WE'RE OFF TO PATZCUARO

I haven't written much lately because we have been spending lots of time together talking, eating and sightseeing. Now today we are off to Patzcuaro, Michoacan for El Dia de Los Muertos celebration. I'm not taking my computer with me, so I probably won't be posting to this blog for a week. After Patzcuaro, we go to Mexico City for a few days, and I return to Qro. November 6.

Wednesday, my wonderful, generous and energetic friends, Aurora and Javier took us to Guanajuato for un espectacular dia! We walked around the city and had comida corrida at a lovely restaurant in the main plaza, went to the Casa de Diego Rivera, and shopped a bit. Then Javier drove us to the Valenciana silver mine and a young woman who was studying geology and was very passionate about her topic gave us a very interesting tour -- in spanish, which I mostly understood. Our last stop was the overlook from the statue of Pipila.

I'll post some pictures of our day when I return.

GREAT BIRTHDAY

Yesterday was my birthday, and my friends made it a great day. I think almost all my Vermont friends and family called individually or in groups to sing happy birthday. It felt very nice to be remembered by them.

Marty and Bill took me out for a very nice birthday dinner at one of the two oldest restaurants in Queretaro, The 1810. I ordered a T bone steak because I hadn't had a piece of meat since leaving the states. It was cooked perfectly and tasted great -- came with french fries, too. Before going out to dinner, we had birthday cake Marty had bought the day before ( a tres leches cake) and Jack Daniels -- because on your birthday you can do what you please.

Last night was the first night since Marty and Bill got here that we didn't have heavy rain, thunder and lightening in the evening. So it was very nice walking in the cool fresh air. On the way to the restaurant, we walked through Jardin Zennea which was full of families and children and people listening to the Sunday night concert. On the way home, we stopped in Plaza de la Constitucion to listen to the music and watch the fountain.

FRIENDS IN MY HOUSE

Marty and Bill arrived safely mid afternoon today. How wonderful it is to have friends in my house with me. I spent the morning cooking a grand dinner: Mexican chicken with chorizo, spanish rice, and a vegetable dish Aurora taught me -- elote, squash and tomatoes -- plus guacamole and salsa verde. And I went to el mercado for fresh, warm tortillas. It was actually the first time I've really cooked since I arrived and it felt great.

Miraculously, water returned in the morning by the time I got up. What a great surprise!! However, it has now disappeared again. What I discovered though is that I do have water in the upstairs bathrooms. Evidently there is a "tinaco" on the roof which stores water, and that water just goes to the upstairs baths. I don't know how much water there is, so we are using sparingly. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

My big disappointment came today when I took Marty and Bill to the plaza in front of Santa Rosa church at 6:00 pm for a big "surprise". The big surprise was for me when NOTHING HAPPENED. Almost every day that I've been in Queretaro, I've gone to that plaza at 6:00 to hear music and watch the fountains "dance" -- most often it's been a famous aria by one of the "three tenors". Can't tell you the name of the aria or the tenor, but I've loved listening to it in that beautiful place. I asked the official looking guy who's always there, and he said the program has changed, and now it will play at 10 am and 11 pm. Extreme bummer! I believe here they would say "Que horror!"

UNEXPECTED CHALLENGE!!!

When I got up this morning, I decided on my two challenges: 1. Find a pottery cassarole pot I had seen somewhere in town because I was going to need it to cook this chicken and chorizo dish I planned to make for Marty and Bill's welcome to Mexico dinner tomorrow; and 2. Take pictures of Silviah's family when I went over there for dinner in the afternoon.

Well, I walked all over town and could not find the store with the pottery cooking pots. I will probably come across it again sometime, but for now I'll have to make do with what's in the house which is not a lot in the way of cooking pots. I did stop at el mercado and bought some chicken. While I was waiting my turn, I had to watch the chicken man chop the beeks off of dead chicken heads for a young man who was obviously shopping for his abuela who was probably using them to make caldo.

When I returned home mid day, I found UNEXPECTED CHALLENGE numero 3!! I went to turn on the faucet to wash my hands ---- no water!!! So I called Jorge Luis (the lovely man who is the caretaker of the casa) and he advised me to ask some neighbors if they had water (category: Spanish challenge) so I did, and found they had no water either. Jorge Luis came over and called the Comision Estatal de Agua and found out that, yes indeed all of El Centro has no water for 2 days, and that this had been advertised on radio, TV and newspaper for several days -- some repairs being made. So people who knew about it had been saving up buckets of water to use for the 2 days.... but obviously not me. Supposedly we will have water Friday evening ---- but I've learned not to expect things to go the way one is told they will go.

So Marty and Bill arrive tomorrow ---- Bienvenido a Mexico --- sin agua.

