Memorial Day Weekend

It just so happened that we had big plans and lots of exciting things on Memorial Day weekend, even though that isn’t a holiday here.

Mikko and Matthew and Seamus went camping on the Presa Peralillo. Some friendly fellows came with a boatload of kids, fishing poles and an air gun. They shared it all.

Butch and I stayed home and defrosted the fridge!!! I listened to NPR streaming through my computer, real loud. It was heaven.

Then on Sunday night the boys came home and Little Mary Wheeler flew in from Portland!!

On Monday we went to Escondido, hotsprings outside of San Miguel. This is the only picture from there.  I’d just like to point out - water distorts things.

We had a fabulous time waiting for the bus, with beers, and cards and an amazing girl who chatted, took pictures and played with us while her mother read at a nearby table.

Monte San Nicolas

A while ago, a new friend, Liz, took me to a small community outside of Guanajuato to see a three room, 1st-6th grade school. Unfortunately there was some holiday that closed public schools, that we didn’t know about so I just literally saw the school. I didn’t get to see teachers and kids.

The town is Monte San Nicolas and it was a mining town way back when. Now, the mine has closed and it is just a struggling little place on a dirt road about 10 miles from Guanajuato. It is quite beautiful though and there is a very lovely church that is being restored.

(Coincidentally, there was an article about the town last Sunday in the local paper.)

The old school.

New school, which was built a few years ago.

The town is incredibly old and there are ruins that are being preserved.

We drove through Santa Rosa on the way home, which is actually on the highway and Liz took me to this bakery, where they have the best bolillos around in the wood fired oven.  Bolillos are a white bread rolls that are ideally crusty on the outside and soft and bready  on the inside.  They also had a flaky pastry that was just like a croisant, except for the shape.  So GOOD.  The bakery has been in the family for years and is just a door with no sign so you need to know it to go.  It basically looked more like a mechanic’s garage than a bakery, but they sure make good stuff.