October 29, 2010
San Miguel de Allende
The expat community here is what really defines this city for me. The town itself has an alluring old world charm with steep cobblestone streets on one side of town that gradually flatten into the city center. As with most colonial towns, the center has a lovely square in front of a cathedral with shady trees and wrought iron benches. This is where you’ll find the tourists, both Mexican and foreign. San Miguel is supposedly home to thousands of expats - retired Americans were the most obvious. They call to each other on the street and dine and dance together at night. I saw very few speaking spanish or interacting with Mexican people.
Perhaps our reaction had something to do with the timing of our arrival, SM de Allende was the first place that Davis and I came across other American tourists, but neither of us wanted to stay for very long. In fact, the highlight for me was actually the converted monastery where we spent our two nights there. I find myself wondering what I’m missing about the place.
October 30, 2010
Guanajuato-- Camping!
Guanajuato is really a lovely city. The road that we took to get there from San Miguel de Allende was a motorcyclists dream. In fact, we saw a whole contingent of bikes heading in the opposite direction. Nice curvy roads heading up through some lovely mountains and then back down again right as we reached Guanajuato. We got lost for a while trying to find our camping site off the Panoramica (literally- a panoramic road that circles much of the city on the hills above the town). We finally found the place after a little more steep cobblestone driving (I’m getting better!). For $140 Pesos or about $10 USD we couldn’t beat it. After we set up camp a bit we hiked down the hill and through a long scary tunnel to pop up in the middle of the city center and a mob of people. We realized just how lucky we were to have found anywhere to stay, much less somewhere so affordable. The city was packed.
I was not quite prepared for how large a celebration Dia de los Muertos would turn out to be - today was only the lead up to the big day. Certainly we knew that it was a big holiday but not what crowds it would draw or how many days it would last.
Since neither Davis nor I really enjoy being in crowded places we simply walked around for a while, checked out all of the sugar skulls and other necessary Day of the Dead accouterments in the square, had a nice meal and then headed back to our camp area on the hill above the city. A decent Mexican cabernet around the camp fire made for a relaxing evening. Until night totally fell and the wind started. We hung around the fire for another hour but finally succumbed to common sense and put it out as we watched showers of sparks get sent repeatedly into the tall dry grass that made up the site. We had plenty of water handy but the risk was too great. It was so windy, in fact, that D had to get up and stake the tent to keep it from wapping loudly all night.
October 31, 2010- Halloween
The next morning, groggy from a difficult night’s sleep (we never did get any blankets and it had been rather cold) but feeling quite pleased with ourselves for our first camping adventure on the trip, we awoke optimistic and excited for our trip to Patzcuaro, where we would celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Our cheerfulness lasted through coffee and oatmeal but was soon squashed by Davis’s revelation as he was packing up that his rear shock was leaking hydraulic fluid-- a lot of it. Add to that the scorpion that had happily nestled into the hollow part of my bag’s velcro handle nearly stinging me as I readied my bag and the day was starting to look gloomy indeed. Hidden, dangerous things with malignant intent seemed around every corner.
With no other good options but to continue on, Davis added some preload to the shock and we headed out to Patzcuaro.
We had been told by our lovely hostess Norma at Rancho de Morila in Saltio that Patzcuaro was were we needed to spend Dia de los Muertos. So Villa Patzcuaro, a camping and cabiny place 2 km from the center of town was our destination.
As soon as we finished the four hour ride and pulled up at Villa Patzcuaro Davis put the wireless internet system to good use by e-mailing everyone he could think of to find help for the shock. It really was amazing the response that he got back. Within hours several places had confirmed inventory of possible replacements that they were willing to send should the need arrive and Davis had actually managed to get the guy on the phone who had made the shock in the first place and worked out a possible scenario of FedExing the thing back to the US for repair. The most exciting, however, was that an ADV rider friend knew of “the best suspension guy in Mexico” who was in Guadalajara-- only 290 KM away. Xavier is French and speaks excellent English, we were told that if he couldn’t fix it no one could.
So, with a margin of comfort over all of these possibilities we were able to put the shock problem behind us for the next few days and concentrate on enjoying the festivities in Patzcuaro.
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