Blogs from Guanajuato, Mexico, North America - page 10

--Sue-- I'm sitting on the rooftop patio at Casa Berta overlooking Guanajuato. We're here in part to attend the Festival International Cervantino. The other part is because we love it here. Getting to our hotel on Thursday was a struggle, although one we expected since we stayed here last trip. Guanajuato doesn't have many streets that are open to vehicles. Our taxi dropped us off at the bottom of the bowl that holds the old city. Our hotel sits half way up the bowl's edge, maybe a couple hundred feet up - at least it sure feels like that much. We had to carry our bags up a long flight of stairs followed by a slope and into a plaza. Then, we wound through a narrow alleyway up and up until we reached our hotel. Pant, ... read more

The open road has its difficulties. Food, shelter, and privacy (those primeval needs that we feel so strongly in these bodies we live in) are all challenges in their own ways. However, the difficulty that is ever-present in the nomadic existence in which we live is hygiene. There are no rules in this battle. Hygiene is where you find it and it is a very elusive creature indeed. While it is the case in the States that proprietors of local commerce are quick to offer “facilities” to customers (which makes hygiene more readily available), bathrooms in Mexico are often “pay only” and often do not include a sink with running water. Ripeness sets in quickly and stubbornly refuses to depart. While I will spare you the more graphic details, I have had to grapple with the ... read more

I had a long fever which broke by early morning, but the diarrhea remains . Hate that unsettled feetling the stomach that things aren't right. The taxi arrives as planned for 10am, but its the usual sedan from around town, about the size of a older model toyota corolla sedan, and only two cases fit in the boot. So the smaller two are piled on the front seat and Liam sits on Ky's knee with us all squashed in the back. This ain't gonna work in two years when Liam is too big and bony to sit on laps! Leon airport is very modern, beautiful stone floor and large murals on the walls. Very orderly and on time, but hard seats. Anyway with me being tired and light-headed Ky has taken the lead in keeping the ... read more

Another quiet day ahead of us. This time we do go to the Macrocentro Deportivo, the large sports complex just down the road. Like tourists, we decide to walk down the windy road with no footpath, skirting the drains and small tracks. We imagine the locals driving past thinking {crazy tourists}. At the ticket booth, we are met with a barrage of spanish, then luckily a lady is leaving and offers to translate for us. Seems the pool is only for members or classes. There is a nice rock climbing structure outside but you need equipment to use it. So we pay the $5 each for entry and the kids play at the decent sized playground. At first there are only a couple of kids there, then what must be a class of kids aged around ... read more

All prepped for the big tour, we arrive at reception before 10am, then wait til quarter past. Martin arrives with Alehandro. For some reason although Alehandro does the whole tour for us in english, he does not drive. Alehandro is approx 40, friendly but appears preoccupied with conducting his narrative and does not readily take on our comments or questions.However through the day he covers a much wider subject than the tour content, telling us about the famous singer Jimenez (Himenez) and taking us to his memorial, talking about Guanajuato life and how not to live in the hills outside town because of all the scorpions. He also goes over all the stuff about Guanajuato that we'd not really understood from the previous day. The tour starts in Dolores Hidalgo after the stop at the cemetary ... read more