stunning. Square flags of red and yellow (state colours) hang from big square buildings. Pointy metal bits with Spanish flourishes stick out of roofs and pavilions (I think they take away rainwater), there are archways, bells, roses. And fountains - short and squat, tall and spiralled, adorned with cherubs or sometimes just boobs - they are on every vacant street corner, opulently studding every plaza and square, in the centre of every little city garden, with cafes jostling round. And a fountain lines one side of Morelia's soaring cathedral, shooting up at unsuspecting nuns right out of the paving, causing kids (including ours) to go completely bananas and get soaking wet, teenage boys to drag in their gorgeous girlfriends with their knee-high school socks and floppy fringes, dogs to lie belly down and pant happily. And if there are 100 fountains in Morelia there must be 500 churches. Great hulking things with bell towers longer than the naves, and each interior a completely unique and some, like the cathedral and Guadalupe, truly breathtaking and spectacular.

It really is such a beautiful city.

Some moments and thoughts to share... I had my hair cut and coloured by a gorgeous and saavy young thing who spun my chair around to the television and explained to me at length in very fast, very slang Spanish everything that was happening in the daytime soap Duelo de Pasiones. Then we switched to Laura, a woman (?) who "could solve all of Mexico's problems" according to my hairdresser. Mostly those problems seem to involve jilted brides and delinquent boys. Then we showed each other the photos on our mobile phones. It was a lot of fun.

I reckon on every single block en el centro there is a shop full of enormous meringue-like dresses of every colour and size. People seem to get baptised, confirmed, debutanted, married and probably buried in them. Last Saturday by the Fuente de las Tarascas we saw no less than eight wedding photo sessions within an hour, and the only colour we saw twice was red. And when people aren't getting married they are making out - never before have I seen a city with so many couples brazenly frenching like there's no tomorrow. They'll do it anywhere - in parks, perched on fountains, in buses, under arches, on the steps of churches. And not just the young'uns either. Yik.

There are some awesome breakdancers who spread out a sheet of plastic just 30m up the road from us every evening (quite conveniently for us set up just outside the pub, which serves the tallest oversized pints of some kind of dark Corona...? for the sum total of $2 each). But I digress - the dancers are really really great, and are often there teaching up-and-comers, there is such a superabundance of youth in Morelia (one for you, sis), which makes it a really fun place to be. A feeling like everything's a risk. I think they probably learnt their breakdancing moves from a weetbix box, like I did. Although there are no weeetbix in Mexico. Only cornflakes.

In family news... Artie and a neighbours' kitten are in love - never before have I seen a cat jump into a child's arms to be squeezed, snuggled, wrapped up in blankets and toted around for hours on end. They are completely besotted with each other. The kids also have two girls to play with also 3 and 5 who live in our courtyard. They are such adorable little creatures who quite incredibly put up with me squeezing, snuggling, and toting them around.

I don't know what I am going to do without Mexico in my life. I am envisioning quite a dramatic spiritual and cultural crash and burn once I return to Australia. Just thinking leaving brings tears to my eyes and a mild feeling of panic. Mexico makes you feel included.

You would never be invisible here.