August 7th and 8th
Aug 7th and 8th
So, we saw an American woman sitting in the square at her laptop and she told us that, yes there is WIFI in the area. We found the reception to be pretty poor and she told us that the signal was stronger in the cafe across the street. We needed a snack, anyway, and we got a table. Chips and refried beans were in order as I uploaded the pictures and text.
Since we’ve gotten into the habit of coming home for a large lunch (already), we decided to go find the market again. We initially went the wrong direction because we mixed ourselves up. I though we were going to the market and Rebecca thought we were going to a pastry shop. I was following her and she was following me, both of us going the wrong direction. We did an about-face after a few blocks, realizing that both things were in basically the same place. We got to the market and bought some more avocados (dos para ahoy, y dos para mañana) for the fantastic homemade guacamole that Rebecca and Allie have been making. On the way to the pastry shop, we stumbled onto a place that does nothing but rotisseries chickens. In fact, there was nothing in there besides the grilling apparatus and a chopping block. It smelled so good that we couldn’t pass it up (and a whole chicken was only something like 4 or 5 USD). We bought pastries and went home and consumed even more of those tortillas that we bought the day before (we’re barely putting a dent in them and we’ve been eating them at every meal we cook). The chicken was tender, savory, juicy, and seasoned in a unique way (I need to make it a point to find a place that makes it that way in the US). I’m finding that one of the most immediately noticeable positive features of SMdAllende is how consistently good the food is. That and the weather. And the environment. And…well, really this whole place is unreal.
We’re going to relax this evening since we’re tired from schlepping the computer and groceries all over town. We might talk to Kate about were Allie can find long term lodging. We’re thinking of staying out later and checking out some nightlife. We’re also thirsty for margaritas, of which we’ve had none since arriving. And that is a sin.
Well, so much for relaxing. Allie and I wound up going to talk to this fellow about renting one of his apartments. The place is right around the corner from where we’re staying and we noticed the sign earlier. I was so anxious and focused about interpreting his spanish that I completely forgot his name. It was quite an adventure and Allie managed to navigate the encounter very well. She was able to ask him questions about rent, utilities, whether or not we can start renting in October, and whether or not we can pain the interior (it looked a little unkept). I however, was forced to make sense of it based entirely on his gesticulation and my very limited vocabulary. He was very friendly and the apartment seemed like it could be really nice after a coat of paint, and some personal decoration. The kitchen is really really tiny (Allie thinks it’s cute and, I guess if you’re only the ever person cooking, it would be). It’s a single bedroom which has these beautiful double doors to the living room area. The bathroom is tiled and nice, also (no tub, just a shower stall). The living room is a corner room and two whole walls are windows. It also has a fireplace. Like many places here in SMdAllende, the apartment is in a courtyard complex. There’s a beautiful patio with a fountain and a large public stove, table, and chairs for cookouts. The view from the patio (the complex being on a mountainside, and all) is spectacular. I’d guess there are four or five units in the complex, total. At any rate, this wouldn’t be a bad place for one person to live and, like most things here, we were astounded by how little it cost. Only $350 USD per month. Monday, we’ll take a trip down to the Instituto area. We’ve heard that there’s a lot of housing geared towards the college students there. I think if we move quickly, we can find Allie a good place to stay. Unfortunately, it looks as though we’re in the difficult position of having to pay for the remainder of August and all of September if we want to have the place available in October.
For dinner, we discovered some strange, classy, spanish-creole/New Orleans restaurant. Before we ordered, they handed us shot glasses of the margaritas they make there. While we had no intentions of spending the evening getting drunk there, they certainly put us in the mood for more.
After dinner, we went to a bar we passed on the way downtown that had a roof-top terrace. We spent a couple hours sitting there drinking some fantastically strong margaritas. (In the states, you get them in those oversized glasses, presumably because they’re really watered down. Here, in Mexico (where the tequila comes from), they give you a small tumbler full. They are really really strong. We each managed two of them.
Sitting on the terrace, we were overlooking the central square and cathedral, watching lightening strike over the distant mountains.
We made it home just fine. It was our first excursion into SMdeAllende after dark and it was quite pleasant. Although most people we asked said that there wasn’t any sort of convenience store open that late (that late being about 10pm), our neighborhood store that we passed every day, miraculously, was in fact open. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to stumbling down the hill first thing in the morning to buy cigarettes and they came through with the save.
Every morning, at about 8-830am, we’ve been hearing very loud explosions. They sound like either a building a few blocks away is being bombed or someone is firing a shotgun in the living room. Well, it turns out that they’re the daily fireworks celebration. They’ve been a vicious and startling alarm clock and they’ve never really lasted long enough for us to actually witness them. I found out that they’re in celebration of saint’s birthdays and they’re supposed to ward of evil spirits or something like that. It’s comforting to know the innocuous origins of the daily morning explosions because the first time I heard them, I was sure that the police were shooting someone or that Zapatistas were invading. So, 8am, not a bad time to wake up, right? Especially when you’re in an exciting foreign country and you’ve got lots of fun stuff to do that day. Well, this morning, they started at about 4am. They’d set off the fireworks and it took just long enough to set up the next batch that I was almost able to drift back to sleep. Then they’d set off more. I thought, “They can’t possibly go on forever.” But I was wrong. Rebecca (who was just as awake as I was), and I went up to the roof to see if we could watch them but as soon we got up there, of course, they stopped. So, we hung out and looked at how beautiful the town is at 530am and went back inside. We both joked that as soon as we laid back down, they’d start back up again. I can’t tell you how much I hate being right sometimes. So, I got back up, not wanting to lay around and be frustrated until they stopped, and watched some rednecks in orange vests hunt deer on TV. I got to sleep at about 7am. Today, we’re on a mission to find Allie an apartment. While the first place that we looked at would certainly be adequate (although a bit of a fixer-upper), it’s always good to have options. I expect that we’ll be heading back to that cafe to upload this post, check our mail, etc and then going to the Instituto area from there. We’d like to get this out of the way early in our trip so we’re not rushing it at the end, panicking about our arrangements slipping through the cracks…