Mexico City

Mexico City is not nealy as scary as I had imagined. I love the architecture and there are great green spaces and plenty of trees along the streets. But don´t get me wrong, I still prefer a much smaller town. They have great public art works and even really cool benches, each one along Reforma is different. Went to the Anotropology Museum today to get my nerd fill. It was a great musuem.The big park in the city is wonderful, much better than Central Park in NYC.
Can I say again that the buildings are beautiful here. The old, in the case of the ruins near my hostal and the main square (third largest main city square in the world, very old, and then even the more recent skyscrapers are generally artistic and not just plain hulks of buildings. I wish I had more time here and someone to explore the city with, but I´ll just have to come back someday.
Last night I spent much more on a baile folklorico show at Bellas Artes than I spent on two nights at the hostel. Big Mexico purchase, but very entertaining. It was $40 for pretty much the worst seat in the house. The stained glass ceiling in the theater was glorious. There were over 50 dancers and a full mariachi band on stage.

And saying goodbye to San Miguel de Allende was sad. I cried when I hugged Benito for the last time. Then I snuck onto an earlier bus in the morning so I wouldn´t have to go through a second goodbye when he dropped me off at the bus station. I called him when I was already on the earlier bus, bad I know. I was leaving and I just wanted to get it over with. Oh no, typing this I am tearing up in the Internet Cafe. Testing my detachment skills.

Tomorrow morning I get up at 4 am to catch a flight and then spend over 25 hours in airports and planes. I plan to sleep in the food court in the Lima airport and then I meet up with Lauren, Liz and Julie in Cuzco later Saturday morning. I am so phyched and also nervious that I will get big blisters from my Mexi boots.

Carrera Practice at a Rancho

Last Friday afternoon, Margaux, Benito and I show up in his taxi to a Rancho about 15minutes out of town. Apparently he hadn't called ahead and doesn't know them too well. We roll up with 24 cans of Modelo in a huge trash bag of ice. There are about 7 guys training horses for carrera competitions. We are on a long dirt road way out in the hills, but we want to ride horses. Yes, I know I am petrified of horses, but I am facing my fears, plus I meditated all morning to get me good and calm. Plus Margaux has 4 and road for many years. She ended up impressing all the guys with her skills. I had to be led around like a child for fear that the horse would just take off with (or without) me. It was a great day. We spent the afternoon watching their practice and then they walked the horses to calm them down for us and we spent the rest of the time just chilling and talking to them. Seems the next show isn’t for another month of so, but we were invited to come and watch them practice any Friday. Or ride anytime. Unfortunately, I don't have any more Fridays here.

Guadalajara for the weekend

We had Friday off from school. Thursday was actually Labor Day, but the school switched it around so we could have exams on Thursday and a three day weekend. I passed level three, but this week I am taking one-on-one classes instead of starting up with the next level.
Friday Margaux, Jamie and I work up early to take the 5+ hour trip to Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico. We paid the extra $4 so we had a really nice bus (the first class busses here are way better than any bus I have ever taken in the States) and good movies. I am proud that I know enough Spanish to understand movies.
Poor planning on our part, we arrived without a hotel and on a holiday weekend when the tourist booths were closed. No map, no guide book, but we found a simple hotel in the historic downtown and somehow immediately found our way to supposedly the largest market in the world under one roof.
After an attempted theft of Margaux's second camera lens (she is a great photographer) we were much more careful with our belongings. It was so hot this weekend. Way hotter than San Miguel, unbearable even. On Saturday we took the weirdest tour I have ever had (90% in Spanish) to Tequila, Mexico for a tour of Jose Cuervo's operations. It was the first time I tasted tequila since I horrible incident in Rosarita, Mexico after which I puked all over a friend and his friend{s car. That was 7 years ago. I have been avoiding tequila since, but I couldn't pass it up at the factory. I also love cooked agave, great sweet snack. We were told not to take pictures, so I have at least a dozen or so taken stealthily from waist height. I am just so bad with stupid rules. The hairnet picture is inside the factory too.
Sunday we spent most of the day at another market. This one was more artsy than the huge market, but not as pretty as the international art market that the city is so well known for. I bought a scarf and a skeleton lady and a necklace and I spent less than $7 and I got to bargain. Pretty sweet market.
I am sure we would have seen much more had we planned ahead or hot been ridiculously hot all weekend, but it was once again good to get out of San Miguel because it made me appreciate how nice it is there once again. Gratitude for what I have!