I thought I wrote about the hot springs, La Gruta and Escondido (Grotto and Hidden Place), but I can’t find it, but here are the photos. In the 18th century, Padre Alfaro felt the baths had become way to hedonistic, so he built the Atotonilco Sanctuary for the penitentes. To this day, the come on Sundays, crawling on hands and bloodied knees, or creeping on their bellies, perhaps, straight from the baths.

One is not allowed to use a flash camera in the church and I really tried not to, but the camera, despite my highest technological abilities couldn’t keep it from flashing, so I got this nice pic.

Time to roll out of Dodge.

Yep, throw all of them thangs in the grips and head back north. That’s what we done.

Arrived  late on Tuesday the 22nd of July safely though beaten up after having taken ground transportation  to Leon and flying to DFW , then to CMI.

Wonderful trip. So much to do and think about. Come on MP, can’t you just enjoy. Nope, recken not – maybe when I’m too old to dream – maybe when I have no more passions and desires – maybe when destiny has finally had its way. All which sounds good to me.

Loved reuniting with brother Tricky Jim (he is distanly related to tricky Dicky Nixon). We can argue like cats and dogs and come out smelling like, well I was going to say something else, but will just call it a rose. 

Best of all was Patty, who tolerated the two old farts who “sometimes” drank too much and sometimes were a pain in the ass. The focused one went about her business of learning Spanish, buying groceries and gifts for kids and friends and having a grand time in that beautiful setting while connecting with people who became our friends. Traveling as you know can be VERY trying on a relationship and we’ve experienced that to an extreme, but we get better at it. As Sartre or one of those exi guys said, there is only one question in life, leaving the obvious unsaid if the answer is to live on. But completely thorough, Shakespeare  told all, and perhaps the same can be said about marriage, decide and then not to reason why. Hey, ‘just do it’ for as long as — 

’tis good to be home with family,  Jazz and jazz and friends and gardens and all the rest. This suits me best. OK, at least until the next time our wander lust pushes us out the door.

adios amigos

…as the sun sinks slowly in the west…

…we had a fun party here last night on the deck of Casa Engelbrecht, overlooking the city. Wonderful children’s writer Esme Raji Codell (who read our blog and wrote me because she was on her way to SMA) came over with her lovely family, husband Jim and son Russell. So Esme and I had to travel to San Miguel to meet, years after I read Educating Esme, then Sahara Special and its sequel. And that’s because of the SCBWI List Serve. [That’s: Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators J] So thanks for writing, Esme, just great to meet you. I’m sure we’ll remain friends.

And Suzanne, our new friend from San Francisco, who we met at the Doc Severinsen gig, came, but left the kids at home, and Robert remained at another party to get wasted on homemade tequila. I saw them both this morning at the pool. Robert was suffering suitably for his inattendance at our party. He came by to say goodbye to Morgan and Jim, just a little late for the party. Robert and Suzanne are keepers, for sure.

I made of vat of spaghetti, Jim (Lewis) grilled chorizo which Morgan and I bought downtown, and we had a big fresh salad, all veggies having been thoroughly washed with argentum and cloro drops–a must if you want to avoid turista which was once called Montezuma’s Revenge in the era when my aunt, Tante, traveled to Mexico—in the 60’s, I think.

For the most part we’ve eaten at home as we have Jim’s and our combined kitchens…and, we’re frequently disappointed in the restaurant food. Though, we’ve had a couple good meals out.

After a little brunch at the Biblioteca, where Morgan donated his CDs and I, my book Blossom Tales, Morgan, Jim, and I went down the mercado, where  Morgan and I did the rest of our gift buying. We ran into Natalia, who gave me the gardenias the first week we were here. It’s the third time we’ve run into her and she showed Morgan and Jim her lovely casita behind the market, while I finished choosing silver from Tasco for my sister and niece.

We’ve had a great time, Morgan and I, together. And we’ve had a wonderful time with Jim. And our new friends. Tonight, we’ll eat leftovers, then I’ll meet Suzanne down at Mama Mia’s for a final goodbye. And look at the Parrochia all lit up and looking like Disneyland. Robert is already on his way home to San Fran to work, but Suzanne’ll stay the month with her kids. She asked me to stay on, but I’m ready to go home. We miss our friends and we miss Jazzabelle. Bad. Morgan and I have never both been gone for a month. Will Jazz remember us? Will our friends?

