OK, my long Mexican 70th birthday adventure is over except for my memories. Now, as I promised, we are picking up with our Trans-Eurasian Odyssey, which will eventually take us through 26 countries and over 40,000 miles, across impassible deserts and over 15,000-foot mountain passes, through the Stans, China, Mongolia and Siberia. Hold on for the ride.

It’s been a long birthday celebration, but I hope you have enjoyed the mini tour of some of our favorite places in Mexico. There was one more area we had to visit on our way home, so bear with us. Our first stop was Pátzcuaro in the State of Michoacán on the lake of the same name.

Tearing ourselves away from our beautiful guest stay in Ajijic, we headed southwest into the “dangerous” state of Michoacán, once famous for its “Sinsemilla” marijuana. Today, it is known for Lake Pátzcuaro, the Tarascan Indians, and the stopover for as many as 60 million

Chapala. In its heyday Chapala was a place where the rich and famous came to vacation. The waterfront is lined with mansions. The lake is certainly not the most beautiful in Mexico but Chapala has the charms of a small Mexican town, and for me, it holds some of the most memorable times of my life.