SANDY'S AMAZING MEXICO
Dearest Friends & Family,
Life in SMA seems to be going along rather smoothly now. Or maybe not every day:)
Sugar had to pay a guy under the table to run a telephone line into the casa and we now have a co-axel cable sticking out of the wall of Sugars' office, but still have no phone line or internet. The guy should be here today, but as of yet no go. So for real internet we still go to the Italian Coffee Company down the street. Nice girls there and of course they even know what we drink without us ordering! It is the equivalent of the Mexico Starbucks, but not as good of course.
Last Friday a couple of ladies that we know (the Pickle Ladies of the Pickle Ball couples) invited me to go along with them and a tour guide to a couple of the semi-local tourist destinations in and around Guanajuato.
It was a 10 hour trip in his van and it cost each of us $40.00 for the day.
First we went to a glass etching factory and candle company.
The candles are paraffin and made by hand pouring the hot wax over and over the wick. Very primitive but effective.They export to USA and who knows where else. It is called the Santa Rosa Glass factory. Nice guy who owns it with his mother (ill) is from Dallas, went to Skyline High School and is handicapped. He only has the upper parts of his arms and probably scoliousis (sp) and has part of his face/mouth that doesn't work. Really a delightful guy, smiling all the time and telling you all sorts of tales. What they do there is inport the glassware from elsewhere in Mexico and etch the patterns on it here. They almost exclusively hire handicapped people. One young woman we met and saw etching the glass has NO ARMS! You read that correctly, no arms of any sort. She holds the glasses with her feet. She sits on a stool level with the grinding machine, holds the glass with her feet, rotates it, turns it over, etc using her feet and toes. It is absolutely mind blowing! She just sits there smiling and working away. I bought 8 wine glasses for $5.00 each. Heavy glass. Also got Sugar another tea pitcher and a couple of glasses with multi-colored speckles all over them for about $15 for the set.
So after we all piled back into the van we headed to Santa Rosa the town, not to be confused with the Glass Factory:)
Climbing high up into the mountains we finally reached 9,200 feet!! The views were beyond spectualous (sp)!!!! Breath taking. We passed a little restaurant hanging on the side of the cliff and did a U-turn to get back there. There were yellow calla lilies hanging along the patio railing and the most beautiful hydrangas you have ever seen! Waist high and in full bloom. Around the back they had ferns hanging that were as big as a dinner table. It looked like we were in Switzerland! We picked our table and sat down to order when two kitten ran through the open air restaurant. We all of course loved it and told the owners we were just fine with that! Food was really good.
Back into the van and we go maybe 10 miles to the factory in Santa Rosa. Oh, my heavens!!!!!!!!! It wasn't real cheap, but fabulous stuff and lots of it. The picture is of a vase with top and it is sitting in our fireplace in the living room. Fishes painted on three sides with a mat finish. Just georgous! - PS. of course they had a petty grand bunny that just hopped into the van also:)
On to Guanajuato.
There is a very famous artist who works in clay making dishes, pots etc. We visited his gallery and he did have some nice work. Not my style though (thank heavens) so I left empty handed.
We drove through the tunnels of Guanajuata, one of which is over 400 years old. These tunnels run under historic centro and are lonnnggggg!
Chipped out of the rock, they go every which way When it floods, which it has not done for 20 or 30 years it reaches the ceiling of the tunnels. Massive amount of water. It came a quick rain while we were there and the water pouring down to the tunnels looked like waterfalls!
We were tuckered by then so we were going back to SMA when we ran through a little town that seemed to have cute stuff on the street and cactus plants! So we stopped and everyone wanted a snack. They ended up eating another lunch buffet, I only had a glass of juice. (Aren't I good:)). We went to the cactus place and I was the only who imbibed! Came home with about 8 new cactus to beef up my depleted cactus collection, because I had to leave them in Texas.
Finally got back to SMA around 7:30 to find Sugar and the pickle guys at The Beer Company doing karoke!!! The Beer Co is not as large as our big dining room in Calvair! How can you get that many people in there is beyond me! Sugar and I had two glasses of white wine and they ran out. As our friends said, "It's not the Wine Company"! So we came home and slept like rocks. A fine day had by all.
Election day was Sunday so no alcohol is sold anywhere for Saturday or Sunday. Police presence was everywhere. I think they take it pretty seriously. Still don't know who won, but y'all probably do. If so, let us know.
Many other things happening, but only so much time. Big parade this Sunday. Quite a do they all say, I'll let you know.
Much love and hugs to the USA!
Sandy & Sugar
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