Jean Cyca - Mexico Blog

November 9, 2006

Packing for Peru. What a challenge: could be 0 degrees in the Andes and 30 degree on the coast.

We leave for Lima on Monday, Nov.13, have 1 night in Mami Panchita Hostel (which I found on the internet, run by a Dutch-Peruvian family), then a flight to Cuzco (that's Cuzco, not couscous and not Cosco). We're there 5 days to explore the city, Inca ruins, hike and aclimatize to the 11,500 ft elevation. Then Dave, Isabelle and her 2 friends walk over the mountains on a 4-day trek to Machu Pichu, the most famous archealogical site in South America. One pass is 14,000 ft. I'll spend a few days in Cuzco, maybe pop into a Spanish language school - I know there are a few there, then will take a train to Machu Pichu. Hope I can find the group among the ruins!

Well we survived Mexico City just fine! And I can't believe how much we saw in 2 days. We're at the airport waiting for our flight home and we're both ready to see hogar dulce hogar (home sweet home). We're pooped out and ready for fresh canadian air.... But happy to have seen this monstously big city.

We stayed at a pleasant old budget tourist hotel in the very middle of 22 million people, yikes.. and yesterday, Sunday, most of them were out on the streets and parks with their kids, babies, girlfrieds. Just tons of people but things weren't as chaotic as I imagined... traffic seems organized and the metro was excellent, same system as in Paris, just way more people. We hopped on and off and also took buses so managed to see more sights that I thought we would.

Our first mission on Saturday was to visit Frida Kahlo's blue house, managed to get there by asking lots of directions and it was worth the effort. A beautiful house and large interior courtyard in a nice neighbourhood, lots of her paintings and drawings, toys, collections of art and exvotos, her leather and plaster braces from her back injury, the bed she was carried in to her only art exhibition. Really interesting because I've read so much about her, we want to see the movie again.

Good luck that we were here on Sunday, all museos are free. Spent quite alot of time in the huge, world famous Museo de Antropologie all about the complete history of Mexico. Watched Totonic indians slowly twirling upsidedown hanging by their ankle from the top of a 20 meter pole, until they unwind to gradually reach the ground, to beautiful flute music...does that explain what we saw??..

We walked in the huge, 4 sq. km park, Chapultepec in the middle of the city, families boating on the lake, hundreds of food stalls, a real family sunday afternoon in the park.

Then went up the Torre Latinoamerica, a slightly dilapitated 1950's skyscraper, to see the view and orient ourselves. Pollution was more noticeable there but the sky is still blue. People say the problem has improved alot in the last five years but it's still a big issue. Very strict regulations on pollution control on all vehicles so all newer cars on the streets. All the older cars have been sold in other mexican states.

We visited the gorgeous Palacio de Bellas Artes, saw the famous Diego Rivera mural which he originally painted in the Rockefeller Centre in New York in 1933 but it was immediatly destroyed because of his political references to Lenin and communism which he refused to alter. But he was allowed to do the same mural again in the new museum of Fine Artes (Bellas Artes).

Also were in the city square, the giant Zocalo, in the middle of a convention or rally of mexican scouts. How could it be dangerous with thousands of boy and girl scouts running around?

This morning we visited the Palacio Nacional, the federal government building, where there are more Rivera murals showing the history of Mexico. Fascinating..like history books in pictures, every detail is an anecdote of Mexican history. We often step over to a guided tour to hear all the info, but I'm gradually learning alot of it from other museums.

Time to go.
Thanks for the email Betty T. I never know who is reading this...

I'm sitting at the open doorway of our little internet spot with a whole school of noisy kids having recess in the plaza just outside which doubles as their schoolyard. All the kids in uniforms, women selling them candy and junkfood.

In an hour we take the bus to Queretaro which is halfway to Mexico City. Will stay there tonight and have a look around, sounds like another nice town which judging from the comments we've heard is famous mostly for being extremely clean and tidy.

We're a bit nervous, just a touch, about staying in Mexico City, but have reserved a hotel in a good area for 2 nights before we fly home. Hotel Isabella on Calle Isabella la Catolica. Everyone says how fascinating the city is, how much there is to see, but there are always stories of getting pickpocketed. We'll both wear our money belts and be very careful...something we haven't worried about the least bit so far.