July 17-19

Morgan did the 6 ½ hour drive in Jim’s car from San Miguel through the hills to Pátzcuaro and what a relief (because Morgan is a great driver and Jim…whew! is unconscious). The landscape is breathtaking, verdant, gorgeous, not at all what any of us expected. Vacas (cows) and burros and caballos (horses) graze scattered throughout the hills, rarely fenced, but sometimes tethered on a long rope. They are healthy and fit and handsome animals here.

And here’s this great library with a history of all of Mexico in this mural.

The indigenas (indigenous people) of Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán, are the originators of el Dia de Muertos, October 31- November 2.  Their old “pagan” beliefs where a world of the dead parallels that of the living, combines with Catholicism (brought by the Spanish Jesuits) to create Mexican Catholicism. They say Pátzcuaro is utterly packed with Mexicans at that time. And by the way, we never met a single American while here in Patz.

Found a fine little hotel, thanks to Lonely Planet guidebook, off el centro, Posada de los Angeles, for $40.

We planned to be there for their huge Friday Market, and so glad we were. I took a load of photos, clandestinely, as the people don’t like to be photographed. Mostly I shot pyramids of perfect tomatoes, greens, cilantro, saffron-yellow squash blossoms, figs, avocados, mangos.

And then we set off—with Jim driving — to circle the big lake, to see small Indian villages and artesanian work.

We stop at the village of Tocuaro where they carve red cedar statues, mostly of the saints. This is Catholic country, where the Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint. Of all Mexico. Eventually we’re in pine forests, in horse country. Handsome horses graze everywhere, men ride, reminding us that to the Indians the conquistadors on horseback looked like two-headed monsters.

We enter the village of Jaracuaro. On the city wall is written, ciudad con colera–city with cholera. We pay no heed, but it’s a ghostly town—no hustle and bustle. Our Toyota Highlander can barely make it down the narrow streets, but this is not unusual. We go for the parrochia, (church) which is always the center of town. It’s a large deserted square with an electrified but sleeping carnival at its edge. This is surreal—the twilight zone. We clear out. Jim loved it. Not us.

We were given this small simple tourist map labeled with all indio names. My job as navigator was a little odd, as few of the actual villages had the names that matched the map. So we were cruising through land that looks more like Ireland–green hills, mountains in the distance—wondering (is this the road we’re on?–Durwood) and Jim is driving all over the curving mountain roads, crossing the dividing line and an oncoming car rounds a curve and is coming straight for us. I say, “I think it would be best to stay in our lane.” Further on we’re tooling along at a clip on some straightaway and Jim says, “I don’t know where we’re going, but we’re making great time.” We do a lot of laughing. We eventually realize that, since we could occasionally see the lake from the mountainside, we must be going the right route.

But there’s the moment when we’re quite confused and decide to ask for directions. In a tiny village we approach and stop behind a group of men surrounding a parked car. I lean out the window and say, “Buenas tardes. Por favor, nos pueden decir donde…” and ole chivalrous Jim yells, “Get out of the car.” In alarm, I stumble out of the car still questioning the Mexicans and one guy comes to lean in our window (with me outside with him) because surely no woman is smart enough to handle this, but the Mexican realizes that no one in the car can speak to him, and eventually we realize that this cat doesn’t have any idea how to locate us on our pathetic map. “Donde esta el luego?” I ask. “Cual luego?” which isn’t promising. Okay, so I get back in the car and say, “Jim!” “Well,” he says, “you can’t expect him to come to us.” And I tell him there are different rules for women. So anyway, this becomes sort of standing joke for the rest of the trip. “Get out of the car,” when he orders dinner at a restaurant instead of deferring to me, THE WOMAN. Okay, good thing it’s all good natured. We just laugh.

“[We’re] not lost, just confused.” Credited to Davy Crocket or Daniel Boone, via Jim Lewis.

