Tingambato

Michoacán avocado-country village with a small Teotihuacan-influenced archaeological site beyond the plaza.

Tingambato is a small village in the heart of avocado country in Michoacán, on the free road between Uruapan and Pátzcuaro.

At first glance Tingambato seems to be nothing more than a Pemex station and a couple of tiendas. But head down one of the streets toward the hill and you will find the town plaza and the parish church.

Continue past the old railroad tracks and you reach the real treasure of the village: the Tingambato Archaeological Site, a small but interesting, partially-restored collection of Tarascan ruins worth stopping for.

Guide

Things to Do

There is essentially one reason a traveller pulls off the road in Tingambato, and that is the archaeological site at the western edge of the village. The Tarascan ruins are small enough to walk in under an hour, but they hold real surprises — including a ball court and a deep tomb that yielded one of the most important burial finds in pre-Hispanic Michoacán. The village plaza and its eighteenth-century church are worth a quick wander while you are here.