Anyway, in the afternoon I walked over to Herminia's (Silviah's mother), and had a lovely dinner. On the way there ( about a 45 minute walk) I pass a great view of the aqueducto built by the Spaniards centuries ago to bring water from the hills into the La Cruz Monastery. El aqueducto is the symbol used by Qro.

New Resolutions

I just realized it has been a week since I last posted an entry in this blog. It's not that time is flying by or anything or that I'm incredibly busy. I seem to have just not had it become part of my routine. TIME FOR RESOLUTIONS. So I decided this morning that each day I would take on 2 challenges, one having to do with using spanish and one having to do with photography. AND that I would make a blog entry every day even if it's only a sentence or two.

So today's challenges were: 1. Go to visit Sr. Gabriel Horner at the Museo de la Ciudad to see about having an exposition of my photography, and 2. Go to el mercado to find all the things I need to make a nice welcome dinner for Marty and Bill who arrive Friday.

Now #1. could have served as two challenges, the photography one and the spanish one because, of course, I had to speak with Sr. Horner in spanish. However, at one point when I really couldn't understand what he was saying he filled in with his english. He liked my work, and it looks like I will have an exhibit (called exposition here) in March!

#2 was fairly easy. You don't really need to know that many words to buy vegetables and fruits. However, at one point I was asking about some unusual looking beans -- if you cooked them like other beans. A very nice woman started telling me how to cook them, in seemingly great detail. However, I couldn't really understand what the heck she was saying. The gist was, I think, you cook them like regular beans but they're better if you add some jitomate.

I was going to venture out to a movie tonight, a German movie with spanish subtitles (part of a film festival), but it started to rain and I was pretty tired. The other challenge I had today that I had not chosen was talking with Citizens Bank about the fact that my PIN doesn't seem to work on my replacement card. Endless problems with them.

VOLEIBOL DE PLAYA -- En la Plaza Principal?!

Thursday, on my way to find the post office in Tequisquiapan, I was walking through the Plaza Principal in front of the the church of Santa Maria de La Asuncion and noticed a lot of unusual activity going on. I sat and watched for a while as truckloads of sand were being dumped in the middle of the plaza in front of the church and workers were beginning to spread it around. A semicircle of bleachers had already been constructed. I couldn't imagine what was going on.

Returning on Friday I found out to my complete awe and delight: VOLEIBOL DE PLAYA right smack in the middle of the plaza -- a big tournament of teams from different cities competing -- complete with guys in shorts and girls in bikinis. My teacher, Ceci, didn't really approve of the whole thing, but I thought it was a complete trip!! Can you imagine Beach Volleyball in the middle of Church St? It would be a kick!

NEGOTIATING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Saturday I came back to Tequisquiapan, but this time I had to get here on my own. Those who know me, know that I have a bit of anticipatory anxiety around traveling from one place to the other. For example, I always have to get to the airport 2 hours before flight time. So maybe you can imagine the anxiety I experienced around knowing that I would have to call a taxi, get to the right bus terminal, and buy a ticket to the right place --- all in spanish.

Fortunately, Jorge Luis ( the caretaker of the house ) had given me the numbers for good taxis. However, telephone calls are particularly difficult for me to negotiate in spanish. But I called, they understood what I wanted and I understood when she asked between which streets my house was located. The taxi arrived within 10 minutes, I locked the house and we were off to the bus terminal which was a good distance away.

Bus terminals in Mexico are sort of like small airports with several different wings depending on your destination and/or bus line. I got to the right one and from there it was fairly easy to find the counter for Tequis and buy a ticket. And I understood when the agent directed me to the gate where I would find my bus.

Once I was on the bus, I called Ceci to let her know what time I would be arriving and then sat back to enjoy the ride feeling quite proud of myself for having accomplished the whole thing without a hitch. It was really quite a good feeling!

By the way, to give you an idea of the cost of pubic transportation here: my taxi ride cost about $2.00 and the bus ticket was about $3.00.

MY PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT AT CASA DE LA CULTURA

I just remembered that I never posted pictures of my exhibit in September. I kept going back to get pictures of the room, but every time I went it was either closed or there was a class or performance going on in the room.

So this is the best I could do. This is the courtyard of the Casa de la Cultura. There are always lots of classes -- art, dance, music, language -- going on there.

At this particular time there was a performance of guitar music going on.

BOYE - AN EXCURSION TO A VERY SPECIAL FAIR - SUNDAY 9/27

Aurora and Javier very kindly picked me up a week ago Sunday to take me to Tequisquiapan for my first week of intense spanish learning. But they had a great surprise for me: a little excursion to a small town on the way, where there was a fiesta, a "Feria in honor of San Antonio de Padua".

On the way they explained that many people had immigrated from this town to the U.S. and over the years had sent back money to their families there. With this money some families had built houses in the style of U.S. houses -- they looked like houses you would find in Arizona, New Mexico or California.

Hopefully later, we will be able to go back and talk with some of these families about their relatives who are in the U.S.

