and it’s mainly for the chorus: “Vamos a aclarar el panorama, hay pinguinos en la cama…” and the rest of the rhyming-dictionary-3rd-rate-singer-songwriting…
Just for the record: Fantastic meal in La Matera again with Victor, Jana and family last night. Picked up Sita’s fancy new business cards. Tidied the house a bit and now I’m off for web designery… ooh and I’m at 1070 at the scrabble. 4 off my all time best. This can’t last… More meaningful posts soonish. Cheers : )
I’ve figured out a few more bus routes today with only one major mistake. The 37A is not the 37 just for the record and after leaving the house at 9:30 got back around 15:00ish. Luckily I have my trusty new gadget loaded up with ‘8 out of 10 Cats’ episodes and the hours flew by. I looked into Flash courses, caught up with a translation place, had a coffee at Madokas, perused the ‘Importaciones’ level of San Juan de Dios and checked everything was functioning as I left it 3 wks ago. Some of the areas in town were chock-full of parents and kids buying their school supplies for the new term. Thank diosito I don’t have any teaching hanging over me. (good luck Meg, btw).
The iPAQ camera is 1.2 megapixels, but the quality is far from perfect. It’ll do nicely though for quick snaps rather than full-blown photography outings with the tripod and everything. I even dared get it out in SJ de D, to the right is a barbacoa-style tacos al pastor stand, with fine tasting cheap tacos (3.5pesos each, =30 cents, 18p). Bargains every one… Too early to tell for the usual gastrointestinal side effects, but keep checking back and I’ll give you an update later. Another thing is my new tinted sunglasses make everything look like you’re looking through the orange stuff they put in post office windows/ chemist shops at the world and makes it very difficult to spot cars that look like their surrounding. And doubles the apparent amount of taxis in the road (white cars look yellow too…).
Friday’s Spanish-word-of-the-week day in theory, so let’s have a think… erm… “cotorrear” keeps cropping up. I rarely use it ‘cos I can’t roll my ‘R’s but it means ‘to chat’, natter, put-the-world-to-rights, catch up on stuff, sort of thing. Not so widely used in Spain if memory serves (charlar is more common), but the verb of choice round these parts.
So we left early afternoonish on Friday filled up with Pemex’s finest and hit the toll road to Zacatecas. I’d bought a map in Sanborns which seemed to suggest that the more direct, one-lane route would be better but after a brief poll at Plaza Bonita, the pay-as-you-drive route seemed safer and faster. Sure enough before we knew it we were breezing through el Gran Tunal (what the Spanish called the vast area filled with tunas (prickly pears)) at breakneck speeds listening to all manner of podcasts. The fares were pretty hefty and I’d’ve been more accepting of them if I’d known they weren’t going to spend this cash on signs saying ‘Do not leave rocks in the middle of the road” every 20 kms. Who leaves rocks in the middle of the road? And will the kind of people who do it be able to read signs telling them not to? Aside from that the landscape was fantastic all the way, straight two or one-and-a-half lane highway through desert landscapes with huge cacti and other flora. Occasionally you’d see fauna too, but mainly of the roadkill variety… Another thing to watch for if you’re driving on a straight highway through Mexico, is to cover your left arm. I had a shocking case of trucker’s tan after 3 hours odd of radiation…
We arrived at 6ish and blimey, what a place. You enter through the relatively modern Guadalupe, Zacatecas then suddenly get to Zacatecas, Zacatecas which welcomes you with non-stop ornate architecture, fountains, aqueducts, statues and you name it all in the local pink stone (cantera). It’s like suddenly arriving at a mixture of Seville, Guanajuato and Santiago (Chile) all at once. Various strict regulations on what you can and can’t do with your house mean that even the omnipresent OXXO’s (Mexico’s Spar/7-11) blend in… Sita navigated us to a hotel (La Condesa, $200/night, 3.5 Lulus ) and after dumping our stuff we set out to find a cantina…
View from our hotel
Finding a cantina took us through the centre of the city as the sun began to set and you could watch the cantera take on different shades as you went. As it got darker the UNESCO-funded floodlights lit up the facades of the endless buildings and sights, from the cathedral right up to ‘La Bufa” on top of the hill overlooking the city. La Bufa is the old Spanish word for some kind of entrail or other, because from certain angles if you’re extremely hungry after crossing the desert it looks vaguely like something you might put in a stew. It makes a change from the anthropomorphic names they used in the States, (see Tetons) , ah, les Francais…
We eventually happened upon a cantina with swing doors (they’re the best) called La cantina de refugio or reforma or descanso or somesuch replete with pictures of old Zacatecas and full of very welcoming regulars. No sooner had we ordered our Mezcal (we’re not in Jalisco anymore…) and Coronas than we were asked where we were from and got chatting about 70s English prog-rock. Like you do… One of our new friends was an artist originally from Yugoslavia and t’other a Zapatista union lawyer. To prove his credentials, the artist did a cartoon of us on a napkin. Sarita was looking the other way chatting to someone else so the similarity is fleeting. I like to think I look nothing like the one he did of me. And I also learnt, if you’re going to be drawn for 90 seconds. It’s best not to keep doing something you don’t want in the picture. Stuffing your face with crisps for example… I’ll scan it and post it later. Anyroad, we were invited back to the artist’s house who had a gorgeous view of the cathedral, now fully lit and an extensive CD collection. We stopped for some beers, then he gave us some of his art and persuaded us to follow them round the city to take in more sights.
