Spanish word of the week- Socorro

We went to the opening ceremony of the festival in Tequila yesterday. Click on the picture of Sita and Jayna (sp?) for a slideshow of the highlights. We took the toll road for 89 pesos (9 bucks, 5 quid). The journey there was easy enough- through foothills and fields of agave as the sun was setting. But it’s a steep price for 25 miles of dual carriageway. It’s not like we were going to Wales (How much is the Severn Bridge these days?). Anyroad, we got there and made our way along the route of the procession and found a bar to settle in (El Mesón del Mezcal). Before we knew it we were freebied up with margaritas and chips and salsa while two blokes trundled along the road pausing only to fill their minicanon with gun powder, tamp it down, light the fuse and fire it into the air. An indio beer and a torta ahogada later and the procession arrived, just like Taunton’s carnival, but without a float playing Wurzels hits.

We wandered into the town centre after all the desfile had passed by and drank in the sights. They cut the ribbon on the festival and the P.A. system launched into Tequila. Anyroad, a nice little evening. I missed the turn off for the toll road on the way back so it took an hour or so as I wasn’t up to overtaking the lorry we were stuck behind. Got back to Guad, dropped off Victor & Jayna and went to Rene’s house for beverages, tales of surgical disasters, and light snacks. Got home quite late. But all in all a grand day.

I’ll have to put me computer back together again though… and my desk, and Sita’s, and… you get the idea. While you’re waiting, try this test. You say which logos you recognise and it diagnoses your myriad disorders. It rightly worked out I was from the UK and had a BBC Micro obsession. And that I had gothic tendencies?… see how it works for you 🙂

…on the blog front, some posts and comments have gone missing in the server change and there’s the usual accent fun that comes from writing apostrophes on a Spanish keyboard, but it looks like all most is right once again with the world of agaveweb.

Coming soon:

1) Proper posts that don’t go on about the state of my hosting
2) 7 reasons why I’ll take Guadalajara over New York each and every time
3) 7 day trips around Guadalajara
4) A run down of our last trip to the states
5) In praise of Pentax DSLRs
6) And much, much more…

We’re leaving this wonderful country towards the end of October, plan your visits now, folks…

American Visa is about a Bolivian English teacher who’s trying to get to the US but faces no end of troubles getting his visa at the INS. He eventually turns to crime to get enough money to bribe his way through the red tape. It didn’t quite come to that in my case, but very nearly… Anyroad, the film ain’t bad, it has some very nice shots of La Paz, especially by night, and it’s fast moving enough. Where it falls down (heavily) is the ‘love’ story between the main bloke, Mario and lap dancer Blanca (Nefertiti) which beggars belief. Once again, corruption and crime is the main theme for the film which sits in firmly in the Latin American school of cinema. Nice to see the US getting the same treatment too, though. Unfortunately there were no subtitles and I had a fair bit of trouble with the accent, especially Blanca’s who sounds like a Bonaerensian with a speech defect. So maybe that’s my fault. Overall, to use local newspaper, El Público’s rating system, dominguera (Sundayish) but with some nice cinematographic flourishes.

Here’s a few photos me dad’s put up on teh intarwebs from their iberian travels. Dad- you’re missing out by not using flickr. Use the Flickr Uploadr and bob’s yer father’s brother. People can leave comments and stuff then. Just an idea… yer username’s john_f for the record 🙂 Today’s additions include a few new car/surrounding and railway pix…

Oh and T, thanks v. much for the comment. 1006 isn’t an actual scrabble score though, it’s a rating calculated by how much you win/lose by against other rated opponents. I think my highest online score was around 550 pts… if you ever download the game (it’s free) let us know and go easy on me 😉 Hope it’s all sorted out with your jardinero, too.