From Uruapan, a reasonably good road slices south through the mountains to the Pacific coast at L zaro C rdenas. Founded in 1540, Zamora today has little intrinsic interest. The town boasts several small restaurants and a market very close to the bus station, but little to go out of your way for. The old cathedral, unusually Gothic in style, is ruined and often closed, but you can while away some time on the pleasant grassy plaza in front. The route, on a road winding through pine-draped hills, is a beautiful one.
Every house seems to be either a workshop, a guitar shop or both.
The instruments vary enormously in price and quality - many are not meant to be anything more than ornamental, hung on the wall rather than played, but others are serious and beautifully handcrafted. Paracho also hosts a couple of fascinating fiestas . This, the most famous of Michoac n's dances, is also one of its most picturesque, with the dancers, dressed in baggy white cotton and masked as old men, alternating between parodying the tottering steps of the viejitos they represent and breaking into complex routines. Naturally enough, there's a lot of music, too.