Hiking in Ejido Jamuquén

From time to time, leaving from Patzcuaro, we hike in the large Ejido Jamuquén with the required permission of the Comisariado, who likes to accompany us with the Vigilante. One first passes under the cuota to Morelia, to the south of Pátzcuaro. The Vigilante has spent his whole life in these woods, riding and walking, and as a boy hunted for his father’s lost cattle. He entertains us with endless stories and points out landmarks, springs, plants and wildlife. He is a colorful character, part of a passing era.

Passing under the cuota.

Through the bosque.

The ejidatarios' chapel sheltering Nuestra Señora.

Our companions and guide for this trek.

Hiking Estribo Grande

With friends we recently hiked the south side of Estribo Grande, up to the two volcano craters. One can go to the top and, as an alternative route down, descend to the look-out point on the north side and then return on the road. A nice hike, with good views.

¿Como? How?

é ¿ ão ó à

ñ ç ü à

Recently some people asked in an online forum how to type accents in Spanish. For a number of years I have used the Windows United States-International keyboard function to type a number of languages. I find it simple and now use it without thinking.

In Windows 7, go to Control Panel > Region and Language > Change Keyboard and select United States-International. I always see a small rectangular icon with a squiggle on top displayed on my bottom bar, although at some point the icon appeared at the top of my screen for a while. Occasionally my accents stop working (after some update?) and I click that icon and with one more click reset United States-International. It can also be reset through Control Panel, as above. I know I used this function for three years in Vista and I may also have used it in Windows XP.

Pointers:

For an acute accent, press Ctrl Alt ‘ simultaneously, then type vowel = á

• In English, to get ‘ , type ‘ and it will be a “dead stroke” (you will see nothing), hit the space bar because you are not putting a letter under it and you will then see the single quote mark. This is a minor adjustment for English and I find it well worth gaining the multiple language function.


• Press Ctrl-Alt , (the comma) simultaneously = ç


• You can see the ~ and the ` at the top left of the United States physical keyboard. Pressing the key is a dead stroke. Put the appropriate letter under the mark or press the spacebar and you will get only the mark.

This function works for me in all my Microsoft aps as well as online using Gmail, LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc.

Pátzcuaro or Patzcuaro