The last few days in GTO….

Even though I had ‘La Grippa’ I had an amazing last few days in Guanajuato…I visited 2 silver mines, another nearby city Dolores Hildago, where I feasted on avocado ice cream, saw traditional folkloric dance and spent lots of time walking around the city (eating pastries, drinking liquid chocolate and fresh mango juices) wanting to remember this magical place….that I will definitely come back to.

How cute mining humor…

Check out the guys cleaning the top.

One of my favorite folkloric dances (others were quite fun, a mix between country line dancing and salsa with a hint of big band music)


Scenes from around GTO



My favorite café

Under the city was a crazy system of streets for the cars (on top mostly pedestrian walkways) but these ramparts make you think you are driving underneath a fortress - take that Big Dig!

The pictures of my house didn’t come out because it was a little too dark, but this is the garden of the house I lived in (and it had a hammock where I attempted studying but only ever accomplished a siesta
)

And my absolute favorite thing about GTO ws turning evry corner and finidng live music, usually a whole band. But this has got to bee one of the coolest traditions…’estudiantinas’ (I think its like a frat, but most nights they play music in traditional costumes, sing funny songs, tell funny stories and then sometimes they start walking through the city singing in different alley ways, acting out the story of the Callaholn de Besos, here’s a clip….enjoy

It was also hard to say goodbye to my family, even though it had only been a month, they were pretty incredible and totally welcomed me fully into their family. They all made me promise, I would return soon and my host mother showered me with gifts including some of her prize recipes....YUM

Dia de Los Fleurs

This is the best holiday EVER! Today is Dia de las Flores, it starts Thursday night, the streets are filled and I mean FILLED with fresh flowers! People with tons of handmade, traditional toys for children line the streets everything from handmade sheeps, frogs, cows, mice every animal you can imagine to witches, princesses, angels, to huge paper flowers in every color you could ever imagine. Most popular are the brightly colored eggs filled with confetti that kids crack open over each others heads.

Then people stay up all night dancing, I’m not kidding you (I unfortunately have caught La Grippa - a cold so no partying for me, which has involved alot of odd things my host mother is making me take, gargle and sniff but thats another story) than at 6am everyone goes to the main garden and men walk in one direction women in the other. If a guy thinks you’re pretty he hands you a flower and you are suppose to exchange kiss on the cheek. (I did get a few flowers, my favorite, a yellow carnation from a 4-yr old boy but no kisses - I guess they could tell I had l had Grippa!). All the shops give out ice cream, fresh juices, pastries, cookies, and other tasty treats. And everywhere theaters, churches, houses are covered in flowers it’s a holiday specific solely to GTO.

Besides this holiday the city is in the middle of their 2 week book and culture fair. For 2 weeks there are free movies on the steps of the university, book fairs, lectures, dances tons of music and more. GTO seems to have a lot of holidays and festivals, there is a 2 week literature festival in October as well. Just on a normal every day non-festival basis, every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday are live music in the park, the symphony plays every Friday here and groups of young men are frequently dressed up playing traditional instruments walking through the city. And then you got countless mimes

Climbing La Bufa

GTO is surrounded by mountains and last weekend I managed to hike the highest one, La Bufa. A fantastic view from the top and really interesting rock formations - and of course some altars along the way…(i'll post te video of the 360 view later)

Familia

I was definitely a little worried about going from living solo to living with a family again. But when I overslept today (this is the 2nd time this has happened) and was awoken by my host mother 20 minutes before class started (mom, dad, sound familiar?) with coffee waiting for me, I realized it hadn’t taken long to regress. But when I came home and saw my bed made, room cleaned, and then amazing lunch of cream of spinach soup, stewed chicken in tomatillo sauce, fried plaintains, fresh jicama and cucumbers, frijoles, tortillas, all topped off with homemade strawberry ice cream, I realized maybe its not so bad living with parents after all. In fact I think I’m getting used to this;)

Mummies!!!

So Guanajuato is famous for their mummies, but these aren't mummies in the traditional sense...Apparently because of the high altitude, dry air, and all the minerals (tons of silver and gold in the soil) as well as salts in the dirt, bodies that are buried in the ground naturally mummify. It started 200 or 300 years ago, for some reason they were digging up bodies, but when people realized that the corpses hadn't decomposed it became something of a phenomemnon. At first they started putting them on to view in secret and up until recently you would go into the 'musueum' with a candle and view all the mummies just chilling there. Now the mummies are in a nice museum, behind glass, and temperature controlled. While it was a little creepy as they had some mummies there from 1985 (it takes only 5 years for a corpse to mummify here) it was interesting because the skin, hair, socks , shoes and some clothes remianed eerily in tact.

They still put bodies in here if your family doesn't pay taxes/fees on the burial plot, hence this is why my host mother has decided to be buried in a town 5 hours away. They even had mummies of people that had drowned (skin was stil bluish), buried alive, and stab wounds (skin was stained). Even though it was creepy, it was also pretty fascinating...

Mexican Gyms

Those of you who have heard my (and Jessa’s) many tales of woe from working out at 24 Hour Fitness can now take heart that I was well prepared for the Mexican gym experience. Some of you may even be wondering why I am bothering, but due to the lack of running and sheer amount of food my host mother makes I decided I might as well make a futile effort.

I arrive at the gym that is entitled ‘Underfit’ and notice just like 24 Hour in SF guys are lifting in jeans and muscle t-shrits … I attend a Pilates class (which was interesting, I don’t know how else to describe it) but instead of 8 peaceful repetitions we did 20 of everything, super fast to some slow awful music and then another round. But this was not before I happened to notice the women’s aerobics class which was blaring J.Lo songs combined with Britney Spears dance moves and a bit of salsa….now that sounds like my kind of class!!

