Hells Bells

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No one told us about the bells.
There are a lot of churches in San Luis Potosi, even for Mexico, so there are also a lot of bells.
Each of the towns has a main plaza with a church or cathedral. San Luis has about 6 in close proximity and they all compete to have the most tuneful telling of the time or whatever.
But I've skipped ahead a little.

In Mexico City we caught the metro to the North bus terminal from our hostel. Another 20c each – it hurt, but we paid up.
The bus system in Mexico is incredibly well set up. There are a multitude of different bus companies to choose from, and the buses are pretty comfy, with toilets, movies, occasionally food. We went with Primera Plus for this leg, mainly because the chick behind the counter yelled the loudest at us as we walked along the terminal.
It turned out to be a bit more expensive, I think mainly for the sandwich and coke that you got given as you got on. The seats were super comfy, the airconditioning not too cold, and away we went.

The trip was, well, a bus trip. A soft ride north form Mexico City, punctuated by the occasional baby's cry and jerky stops in towns. The Mexicans have a novel way (for us, anyway) of slowing people down as they go through their towns on the highway – huge speedbumps. This, and the movie soundtrack from the overhead speaker made it difficult to sleep, so I watched some movie called 'Whiteout' about people trapped in Antarctica. It had a hungry looking Kate Beckinsale, the villain was an Aussie, and it was all dubbed into Spanish.

The sandwich we had been given turned out to be ham and cheese, with a bucketload of jalapeños as well. Due to Klaire's fondness for jalapeños, I got to eat both of them, and they were bloody good.

We arrived at San Luis Potosi without incident, grabbed our packs, and caught a taxi (30 pesos) into town. This was also the time we continued our habit of picking the cheapest place from the Lonely Planet to stay at.

The place we ended up at had rooms bigger than my sister's whole house, cable tv, private bathroom and wireless internet. There was also a bunch of kids that seemed to be on band camp. They saw the two gringos head into the room and so we got a fair few phone calls with mainly giggling on the other end after that. Much like kids on school camp anywhere.

The town itself had quite a nice feel to it. Relaxed, well looked after. The second night there was an entire orchestra set up in the rotunda in the Plaza de Armas playing their hearts out. I think there was some sort of classical music festival on. Quite impressive.

We made our first museum type visit for the trip. It was to a gallery featuring the work of local artists. The work fused indigenous style (Toltec, Aztec, etc) with modern materials and methods. Some really good stuff.
We also managed to find a place with decent coffee, so we stopped in. The waiter asked where we were from.
“Somos Australianos” I duly replied.
“Ahh, porque yo hablo ingles, pero...no importa”. He explained to us that he was going to try English, but since we knew less English than him, being Austrian and all, he would stick with Spanish. No worries, sounds good.

We took it pretty easy in San Luis, all in all, trying to get used to the fact that this was not just a short trip but would be what we would be doing for a fair while. At some point you have to realise that you don't have to go out to dinner every night – as nice as that would be for a bit.

We decided to take a slight detour on our way north and have a look at Real de Catorce – a previously abandoned mining town now revamped for tourists (primarily Mexican). As luck would have it, we rocked up on the weekend Catorce was celebrating Mexican independence – complete with parades, fiestas, and burro races down the main street.

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Photos

Old and New
San Luis Potosi

Inside the Gallery
San Luis Potosi. we weren't supposed to take photos, but, ignorance is bliss, no?

A Good Night In
If you buy the right packet of chips in Mexico, it comes with a packet of chilli sauce. I love this country.

Comments

[Slowfeet2]

Thanks for reminding me...
I'd better start my Spanish lessons. Time's running out but it looks like we'll be fine as long as we're travelling with you two. BTW your father has been reasonably conscientious about his Spanish lessons.

[Slowfeet]

Boots?
Now this is something I can relate to. I take it that you picked up some snakeskin numbers with nice high cuban heels?

[Klaire and Adam]

boots
Nah, just went for standard cow skin. They're pretty high, though. Got a low heel too. They even have proper work boots with steel caps and thick rubber soles - but with the upper half way up your leg and very ornate.