Hi there! We have been in Guanajuato for two months now, and been busier than we could have imagined on most days, between exploring the town (on foot), and Spanish classes and meeting people, I haven’t had much time to write. Today we returned from a walk to the little tiendas nearby, one for fruit and vegies, one for tortillas, and one for some newspapers to help start a fire in the fireplace. It has been rather cool and rainy lately, more days than not for the past two weeks, as the rainy season has begun. The tortillas are for tacos we are making tonight, and were freshly made and warm. A half-kilo (1 lb) cost 6 pesos, or about 3-4 cents U.S. For a pound! We actually spent 14 pesos and got a cup full of their homemade salsa to go with our tacos; so a whopping 9 cents. We are continually amazed by the prices here in the central part of Mexico, not so in the coastal resort towns.

We have also found ourselves adapting to the local hours of comida; hours of eating. Breakfast is usually light and before our Spanish classes (10-1:00). Then we walk around a little in town, run errands, and find a place for our main meal of the day (Comida). That is often eaten between 2-4pm and is usually large, including a soup or salad, main plate, and a light dessert. Ron and I have found that we can still easily split this meal, which is often under $9-10 dollars US. Then we have a lighter dinner at around 7 or 8, if we eat at all at night. The other night we picked up two small chicken tacos, and two small cheese enchiladas from a neighbor who sets up a stand outside her door on the weekend evenings. They were snack size for dinner and cost us a total of 20 pesos (they were actually 15, but I tipped her 5 pesos), which comes to $1.30 US. That was our dinner!

The Spanish school has been great here. Escuela Mexicana, is in an old colonial building in the historic area of Guanajuato. We get to choose our class schedule and they are quite good at placing you in the right level for your skills. They also plan at least three additional classes outside the school each week, expanding our cultural knowledge and experience. One day we went to a coffee shop, ordered our drinks and played a board game, all in español. We have also taken cooking classes at the school, one day making chili relleños, another Pozole Verde soup. Both were delicioso and we have made the pozole on our own. I had never eaten it until we shared a meal after the class. We also took an all-day Saturday trip to a prehispanic Mesoamerican archaeological site by the name of Peralta, which was fascinating, as well as visiting a tequila fabrica (factory). The site was settled around 100 A.D., and still contains 2-3 pyramids. The tequila factory was the Tequilera Corralejo factory. It is actually an old hacienda and the birthplace of Father Miguel Hidalgo, the main leader in the Spanish Revolution against Spain in 1810. The grounds and buildings were beautifully restored with colorful old tiles, and lots of trees and flowering shrubs on the property. The owner of the tequila hacienda is a collector of EVERYTHING, including antique typewriters, sewing machines, movie posters, radios, wines and liqueurs, canned drink and juice cans from around the world. That in itself was worth the visit. I have included photos of this fascinating day. You will see that old bottles were used in the walls and ceilings to make patterns and allow natural light to flow into the interior spaces. That is one thing I so appreciate about Mexico: the appreciation, attention, and creativity put into most buildings, casas, sidewalks, pathways, and stone walls. We have been told by many people that the masons are given permission to use their own creativity in their work, so that each “piece,” house, etc., becomes a work of art. They even give out free paint to the owners of buildings or houses in the Historic Centro areas of Guanajuato, so that they will continue the theme of colorful houses that attract the tourists.

One of the best parts of that day is that a student didn’t show up even though he had signed up and paid, so the “chofer” (driver) had only Ron and me in his car. As we were driving through town he pulled over and picked up a woman and young girl (13 yr-old). He didn’t say anything about it, and we were both silently wondering what the deal was, but he finally said that we were dropping off the young girl at her gymnasium (again, all in Spanish), and that she was his daughter. His wife stayed in the car and we finally communicated enough to understand that she was going with us on the tour. This is one of those things that would NEVER happen in the U.S. She had never seen these ruins and wanted to go, and it turns out the driver, Hector, had never been there either, even though he indicated he had. (See # 3 in Lessons Learned). We really enjoyed the two of them and stopped for lunch at a buffet restaurant, buying their lunch and ours for approximately $5.50 U.S., and this was a huge buffet! Anyway, Hector and Patricia have become friends of ours and we have shared other meals with them since, having them and their daughter, Amber, a budding gymnast and veterinarian, to dinner at our place. Hector speaks some English – probably more than he lets on, but encourages us to speak Spanish, “NO! Tell me in Spanish!” His wife and daughter really don’t speak English at all, but we all get along well. We seem to run into them in town all the time, greeting each other with hugs and cheek kisses, the norm here in Mexico. We have also met a group of expats, sharing a dinner or lunch here and there, and look forward to meeting more people in general.