We veer off the lake because we’ve been told that Capula, on the way to Morelia, is where you find Catrinas. Traditional Calvera Catrinas, are part of the Day of the Dead celebration, part of the playfulness that Mexicans associate with death. These skeletal figures, women in low-cut flowery dresses, often seductively display one leg (or femur bone thereof) and don an outrageous flowered hat on her bobbling head. It bobbles because it’s detachable. Sometimes they’re dancing,  but always cheerfully peering out of a skull with cavernous eye sockets and grinning horribly. The best have attitude to the hilt–cheeky skeletal broads. We find them quite beautiful, especially those created in ceramic by the artist Mariana Xhenhuaro. You can find many mass-produced varieties, but Mariana’s are one of kind. They were scattered around her tiny store/studio, attached to her house, in various degrees of completion—not yet fired, headless, unpainted, half-painted.

She also makes beautiful ceramic dish sets–one of a kind. We’d love to have them, but 1) we don’t need them and 2) the whole set weighs about a ton, but they sure are gorgeous.

We pick up a hippy-looking couple—she with long blond dreads and he with brown. A handsome couple of kids, she from Holland, he from Italy. They smell like hell, but they sure are interesting and lovely. They’re mostly taking buses around the country on the grand adventure.

We drive back to Pátzcuaro, drop off our hitchhikers, and eat a fine dinner at La Puerta Roja, spend the second night in our hotel. From the roof, we watched the moon rise. And set off for home (San Miguel) the next day. We go through fewer cities on the way home and it’s much quicker, but we still must go through some towns and cities. At the traffic light, a band of boys pops out of nowhere and clean our windshield, hoping for pesos–hich, of course, we give them. There are also jugglers, clowns, venders of every sort at every traffic light, in want of pesos. (Even when walking down the streets Morgan and I keep pesos at the ready and give to all who ask—2, 5, or 10, whatever we’ve got. We’re especially drawn to the indios, more correctly called indigenas).

There are far fewer traffic lights in Mexican cities than U.S. Trucks and cars just nudge their way into traffic, the main stream generously giving way. I’m reminded of a report I’d heard on PBS about scientists studying ant behavior in order to try to improve traffic patterns. Ants actually bump into each other, nudging each other, to negotiate right-of-way. I think the Mexican personality is better suited to this efficient friendly antlike behavior. It’s like Italian traffic, but in Italy they like to yell and honk. Not so, in Mexico.

We made much better time coming home. And it’s good to be home. Tonight we’ll go to Mama Mia’s to hear the Andean band, which we love, and throw a party Sunday for our new friends here. And then, I’m ready to come all the way home. 

Last night P and I went to a salsa lesson at Mama Mia’s. It was a beginning class so we had no problems. Patty would have no problems in an advanced class, but she’s encouraging me to dance. Salsa is wonderful with small steps and sexy attitude. There were many women there, mostly young North Americans. They looked awkward as they gave it a first try. It was very crowed and I kept bumping into these young girls. I’m sure that that gave them a trill. After that we went to a restaurant where Doc Severenson and band played. The place was packed with mostly N. American’s. A steal at $25 minimum.

I spoke with Doc before and after the gig. Ray Sasaki had bought one of Doc’s horns and was aware of Ray. Really nice guy and at 80, looks great and still plays his ass off – big intense sound all over the horn. I’m told that he has always practiced a lot and his practice room is a bath room where he gets immediate feed back and without having to play loudly.

The group was comprised of this dynamic duo of violin and guitar – these are two of the finest musicians I’ve ever heard in person. I’ll find their names for they have CDs of their duet. In addition, there was Doc, a double bass and percussionist (hand drums). The arrangements were skillful and were performed to perfection with no written music to be seen. Mostly Latin music was the fare but certainly not fair. The group performs Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Ray and Jeanne, it wold be good to bring Sara and Miki down here to hear these guys AND it would be deductible! Seriouly, they should hear these guys.

Jim and I got stinkin’ drunk on tequila shots. Patty had her one beer, OK, maybe two. We met a couple, hmmm, in their late 40’s early 50’s from the bay area who just got here and love SMDA as most visitors do. After the gig the four of us walked to a club looking for salsa but we arrived too late, so we walked back to El Jardin and hung there until almost 1 AM. We seemed to have made fast new friends.  Afterwards, I staggered home with Patty. Jim staggered home around 11.

The streets of San Miguel

Up and down and around on cobble stones. It is a workout for the feet, legs heart, lungs. It is easier to go down than to come up – and it’s not my old age and as long as I can do both, I will. With all this activity, still a few lbs seem to have found my mid-section.

