Si el Sur Fuera el Norte

October 26, 2006
I am back in mi querido Mexico.

Riding in the taxi through the crowded, loud streets of Mexico City definitely brought the nostalgic tears to my eyes.

Yes, I was thinking about Kike and wondering if i maybe came back to Mexico too soon. I was worried about missing him and being reminded of him, but i got over that pretty quick.

I arrived in the late afternoon on Saturday and just hung out and chilled in my hostel. For Sunday, I had a mission. There was a HUGE book fair going on in the Zocalo {the main plaza} where I wanted to pick up a few books in Spanish and then a neighborhood market that only happens on Sundays called Lagunilla. I had gone to Lagunilla before with Kike and i had wanted more time to look around. They sell everything there like clothes, shoes, jewelry, antiques, crafts, but all with a Bohemian twist.

The coolest thing about going to this market though was that i had decided to walk there. Kike and I had walked there and I knew it was a straight shot from downtown, but you know, it's big, bad Mexico City, tourists don't just walk around. Well, I asked the guy working the front desk at the hostel if he thought it was safe to walk and he gave me an unequivocal, "no hay problema," and I headed off. What a great feeling it was. It was so easy and i feel like I own this little part of Mexico City now. Getting there was so simple and I spent a couple hours at the market buying stuff to make jewelry and some jewelry. It was so empowering!!

Then I headed back to downtown and had lunch at the family/run restaurant that Kike and I always ate at. It has good authentic Mexican food and it is in this big old house in the middle of downtown Mexico City. I had my regular Sopes con Pollo. The best part was that when I was paying the guy looks at me and asks, "Are you here all by yourself? Didn't you used to come in with a tall dark guy?" That made me kind of sad when I told him that yes i did, but not anymore, but it also made me feel good that he remembered me.

Anyway, that afternoon Allison and her friend came and immediately went to sleep after a long weekend of partying at their friend's wedding in Acapulco, so I went up to the rooftop bar and chatted it up with the bartenders.
Today we have decided to go to a town called San Miguel de Allende which was rated one of the top 20 places to retire in the world, so I have a feeling the crowd is going to be a little on the gray/haired side. We will only be there for a night and then we go to Guanajuato for the widely celebrated, world/renowned Cervantes festival of art and music.

So, I have now come to northern Mexico (Northern Mexico being as different from Southern Mexico as the West coast is from the East in the US) and I don´t think I will ever tire of this pinche country.

Last night we stayed in San Miguel de Allende which really was retiree city. Even though migration season for the snow-birds doesn`t start until mid-December, there were still quite a few walking the tranquil streets. We are all pretty impressed with he town even though the restaurants, stores and wine cellars all could have been plucked straight from California. We ate at a really nice restaurant and went to a couple bars. At night we met a nice Mexican dude who took us to a couple local locales and then went to bed.

We just arrived a couple hours ago to Guanjuato, the university/festival town and oh my god!!! We are all speechless wandering around the hilly, colonial streets. This is by far one of the most impressive cities I have seen. Our hotel is also this funky, ancient, awesomely tiled wonder that also doubles as the house for the owner Lupita. She couldn`t be friendlier. I do not understand why there aren`t more tour groups that come here. San Miguel de Allende is only 1 1/2 hours away and there hot springs all around. I could definitely design a 10 day tour around these two towns and Guadalajara or Mexico City depending on how people wanted to come. Any takers?

Well, I am madly in love again with this beautiful country...the Spanish, the food, the architecture. I am in love with being so intimate with this lifestyle. Allison and I are already scheming about renting a house for month in Guanajuato in the spring. I keep saying I want to go to South America, but there is just so much to see here.

We spent 3 awe-struck days in Guanajuato, seeing all the sights. We saw Diego Rivera´s childhood home and some of his works. We climbed up un moton de stairs to reach the statue "La Pipila" and get a tremendous panoramic view of the city. We people watched and met a few folks.

We spent a day focused around death, which is quite appropriate considering Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner.

The Mexican chavo we me in San Miguel de Allende told us that if you wanted to see the famous mummies of Guanajuato all you had to do was go to the plaza in San Miguel on any given morning and you´ll see them. The blue-haired snow-birds reading the morning paper. Hahahaha...funny joke. Little did we know that there really are famous mummies in Guanajuato and their in Guanajuato city.

We went to the mummy museum next to the cometary on the outskirts of town. See, in 186-something the people of Guanajuato needed to make more space in their cemetery, so they logically decided to dig up some old corpses to make room for the new ones. The climate and unusual soil content in Guanajuato had strange effect on the cadavers. The had been naturally mummified and now are on display in the museum. There are about 20+ mummies in glass coffin-like cases--some clothed, others not, some with remnants of facial hair, some with hair in other parts, old women, babies. It was crazy. Then we peeked our heads into the cemetery and walked back to town.

After 3 days and the growing crowds of festival goers with approaching week-end, we decided to skip town and explore somewhere new. Based on time and funds we chose the "undiscovered jewel" that is Quéretaro.

One of the first things I noticed as we were walking around trying to find a place to stay was that the people and place seemed very affluent. We ate dinner in a crowded, hip, expensive Tapas restaurant/bar that had literally 200 tequila bottles on the walls. There were nice restaurants, coffee shops and expensive cars, but the weird things was that there were practically no tourists there. This little town seemed to be oozing with money, but I could not figure out where it was coming from.

We went out that night to dance club road where we danced to cheesy Latin pop. We were out pretty late and once again everyone was very finely dressed to the nine´s. Well, I found out that there is a lot of German investment in the town-plastics factories and mechanical engineering centers. It was very interesting. Queretaro would definitely be a stop on my ten-day tour.

After buying tequila at a liquor store, Graham, Allison and I headed back to DF to drop Graham off at the airport.

Without Graham the ladies were set free and we were headed to the beach.

I decided we should go to the best beach community I have seen in Mexico, Puerto Escondido. The only problem with Puerto is that you have to go through Oaxaca city to get there.

I love Oaxaca and wanted to show it to Allison, but what about the teacher´s riot? The army being called in to quell the un-rest? The rumors of dead tourists? I wanted to see what it was like for myself...and I took Allison along for the ride...