Rancho San Cayetano is essentially what we would call a bed and breakfast. It's a historic ranch property that has been run by the same family for generations. It has about a dozen rooms, a couple of cottages, and an organic farm on site. And good God, could they cook.
The first three (!) courses of breakfast were various homemade breads, jams, and honey. Then came the fresh fruit. Aimee and I were completely stuffed before they brought out the chiliquiles, our main course. But we did what we had to to get it down. When in Rome...
Our plan was to keep Sunday as a lazy day. We knew we'd be tired from travel, and we wanted to savor our first full day of vacation. We explored the property, and walked down to a small river that borders it. The place was paradise.
(By briefly petting the ranch dog when we walked in, Aimee made us a permanent party of three for the entire time we were there.)
We explored the surrounding city during the afternoon. Zitácuaro (especially the part we were staying in) was normally a sleepy agricultural town. And that was mostly what we saw.
Our destination for the walk was a 16th century church, and as we got closer, we noticed a surprising amount of spandex.
Even in the church, itself.
Our lord, father in heaven, creator of tailwinds, protector from flats, hallowed be thy name.
We clearly had stumbled on a mountain bike race through the streets of historic Zitácuaro. Which is, quite possibly, the single coolest place to have a mountain bike race. Plus, Aimee and I both commented that we had never been to a mountain bike race where the food smelled so good!
The rest of the day was equally relaxing. Despite multiple previous episodes ending poorly, I grabbed lunch from a roadside fired chicken stand. I survived. Fragrantly.
Other hotel guests had turned on the Superbowl in the common area where we ate dinner. Aimee and I learned the Spanish words for linebacker, running back, first down, and touchdown, although I can't imagine a time where we'll need to use those again.
After dinner, the ranch owner played a video about the nearby Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, which was our destination the following day. We couldn't have been more excited. More on that soon.
Just another evening in paradise.