I’ve wandered all over this town on foot, sometimes getting disoriented but all roads eventually gets one back to the center and El Jardin. The streets are very narrow and it’s a close call each time cars pass. If there is a big US pickup on the street, it has to drive up on the side walk to pass. The same is true for the sidewalks which are very narrow and built up above the street by about a foot. When meeting someone, one has to twist the body in order not to collide. When the hard rain comes, water runs down the steep streets with great force but the stones stay put. Buses are used to good advantage here. Recently the city bought new Mercedes buses and doubled the fare to $.40, a good deal for us but not for the workers here. The entrepreneurs here, Mexicans and US citizens tell us that it is a good place to own a business for the wages are very low and profits high.

“She’s a good singer but she’s no fried chicken.” Durwood

One can’t help but observe the beauty of the native people. The young mexican women are particularly attractive. They observe the long tradition of not wearing shorts, but they make up for it with their tops which are most revealing. Someone told of this. Many wear heavy makeup which for me is too much. Not like “Too much man”, but really, TOO MUCH.  They wear beautiful clothes and jewelry. The most beautiful of the women and men for me are the indians, short in stature and with magnificent faces which are deeply wrinkled with a magnificence about them which draws me to them wondering of their history and present life. Unlike others, they are not prone to beg with hand extended, but rather stand near us and when given a couple or five pecos show much gratitude. I feel good donating to their life for obvious reasons.

For reasons unknown to me, there is an abundance (bun dance) of single USA women here – ten for every one USA man. There is this local joke, which is no joke: A woman is sitting on a bench in the park when a man sits down beside her. She asks, “You’re new here. Where are you from?” “Well, I just got out of prison.” Oh”, she responds, “what were you in prison for?” “For killing my wife,” he says. Without hesitation she says, “Oh, then you’re single.”

Jim Lewis and I went to hear a “jazz” concert last night at the local theater of some traveling “Pros” – that means they are not from here. The young drummer came from the rock world, his set was untuned and deserved what it got from the player. The bass player and leader, came on stage with the others and tuned his bass with a tuner, one note at a time. I knew it was going to be a long night. The electric guitar (OUCH!) player did all of the pedal crap that is available. But at least their ensemble was poor. Then there was the older one, the singer. Need I say more? Actually she was by far the best musician and did interesting tunes in unusual ways, .e g. “Lush Life” in a “free” way – like the band asked her what the tune is and she says, “You’ll hear it.” .  After that we met Patty and went to Mama Mia’s and heard this fabulous Andean band. Each of the four musicians played multiple instruments and sang. The ensemble was magnificent and the music flowed beautifully. This was music and I was happy again.

Happy Bastille Day!

I know this is supposed to come early in the story, but I just might be able to help someone out here (this could be for you, Esmé). San Miguel is very casual. I actually did a pretty darn good job of packing for this month-long trip. But that’s almost the same as packing for 2 weeks, I think. In a nutshell, bring one or two of everything. It’s warm in the daytime and can get quite cool some nights. We went through a heavy rainy cold period for about five days. So having a second pair of long pants that were drying out while I wore the other was greatly appreciated.

Underwear, whatever you need, but in my case I need armor (read bra) which I usually neglect in favor of little camisoles, but in this culture, out of respect, I don’t think you want to reveal too much.

2 capri length pants, one dressy, one utilitarian, both neutral colors (black or khaki)

1 long micro fiber pants like Chicos which wad into a ball and still look great

one dancing skirt

one pair cotton knit gaucho pants (unnecessary, but nice for a change)

5 or 6 solid color T-shirts (some of them dressy)

2 pair dancing shoes (I should have settled on one, either the dance sneakers or the heels)

2 pair short socks; 1 pair regular athletic socks

sandal/shoes, the hi-tech waterproof variety that are good for wading thru flooded streets

step-in sandals for at home (you know, to use as slippers)

rain poncho (mine is only rain resistant; rain-proof would be much better)

silk or very light weight sweat pants for lounging

Lotions and cosmetics and toiletries – sample-sized like Clinique gives away

Sunblock; visor or hat; shades. All are essential.

Swimming suit if you plan to swim (and there are pools here). And a swim cap which is required.

Be sure to bring a back pack for day or overnight trips.

