Last week we drove to a particularly handicrafty grouping of towns around Lake Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacan. Our goal was to buy two carved wooden shelves, or
trasteros, in the traditional Mexican style. These shelves are used for storage in the kitchen or dining room.
Entering the woodworking village of Cuanajo, we saw several being loaded into a truck. The charming driver, who was on his way to a larger town to sell them, insisted on unloading some for our perusal. Here are Yoli and Bryan supervising.
We bought two but Yoli wanted a different style. The driver left his loading crew by the road while he drove with us around town to peer into sawdusty workshops trying to locate one with a fish motif.
We were successful but the search took nearly an hour. When we asked the young man why he was being so helpful, he explained that he had lived and worked in Texas for several years and really appreciated the help he got from Americans there.
Here are our two purchases with their legs cut off, painted to go with our house, and hung to display some of my plates. Are we in Mexico yet?
This morning, amid even more fireworks, we arrived at Ave. Independencia before light to meet the crowds streaming into town. Many residents of the neighborhoods had been up all night spreading fragrant sprays of fennel and chamomile on the streets and decorating the walls, trees and street with multi-colored fresh and paper flowers, purple and white balloons and crepe paper streamers.
Detailed religious images were created with colored sawdust in the middle of the street for the procession to walk on.
These beautiful columns, erected by one neighborhood, were made of stiffened cheesecloth with wood frames.
Arriving at the outskirts of town, the statue of the suffering Jesus and the accompanying statues of St. John and the Virgen of Dolores (Sorrowful Virgin Mary) are carefully unwrapped from their protective shrouds and carried through the streets, accompanied by Roman Centurions.
The pole on the right in the photo is actually a paint roller rod with an extension used to raise any low-strung streamers so the statures can pass underneath. 
They end up at the church of San Juan de Dios where the statues remain until Easter Wednesday when another procession returns them to their glass cases in the Shrine of Atotonilco.
This procession began in 1812 in an effort to stop a plague that threatened San Miguel's population. In 1823, the statue of Nuestro Señor de la Columna was commissioned to request a miracle and has been carried nearly every year since.
