Guanajuato and San Miguel Allende (part 2 of 3)

Hola everyone. Joel and Janice are now in Tonala on a Sunday morning where shopping is king. More of that later.

Wednesday March 21 we got on a Primera Plus bus to ride to Guanajuato. In Mexico, bus riding is a pleasant experience. The seats are comfortable and the leg room is great and they even padded leg rests. When you get on the bus each person is given a bottle of water and a small snack. The costs was about $15.50 US for the round trip.

                                     

When we reached Guanajuato we got a cab from the bus station to the center of the old town. We drove through underground streets that were like tunnels carved in stone. It turned out that the pope was scheduled to spend from Friday to Sunday in Guanajuato so the town was crowded already. We were able to tour Diego Rivera's childhood home and museum. Janice has a couple of his prints of him and his Frida. We enjoyed walking around the old town and had a nice lunch on Jardin de la Union. We caught the 6:00 PM bus back to San Miguel Allende. We were glad we missed the pope as this city didn't have the space to comfortably handle the hoards of people and traffic snarls.

One of the highlights was strolling through the Diego Rivera Museum.

 The colorful dots spread throughout the hill sides of Guanajato.

Thursday was art day for us in San Miguel Allende. We walked to The Aurorra Galleries. This was a large place with many galleries and active studios. Janice walked most of the galleries and studios and talked with many of the artists. There were many classes going on and many others scheduled. I suspect Janice would spend a lot of time there if we decided to spend summer there. We had a great Sushi lunch at the Aurora. Friday we explored other galleries in the nooks and crannies of San Miguel Allende and then had a going away dinner at a Louisiana resturant that was true to it's name. This was good food cooked well.

Saturday morning we loaded up the van and said goodbye to San Miguel Allende. It was a great to visit and our hotel was great, great room, great service and a good value. We doubt that this is the place we would spend summers as we would miss the water and would like to be closer to Mazatlan in case we needed to make a short trip home. Next blog will be on the Shopping Mecca of Tonala and the Lake Chapala town of Ajijic. (Part 3)

For now,
Ducky and Lovie

Ups and downs getting to San Miguel Allende

Hola everyone;
Saturday morning, St. Patrick's day we turned over our home and Ollie to Mike and Sandie, loaded the car and started our trip to Southern and Central Mexico.

Agave fields every where you look.

We are on our way to the town of Tequila, where the agave gods

are brewing up the main ingredient of margaritas.

Statues and fountains of all sizes made by chipping away at large rocks.

We left around 8:30 a.m. had an uneventful drive on the autopista to Tequila, Mexico. Our hotel was close to Jose Cuevo, so after checking in we strolled over to Cuevo's and enjoyed a free blue agave drink. It was pleasant, but didn't have much of a kick to it. After we walked down the main street of Tequila and tasted some Tequila and just had to buy some. There was a festival on the square by our hotel and there were tents open with a lots of services offered. The event was for women and their health. So everything there was geared toward that. In the evening we ate a good Mexican meal and then walked back to our hotel. On the way, there was a musical group performing. They all wore white suits and played guitars and horns. The leader also did comic relief, but as our Spanish is spotty we understood about 1/4 our it, but enjoyed the kids and grown-up reactions. The following are a few pictures from our first 24 hours.
On Sunday morning we ate a good breakfast and headed out to Guadalajara, but Joel chose the wrong road and it took us 2 hours instead of 45 minutes to clear Guadalajara, a city of 8 million people. We then took a scenic route to San Miguel that took longer, but we saw great small towns and agricultural lands of Mexico. The soil was black and the crops and cattle reminded Joel of Iowa. You could tell the farmers were prosperous there. We stopped in a small town and had a great Chinese lunch. Yup, in the middle of Mexico we enjoyed Chinese food. We finally arrived in San Miguel Allende, drove around and then spent an hour stuck on narrow, cobble stone streets until we finally, with the help of Janice's phone calls to discover our place.