Hope to visit the huge zocalo, see some Diego Rivera murals and Frida Kahlo's house...

Just had a goodbye coffee with Anja, our German architect friend who is frantically counting and compiling statistics about the use of public space by tourists and locals. We never did help her because her system is just too complicated. She has interviewed local architects and city officials and will eventually write a PhD thesis on her findings. We'll miss her, such an interesting, smart, modest, funny person. She has 2 little mechanical counters she punches with her thumbs, like she's playing video games out on the street. Adios Anja, que te vaya bien.

Dave phoned Brian at the shop this morning and heard it's -30 degrees. Yikes, quite a change from the warm winter at home. HOpe our house isn't freezing up but Dawn and Rick will look after it. THANK-You thank-you Keatings for looking after our house. Now that it's near the end of our trip we're starting to think about home.

The last 2 weeks, since Dave has been here, have been much warmer, lots of hot days. After I told him to bring sweaters and a jacket...

We just left Toller Cranston's house! Wow quite exciting - I phoned him and asked if we could come for a short visit. He's a very successful artist, says his big paintings sell in galleries for 30,000$CND but he would sell us a small one for $1200CND... we said maybe next year... His walled compound was gorgeous, gardens, studio and ultradecorated gallery, He was very friendly,knew Dr. Ron Young from Swift Current who has some of his work. A fairly vain guy, said his property is the very best in San Miguel, someone told us he's had a few face lifts but I couldn't tell. We said we might be back next year with our art collecting friends, the Kennedys.

We also had a wonderful tour this morning with a local guide, no-one else showed up so it was a private tour with a lovely man who spoke english well and told us lots about the history of the town. Our hotel is from the 17th century and our room is in the old horse stables. Smelled fine... and was only $27US, a simple clean room but lovely original stone courtyard and arched hallways.

The town really is beautiful and lots of entertainment, cultural activities in english, very different from Guanajuato. But too English for us, sometimes feels like we're in Mesa, Arizona. We ate in full restaurants where the only mexicans were the waiters, and the menus were in english. Last night we went to a little dinner theatre/cabaret, all retirees discussing the best gated communities to buy property in. Ugh! We thought we would rather live in a gay community than a gated-community! (speaking of Toller Cranston...)

So it's a lovely town to visit but a little too much Gringolandia for our taste. We go back to Guanajuato this afternoon.

We took a nice bus to San Miguel de Allende yesterday with Anja and spent the day walking and exploring. Very lovely town, well-kept, lots of foreign money here because it was a popular spot for american and canadian artists for many years. Toller Cranston the figure skater has a huge house and studio and has been a successful artist here for decades. Now the town is known as a retirement community for north americans, tons of old gringos walking around. We feel quite young.

Anja was taking photos for the architecture class she teaches in Germany so pointed out lots of details which we would never have noted. All the homes which look small and traditional from the outside but the bottom floor now has a garage door; lots with gardens, trees, flowers on the roof, where mexicans would normally just have laundry. Different methods of construction and wiring that she notices.

The town is also known for good restaurants and tons of artesania shopping and everyone seems to speak english, far different from Guanajuato.I'm glad I spent my time in Guanajuato since it just seems more mexican than here.

The bus ride here was interesting, and it was good to get out of dense Guanajuato which is a bit claustrophic with all its narrow callejones. Very arid countryside with small trees and shrubs and lots of cactus, the kind with flat paddles that look like sculptures made from beaver tails. They are very common food here, "nopales", in fact I ate some last night. Women sit in the markets in Guanajuato and pull out the spines, then scrape the skin, then slice them into strips.

This afternoon Dave and I took a bus, 70 cents each, to a hotsprings just 20 minutes from town. 3 hot pools, the last was a walk through a tunnel in chest-deep water to a little cave. Bit eerie but very clean and lovely. We missed the bus coming back but a local couple gave us a ride.

Oh, about my house-warming wine.... no problem. Jorge laughed and said his dad probably didn't notice the devil reference. But I know he did.