I think I mentioned the callejónes (steeply slanted alley/stairway) that we walk to get into down. I counted one day, and there are 300 steps down AND UP, not including 10 - 12 ramps with at least a 30% slant. We have both lost weight, just from walking around this town, and feel our legs getting stronger every day. We don’t climb back up the steps every day, as they start getting to my new knee, and the other one from trying to compensate, and the taxi is only 40-45 pesos ($2.50 – 2.90). We have really fallen in love with this town, especially now, after finding a genuine French bakery, health food stores, a lavanderia which will wash, dry and fold our clothes for less than $7.00, and a tailor, who is also very reasonable.

Lessons Learned:
Never leave the wheelbarrow on the callejóne parallel to the slope with anything heavy in it. Ron picked up two 5-gallon bottles of water (used for drinking as the municipal water is not potable/drinkable). He parked the wheelbarrow outside our gate, and picked up one jug to bring in. At that moment the wheelbarrow tipped over, the other 5-gallon jug rolled out and began its cavorting, bouncing, rolling and bumping journey down the callejone, like a giant bowling ball, searching out people-sized pins to knock down and children to flatten. Ron tossed the other jug to me, and took off after the bowling ball jug. Three little viceno (neighbor) girls and boys burst out in laughter and giggles to see the gringo spectacle. Luckily no one was hit, and the jug finally bounced up against a stone wall and busted, water gushing out until it was depleted. Ron came back up the alley with his head down, and cursing slightly. I glanced over at the children with their wide brown eyes and I said, “muy divertida, sí?” (Very funny, yes?) but they just stared at me, knowing that he was not happy. I tried to get them to smile, but I think they knew better than to do that. They are really adorable kids, who find great fun playing with a plastic bowl, and plastic step turned upside down on their heads, which they use as the bull in their games of chase. These kids have nothing, but their parents are very loving with them, very attentive, and braid their beautiful thick black hair in the most intricate patterns imaginable. They are always smiling… except when the gringos are upset.

Ask when you rent an Airbnb or a VRBO whether they have a door on the bathroom, or water features inside the house when it rains, at least here in Mexico. I actually think the house we rented is not the norm, but no, we don’t have a door, we have a curtain across the bathroom doorway, making for little privacy, particularly when we have company. And the dining room develops 5-6 rainspouts during heavy rains, which we discovered happen daily in the rainy season here. We don’t mind the rains, but we do mind having to move the dining table out of the room every evening. However, I must say, the thunderstorms with their accompanying lightning have been spectacular. Not nearly as scary as when we are on the boat, with two big aluminum lightning rods (also called masts) sticking up in the air!

It is not uncommon for Mexicans to avoid telling you “negative” things. We had read this in a book by an American recently (a great book by the name of “This is Mexico: Tales of Culture and Other Complications,”) and we have since found this out on our own. It is not common for them to criticize each other or you, particularly if they are working for you or hold you in a position of authority in some way. When we asked the driver of our tour (to the ruins) whether he had been there before, he enthusiastically said, “Oh, sí!,” but when we actually found the place after he had to ask a few people on the streets for directions, he said he had never been there before. That is just one example of us experiencing this phenomenon. Sometimes we just get very vague responses. We are so used to being straight with others, I’m sure we seem a little confrontational or harsh at times. We are learning, and that is what this life is about, huh?

Relationships are relationships are relationships. There is less of a fine line between “business” relationships and friendships. Maybe this is more common in the smaller towns and cities, and not so in Mexico City; I don’t know. But I do know that asking about family, giving and receiving hugs from a doctor, or a teacher, and others is the norm. it is something that I used to hear from my Spanish-speaking colleagues, about therapy being a little different with people from Mexico, and other Latin-American and South American countries, and here (as in Mazatlán), I have experienced this on my own. You don’t just jump in immediately and address the business at hand, you get to know the person on a different level. And I really like that.

Well, I think that is it for now. The cats are continuing to enjoy their life “in the wilds” of the courtyard. Jackson climbed a tree for the first time in his life, then panicked as he had no idea how to get down. They have also become fond of butterflies, moths, and a hammock. We tossed them in it one day, and they seemed to enjoy it, and now we find then jumping up on it various time of the day, and hanging out there.

I hope to add another post soon, with another important event in our lives, but we are on hold about that right now. I will let you know!

Con mucho amor,
Vanessa Y Ron