Site 1 – Cuitzeo – Los Azufres (Mexico)

Cuitzeo Lake

Tourism is an effective magnet for Morelia Heritage (State of Michoacán) whose effects can, or come up to the Cuitzeo Lake area, just 32 km away, with potential unexploited touristic and monumental resources. The government of Michoacán is
developing a policy to foster tourism together with municipal governments and businessmen in the sector, and this has resulted in substantive growth in touristic indicators during the period 2002-2007. As indicators of the potential of the Morelia area, the number of visitors has doubled while in 2002, there were 3.4 million visitors in 2007, there were more than 7 million. The number of international tourists also increased, from 104.000 to close to 1.1 million. The economic earnings from all tourists coming to the state of Michoacán accounted for 271 million dollars and 1.265 million dollars in 2007. In total, touristic businessmen created more than 40. 000 jobs in this period. Built in the 16th century around a Franciscan monastery, Morelia’s 249 historic monuments are built mostly in warm pink stone following a strict chessboard design. All have retained their structure and show the vital cultural and economic life that flourished in the city in the 17th century. Morelia is an outstanding example of urban planning which combines the ideas of the Spanish Renaissance with the Mesoamerican experience. In its declaration, UNESCO (1991) recognized that the urban landscape of Morelia is a unique model in the Americas. The main proposed activities, close to Morelia, to address through this multidisciplinary work are:

a) A section of Route 2010 (Cuitzeo lake area), which means the roads, history, landscape, biota (flora and fauna) geo-resources (minerals and rocks), volcanic geo-morphology etc. (Route of Bicentenary 1810-2010)

b) Joining the Augustinian monasteries (XVI and XVII centuries) which were the origin of this route. In each small village around the lake almost one church was build during the colonial period.