Blogs from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, North America - page 4

Drinking coffee is one of the few remaining vices that I will admit to openly. I tell people that I don’t really like the taste, that it is just a delivery system for sugar and caffeine. Those two essential elements prop up my existence, and I would be a wrinkled shell of a man without them. Forget the vitamins and nutrients and pour me a cup please. In truth I love the flavor of coffee, and I was surprised to find that it does not taste better in Mexico. Naively I imagined that living closer to the source of the beans in South America, the coffee would be that much fresher and vibrant. Another example of innocence lost, my naivety exposed as simple ignorance to the world outside my usual existence. Thinking more clearly on the ... read more

3 Chasing the Drums Taking a cab to the central historic district (Centro Historico) seems like the wisest course of action for my first trip downtown. Mistakenly reading the meter of the cab, I try to pay the driver ten times the actual amount of the fare. He is honest and returns the extra amount. Another person is waiting to get into the taxi, and between my confusion regarding the fare and the anxious person waiting to get in, I forget to tip the deserving driver. Most cabs here are the same make, model and deep, cool green color. A number is displayed on the top of the cab and is also painted on the sides of it. The number of this cab I also forget to look at. There is no way to identify the ... read more

1 Blackbirds I find that I am not as comfortable being alone as I supposed I could be, being too used to the chaos of home and family to be at peace without them. At home there was always a house full of people, full of activity and energy, with relatives and friends dropping by or events to host. The mechanisms I used to turn off the world around me and gain some peace are of no use here in Mexico, a place devoid of children, friends of children, pets of children, my wife, her relatives and my relatives. There is nothing and no one to hide from but myself, no inner sanctum required. There is just too much peace and quiet and I am not accustomed to it. I sleep too much and watch too ... read more

The village of Real de Catorce often shortened to Real is located 160 miles northwest of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The village of Real de Catorce sits on the side of a mountain at more than 2.743 meters (9,000 feet). It is situated in the Sierra de Catorce Mountain Range, one of the highest plateaus in Mexico, where the summits may extend over 10,000 feet. Although the town had been there for many years, silver was discovered in the local mountains in 1772 and a few years later in 1779 the village was officially founded. Nowadays, its main income comes from tourism. Several major commercial motion pictures have been filmed in Real including Bandidas (featuring Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz), The Mexican (featuring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts), and some scenes of The Treasure of the ... read more

San Luis Potosi, Mexico Well, here we are in San Luis Potosi and Iraq seems a long time ago. We know everyone thought we were a bit loco moving down here and in the last couple of days we were quick to agree with them. The first week in a new place is always stressful and when you add the fact of an unfamiliar language and customs it makes it worse, but we are pulling through. By day three we have found and moved into more permanent accomodation and are slowing picking up the language. Our Spanish class starts in 2 days and our stress had reduced to a manageable level. When we arrived Polly (our own personal saint) immediately took us hotel hunting in the historical center of the city. We looked through about ... read more