Happy VaLENTINES Day!

Yesterday's anniversary party for Jesus and Bertha went really well, an experience we wouldn't have wanted to miss. Not too many people at the church, a gigantic cement block cathedral with pigeons flying around above us and a jackhammer outside doing street resurfacing. Dave said he got as much out of the sermon as he did when he was a kid in Lemberg and the prayers were in latin.

The family paid for taxis for the 6 of us to go to the brand new house the old couple just built on the outskirts of Guanajuato for the fiesta, celebrating both their anniversary and the housewarming. And that's where I made a big faux-pas.....

There were lots of relatives, their 7 children are all married and have kids, boyfriends, little kids.... 4 generations of the family, maybe 50 people. The sons who manage our hotel, Jorge and Juan, looked after us, introduced us, everyone was friendly but mostly we kind of observed the family reunion. Lots of beer and pop and snacks, then huge pots of food in the kitchen: chicken mole, hot tortillas, beans, fried chicken, barbequed pork, vegetable mixtures, stewed pork rinds, all really good.

My boo-boo was the gift we bought for them. When we handed Jesus the nice bottle of Chilean red wine in a black box I noticed the name of the wine: Castillo del Diable, Devil's Castle. NOT Appropriate for a house-warming gift for a very religious couple. He had a weird look on his face and said gracias but I knew it was a bad choice. I'll explain and apologize to his son Jorge today.

There is a sticker on the front door of the hotel: "Este hogar es catolica, no aceptamos propaganda protestante ni de otras sectas". And crosses on the terrace and all over the hotel show just how catholic they are.

Some of the other foreign guests at the party didn't go to the mass so told me that because we went to church we would be forgiven for the devil's wine.

We stayed at the party 3 hours then took a bus home and ran into a political rally for the PRD party, the new workers party, which is gaining popularity and is expected to do well in the July election.

We're on our way to the biggest church in town, Templo Compania to a special mass to celebrate the 61st wedding anniversary of the couple who own our hotel, Casa Bertha. The invited us to their new house for dinner and dancing after the mass, not salsa I hope. Quite an honour to be invited I think..Anja and some others from the hotel were invited but not everyone. We don't know what to expect... we go in taxis to their house after mass but hope we can escape after awhile. Very friendly people,
only speak spanish.

Dave is doing really well understanding and speaking. He has a talent for catching on quickly, doesn't worry about grammar and details like I do, he justs listens and repeats.

Our salsa dancing went downhill after the first 2 lessons. It got so complicated and the teacher threw so much at us we got a little frustrated. But some funny moments, someone took a picture of Dave dancing with the teacher Miguel, a painful look on his face. And a picture of me being thrown backwards nearly to the floor by Miguel, my legs crossed and very ungracefull. Dave said the first lessons were like being on the bunny hill, but then they took us right over to black diamond Boomerang and Cedar Ridge and threw us over the edge.

Got to go to church!

Just finished our cooking class, usually with 4 students but just Dave and I today. We made a delicious tinga, or stew. We pulled apart cooked roast beef and chicken then fried it with spicey chorizo sausage, onions and sliced cabbage, then blended cooked tomatos, garlic, chipotle chiles with a bit of water, and added that mixture to the meat. Cooked it for awhile then ate it on tostados. All done and eaten within an hour and very tasty. We'll try if for sure at home. Also the chiles rellenos we made yesterday: peppers stuffed with cheese and fried in an egg batter.

While Dave has his spanish class I've been meeting with Laura, a woman who is studying english at the same school. I met her at a spanish/english evening and we arranged to meet every morning just to chat, a half hour in each language. Works really well and we seem to have lots to talk about. She travels alot with her lawyer husband but says he is too busy to learn english so she wants to learn it instead. They traveled to Vancouver, Banff, Edmonton last year so they must be fairly wealthy. She has invited me to stay at her house if I come here again to study spanish which would be very nice. She has 3 sons who are students in Leon and every week she drives there to cook meals for them.

