Surprises, Sunshine and San Miguel

This has been my best weekend yet. Friday night the girls and I met up to walk through Mercado Hidalgo- Guanajuato's equivalent of Pike's Market (without the fish or the view). I love these markets though, there is so much to see, it's like mind candy.

After that, we decided to just go wander around for a bit, and ended up in a plaza- singing and dancing along to a "Tuna"- a traditional band, with a whole grandstand full of high school students doing the same. These bands are always out, every night- and the people of Guanajuato LOVE them! I still can't get over how real they are- I'm used to seeing them in Spain, where they're basically just a distraction for the tourists. (Sorry for the bad pic, I couldn't find anything to set my camera on... and the white balance was off...)


When the "concert" finished, we heard some other music coming from around the corner, so we followed our ears... and what did we find? A plaza full of elderly people- salsa dancing! (see the video below!) There was a big crowd around them, and those grandmas and grandpas we're shaking it like they were 15. The plaza was surrounded by restaurants outdoor cafés, so we sat, ate, and watched. By this time I was in such a good mood from all of the wonderful adventures we had stumbled on that evening, I wasn't even annoyed by our openly wasted server who wanted us to call him "El Gato" and strongly reccommended the margaritas while giggling like a school girl.



The event that marked the reality of the night was my dinner order: lesson- don't order nachos in Mexico. I know, I know- why would anyone ever do that? Well... I don't know, but if you do- they come with burnt slices of Kraft singles as the cheese of choice. Bon apetit!

After dinner, we decided to keep walking around a bit, and we nocticed this place called Zilch that was going to be having a jazz concert. It was great- just like being back at Jazz Alley, and even better because it was so unexpected.


The compilation of adventures of this past Friday night is going down as not only one of my favorite memories of my trip so far, but one of my favorite travelling memories ever. I loved it loved it loved it.

After such a great evening I would have expected a little less from my day yesterday, but it just kept going up. We went to Balneario Escondido (thermal hot springs) and to the town of San Miguel de Allende. San Miguel is another colonial town, but it has been overrun by American ex-pat retirees. I swear there were more 60-something Americans there than Mexicans. Despite that, both of these places superceded my expectations, although the quaintness of the market in San Miguel severely altered my impression of the market here in Guanajuato. :( We didn't have much time to spend in San Miguel, though- so hopefully if I get some visitors I can make a return trip.



The other ironic thing- San Miguel is known for being "expensive". What they really mean is, you might have to spend more than $3 USD to get yourself a very satisfying meal. Example: Yesterday I about made a scene because my lunch of 3 overflowing chicken tostadas and fresh squeezed lemon juice cost me $90MEP (=$7USD) and the beautiful, hadmade beaded bracelet that I bought in the market cost about that much too. It's really hard to remember that at the end of the day that's only $14USD. All I kept thinking was "do you know what I could by for $90 pesos!!!"

This weekend has completely washed away what little interest I had in travelling to Europe. (Not that I wouldn't say yes if I was invited...) You heard it here first people- Latin America is the new Europe. It's everything that Europe used to be: charming, inexpensive and authentic.