Through these two well connected Zacatecans we got into the theatre and met some of the musicians who’d played there. We ducked and dived through various little callejones and got to Las Quince Letras cantina. It’s called the 15 letters because there’s 15 letters in ‘Las Quince Letras”. We were starving by this time but managed a round or two as everyone’s communication skills slowly waned. We arranged to meet the next day at the same time and went to a restaurant recommended by everyone even though it was practically empty and ordered our meal. My filet mignon wrapped in bacon wasn’t half bad, nor the avocado and shrimp started. Sita made the mistake of asking for a cactus based dish and wasn’t too impressed. Cacti are not for eating, if you ask me. Basically the only way to prepare them is to boil them until they stop tasting like cactus. Again, this is fine for SAS style survival handbook territory, but if you’re in a restaurant stick to food stuffs which evolved to be eaten not to survive drought and to repell predators…
Stumbling home from the restaurant at midnightish felt a lot like stumbling round Seville because of the lighting, but a lot safer. We found the posada, crashed into bed and watched the latest LOST on my laptop. NB. We didn’t touch the interweb for almost 3 days, and somehow it got along without us. The laptop was along purely as a photo repository.
Shall finish this later… photos round flickr in the interim…
cos it’s a huge waste of time. But it was that or Pacman and we got our taxes done today and had the dog innoculated against every plague going around so I don’t feel too bad… Anyroad, it led me to this page of winning entries for a “Make up a Jack Handey Deep Thought” compo and for that I thank it… almost as good as the old-as-the-hills originals. My faves?
Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.
Once, I wept for I had no shoes. Then I came upon a man who had no feet. So I took his shoes. I mean, it’s not like he really needed them, right?
…and 2 big telly’s worth of cable rubbidge. Furniture’s more or less in the right place. Sita’s got the Huey Dewey Decimal system going in her office. And the dog seems to get on with the neighbours. All is well.
Had a moment when we couldn’t get the shower working, mind. But it turns out you just have to pull the nozzle on the bottom tap down. Remember that if you come and stay, cos washing your hair’s a veritable bugger otherwise.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes again. I’ll reply individually once I get back from t’shops. And Starbucks (7 blocks away), there’ll probably be a nearer one soon enough. We had a luvverly curry last night with co-birthdayee Meg and other Oakland celebrities.
When we went to Tequila on Sunday, Sita noticed a book on display “taken from the new Town History Archive”. This was news to us. So we went back yesterday as it turns out they opened this archive about 6 months ago after months of painstaking cleaning, sorting and databasing of a huge amount of documents that had turned up in various unused rooms of government buildings around the town. Some were in pretty wretched states because of centuries of storage in dank, wormy cellars.
They make for interesting reading once you get your head around the handwriting, antiquated abbreviations and general damage. Added to that, they were big on saving paper and the writing from the other side tends to bleed through to the other. None the less it’s a minor miracle they’re legible at all… The lady in charge of the archive was incredibly helpful and spent a good few hours tellings us about the history of the archive, how to use the database and even read some of the documents to us. I’m currently uploading the video of her reading one of the documents to YouTube, check out my YouTube Channel to see if it’s there yet…
One document from 1705 or so was a letter signed by all the neighbours of a drunk landowner complaining about his behaviour and addiction to the aguardiente (firewater (probably from sugar cane rather than agaves)).