Today at 5:00 Dave and I are meeting the dancing girls for a cerveza, the 4 other (younger)girls in our salsa class. It's not easy to keep relaxed while concentrating on all the steps and hand positions, so we expect a beer before class may help. I want to buy a salsa CD to pracise dancing at home but I doubt if Dave will do it anytime soon in public.

Perfect weather, warmer than my first few weeks. We stop for coffee or beer in outdoor cafes a few times everyday.

This morning we ran into an American woman who was in my school in Oaxaca two years ago. Que mundo pequeno! She's studying spanish in a different town; it's an ongoing process for all of us.

Dave and I have been so busy I haven't blogged for a few days. I was a little nervous when I met the bus since 8 Mexicans got off then the driver closed the door. I told him, espero mi esposo but he said no-one else was on the bus. Where's Dave??! Then he said his bus was from Guadalajara and the Mexico City bus would arrive in a few minutes.

Dave got off safe and sound but just barely made that bus since his plane was an hour late arriving in Mexico City. In Dallas a guy was trying to stuff a very oversized suitcase in the overhead compartment and kept forcing it until the compartment buckled and a flourescent light exploded. They emptied the plane to clean up the mess. So Dave had less than forty minutes to clear customs and get to the bus depot. Thanks to a speeding taxi driver he made it.

We bought him school supplies today since he forgot a notebook and pen and he found his class quite easy.I just helped him with his homework. Kim, you're way too advanced for that class with your amazing spanish....!?? We made flautas con papas y queso in our cooking class,just 4 students, and enjoyed our salsa class tonight at 6:00. Dave had a good workout since he was the only guy besides Miguel, the teacher, so had to take turns dancing with 5 other women. Was fun, we both did quite well. The only english the teacher knew was mas sexy. Will have more lessons every night this week so expect to be experts by the weekend.

Our hotel Casa Bertha, is great. Big room, little tiled kitchen, great view, friendly family-run place, kitsch decor, $35 per night. We stay there 6 nights.

Estamos cansados. Buenas noches. Hasta la vista.

Dave comes tomorrow! I'll take a taxi out to the bus station and hope he's on the 11:00 p.m. bus from Mexico City. Will be fun to have a hubby here, I've been on my own long enough.

I just spent 2 hours in my favourite little Plazuela Mexiamora, very quiet and residential, and finished a watercolour, my best one so far, postcard size and simple. I chatted while I worked with a mexican woman and her adorable 5 year old. Our hotel is on this plaza so tomorrow Anja will help me move from my family to the hotel. I've spent quite alot of time with her and have plans for Dave and I to help her with some of her World Heritage Site research. She is studying how tourism and local communities relate, if these sites eventually become more museums than authentic communities. So far Guanajuato is very much a real mexican town with just a sprinkling of tourists. She is also studying similar towns in Brazil and the Phillipines. So Dave and I will have the job of sitting in a particular area and counting locals and foreigners, sounds like the right kind of job for a mexican afternoon. It's usually pretty easy to tell the difference but I'm not sure what we do with gringos who live here. Anja has a grant of some kind from her university to do this for her PhD.

Yesterday I met Connie and Glenn Rittinger and Jackie and Don Schaitel for lunch and a quick tour around the town centre. I showed them my school and the funicular view but didn't have time for much more since they wanted to return to Ajijic before dark. They're staying at Don's sister's house, near Guadalajara. Maybe Dave and I will go visit them. Don found that this is not an easy town to drive in or park in, many roads are under the city in 20 tunnels, a challenge to say the least...

This afternoon I'm going to visit the casa/museo of an artist couple who are quite famous in this area, Olga Costo and Jose Chavez Morado. He was a student of Diego Rivera and did some murals in this town. Then I've seen pretty much all the museos in town. Except the mummy museo.

Another example of who goes to my school: the other night fuimos a un cafe para tomar cerveza; there was a German architect, an adventure tour guide from California, a computer programmer and a commercial pilot with Hawaiian Airlines who looked exactly like a pilot, a tall guy who had that calm trustworthy look even without his uniform.

Time to get going. There are 4 little kids playing games on the computer next to me and they're crowding me a little. Fun to listen to them, but really hard to understand kidtalk.