And all-important is what you wear on the plane down:

Jeans, long sleeve t-shirt, light indoor jacket, outdoor leather jacket, athletic socks and sneakers.

I also brought books and my iPod; be sure to leave room in your suitcase for purchases made in Mexico. Don’t bother bringing an umbrella, you can buy a cheap one here of the need arises. It’s supposed to rain only an hour each day in the rainy season (now), as it did today and most days. I think that pretty much covers it. We have use of the washing machine here and the clothesline.

If you’re going to check luggage under the plane, be sure you bring a carry-on bag that will supply your family for a couple days, in case the bags are delayed or, god forbid, lost. International travels have gotten more restrictive and this time my laptop counted as my carry on. Oh yeah, I brought my laptop and my current writing project. Haven’t glanced at that project. 

I have other things to say about packing, but I thought I’d start here. San Miguel is nestled in a valley and extends up the steep surrounding hills. The streets are paved with stones, rounded stones, I guess, cobble stones, but there’s nothing regular about them. In the center of town there are narrow flagstone sidewalks on major streets, but as you get away from the center, there are fewer sidewalks and now I’m going to tell you about these and why you needn’t bring your blades or boards. It’s very steep. And the further you get from the center and toward our casita and beyond our casita, it gets steeper.

As you get further from the center and beyond our casita, where it is quite clean and is swept regularly, it becomes…uh, less clean. Between the cobblestones are stones, dust, ash, broken glass, degrading plastic bottles, odd items of unidentifiable clothing. Who says plastic doesn’t degrade? You can see it in all stages on the outskirts of town.

Jim, Morgan, and I climbed up the hill from our casita to the Botanical Gardens on the edge of town. Itwas a bit farther than I anticipated and we, stupidly enough, turned down a taxi drive part way there. The Botanical Garden is a canyon that runs along the edge of town and became a conservation area when they built the dam. Looking into this spectacular canyon, you see waterfalls and descending pools of water below, sprinklings of wildflowers and along the paths are spreads of magnificent cacti. Wait till you seethe photos 😉

Yesterday after going to both downtown downhill markets, Morgan and I climbed up to a vista market. The view of the city, from the opposite hillside is remarkable. And all the callejons or alleys, aim for the parrochia (church) so the views down these streets are inviting, picturesque, shaded with trees overhanging the stone fences and spilling over stone walls. I’d bought enough “jewels” and such in the downtown markets that there was no need to buy anything but cerveza for the evening. But we decided to climb up a callejons stairway even above this vista. It required a few rests along the way, but we met a lovely not-young gringo/Mexican couple who lived up off the stairway so we stopped and chatted with them, and we saw a guy walking his motorcycle down this endless stone alley staircase. At the top was a field where you could see everything. I mean, the apex of it all. So we split a beer, on top of the world, identifying the chimneys of our casita, the jungle of Betse’s hacienda, the arches, a couple of the houses that Jim looked at with his realtor, before heading down.

And on the way down, we see a landfill pit, which we gingerly skirt and find the magical looking stairway that we think will take us directly to our casita, at right angles to the one we climbed. Wheew. At the top, the stairway is landfill trash, I think, that they just filled in with concrete so the shampoo bottles, old shoes, broken glass and disintegrated god-knows-what won’t spill down the hill. Eventually, walking down, taking some curves, picking our way through concreted garbage collage, we get to the stairway that we can view from our street, lined with bougainvillea and looking so magical and at the bottom is our big wooden door, which we unlock and arrive at our cool clean stone and tile stairway, that opens on to our patio/deck which surrounds our landlords courtyard below and we’re home. Jim has fixed dinner on the grill.

warrenhardy.com  The Warren Hardy (obviously a gringo) started his method here in SMA. Besides himself, all his teachers are Mexican native Spanish speakers.

 A few people have asked about this great Spanish language system, which you can do on your own with workbooks and CDs (and flashcards and game cards, which I don’t think are essential) purchased at warrenhardy.com. As I mentioned before, the system is designed for adult minds, which are no longer wired to learn language. There’s loads of repetition and in class you work with a partner. As you learn, you feel successful because you’re building in an inspired manner. Just the right new material is added, at just the right time. (Each session as it is taught in San Miguel is 2 and one half weeks). The system is being introduced at a couple U of TX branch schools. And Warren is now reversing it to teach English to bright impoverished Spanish speaking college age kids from the countryside around San Miguel.