Another team of researchers are looking for evidence that Jose Cuervo isn’t the oldest tequila maker in the world after all, despite their slick promotional video’s claims… I hope they find it, they deserve to be taken down a notch or two…
Anyroad, long story short, there’s a wealth of info that’s going to help young Sita flesh out the remaining chapters of her PhD thesis, and we’ll probably be going back and donning latex gloves many more times. Which is a good thing and no mistake. At least they don’t make you wear hairnets.
After carne en su jugo, a torta ahogada and an on-the-house margarita in our favourite eatery we went round Columpio’s to drop off the photos and a few UK coins. They’d just finished cutting the tips off the agaves in their fields (which I think has to do with concentrating the sugars in the heart of the agave) and were in full swing roasting agave pias. The owner invited us in for drinks but we had to decline as it was getting late (past Atticus’s feeding time) and so we promised we’d be back again in the near future. “Qué Dios les bendiga” he wished us as we drove off through the beautiful agave-studded landscape…
So much to post about last week, so I’ll probably end up not writing anything so just in case, highlights included: putting the world to rights with Roberto, fine eats and DIY with Martin & Sally, painless tax filing with Sally’s accountant, catching up with lots of friends and family, Guelaguetza (sp?) oaxacan restaurant in central LA, Frolf with Matt (FRisbee goLF, although I’m told only newbies call it that as it sounds far too precious), red zinfandel comparative tasting with Meg, boozing with Liz, and hassle-free immigration and dog repatriation. and more I probably forgot. So that’s that for now, on to what inspired me to blog today.
Toilet repairs.
So the downstairs toilet wasn’t filling/flushing right, so I had to repeat the DIY shop experience I had in Santa Cruz a few years back when I went to buy a replacement part. I spent a few minutes explaining what I needed with hand gestures and everything, a flapper thing basically, and the bloke got what I was after. It’s called a flapper. Today I went to Santa Tere to a Tlapaleria (DIY shop, more common than the Spanish Spanish, Ferreteria) and had the same conversation in Spanish. Turns outs it’s called un Flapper. Things they never teach you at school…
Atticus is settling in. He’s going to be sleeping in my office to keep him from barking at the various sounds that occur during the night here (road sweepers, door-to-door salesmen, Ralphy Gutierrez, peripatetic mariachi bands, etc.) He met Juan, the water bloke today and barked away at him. (Bonafont’s just hiked the price up to 23 pesos a garafon and I think Atticus sensed that…) but I’ll forgive him anything after his exemplary behaviour on the plane and in the airports yesterday. As I wrote that he started barking up a storm again… ah well.
For proper blogging, there’s always M & D’s travelogue over at ChiliCatInLa.blogspot.com they’re in Oaxaca… And that’s all for today, glad to be back home again and looking forward to catching up with the Guanatos crowd and seeing all the semana santa shenanigans. Hasta pronto!
One Comment
Still alive, nowhere near Guad Gwyn, I'm having trouble moving on from Peru at the moment, let alone a surprise visit to your doorstep all the way up there. Not had time to catch up on all your latest, but did spot the car with the flag sticking out – I bet you bought that while waiting at traffic lights!
What's going on with Mexican politics – has the election happened yet? Here in Peru they've re-elected some guy called Alan, who was in power many years ago before absconding with the countries money. Now they've re-elected him on the basis that he's a reformed character(!) and the main opposition was a right wing nut job who wanted to wipe out all tourism and homosexuals.
Still alive, nowhere near Guad Gwyn, I'm having trouble moving on from Peru at the moment, let alone a surprise visit to your doorstep all the way up there. Not had time to catch up on all your latest, but did spot the car with the flag sticking out – I bet you bought that while waiting at traffic lights!
What's going on with Mexican politics – has the election happened yet? Here in Peru they've re-elected some guy called Alan, who was in power many years ago before absconding with the countries money. Now they've re-elected him on the basis that he's a reformed character(!) and the main opposition was a right wing nut job who wanted to wipe out all tourism and homosexuals.