Just had a cerveza and botanas (free appetizers) after class with Anja and now I'm on my way home for comida, but since the dinner isn't ready till 3:30 I have time to stop in for a little blogging. There are Internet spots all over town, not cafes, just public internet usually filled with mexican teenagers and extranjeros.

It feels good to have a routine and have I mentioned what a lovely town this is??? I'm enjoying everyday and there's a comfortable feeling of temporarily belonging to the community because I sometimes run into people I know; once you meet someone you are bound to see them again in the street or in a cafe because the town is so small. Por ejemplo (mexicans love that phrase)yesterday I ran into:

- Michael a Californian journalist who was in my class the first week but has dropped out of school and is the only jogger I've seen

- Mark, from my school, who is a South African who sold his childrens clothing business and is travelling until he gets tired of it

- Linda, a striking 67 year old from Vancouver, who I met in a cafe and has lived here for years

-Greg, who owns the best coffe shop in town and plays the French horn with the Guanajuato Symphony. He wants me to take a bag of coffee beans home for his friend Victor Sawa who is the director of the Regina Symphony. I said sure, I'll just pop over to his house in Regina sometime...

The town is also full of young people because the University of Guanajuato is right in the centre and lots of kids come from around the state. They look exactly like Canadian students, cell phones, backpacks,etc. So the city has a lively young atmosphere as opposed to San Migual de Allende which is mostly a rich gringo retirement community.

There are also old bodies here. Really old. There is a popular Museo de Momias that I'm waiting to visit with Dave. In the 1850's a cemetery was dug up and the bodies were found perfectly preserved, something to do with the chemical composition of the soil and the extremely dry atmosphere. So over 100 were put in a museum, quite morbid, bizarre, I'm not sure I want to see it. Bodies are still removed from the cemetery after a certain period of time if families can't pay the maintenance fees. Is the museo a cultural oddity or just tacky tourism, I'm not sure.

Started my third week of school day and had almost all new people in my classes. What a variety of people: a French teacher my age from New Zealand, Anja my German architect friend and Renata from the Czech Republic, who both speak spanish really well. Seems Europeans are the best with languages and Americans and Canadians have the worst accents in SPanish. Except me! I'm definitely improving and can sometimes spit out sentences without thinking about verb tenses. Occasionally I feel quite fluent in conversations with teachers, but other times....no puedo decir nada. But it's still really fun and satisfying, like figuring out a giant puzzle and some days lots of pieces fall into place. But sometimes I understand the vocabulary and grammar but the sentence gets lost on the way from my brain to my mouth.

I've been doing 4 hours of classes everyday so no wonder I'm tired by afternoon.

A little lesson in Mexican politics from one of my classes: There are three polical parties: the PRI, PAN, PRD. The next federal election is in July

Quoting my teacher Luis......

-The PRI were in power continuously for 70 years and were finally defeated in the mid 90's. They are thieving corrupt dinosaurs. The candidate for president is Madrazo.

-The PAN who are now in power (Vincente Fox) are lying, ultra-conservative champions of big business. (Fox was president of Coca Cola Mexico) The candidate is Calderon.

-The PRD are socialist, revolutionary and represent the masses. Some people say they have a chance at forming the next government. The candidate is Obrador or "peje"

Some things here are so.......Mexican.

Por ejemplo: The wiring would drive Dave crazy. I have to go across the living room to turn my bedroon light on since the same switch also turns on the living room light. No-one ever sits in the living room so it doesn't matter. There is a nice couch, chair, christmas tree and a totally useless free-standing bar which you might have seen in the Sears catalogue 50 years ago. But the house is clean and pleasant and I have lots of privacy. My room has a reading light and a floor to ceiling window with huge metal shutters that close on the inside with a big slamming deadbolt.

Another thing... Although there are lots of dogs around, treating them as pets is not really part of the culture. They are seen as guard dogs and many live their whole lives on roofs of houses. How that can increase security is beyond me - are they going to jump on top of intruders??

Should I mention this? Why not.
Mexicans don't put toilet paper in the toilets. Maybe the sewer systems are too inefficient, but there is always a basket with a plastic bag beside the toilet, and occasionally a sign to remind foreigners. But it's hard to remember sometimes.