Our place turned out to put new meaning to the word "Ghetto. The first thing you saw walking in was a bar with wood chipping and paint peeling. The floor was concrete. The walls were plain. Janice e-mailed and complained that the place was nothing like the internet pictures and description represented. They offered to show us another one next door, but the location was also terrible. We went out for a walk and looked at several hotels. We finally found one we liked and decided to talk about it. We went to a Cuban restaurant and ordered Cuban food and listened to Cuban music. The band displayed the Cuban flag. There were some dancers that were a show in themselves. We were the only gringos there and enjoyed ourselves. We decided to go back to the hotel and make a reservation for the next day for us to stay the rest of this week.

The next day we woke up to find our apartment had no water. It let us know our decision to change residences was a good decision. We went out to breakfast and located our new hotel's parking. Joel packed up and we drove to the hotel's parking. We took our luggage and stowed it behind the front desk of the hotel as it was still to early to check in. We then walked the centro of San Miguel Allende. We both fell in love with city. There were cobbled stones streets, beautiful churches, and many shops and art galleries. At 3:00 we checked into our hotel. Our fates changed 180 degrees from yesterday. Before we weren't given what we paid for, today we were given a suite, it was two floors. The lower floor has a beautiful kitchen, living room and full bathroom, dining area and fireplace. The second floor has a king sized bed  and a full bath. Also there is a private patio a couple steps up. We enjoyed settling into our new digs and enjoyed some cerveza, vino and some food on the patio. We've taken many pictures of the view from our patio.

Our private patio off our bedroom in our hotel room.

We have made reservations for a trip to Guanajuato for Wednesday. We will explore Fabrica de Aurora on Thursday.  We have many places we want to see in this very short time.  We will post again on Friday.

A four-footed view a life in Mazatlan

Hola from Oliver Twist Whitaker better known as Ollie. I have four legs, two buterfly ears and weigh 6 1/2 pounds or 3 kgs. I am seven years old and have owned the Whitakers for 4 1/2 years. I now live most of my life in Mazatlan. I am relatively quiet except when people come to the door.  The only way I have to alert my owners is to let out a few barks until they come to the door.  My hearing is better then theirs for sure.

Life is good most of the time, but there are times when life could be better. In February my mom, Janice left me in Joel's care and went to Washington State. She didn't tell me that Canaval would be happening. This is a event where two legged beings drink too much cerveza (beer) and make loud noises. Some of the loud noises appear at the same time that the sky lights up. When this happens the only sane thing to do is hide under the bed until it is over. This hurts my ears and I just can't figure out why people think this is fun. The other major noise source is when a group of two legged beings get up on a stage and blow on horns, pluck on strings and yell into electronic voice enhancers. When this happens Joel allows me to sleep on the bed beside him until early morning when the nose stops and I can go safely to my bed. This went on for six straight nights. The Carnaval parades also are puzzling to me. Huges platforms with very nice girls and larger than life annimals pass by. I can only see them if Joel holds me up. The nice girls sometimes throw things to the crowd. It turned out to be candy and not one dog biscuit was thrown. Talk about a dissapointment. Carnaval is now close to a year away. Too soon for me. 

Another issue is there are no grass covered parks or playgrounds in Centro Mazatlan. My fastivious sensibilties are tested when I am walked on pavement. Eventually I must do my business on plain concrete. On the plus side, the streets have hundreds of scents to tantalize my nose. Also, there are many other dogs, many that allow me to indroduce myself by allowing me to sniff their backsides and also sniff mine.

I am a facination here in Mazatlan. People confuse me with a long hair Chiuaua. What gives, are they blind, can't they tell I'm a Papillon?  ...and to make matters worse, they call me a girl. "oh isn't she beautiful, oh she is so darling??? Hello.....I am a male, and all male.  I've got puppies all over to prove it. Of course that was the first 2 1/2 years of my life.  There are many Mexican and gringo ladies that love to pick me up and scratch my ears and my tummy. They just make a fuss over me. I must be in a thousand pictures with people. Being famous is okay, but, hey, a treat with each pose would be welcomed.

Life is great in Mazatlan, but it is important that my people remember to give me my monthly pill that keeps ticks and fleas off and keep stuff from growing inside of me. Both Joel and Janice usually are willing servants and I have extended them for another year. La vida es buena, woof!