Tres Cosas Jueves: Morelia Edition

1. Back In The Saddle: I am back. I made it back to Morelia unscathed. Morelia is an absolutely beautiful city. It's a very historic city, founded by the Spanish in the early 1500s, and is considered one of the birthplaces of the Mexican Revolution. In fact, one of the main figures of the revolution - Jose Maria Morelos - was born in Morelia and was honored by having the city renamed from Valladolid to Morelia in his honor. Anyway, I got back to LA in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and had to drive home for about an hour afterward. I got two hours of sleep, squeezed in a two-hour nap but was a zombie for most of Wednesday. I did not run in Morelia (no gym at the hotel, streets leading up to hotel were very narrow, no sidewalks and lots of traffic, so no ideal conditions) and didn't run Wednesday but I ran seven miles Thursday morning so I feel like a new and refreshed man.

2. What's Next? I'm still waiting word but there's a good chance I will get to go to Costa Rica next week. I'd leave Monday and return Thursday. Of course, I would not have time to experience the best of Costa Rica - the beaches and rain forests - but that's just a minor inconvenience. I'm not going to turn down a trip to Costa Rica and the chance to cover a soccer game there. No sir, no ma'am. I've been to Costa Rica before, for soccer, but worked a vacay into it as Mrs. LB flew down there the day of the US-Costa Rica match in June 2009 and we stayed for three days afterward. It was an awesome three days and the beaches really are stunning there. I would highly recommend Costa Rica to anyone who wants to experience nature at its finest.

3. Before We Move On Completely: I'm not quite ready to yet to put Morelia in the past. Some pictures from my time there:

Morelia from my hotel; kinda hard to see but if you click on the picture you should be able to see it a bit more closely.

In front of the Cathedral of Morelia, the city's prized building. I tried to upload a picture of the Cathedral from the outside but blogger was being dumb so this is the only picture I managed to get up. Grr..

This is another building that's important in Morelia's history. This used to be the entrance to town, hence the guard tower. If you came into Morelia, you had to pass through here. The church is ornate and has lots of gold inside, but because it didn't look like much it survived because looters never bothered to go inside.

Morelia is the capital of Michoacan, and the state has fame because of its carnitas. That's why a lot of restaurants you see will say something like "Carnitas Michoacan" or "Carnitas Sahuayo" (the name of a city nearby that is really famous for carnitas). Anyway, carnitas is a pork dish kinda like pulled pork sans the barbecue sauce, but much more tastier. You eat them with corn tortillas, salsa and pico.

Cheers! or should I say... Salud!


And now for some pictures about the reason for my visit...

This is the stadium, Estadio Morelos. The team's name is Monarcas (you couldn't tell, could you?). Morelia is famous too because nearby is a Monarch butterfly sanctuary. The Monarch butterflies migrate every year from Canada to the outskirts of Morelia and have done so for centuries. The club is named after them.

Standing on the side of the field as the Galaxy train (day before the match)

My pre-game meal: Carnitas Torta and a Coca-Cola. Don't usually have straight Coca-Cola but in Mexico it's something I had to have because it tastes different - better. So good.

Galaxy captain and US national team star Landon Donovan.

Well, that's that. Hope you enjoyed it.