Update on the Mexican Gym Experience: after failing to explain my tight hamstrings in espanol I have decided instead to dedicate myself to salsa dance lessons for exercise…watch out Dancing with the Stars….;)

Lions, Tigers, and SCORPIONS - Oh My!!!!

So every night I've been going to sleep to the sounds of what I thought were crickets...I just found out however that they're not crickets - they're SCORPIONS!!!! I was assured that the ones here are not the poisonous ones however they still hurt when they bite. I think I'll start wearing my shoes in the house from now on. I knew this place was too good to be true....

Banda Music!

So a wave has swept the country of Banda music! My house brother and I went to check it out last night. Its kind of a throwback to big bands i.e. 16 musicians. They go around playing in nightclubs instead of Djs. And they wear some loud outfits.

So we went to this bar, complete with girls decked out in stilettos, guys dressed very suave, buckets of beer and tequila shots complete with disco ball and smoke machine and next thing we know a 16 piece band with 2 singers start belting out songs and everyone is dancing up a storm, including people doing aerials and very complicated spins, turns, and dips. They definitely played some common songs, because everyone seems to know the words. And to top it off a Mexican TV station showed up to capture the phenomenon and yours truly made it on (as I was only 1 of 2 gringos in the bar so I guess that was newsworthy).

A Little About the Town

As I walked very slowly huffing and puffing, I was dismayed at how quickly I had gotten out of shape, until I found out that the elevation here is almost 7,000 feet! No wonder I’m out of breath! Not sure if I’ll be running here anytime soon. Although maybe I could give those Kenyans who train in Tahoe a run for their money! Back to GTO (as locals affectionately refer to it as)…

Guanajuato is a world heritage site and is popular with Mexican tourists but not gringos. There are a zillion museums, plazas everywhere you look, something like 33 churches and many cobblestone streets and alleys. GTO was a silver mining town during colonial times and seems very European. Some cool sites:

Jardin de Union - is beautiful garden right in the middle of town and almost every night they have music on Sunday the local symphony and marching band played. Most nights its traditional music and the park is FILLED with people dancing and listening. If you look at the video its that funny triangle garden.

El Pipila - a huge statue that overlooks the city is in honor of a miner who was critical in the first war of independence.

Just wandering around I’ve counted 3 theaters and street performers including mimes, mariachis, and musicians are everywhere.

La Universidad - was a Jesuit University started in 1732.

Besos! (kisses!) Many of the side streets are narrow with steps, the most famous is the most narrow - the balconies are so close that if you are one you could easily reach across (or kiss someone) the alley to the other one . legend has it that a very wealthy family with a daughter lived in one and in the other a poor miner. They used to meet on the their respective balconies and kiss. Long story short (and similar to Romeo & Juliet) the father of the girl finds out and eventually kills her. Now rumor has it that if you go past the 3rd step without kissing someone you will have 7 years of bad luck! They are very superstitious here, so I’m not going to tempt fate and I Haven’t gone past the 3rd step.

Video: Views from Above

Views from the top! I wrote a whole post about this excursion, however I can´t open the file right now, so I will post later ;)

Pipula - the statue that overlooks the city and keeps it safe!

The walk to school

Photos

Iglesia de San Francisco (literally right outside my door!)

Alguna Casas

Lentil Soup with Bananas?

Aside from 'Maggie' confusion, my host mother is fantastic and she is an amazing cook, everything from scratch including yogurt! And she has decided I’m too skinny. Breakfast is at 8, This morning she made me a HUGE bowl of fresh fruit (papya, guava, mango, banana), oatmeal, yogurt, homemade granola, and I had to beg her not to make me eat huevos y tortillas.

Everyday lunch is at 3 and is always different, yesterday we had chilie rellenos, mountains of perfectly cooked carne with onions and peppers, friend plantains, frigjoles, tortillas, topped off with apples covered in chili powder or jelly beans! (the jelly beans are an odd touch, I don’t quite get it). Today she made this amazing lentil soup, spicy, flavorful and then put bananas in it! It seemed odd but once I tried it, it was surpassingly good the spicyness with the sweet.

At lunch there is also always tons of people, cousins, kids, in-laws, grandkids and they are all very patient with my terrible Spanish asking lots of questions. I tend to have a bit of food coma afterward and they always ask why I am sleepy.

Supper is a smaller meal at 8pm and comes complete with cinnamon tea! It usually consists of enchiladas or something like a Cuban sandwich and frutas!! Only problemo es no veduras frescas! i.e. no leafy greens for me! Which all of you know could quite possibly spell certain death for me, but I did some investigation and found 2 restaurants that serve salad. I’ll be hitting them up for a mid-morning snack!

I promise to post info on the town soon ;)

No, me llama es Marguerita!

My host family keeps calling me Maggie, and I kept ignoring them, not intentionally but I just don’t respond when I heard that name. When I introduced myself to family friends as Marguerita, my host mother quickly corrects me and says ‘No es Maggie‘. Who’s Maggie?! I come to find out a few weeks ago and awful woman named Peggy arrived and told everyone she was Marguerita! She turned out to be so awful, the school called the family to tell her they were kicking her out after lss than 2 weeks, because no one could teach her! I’ve already heard some rumors around the house of her incredibly poor behavior, ordering around the family to serve her on their daughter‘s wedding day, wash her dishes, and even criticizing the host mother’s cooking and accent…hmmm maybe I can reclaim my real name!

Video: Teatro Juarez

The basilica of Guanajuato

Universidad de Guanajuato - I think the Law School is housed here.