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Monday, March 05, 2007

Saturday, March 03, 2007

This is the photograph of the church that should have gone with the journal entry about the very special 9am morning!!!!Sorry about that..

ay 3
A good sleep convinced me to re think my plans for today, so I booked another nights stay here and took off on the local bus for 3 pesos to down town Zacatecas, a very old Colonial town from the 15 hundreds and founded and prospered due to the mining of all metals especially silver. As my luck continues to hold, after getting off the bus, the first person I asked was able to direct me to the tour bus and what a day it proved to be. The tour had 12 tourists and Ricardo our guide who spoke better English than me!!!!!For 225 pesos about 23 dollars we had 4 hours of total culture, education, incredible views, just awesome!!!!! All the photos depict the scenes I saw, it started with the cable car ride at a height of over 1000 feet, there was this great old couple on the tour, she was 86 and he was 90 and he told me about this book called “ A 1000 things to do and see before you die” and in it listed as one thing to do is this cable care ride!!!!! Pancho Villa on the horse was involved in the history of this town. We then went down to the La Mina El Eden, I am sure there is a web site for this and it is worth checking out. Never seen anything like it and yes that is me in the hair net before I don the hard hat to go down the mine. The mine was over 7 stories deep and too intricate and incredible to describe but all done with hands and picks, I was just shocked and amazed. My Dad would have loved to have done this tour; especially the small train ride up the mine!!! The main cathedral is considered one of the best in the country and they had drummers and trumpets in the courtyard. I then took a local bus out to the small town of Guadalupe, where the centre for the Franciscan monks is situated, the paintings in this church are again considered to be the best in Mexico. It was very cool to be walking alone through this quiet monastry looking out into the high courtyeards and letting your imagination take you back to those days, the bows, the vows of silence, the humility… The intricate work in the building of these temples is out of this world and I tried to capture the old and the new in one picture with the jet stream. Came back to the hotel about 9 hours later, exhausted it is very high altitude here, but also thrilled and this town rates number 3 best day, they all seem to be best days. Hope everyone has a great weekend, couldn’t find Internet so these notes are done on word then copied and pasted (thanks Andy) so lots of reading when I am able to get them done..

Well day 2 had a little bit of everything, the morning was a continuation of mountain driving through twisty turns and small old time towns until I reached the outskirts of Guadalajara, the traffic here is a nightmare and I do find the signs very misleading but did manage to find the route where I started my northern journey. The first little while the roads were through high canyons and I passed by two separate accidents both on sharp bends (not surprising) both involving truck roll overs, the second one sent watermelons by the hundreds all over the road, was unable to stop anywhere to take photos. I then had my very first dealings with the boys of the military. I have driven through many check points in all the years I have been coming to Mexico but have never been pulled over to be searched until today. At the check point I was told to drive to a small sectioned off part where they blew a whistle and out came 5 very young soldiers each with machine guns, 2 came to the drivers side and the others to the passenger side and they made me open the doors and windows. They were speaking to me very fast and looking in my van and touching my stuff and of course I could not understand a word they were saying. In my imperfect Spanish I think I told them that I did not understand but they were welcome to search. It was obvious that I was this afternoon’s source of entertainment; I could just tell they were laughing and making fun of me between themselves. Then I understood they were asking me for food and money, I played real dumb and kept saying Buenos Diaz, even though I knew it was afternoon…this went on for a short while till I smiled and said I was a “mandilon” this is a word that a friend taught me which literally means in Spanish, “wimp or Momma’s boy” they thought this was so funny, it seemed to break the ice and they let me through. That was an interesting experience; I wasn’t really worried but certainly very guarded with them around my belongings. From here my day went sort of down hill and not literally, the ruins I had planned to visit had already closed by the time I got there and then the camp site I had planned to stay just did not look right and before I knew it I was in the big city of Zacatecas, it was dark and I was lost and going in circles. I saw a hotel sign, pulled in and figured the best plan was to stay here for the night, rest and relax and then leave my van here and take a bus into the city early in the morning and explore this supposedly interesting city on foot. Already I know that I am not particularly fond of cities!! Well day 2 as different as could be from day 1 but all good fun and now ready to sleep and get a good start tomorrow.

This photograph deserves it’s own journal entry….not being very artistic or poetic I will try my best to describe this picture. It is 9am on a sleepy warm sunny morning in this little town called Mascota, already the streets are thriving with vendors, children walking to school and the smell of food in the air, I am sitting in the small town square which has beautiful flowers, a small fountain and the old folks sitting on benches, talking and laughing and I am looking up at this magnificent church. Already I am feeling blessed to have had good fortune on my journey so far and to be healthy and happy in this little old Colonial town. Suddenly it is 9am and the church bells ring, what a thunderous noise, attracts everyone’s attention, after 9 rings…. silence and then from some where inside of the church comes this beautiful loud rendition of someone singing “Ava Maria” it drifted across the square and what a magical moment…it was such a wonderful scene and one that rates 2nd best day of my journey…. what peace and joy I felt…wish you could have been here!!!!

Not sure when this will get posted but Day 1 in the evening I had a walk around the small town, this is what I saw in one block surrounding the town square. A very old and beautiful church, the police station, with the entrance wide open and guarded by two police men with machine guns, you could see right into the station and in the back was the jail with huge high bars and even someone behind them, obviously no photos available. Around the square were the usual vendors selling everything from popcorn, hot dogs, tacos and corn. This certainly is a dated community and so peaceful and everyone so friendly. My room in the Posada as mentioned is 14 dollars and it has 2 single beds, unlimited hot water, and cable TV and very nicely furnished and the garden courtyard entrance is pretty. Today was a drive filled with twisty and tight bends, but spectacular views and I really got a glimpse of old Mexico. So day 1 goes down as a fine start for this segment of the journey…..

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Yes!!!!!!I know I posted twice, sorry!!!!! For those mathamaticians out there the final tally was scrabble king AKA as Mexico Kid 9 Old English boy 2.....