My second to the last day in Guanajuato

Because the car buying trip took so long, we have put off our departure one day, that still only gives me two days back instead of three, to get everything packed up and do some reflective wandering, preparing to say goodbye. Yesterday turned out to be a lovely day of doing both of those things.

It was Mikko’s last day of school and his class has been rehearsing for a play that the class will perform on Saturday. Matthew and I came up to see a rehearsal, so that Mikko could have the experience of performing it. He was the rain and he did an excellent job, which I wasn’t able to capture here.

After the play I needed to go get my blood drawn for the last time here, so I walked down our callejon into town.

I had a gordita and fresh squeezed orange juice from the first gordita ladies we ever went to – oh so long ago. Delish.

I bought some flowers around the corner at the Baratillo, for the lady who draws my blood.

After my blood draw and saying goodbye to the señora, I headed down to the market to buy some blankets to protect the car seats. There was a march/demonstration going on which always warms my heart. I believe the issue was living wages. There was sign that said something about $50 is not enough. I asked the women $50 for what, and she said monthly.

Then I bought a mix of fruit with chili and lime – and ate it.

I took the funicular home, because I had forgotten my camera earlier and had already gone up the stairs once, plus I wanted to buy some things at the tourist stands at the top, but they were all closed.

I came home and packed a bunch and puttered and at 2:00 Matthew and I went back up to Mikko’s school for a celebration of San Juan. There was a story and a circle dance…

and jumping over the fire. leaping into the future and leaving the bad stuff behind.

We came home and chilled and packed some more – I found another dog on a rooftop.

There was an excellent rain storm – that let up, just when we were getting hungry and deciding to go eat.

It rains so hard and so fast that all the garbage gets washed to the bottom of the callejon.

We had dinner in a fancyish restaurant on the Jardin – I swear this is candid.

Matthew took off for a pulque date and Mikko and I wandered around town doing some errands. The light was beautiful. Here are some of the things that we saw.

All in all a pretty nice second to that last day. Today is packing and cleaning and hopefully having some wine with a friend. Some kids in the neighborhood have signed on to help us carry stuff up the hill to the car early early in the morning.

This has been an amazing, life changing experience. I have met wonderful people and gotten to experience a wonderful way of life. I met my goal of being comfortable talking on the phone in Spanish- or at least not absolutely terrified of it. I believe too that I will be able to work with students and parents coming from Mexico with a much fuller understanding of where they are coming from – and that can only make things better. It is hard saying goodbye to everyone – and everyone asks immediately, “So when will you return?” All we can say is some day.

We are unhooking the internet in a few hours to return the equipment. Thanks to all of you have left comments and to everyone who looks at my blog and makes those blogstats rise. It is nice to know that I am sharing this experience with so many people.

I’m hoping to post some from the road – but who knows if I actually will get it together.

Buying the car

So, last Monday, the 16th I left to buy a car in the states to bring back down, so we could pack it up and drive home. The hope was to return with a groovy, resellable station wagon by Friday. Turns out that wasn’t very realistic. My wonderful, helpful, generous and kind man friend, Tom came to help check out the car and to drive part of the way back through Mexico with me.

He met me in Ciudad Juarez with this crazy red, gutless rental car that we used for the week. (This picture is actually taken somewhere between Albuquerque and El Paso.)

We drove straight up to New Mexico where I had learned, on the internets, that there was a bigger variety of cars for sale – it seems that in Texas most people are selling pickup trucks.

From the get-go nothing happened particularly smoothly. Even buying a pay as you go cell phone, which was my first task – took a number of tries. BUT we found a great car for a good price quickly, in very pretty countryside 45 minute out of Santa Fe.

After some delays with getting the money to the seller Wednesday afternoon I was ready to title it and drive home to Mexico the next morning.

It turns out though, that unless you live in the state where you are getting the title, you can’t get a title, so I got a 10 day temporary New Mexico registration, (the longest that they give.)

We shot back down to El Paso (a 5 hour drive.) We didn’t want to buy the mandatory Mexican insurance which they sell at the border and find out at customs 30 km. away that we didn’t have the right papers or had done something wrong, so we decided to go to the consulate to make sure we had everything we needed Thursday morning. After standing in a long line – we were given a phone number to call. I called and told the woman my situation and she told me that there was no way to get permit for the car to be in Mexico, because they only give 6 month permits and my car wasn’t registered for that long. In a panic, we went to a Texas DMV to see if I could title the car there – but no, they only give 30 day temporary registrations. I called Oregon DMV to see if I could title it long distance – he said, (very slowly,) that he supposed so and after telling me everything I had to do said it would take 4 to 6 weeks.

I was devastated, defeated and downtrodden and it was around 100+ degrees out. We decided to get a hotel for one more night and figure out what the hell we were going to do. I was thinking of all the possible alternatives for how to get all of our crap home and deal with this new car and still be able to see some of the world between Guanajuato and Portland and not lose a lot of money. There weren’t many. Then I realized that all of this disaster and devastation, (of my little life,) was because of what one person said in one telephone call. So I called back and asked again. This time the person said she was sure it was possible and gave me another number to call and that person said, “No problem.” With renewed hope, we rushed straight to the Texas DMV, got a 30 day registration, there was an insurance place next door, so we got the Mexican insurance and bright and early the next morning got across the border with a permit for 87 days.

Oh my god!! That was a happy day. And I was driving in Mexico!! It isn’t as scary as it looks.

We spent that night in a very pretty little town called Jimenez, a few hours south of Chihuahua.

It was so wonderful to be back in Mexico after 4 days of strip malls and Holiday Inns.

On the advise of a woman at the bank machine we had a delicious breakfast of Nescafe, pork burritos and carrot/beet juice in this bus. It really was delicious! And so clever. And very nice people.

We drove another 8 hours south to the beautiful Zacatecas.

Tom and I parted ways on Sunday morning and I was on my own for the next 5 hours or so on the open road.

When I got home I parked near the Pipila where the car will stay until we drive it away loaded with nine months worth of stuff, a dog and three Oregonians. Butch was HUGE after my 6 days away, the boys were excited about the car and the rootbeer I brought and that we are that much closer to leaving.

This last week…

has mostly consisted of a number of school visits for me and making plans for going home.

We have decided to leave the last week in June and drive home. I’ll be going up to Texas to buy a car to drive back. It turns out buying a car in Mexico to take back to the states is prohibitively expensive, because it would not only need to meet US emission requirements but safety requirements too, which would mean rebuilding the bumpers or something.

Now that we have a plan – I am letting myself think about all my friends and my home and getting very excited to return. It will be very bittersweet leaving here. I have loved it so much – but plan to figure out ways to return.

Here are some pix of the week:

We discovered the fun of combining bubbles and puppies.

We had a party on Saturday and played a very fun intergenerational game of Werewolf.

There have been a number of parades – the people I have asked are not sure what the occasion is.

I spent a few days observing in sixth and first grade classrooms.

And got some nice pix on a walk down a nearby callejon.