One minute we were just arriving in San Miguel and the weeks spanned out ahead of us. Yet, suddenly in the blink of an eye it is the day before we leave and we find ourselves preparing to spend some quality time with Big Bird again. He’s probably been feeling a little deprived as he’s had to weather a ‘freak’ week of heavy rain, wind, thunder, lightning and hail. Apparently, San Miguel (on average) gets less than 0.1 inch of rain in the month of January, however we saw inner city streams turn into overflowing rivers that any extreme white water rafter would be proud to ride down. In spite of the uncanny weather, we have had many clear blue days and by mid afternoon the cockles of our hearts are all warmed up and toasty. Readers will be pleased to learn though that Big Bird won’t be glum for long as we have adorned him with a new mascot that has come all the way from Australia. It was a birthday present from Tessa, one of my lovely nieces who selflessly gave up a My Little Pony’s from her own collection as we sadly lost Chelsea Lee (our first pony) up in Canada. We are still waiting to find out if this cute little pony has a name. If not, we may be open to suggestions…… In addition, we received four new tires from Schwalbe (Marathon XR) that they kindly donated to us through the help of Forza Motor Sport in Guadalajara. We are keen to try them out and looking forward to our tires lasting a tad longer and not getting so many punctures.
San Miguel is a UNICCO World Heritage Site cause it’s pretty darn old and very picturesque. So much so that many people (mainly American and Canadians) have made their home here. The streets are lined with cobble stones and the houses painted in differing shades of reds and yellows. As with all Mexican towns, the centre has a beautiful plaza with a Cathedral towering above and that can be seen from all around the town. There is a great temporary Tuesday market here called Tiangis (does that word sound dirty to anyone else?) has bargain buys on almost anything you can think of i.e. even chicken’s feet if you’re in the mood! Also, there are heaps of social events going on almost every day. We attended a Chile Cook-off where we could try 35 different chile’s and vote for our favourite one. It also had cultural performances from young girls with excellent show-horse skills and blokes doing lasso tricks. We’ve also attended a couple of Art Gallery openings where in our travel clothes we sipped on glasses of wine, eat delicious nibbles and ooo’ed and ah’ed over sculptures and paintings. The library here is also very cool. It has a central courtyard, a café, entertainment and of course books! This was a great place to play crib and bump into people that we had met through Ellen and Spanish class. We also did a couple of day trips to the country where there are small villages. Pozos is an old mining ghost town that has funky art galleries and stores that sell pre-hispanic musical instrument and Antonilco is another UNICCO World Heritage site that has a Church there too which holds traditional retreats and processions.
We attended a bull fight, with the stands full of both Mexicans and ‘Gringos’. I particularly had a hard time with it and found myself sitting behind a brick pillar and studying the fine brick-laying work intently. Roland was brave enough to watch and awkwardly took a few snaps, as it seemed inappropriate to be recording on camera the slow death of the bull. We were both a little naïve on arriving at the fight as we didn’t really think about how visually gruesome it would be. It was hard seeing spears sticking out of the bulls with blood streaming down their sides, knowing they have no chance of getting out of that rink alive. However, we did find the lead-up to the fight very entertaining with the flowers being prepared, the showmanship of the Matador and his assistants and even the vendors selling various knick-knacks in the stands. I guess we can say it was a cultural experience but for us that will be the first and last time attending a bull fight. Please note, these are our personal views on bull fighting and totally understand it is important to Mexican culture and it is not our intention of offending anyone that enjoys the experience.
I have been finding myself particularly domesticated; enthusiastically washing dishes, making our bed, and showering (almost daily) and savouring every minute. Isn’t it strange that simple and often mundane tasks can be pleasurable when one doesn’t have a fixed abode? We have both been making the most of Ellen’s large kitchen and utensils, while our trusty old camping pot and two spoons take a rest. We made many meals, including last night when Roland cooked (his best yet) lasagna with spinach and ricotta cheese. All those who have tried my chocolate mousse will be pleased to know it tastes just as good in Mexico as it does in New Zealand. We’ve also been watching tons of movies, even some golden oldies like ‘Around the World in 80 days’ and ‘Gigi’ and doing a spot of Pilates from a 50 cent video we picked up at a garage sale we helped out at for the local rest home.
Our minds have been thoroughly sharpened through playing several games of Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble and Balderdash with Ellen and her very knowledgeable friends. Our main focus since we’ve been here has been learning some basic Spanish. On advice, we attended Warren Hardy’s school that was perfectly orchestrated to give us a foundation level of language. After eight lessons and at least 24 hours of homework we’ve learnt functional Spanish where we can articulate what we want and need. We hope to study further (i.e. learning the Past Tense) maybe somewhere in Nicaragua? We were introduced to a terrific routine that one of our class mates (Brendan) devised and kindly invited us to partake. After class, we’d head to this great Huarache stand (huaraches are fried tortillas in an oval shape and topped with meat, vege’s, cheese and salsa and they are oh so good!) and chow down for 20 pesos (about $2NZ). Then we’d trek to a stall which sells wonder fresh ice-cream and all agree the world is a good place.
Another highlight of our time here in San Miguel was meeting two fellow cyclists (Manu and Phil at http://www.radausflug.org ). They too had started in Alaska and are destined for Argentina. They hung about here for an extra few days due to the heavy rain which meant we could get to know them a bit. They are from Austria and plan to go up the Yucatan Peninsula, into Belize and then onto Guatemala, which is our route too! We hope to catch up to them and cycle through some of the Central American countries together which will be great.
Ellen (our host who we found through SERVAS) has been incredibly generous with allowing two rough-looking cyclists stay for the whole duration of our stay. The combination of Ellen’s easy going personality, her broad social network, her spacious home, beautiful views from the roof and close proximity to downtown the perfect place to relax and stay entertained. Thank you so very much!
Until next time folks……..