I've just finished my second week of classes and can't believe how fast the time has gone. My friend Roberta from Calgary goes home tomorrow - I'll miss her. Same age as me, also a teacher, we've hung out alot together. We sat in a cafe last night with an interesting woman from Berlin, a professor of architecture who is starting at our language school next week but is also here researching World Heritage buildings for her PhD.

New people show up every Monday at Escuela Mexicana and every Friday some are leaving. I could get a job teaching english here since the school just started offering english classes and the teachers are whoever happens to be staying the longest, whether or not they have any particular qualifications. We had an intercambio last night, an english/spanish exchange, but there were more of us than them. I had a fairly timid guy to talk to, a mexican mining engineer who was very nervous about speaking english so we did mostly spanish, which was fine with me.

Speaking of mining.. Guanajuato has historically been a wealthy state since much of the silver the Spaniards plundered from Mexico was from this area. There are still mines around the city, only a few still in operation. The hugely wealthy silver barons built the mines, elaborate haciendas, cathedrals, all on the backs of indian slave labour. There are nine or ten enormous european-style basilicas or churches in this small town, offered to god in exchange for a pardon for using slave labour....

Dave may want to go to the school a bit since he's been working on my computer spanish program and sounds like he's progressing quite well. He'll be ahead of some of the beginners here for sure and might also take some cooking lessons. They made ceviche today which sounded really good. He arrives Feb. 5 and I've found a lovely small hotel on the quiet Plazuela Mexiamora. We'll stay here awhile, they go to San Miguel de Allende, which some people call Gringolandia but it's supposed to be quite beautiful. It's also where Toller Cranston has lived for decades and has an art studio.

It's a beautiful warm evening, the last few days have been warmer than before, and Roberta and I just had french crepas in an outdoor cafe, muy agradable.

Yesterday was a very mexican Sunday - I woke up to a marching band practising in the park across the street and intense drumming from an Azteca indigena dancing group, who were all preparing for a parade and festival at the neighborhood church, also church bells ringing and rockets going off to celebrate the patron saint's day for that church. All at 7 am. And to add to the racket there are occasional huge dynamite explosions because they are building 2 new tunnels under the town. So a few dogs barking is the least of the noise sometimes.

The parade was great - the Aztec dancers in elaborate costumes with huge feathered headdresses, I heard later that different churches hire them for festivals. There are probably 25 churches in town and each has a festivale for its saint so lots of action all the time. Mostly the parade had a tema religiosa with lots of little girls in long white dresses, baby Jesus dolls, etc.

Roberta and I went to the festivale, families sitting on the grass watching the brass band with ancient instruments, street filled with tons of food vendors, barbequed meats, vegetables, etc, corn, tortillas, pancakes, giant pork rinds, lots of unidentifiable things, lots looked good but the sanitation is a bit scary. I had a touch of stomach tourista illness on Friday so I'm resisting most street food. Some of the breads and pan dulce that I walk by everyday have a few too many flies. That's one thing that is nicer in Europe, there's no concern about getting sick from food. But the restaurants and cafes that we go to have been very nice. I sometimes ask if the fruta is washed with agua purificada and they always assure me," si 100 por ciento"..

We also walked up to a small dam and park which is a popular sunday picnic spot, people rent rowboats, quite nice although the dam was desperate for another metre of water to look a little fresher.

School is fun. Some teachers have more teaching skills than others but all are very pleasant. One guy seems to enjoy teaching us malaspalabras so I can now swear quite well in spanish. We just watched a mexican movie and we all understood the profanity. Oh well that's part of language learning and really they're mostly just sounds that don't seem particularly offensive to me.

The young hippy couple in my classes from Albany, New York that I mentioned once are here on bicycles! They flew their bikes to Texas and rode to Guanajuato. The last 30 kms were so full of pot-holes they were forced to get a ride in a truck and they said there was only one vehicle in sight every hour. They are planning to ride to Oaxaca in a few weeks. How about that for a challenge Dave, Kim, Gary, Isabelle, Louise, etc???

