Shopping Walking Reading Eating Listening

Today started out by saying goodbye to new friends Victoria and Gianna as they took the bus back to Mexico City, Victoria's home. Gianna will continue on to Indiana for a birthday celebration, then home to Las Vegas. Maria Teresa was feeling better this morning so she headed over to the Instituto for her painting class.

I went over to the Mercado de San Juan de Dios a block away from Casa de la O. It was mostly a food and clothing market, not what I was interested in. On the way to another market, I stopped at Templo de San Juan de Dios, which is right behind the B&B.



Along the way I noticed these two fine establishments. I've been told they are not intended for the gringo tourist trade.




I walked over to the Mercado de Artesanias on Calle Colegio. In addition to food and other necesities, they have many arts & crafts vendors. I bought a few things there last year.




I wound up getting 3 rugs from 2 different vendors. These are from the Oaxaca region and very finely made (not sure if they are hand or machine-made, I suspect hand-made with machine assistance). The total came to $1650.00 pesos, or about $152.00 USD. This is why I left extra room in my luggage for the return trip.



With new rugs in hand I went to the jardin to catch up on the news with an english language paper from Mexico City. Being San Miguel does not make the news more charming.



The iron benches in the jardin look great but I can only last about an hour. So I walked back to the B&B to drop off the rugs. The bouganvilla out front looked pretty good in the sun.



Then back to the jardin to meet up with Maria Teresa and to head over to La Azotea (the rooftop) again for dinner. Not a sunset yet but the view is great. (A nod to Maggie as I am just trying to duplicate her image from the same spot.)



I had the Chapata de Arrachera, which is chapata bread with arrachera (flank) beef and cheese, plus fries. Probably the best beef sandwhich I've ever had. Oh, and the Negra Modelo was good, too.



After dinner we went over to Bellas Artes for a lecture by Diana Anhalt. She is the author of the book "A Gathering of Fugitives: American Political Expatriates in Mexico 1948-1965." In 1950 when she was 8, her parents abruptly moved from New York to Mexico City. They never told her exactly why, but her father was involved with the communist party in America. During the McCarthy era, many Americans fled to Mexico. Some didn't stay long, but Anhalt's parents lived in Mexico until their last few years. Very interesting.