It was a great day and following are pictures of the barbacoa, pulque made from maguey, the major crop, the church, etc.

We visited the church first: the church of San Antonio de Padua. It is a very old church and I believe Aurora and Javier were saying that people from neighboring towns brought some images from their churches to visit the church during the fair.

They also said that one of the towers (or steeples) of the church is very old, original to the church, but the other with the clock in it was built with money that people who have immigrated to the U.S. sent back to the church and community.

It was really a lovely little church, full of very beautiful things ---- and lots of people! Even one baptism on this very special day.

As we walked through the fair, there were so many interesting things to look at and try. Lots of vegetables and fruits I recognized and others I didn't. Lots and lots of people, so it was sometimes hard to take pictures, especially since I had my big telephoto lens with me -- not a great choice.

There was even what we would call a "beer tent" but it wasn't restricted at all. The first picture is of a pot of boiling entrails. Apparently nothing is wasted!! Nothing I wanted to try there. The fourth photo is of chunks of maguey (more about that plant later). You chew on it like sugar cane and then spit out the fibrous stuff that's left. I didn't particularly like it. The last photo, though, yummm --- nuts and seeds held together with sweet molassas like syrup -- sort of like pralines.

Aurora and Javier introduced me to several of their good friends. They know a lot of people in this town because Javier's business is very nearby. Pictured are Aurora and Javier talking with their friend as she makes tortillas.

Also a picture of their friend -- I wish I remembered her name -- and of her daughter, Leslie, who was helping. I think Leslie was about 12 and was very interested in talking with us. She practised her english with me and I practised my spanish with her.

The tortillas, purple ones and regular yellow ones, were delicious. Me gustan mucho!!

Maguey (pronounced ma-gay) is the major product of this area. The soil is not so good and they don't get much rainfall, so maguey is what grows best here. They make pulque from the flower stalk of the plant, and fermented pulque is an alcoholic beverage. I'm told that by the end of the day there are many very drunk people at the fair. I tried some plain fermented pulque and didn't find it very appealing, but when it was mixed with fruit, it was quite good. But I didn't dare drink too much, not knowing what my tolerance for pulque would be.

You'll see one sign that praises all the very healthy attributes of pulque -- if you can read spanish. They also use the dried fibers of the leaves to make baskets, place mats, rugs and those cloths we use for exfoliating the skin. Great stuff!! I bought a beautiful multicolored bag.

The barbacoa (which we call barbeque) is the main attraction at this particular fair. It's quite fascinating to see how they do it. They have these massive stone platforms with a circular area carved out in the middle. They set a fire in that hole and heat up some rocks. Then they cover those rocks when they and the platform are very hot with layers of the large maguey leaves and dirt. The meat (lamb) is placed on the leaves and covered with more layers of dirt and leaves and left to cook.

When ready, they peel back layers of leaves and cut chunks of meat and sell it by the kilo. You buy some meat and then buys some freshly made tortillas and salsa, find a table and have a feast!! You can go around to the different platforms to sample the meat and choose the one you like best.

At any fair, in any place in the world, there are lots of foods to try. I tried a new taste: atun. It is the fruit of the cactus, peeled of course to get all the little sharp hairs off. It comes in the small red size and the large yellow size. It is full of lots of little seeds so you don't really chew it with your teeth ...... you sort of mash it between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Quite tasty!!

STUDYING HARD IN TEQUIS

I haven't written since last weekend because I've been so busy here in Tequis. I haven't even had time to do much photography. I got here Sunday evening after a wonderful afternoon at a fair in a very small village called Boye. Aurora and Javier took me there on the way to drop me off here in Tequis. I will write much more about that experience, with pictures, next.

My schedule here is to breakfast with Ceci and her esposo, Felipe, at about 8:30. Then I go for a walk until 10:00 when we start class. We study until 2:00 (with a small break for cafe). Then I help/watch Ceci prepare a very simple but delicious meal with fresh ingredients, and we eat at about 3:00. After eating and talking (all in spanish) for about an hour, I retire to my lovely little casita and have a siesta because I'm exhausted by that time.

In the late afternoon and evening, we have been doing different things. Tuesday I went to a yoga class with Ceci and her friend Julie. It was VERY different yoga for me: kundalini with a little hatha. It was a small group... 2 men and around 8 or 9 women. I couldn't really understand what the teacher was saying, but I just followed what everyone else was doing.

Yesterday, we visited the silver workshop of Jorge, the man I met when visiting Aurora and Javier in Tequis a couple of weeks ago. He was working on a very beautiful pendant for a woman from Peru. He didn't really have much inventory to look at because he says that the global economic crisis has really effected demand for his work. After that we walked to El Centro and met Julie again for tamales and atole, a very traditional meal here.

Atole is a hot drink made from fruit, milk and cornstarch. It doesn't sound great, but it's quite tasty.