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Published: January 8th 2007
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Greetings from San Miguel de Allende!
We’ve spent the last two weeks here with Mom. We picked her up from the airport in Mexico City at 6:00 am on Christmas Day and then hopped on the first bus to San Miguel. We had a nice little Christmas during the five hour bus ride, exchanging gifts and such - truly a Christmas to remember!
Before we left San Miguel we did a few things in Mexico City that weren’t covered by the last blog. We got sick for one thing… That was after flying too close to the sun with the street tacos. Also, we went to this neighbourhood in the South of the city, called Xochimilco, where people farm in a manner reminiscent of Aztecs agriculture in pre-Hispanic Mexico City. Mexico City is built in the bed of a huge, shallow lake, and the Aztecs farmed on artificial islands built in the lake surrounded by canals (apparently, you used to be able to boat anywhere in the city). Today, the amount of water in the lake has decreased significantly, so the canals in most of Mexico City have run dry and been replaced by roads - except in Xochimilco.
We bussed and took the train down there, which took us about two hours. The trip was an interesting experience in itself - the city never ends that whole time! Down in Xochimilco we walked around a bit through the market and the winding paths to the canals. Then we hoped on a little riverboat over to one of the islands, and checked out the cows and the garbage and what-have-you that was there. Later, we chilled by the canal and watched the sunset in a particularly idyllic spot on the canal. We met some Xochimilcan dudes there, and they allowed us to partake in a fun activity with them…
In San Miguel, we’ve mostly been just relaxing: watching cable TV, eating food prepared by Mom, drinking coffee, and enjoying pirated WiFi on Mom’s laptop. We are able to pick up a signal on the roof of our hotel, and we’ve been listening to hockey games and such. (By the way, Go Canucks Go! Six in a row? Are you kidding me? If they continue at this pace they will finish first in the league and win the Stanley Cup this year, and every year, from now on!)
Happy New Year
Man, they were letting off the celebratory fireworks right in the middle of the square... sketchy! We celebrated New Years here. It was very fun. Aden and I had some beers and went down to the square, which was packed with Mexicans and Gringos alike. There was a really great live band and a pretty sketchy fireworks display (that is, they set them off in the middle of the crowd…). Aden and I bought some little firecracker-type things that were for sale for $1 for a pack of about 50. These things don’t explode but rather flash impressively, and the wicks have the cool property of seeming to die for several seconds before the things go off. This allows all sorts of mischief making - you can light them and throw them on the ground and watch hapless gringos walk over them obliviously until they go off, at which point they shriek and recoil!! Good fun. Just about got in a couple tussles, but good fun.
The other day we broke out of our routine (sleeping in and then reading and drinking coffee all day), and we went up to the Botanical Garden outside of the city. It is a very nice park filled with Cacti on either side of a gorge. Judging from
My future car
Susan Musgrave, eat your heart out. the signs, whenever the government builds a big dam or something like that, they take the various plant species threatened by the project (mostly cacti), and move them to this park. Thus, there are lots of really cool different kinds of cacti there. We took lots of pictures, as you can see, and walked throughout the park over several hours. It was cool and we saw lots of ants.
Last night we met some Yanks from Wisconsin and Minneapolis. We went out to a little bar here. Ok, get this, in the bathroom there, they had a trough - nothing out of the ordinary about that. But… it drained onto the floor! It is truly one of the most epic bathrooms I’ve seen.
Anyhow, we’re heading off to Guatemala shortly to meet up with Morgan. He’s in Antigua or something. We’re going to stage a coup in a country that must, for now, remain a mystery….
Cheerio,
Mike
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Kathryn
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Hey Mike, Looks like you guys are having fun! It's makin' me want to go to S. America. Si hi to Morgan for me! Kathryn