Visit of the Senoras

March 2010

Hola again from Guanajuato....

Whoa, we are halfway through another week, so I really need to report on our great previous semana with our visitors from Washington.

Our ladies, amigas Megan and Parvin, arrived at midnight on Saturday the 13th (or was that Domingo?). Of course we had to chat for a while, but we had a nice lie in the next morning.

Then it was down to the city via the old Ruta de Tecolote, the road that we have been accustomed to taking into town. This is a charming, picturesque cobblestone road which was used by El Pipla and his men when they charged into town to route the Spaish from their stronghold in 1810.

On the walk down, Megan and Parvin were oohing and ahhing at the view of the Tiempos, (churches) and all the colorful casas climbing up the sides of the hills of the city.

We had a walk around and our Lopez friends, Corvus, Violet and Milo, plus our visiting Lopez neighbors, Jan and Neil, caught us in the "Catrina" candy store. Catrina is a Day of the Dead character who shows her face all over the city...including on the candy bars!

After and nice chat with our Lopezians, we breakfast/lunched in the Jardin de la Union in an outdoor cafe. Breakfast is served until early afternoon here, so that`s what we had. As we ate we were passed by crowds of Mexicans, young and old, who use the Jardin de Union for their Sunday promenading. We could tell that our friends were as instantly taken with this lovely city as we have been.

Then on that Sunday night, Parvin, Megan and I, and Victoria, our neighbor at Las Casa`s Blancas, went back down to the city to participate in the Callejoneada. This is a weekend ramble though the city, hosted by the students of the University. The students dress up in Renaissance troubadour fashion and stroll with the crowd thru alleys and up and down the stairs, all the while singing and telling jokes to a delighted crowd.

Their singing was so beautiful and the settings unforgettable. At one plaza, the ladies stood on one side,, some on a balcony, with the men down below. The troubadours were singing a love song as "helpful" flower sellers circulated through the crowd. The ladies ended up with lots of roses, and to our surprise, started giving their roses to us!

At another stop, the singers asked for ladies from the crowd to come down and do kind of line dance. Parvin and our neighbor, Victoria, rushed forward and Megan and I watched as the ladies all kicked and danced and squatted and waved their arms like chickens, according to the instructions of the troubadours!

Then the men were pulled out of the crowd, and they formed a kicking Rockette line. Afterwards, each man had to do his own little do little dance on his own, with the crowd cheering each one on.

For the final stop, we ended up at the Callejon de Beso, the "Alley of the Kiss", where everyone, except us of course, sang a lovely, obviously well-known song together. Then, one by one,, each of us entered the Kiss Alley...only shoulder width wide...with long pauses for couples who shared looong kisses.

An absolutely unforgettable night. Megan and Parvin, understandably, wondered whatever could we do to top that evening!?

On Monday, after lunching in town, I sent the ladies off on a tour with Augustine, our friendly bilingual tour guide for the same tour of the area that David and I had done the week before.

Tuesday morning, we all taxied to the Mega grocery store to buy groceries. Not too exciting you say? Well, imagine shopping in a store with everything in a totally different language and totally different packaging. Megan started out by looking at a package of "dried strawberries", which actually turned out to be fertilizer. The big containers of hot sauce, seemed at first, to (perhaps) be motor oil and the juice selection included Tamarindo, Hibiscus and mango. Really quite an adventure.

That evening, we had dinner at a restaurant high above the city (about 75 steps...sorry Megan!) where our table faced an open window looking out over the night lit churches and squares. We were all quite taken with the hand painted tables and chairs, which featured Day of the Dead, Catrinas, or fruits and vegs or suns and moons. Really quite lovely.

On Wednesday, we had arranged for Augustine to pick us up at our Casa and take us to San Miguel Allende and points in between...a day trip. Despite the rain, we had a great day. Augustine also brought a lady with him, Alicia, and we Megan later confirmed that she was Augustine`s girlfriend. We were happy for him as that meant that he has more to his life than driving Gringos around!

Our first stop that day, was at a pottery place, Santa Rosa. We were almost transfixed by the beauty of the whole process...which we saw from forming the clay to the painting of the pieces. We then went into the showroom (of course) and all of us bought at least a few pieces and arranged for them to be shipped home.

We had a great shock, though, when some VERY LOUD and obnoxious USAers, arrived and started making a huge pile of pottery destined for their FOUR CONDOS IN CABO!!!!!!! We were quiet, like little mice, as they kept almost throwing items on their ever growing pile. We even suspect that they toke a plate that Megan had picked out, from our little assemblage of choices. Yikes....we were glad to see the back of them, as the English say!

Our next stop was the church at Totonlico, a church which features amazing murals that were painted by an unknown Indian artist. The shops out in front all "featured" crowns of thorns (real) and flagellating ropes of various sizes, so we knew serious stuff went on there. Perhaps "no comment" would be the best thing to say here. Still, after David and I read about the history and meaning of this church for the Mexican people, we realized we will have to try to go back for another longer visit.

San Miguel Allende was a bit of a disappointment due to the rain and the total onslaught of USAers (I am not saying "Americans", since we are all either North, Central or South Americans). I mean, we like our fellow countrymen/women ok, but we enjoy the Mexican people and the Spanish language and there wasn`t much of either in central San Miguel. David and I will give this town a second chance too...in fact we are going back for a day visit tomorrow.

Still it was a good day and as planned Augustine dropped us off, back at our casa in the early evening. Roll on To Thursday.

On Thursday morning, we were all privileged to visit a school in Guanajauto! Parvin, an elementary school teacher in Seattle, had planned to go into the city early and knock on the door of Escuela Benito Juarez to see if she could have a tour. Lucky for all of us, we overslept, so Parvin, Megan and I went into the city later, saw that the school door was open and walked in.

After getting clearance from the principal, we went into a central court, where the children were having lunch. There was no cafeteria, the kids were just getting food from two ladies at a small table and then perching on steps or in corners in the court.

We went into a classroom and "talked" a bit to a teacher and I snapped pictures of the walls and displays. Then, as we entered a second classroom, we found that the kids had discovered us. Parvin posed for pictures with the kids, who were perhaps 9 to 12 years old, and one girl, America, who spoke a bit of English, particularly stood out for us. She and I exchanged emails with the plan that we could help each other with our English/Spanish studies.

We were all thrilled to be able to visit the school and since returning to the US, Parvin has been able to show my pictures to her own students in Seattle...one of them, it turns out, is originally from Guanajauto...what a small world.

That evening Parvin, our neighbor Victoria and I all went back into town to do some dancing. Trouble was, it was a rainy Thursday night and we were just about the only party people at the three places we tried! Still, we danced together and had a fun time anyway.

On Friday evening, the ladies`last day, we invited our friends Corvus, Violet and Milo over for a dinner of Parvin`s fine Persian cooking. A brilliant ending to a great week of showing our friends the wonders of Guanajuato.

Hasta luego until next "e"

The Tour Guides