Thanks for the great email Cathi. About the dogs..... it's much better and I'm sleeping well at night. I had a talk with Bonbon, the family dog and understand her situation better so I'm more sympathetic and less pissed off with the barking in the night. She is a big dog who is quiet and gentle in the daytime and never ever gets out of the enclosed patio area, never runs or gets exercize. And her only socializing is by barking at other dogs at night. So aren't I understanding?! Or else just getting used to it......

And Kathryn, it's definitely not tropical here. Brown dry hills around the town and it never rains in winter. And it's only hot in the afternoon sun, especially on the roof of the school where we have our breaks. Otherwise it's often a bit cool, my house and classrooms are cement and the streets are so narrow they are usually shady. But still very pleasant with a light jacket.

Of the 31 states in Mexico, I think.... the state and city of Guanajuato is in the very centre of the map, so I was way farther south in Oaxaca 2 years ago. THis is also where the revolution for independance from Spain started in 1810, and also where the president of Mexico, Vincente Fox, is from. He was governor here before becoming president, and before that he was the president of the Mexican Division of CocaCola. We're learning interesting bits of history, culture, politics from some of the teachers. The campaign started yesterday for the presidential election which takes place in July.

Oh I have to mention the callejoneada last night. Three of us were in a cafe when a group of students in costumes walked by singing with guitars, bandolines, standup bass, etc. with people following them through the little streets. We joined in and they stopped sometimes in little plazas to perform, recite poems and jokes, tease the spectators. Fun!

A really nice thing about this town is the low cost of everything. Last night Roberta and I sat at an outdoor cafe in a beautiful little plazuela and had a cerveza, quesadilla con arrachero (barbequed beef) and papas fritas, all for less than $5.00 each. Then we went to el cine, very big and modern, and saw King Kong in spanish for $2.20. I'm hardly spending any money!

Especially compared to France where everything was so expensive.

I found a great little coffee shop on the way to school owned by an American so they have take-out coffee, not normally part of the culture here, freshly roasted and ground there, for 50 cents. Lucky since my family only offers a jar of decaf Nescafe.

Speaking of cheap.... there are DVDs of regular american and mexican movies for sale at street vendors for $3.00. They are peliculas piratas, but I might buy some anyway, good for listening to spanish at home. Though people say the quality can vary lot.

School is good. I'm only taking 3 hours per day and most people are doing 4 or 5, so i may increase it a bit next week. But talking to my family and other mexicans is easily as beneficial as classroom work. The grammar curriculum is good, but the conversation classes are very loose and unstructured, ie. today someone mentioned bars and then we learned about 12 ways to talk about different degrees of drunkenness, really valuable vocabulary.......

Just listened to a band that plays every Tuesday in the bandstand in the town centre, a shady little park with a wide tile walkway all around. A few couples were dancing up a storm, some spry little men in two-toned shoes doing rumba, cha-cha type dances. De Pauws would have enjoyed it but they would have been by far the youngest dancers. Lots of young people watched but those complicated dances seem to be a dying art.

My school teaches salsa. Maybe Dave and I will take lessons when he comes....

Went to the Museo Diego Rivera this afternoon, the casa where he was born, lots of his paintings and drawings there and photos of Frieda Kahlo and him. Really interesting. I stayed quite awhile then had to rush home for comida at 3:30.

Seems a really weird time to eat a big meal, in the middle of the afternoon but that's how it is. I help myself to breakfast but everyone eats comida together, including Susanna's novio who is the father of her 7 year old, Lizarely. The food is good: soup, chicken, beef, albondigas (huge meatballs), rice, pasta and an unusual green vegetable called chayote which I've had everyday in different versions.

The family is very nice and we talk lots, no english, but other than dinnertime I don't see them much. Have lots of privacy in the casa, usually have the main floor to myself since they are often all upstairs. There's also an abuelito (grampa) upstairs who is bedridden and never seems to leave the house. Various relatives come to visit him.

The other meal is merienda, anytime in the evening, where everyone helps themselves, just yogurt, fruta, pan, leche.

