Hangin in Guanajuato and environs

For the past week we have been staying with Roze at her digs in Guanajuato. Some of you may have already heard that after Jim cleaned out the old shower on the balcony, we moved in. Very dry. We went out and bought an air mattress, and it is quite cozy.
The next problem was that the door to the balcony could only be closed from inside the house, and if we wanted to get in, there would be a problem. Not that it has been terribly cold at night. Fortunately there is a hole for a door knob, and being that the house broom has an extra short handle, we are able to use it as a latch that can be
opened from either side.

Almost every night lately, the street serenaders in their renaissance costumes, the grupos estudiantinas, though we do not think they are students anymore, stand around under our balcony playing acoustic music and singing with large groups of semi drunken people. They roam the city, singing and drinking for hours. It does cost to join them if you want a drink with them. They have great vocal harmonies and resonant guitars and even a big bass. The gents who do this all dress in black capes and stockings, and have slit sleeves (there is a name for those)
I may go and join them one nite soon, if I am not too tired.

This town seems to be definitely ramping up for Cervantino. They are cleaning things up, and preparing venues for the performances. They are also still very busy celebrating the Bicentennial of their independence from Spain. That is a big deal. We now know a lot more than we did about it.

Jim is doing a lot of lovely drawings, and is learning Spanish. He is a real trooper.
I too have been drawing in my little books. They are good fodder for telling stories to people.

People keep giving me the names of things in Nahuatl. They are hard to remember sometimes, but very interesting. We saw a poem in Spanish carved in stone on the wall of our hostel, and later saw a statue of the Aztec king who wrote it. Very beautiful, but I have not found his book yet. He refers to the bird, zenzontle, who sings beautifully. I should have bought the one I saw in a cage in Dolores yesterday.
We also at huitlacoche, which is a sort of mushroom that grows on corn this time of year. The little old lady down at our corner plaza market told me what to do with it.

We spent the other nite in the home of Erasmo, Rozes artist friend who graduated. He has the same birthday as Jacob, and his mom has the same as Jim.
She fed us a lot, and gave us a bed. Erasmo took us all to a hot spring near San Miguel Allende. It was in a huge garden, with ponds for the overflow. Part of it was a series of 3 pools that were roofed with brick and stained glass, like cisterns. You go in thru a sort of small passageway, swim and float about, and then out a passage to the next, and finally onto a wide porch with an enormous showerhead spraying you voluminously with warm water, as you look out over the pond, if you bother to open your eyes.

I am starting to get nostalgic over my last few days in Guanajuato. In a few minutes I will go find Jim at our fave cafe where we sketch and drink coffee. Me, decaf Americanos thank you. Today we are finally going to meet Rozes friend Armando and have our first salsa lesson. We were going to do 5 classes, but will be lucky to get in two this week. Never did get to do the dentist thing either. But we want to come back to Mexico again, and then we will know better what it is like and stuff, so maybe then....we feel that this is not our only time to be here in this interesting place.....