John, Molly and I are back from
Guanajuato Mexico. What a wonderful time we had.
It was my first real trip to Mexico (I don't think a day trip to Tijuana or my spa experience in Tecate really count). We studied Spanish in the mornings at
Academia Falcon and explored the lovely little town in the afternoons and evenings.
May is the month to honor the Virgin of Guanajuato so almost every night there was an elaborate parade complete with whip cracking devils, green haired "ladies" (actually men dressed as women), feathered dancing Aztecas, numerous drum and horn marching bands, cars throwing candy, firecracker launching crazies and balloon carrying elders.
The town fills music in the evenings.
Sitting in the town square (
Jardin Union) having a beer you can be serenaded by mariachis, guitar wielding hippies, a troop of singers dress in medieval garb or the town band playing Fellini music...Oh we also happened into an organ concert at the main church one night.
Our sweet hotel, aptly named
El Mason de las Poetas, some nights had poetry readings and though my Spanish is extremely limited (and didn't get much better despite the classes) it was fun to sit and listen and pretend I knew what was going on.
We took a trip to the neighboring town of
Delores Hildago to stock up on
Talavera pottery and eat crazy flavored ice cream - John got corn, I got a combination of peach with nuts and prunes, Molly had cajeta (goat milks camel)...Yummy. Then went down to
San Miguel Allende and stayed only about 1/2 hour, happy to return to our lively little town feeling that it was just a bit to Americanized in San Miguel.
We found a crazy bar in a little village right above Gunajuato that features flavored
mezcal,
El Fusilado (meaning the first guy to get killed by the firing squad). It is owned by 2 guys, one from New York and one from Canada and is a hip little jewel in the sleepy village square across from the most elaborate gold encrusted church. We were the only patrons so sat one hot night and got wasted on mezcal infused with apples and coffee beans or cucumbers or scorpions. If you're ever in
La Valenciana don't miss it!
You can tell by my ramblings that this was a magical vacation and I fell in love with Mexico. Next time we go I want to try the beach. Anybody out there have a favorite
spot they'd like to tell me about?