Quite a variety of students in my classes: Roberta a teacher on sabbatical from Calgary, John a retired glass blower from the states, Aryie an architect from B.C.who has building projects on the Baja, all my age, mas o menos; a young hippy couple who have helped build a sailing replica of an old wooden ship, a German boy who seems to party all night, an Australian girl who speaks spanish better than any of us. Most are here for 3 weeks or so then move on, and every week there will be new people.

I couldn't have found a nicer place to learn spanish. It feels like a small town but is very densely populated. Tons of school kids in uniforms, families with little kids and babies, everyone out walking, shopping in the streets in the early evening, and I've seen hardly any tourists. It's very clean and tidy, lots of money put into restoration of colonial buildings and cobblestone streets,since like Oaxaca, it's also a UNESCO World Heritage site, because of it's unique setting. The town seems to be in a bowl with houses topsy-turvy climbing up the hillsides all around, narrow sidewalks and stairways wind upwards all over the place.Reminds me of Valparaiso, Chile, Isabelle...except no ocean. And there is a complicated maze of tunnels under the city, many were old river beds.

The mom, daughter and 7 year old granddaughter at my homestay took me for a big walk my first night, mostly I needed them to point out landmarks so I could find my way back to the house. I thought I had a good sense of direction but not in this place. There isn't a square block anywhere. The town is very safe everyone says and I feel as comfortable as in downtown Swift Current.

Haven't started classes yet but have met other students. A woman my age from Calgary, a man from Georgia (who told me he's travelled in 45 countries) and 2 Quebecois guys who don't speak English and I all went to a big State Feria yesterday in Leon, which I think is the major city in the state of Guanajuato,an hour away on a Primera Classe bus for less than 4$. It was a huge fair, very modern, enormous cement building for displays, could have been the Calgary Stampede except for the food and everyone had black hair. There were thousands of people and we didn't see any other foreigners all day.We left at 10 pm but later heard that's when the big rooster fights started. So not exactly like the Stampede.

And what a coincidence.... at the fair I saw my favourite shoes that I just bought in Vancouver, bought them in a different colour for 23$. On closer inspection I see they are a Mexican knock-off version,I guess there is a pirate shoe industry, but they're close enough for me!

Barking dogs at night is my only complaint so far. They're not so bad in the distance but the family dog out on the patio joins in the chorus. I need Isabelle to go out and deal with him, but there is no solution since the dog can't go in the house and mexicans just seem to accept the noise as normal. So I just have to change my attitude and expect it instead of letting it drive me crazy. And last night was much better, earplugs help.

Oh, I've already ridden in the back of a truck here. The school had a little tour to a 16th century hacienda on the edge of town and most of us rode in the truck box, including Finn, a precocious 7 year old from Victoria, who is studying spanish here with her dad.

It's sunday afternoon, I'm going to settle into a little plaza somewhere and do a watercolour.

Well I'm here in Guanajuato and can't believe how easy it was to get here. Why do I waste a minute worrying about taxis in Mexico City, bus connections, etc. Everything went so smoothly and exactly according to my research. The Mexico City airport taxi driver was happy to talk all the way and rushed to Central del Norte bus depot so I made the earliest bus to Guanajuato. I grabbed a fresh spicey tuna-potato empanada pastry for the 5 hour bus ride but was handed a little lunchbox and drink as I boarded the bus. Great bus, big reclining seats, watched 2 american movies dubbed in spanish. Only 33$ US for the firstclass bus ride.

Stayed last night at the hotel-hostel run by the language school. Charming little orange and blue room, open patio courtyard filled with plants, but very mexican, ie the shower is only hot if you prearrange for the water heater to be turned on, which I didn't. Also I forgot to bring a towel.

Just walked around the town this morning and it's gorgeous. Easily the prettiest Mexican town I've ever seen. Lots of little plazas which are joined by a maze of winding little streets, very charming and very Mexican, not yet Disneyfied although I hear there are lots of tourists. There's a big university here so lots of young people around. And a whole system of tunnels which at one time was a river bed but now are roads so much of the town centre is for pedestrians only.

I meet my family this afternoon and will move to their house. Will take a placement test at the school tomorrow and start my classes on Monday. I've talked to lots of people and haven't said a word of English yet but know I make tons of mistakes in Spanish. Pero no importa!