Hi all,
We arrived in Guanajuato yesterday. It´s a good thing we left SMA because I think if I had stayed there a minute longer I would have killed Kathleen. Not necessarily through any fault of her own. For those of you who know both of us know that we both have very strong personalities, and we know what we want and what we don´t want. Some things are important to her that I couldn´t care less about and the other way around. Also, I have noticed that she is very cautious about certain things that I don´t worry about at all, but I worry about things that she would not think twice about doing.
For example, when we first arrived in SMA she spotted a bar across the street from our hotel. It is a cantina with the swinging doors. El Gato Negro. I told her that from what I understand, only putas go into places like that. They are for men and an occasional hooker. (of couse the irony of a white hooker in SMA is not lost on me) Anyway, she was obsessed with going into El Gato and I refused. Well, the evening before we left she found out that this particular cantina is actually okay for women. And gringas are definitely welcome and not considered to be selling themselves. This was a comforting thought for me, but I still wasn´t really interested. Anyway, because I wouldn´t go with her, I will never live it down. Oh well. I figure if we find a similar place here I will amuse her curiosity and go with her.
So, on the other hand, it is not unlike Kathleen to carry around three different bags so she can have her money with her and spread out over her body. Very smart I know. But I just can´t be bothered. A safe in the room would be nice, but at $10-20 a night, we are not finding safes in our rooms. So, I hide things around and just hope that we are staying in places where the housekeeping is honest.
In spite of these differences, our crabbiness with each other is around guess what!!? You guessed it! Being too hungry. We both lose our minds when we are hungry. It is not a good combination. The other problem is when we have different ideas of what we want to eat. I was looking in vain for tacos all over SMA. There are no good taco places that are open late. For some reason the stands didn´t look too appealing for various reasons. The stands on El Jardin were all elote (corn), helado (ice cream) and hamburguesas or salchichas (hot dogs). I have no idea why there are no taco stands on El Jardin. Anyway, one night we were starving after spending the afternoon at La Gruta, a hot spring place. That was a disappointing adventure in itself and when we got back to SMA we were rushing to be ready for drinks with friends of K´s. We ended up at El Tomate, a health food restaurant. This was not at all what I was looking for, having been dreaming about succulent tacos for the last 3 nights. So after a small meltdown on my part, I left and got a hamburger. It was really good for street food. I have yet to get tacos!
Yesterday we had a VERY Mexican experience at the bus station. K bought the tickets and for some reason neither of us thought to ask for the tickets. Well, you HAVE to have a ticket to take the bus. So, when I realized that the woman hadn´t given us our tickets, just before we were supposed to take off, I ran to the counter to have her print us out new tickets. That would have been way too easy. She claimed to have printed them and handed them to us. K and I were positive that she just gave us the change, but no tickets. She said she could not re-print them no matter how much I tried to argue...which is difficult given my level of Spanish. I was able to basically state what I needed to, getting my point across. But this is Mexico and a rule is a rule. You must have a ticket to take the bus. It didn´t matter that she had a record of us paying for the tickets and she even remembered us buying them. After much argument I paid for two more tickets. I decided that it wasn´t worth having a heart attack over $12 total! I never for one minute gave any thought to the fact that she was taking us for a ride. K suggested that she printed out our tickets and then sold them to someone else and pocketed the cash. I hate to think like that about people, but I think that is a likely explanation. There is no way she gave us those tickets. And if she hand´t sold them to someone else, what would it be to her to re-print the tickets. Anyway, maybe not. It certainly isn´t the first time I have experienced something so rediculous in Mexico that was due to some crazy rule that no one wanted to bend.
You take the bad with the good down here.
The towns we have visited have all been very well kept up. There are garbage cans everywhere and people hired to clean the streets regularly: in SMA, Queretaro, and Guanajuato too. One thing that has taken me totally by surprise is the cleanliness of most of the bathrooms in town. Even the bus stations have clean bathrooms with toilet seats and paper. It costs 3 pesos. Well worth it if you ask me!
Guanajuato is really amazing. It is a colonial town tucked into a little valley with houses built up the hillside and streets are mostly walking only. The roads for cars are mostly underground. The tunnels are very old, built for the mining that was going on here when the town was first built. This is a town of many college students, some tourists/travelers from around the world and lots from here in Mexico. It has lots of history as one of the first places the revolution was started. It was a big mining town and was very wealthy as a result. Many of the buildings are very grand and seem strange given the scale of the tiny streets. We have yet to really explore. It seems a place you could get very lost and turned around. There is no grid here. Pipila (a statue of a revolutionary, not Jesus) is the only real landmark I have been able to use to find my way around. I am looking forward to seeing the Diego Rivera Muesum (where he was born), the mummies, el mercado (of course), and some of the churches.
Our room is up on one hill off a tiny alley. There are alleys everywhere, winding up the hills. Walking only. I had to lug my suitcase up a zillion stairs to get there. But it is $10 each per night, quite a deal! There is nothing fancy, but Lidia, La Señora, is very nice and accomodating. We have our own keys and can come and go as we please. It seems like a good deal. We looked at another place too, but it was too much noise and people for K. But, we ended up meeting two nice kids who are traveling around Mexico. We had dinner with them last night and may meet up with them again. It´s always entertaining to meet people and exchange travel stories.
I have tried to send some postcards, but you probably won´t get them until after I return. I failed to get stamps the first day and then it was the weekend and then a holiday; May 1 is Labor Day here. When I finally got to the postoffice all they had were the stamps they print out separately. They are too big, or I have written too much on each card to accomodate the sticker. So, I will try again.
Well, I think I have shared enough for the moment. My wrists are beginning to ache. And I need a nap. I got very little sleep last night. Too much fun. That is what vacations are for right?! Hope you are all well!
Love, Elisabeth