I did Level I at home with the book and CDs on my iPod. I studied Level II, which is considered the trial by fire; I’ll do Level III at home.

Level I – you learn and conjugate 6 “power verbs” in the present tense, which you join with hundreds of different infinitives to make sentences, ask questions, to help you get you around. Very effective. The 6 verbs are:

puder – to be able – (I can…)

necesitar – to need (I need)

le gusta – to like

ir a – to go to (I’m going to…)

querer – I like

tener que – to have to (I have to…)

And then they slip in a few reflexive verb infinitives; ser and estar; when to use por and para, etc.

Level II – you learn the preterite (simple past) tense; direct and indirect objects (which is hellish because the syntax is so different)—with a special emphasis on learning the 12 irregular verbs; the idea being that you learn the past tense (rather than present tense) so you can talk about what happened).

Level III – you learn all other tenses including the present, imperfect, future, conditional, commands, present and past subjunctive, participles, gerunds. And keep adding vocabulary.

Level IV – I don’t know what they teach in level 4

Traditionally one learns the present tense first, but who wants to go around saying, “I go to the store; I run in the street; I play the guitar.” It’s so much more logical to be able to tell about what you did in the past: “I went to the store; yesterday I ran in the park; I played the guitar for 3 hours; We traveled to Guanajuato by bus, had a great time, bought earrings for my sister so we can give them to her on her birthday. ”

So that’s the quick run down. Check it out on line or ask me about it. It’s really working for me. See how well I can write it in English.

July 6 – My birthday in Guanajuato.

It was a lovely day and a difficult day. I can’t report it without saying, I missed my mother, who died only 3 months ago. My tears took me by surprise, but, of course, it makes sense. My mother, who bore me, was completely with me all day and completely not with me. Gone. She, who knew me longer and perhaps better than anyone, is no longer here to love me, but she is still here to be loved. Those who have lost a mother understand, I’m sure—and I supposed many who have not yet lost a mother.

Breakfast at las Poetas was grand—a buffet of chilaquiles, which mi maestro, teacher Rocio, says is great for hangovers. No hangover here, but they weren’t wasted. Crispy tortilla chips en salsa roja. Y huevos, y carne, y we met two lovely mujeres de Nuevo Mexico, Cecilia y Maria, here for a boda (wedding) in the spectacular parrochia (church) with all the chandeliers. Then, Morgan and I took a trolley car/bus tour, all in Spanish, in which I understood only some of it, but I understood that Guanajuato comes from the Indian word for frog which is used in Mexico and I believe is grana, and juato means all around, and somehow there were frogs all around and now there’s a park with frog statues to commemorate the granas, not to mention the town’s name. Frogs are right up my alley, having been the logo for my dance company (mirror images of frogs in arabesque) and the logo for my storytelling (one frog poised in elocution).

We went to the wonderful Museo des Pueblos where we heard a young classical guitarist play a concert, saw exhibits of miniature folk arts (which Morgan photographed extensively) and a modern exhibit of wonderful whimsical pieces by an artist whose name I can’t recall or find on google, but a series called Newsworthy printed on pages from the San Francisco Chronicle.

We drank a beer on Jardin de Union outside of the Teatro Juarez which is built along the lines of the Paris Opera (and more spectacular than any theatre that I performed in with One Plus One, my dance company) (and we performed in perhaps 25 theatres in Central and South America—some of which were pretty spectacular). An audience sat outside on the many concrete steps, flanked by lions such as those that guard the Art Institute of Chicago, to watch a street mime-comedian. We eventually met the performer Jorge, who is very funny, clever and uses the passersby to create his irreverent (but) family show. Later, when he came into the Spanish restaurant where we were eating paella, we speculated that he owned it. Just a fantasy. Still, he looked like a man about town. And who knows?

I believe that was the night that we went back to the Jardin, even though it was raining slightly and sat under the thickly leafed trees at one of the restaurant/hotels to have a margarita, before going back to our lovely hotel (where I cried myself to sleep). We did have a lovely time in spite of my occasional breakdowns. Morgan is very comforting, although he seems surprised at my tears, whenever they come. And I was much better the next morning.