Bound for the mainland

These first few pictures I had to include because they are pretty cool. The first two are of beautiful moonrises we had in Mulege. The first one I took while Nate and Matthew were on a night dive at Punta Prieta, and I stayed surface side to provide support. The second one we took from the upper deck of Pancho Villa's; you can see the moon rising behind the lighthouse. (I should mention that I couldn't quite get the picture to turn, but relied on Matthew to use his superior photography skills to capture this image... and I haven't yet found a computer with Photoshop to take out the telephone line in the foreground). The third picture is a drawing that Emilia's brother, Isaac, made for me. In it, he chronicles the epic day of fishing that Roan, Jens and I had. He drew every animal that we saw on that day: a family of Dorado, a Sailfish, a Marlin, a Whale, some Dolphin, a Turtle, and that thing that looks like a devilish sperm is meant to be a Manta Ray... he also threw in a starfish for good measure. For a young kid, he is a very good artist. Also, remember that you can click on each picture too see a larger version.

Although I was originally planning on leaving on Monday, Emilia cajoled me into staying until Wednesday, which was my birthday. Although I'm not usually one to enjoy celebrating my birthday, especially in my advancing years, I was sort of relieved not to have to spend it on a bus, a plane and then another bus (as was my original plan). The Buckovecs/Villavicencio family (the owner's of Pancho Villa's Restaurant) were sort of like a second family for me when I was living in Mulege during the winter. The matron of the family, Yolanda, made me an awesome birthday dinner of beef arrachera (a tasty sauce mostly made of chiles) and mashed potatoes (yum!). To top it off, Emilia's sister Lucy made me a pinapple pie to take with me. She is an awesome baker and this unusual pie was no exception (though it was a bit burdensome to travel with, without reducing it to pineapple crumble). Late that night I took the night bus to La Paz, and then caught the early flight to Queretaro, where I would take my final bus to Guanajuato

Guanajuato is where I am enrolled in a Spanish study program for a few weeks. As I was flying into Queretaro, I noticed that the airport was well outside of town. When I landed, I was determined not to take a taxi from the airport to the bus station, as taxis in Mexico tend to be very expensive. I was disappointed not to find a generic bus or collectivo service from the airport to the city. Not to be discouraged, I discovered that there was a public bus stop a 15 minute walk from the airport. I was assured every bus that would stop could take me to the Queretaro town center. After waiting for over an hour, two buses had passed, and neither was going anywhere near Queretaro. Since it was pretty hot, I decided I was getting on the next bus no matter what. So I did, and therefore had a better chance to chat with the bus driver to figure out how to get into town. It wasn't that hard really, but certainly not intuitive. He dropped me off at a small town about five minutes away where buses run to Queretaro every ten minutes. It only took me two hours, but I made it downtown, and saved probably a whopping 5 bucks in the process. But that's travel, huh?

That evening I rolled into Guanajuato, and was immediately enchanted by the small town nestled in a valley of rolling mountains. The town is all winding cobblestone streets curving sharply up or down around the next hill. There isn't a straight road in the entire city. The town, which was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988, is a testament to the wealth this region produced during the 18th century when this region of Mexico was one of the largest producers of silver in the world. In fact at one time the Valencia mine here in Guanajuato produced 20% of the silver mined in this hemisphere. The history of wealth is evident in the beautifully maintained colonial buildings, and the baroque and churrigueresque (sp?) churches, and many parks. The parks are gorgeous, green and lush and filled with people strolling by or just enjoying the cool mountain weather.
The music of crooning mariachi bands fills the Jardin de la Union, where musicians court the patrons at the park's outdoor cafes and restaurants. There are so many people out and about each evening, which I think is partly due to the fact that Guanajuato is a popular tourist destination (if only a small one), but also due to the fact that it´s a university town which is home to about 20,000 students (a sizeable portion of the 80,000 or so who call Guanajuato home).