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.

New Years Day 2008

We brought in the new year with a trip to an amazing hotsprings outside of San Miguel Allende, called Escondido. There a number of establishments (including a fun water park we went to early on in our stay, Xote,) in this area out side of San Miguel, on the way to Dolores Hidalgo.

We took a bus to San Miguel, then another bus to Dolores, but asked to be let off on the highway near the road where the row of hot springs are.

Shane and Denise a the bus station.

Once we got off the bus, it required a long walk down a dirt road.

I didn’t take many pictures, but the park was very lush and green, with paths winding between little ponds and nice soaking/swimming pools. The main attractions were two series of connected pools, one indoor and one outdoor. I tried to draw a picture. It is from above showing both the roof and what it is inside of the indoor pool.

Enscondido.jpg

The one thing I left out of the drawing was the random couple plastered against the random wall in tender and intimate embrace. Nothing hardcore, just intimacy.

The design was ingenius. The little tunnels let water and people pass back and forth, but generally kept the heat separated. The spouts of water were warm to hot and you could stand under them and get a massage. And the pools were deep enough and big enough to swim in.

We wandered between those pools for a while and then found a grassy spot near a warm, outdoor pool to picnic. Mikko spent most of the rest of the time playing in that pool, while we took turns wandering back into the indoor pools.

Mikko and Denise are floating.

Poor Shane was getting sick and we had thought that the hot springs would be good for him, but the wind was quite strong and midway though our time the sun went behind a cloud and the temperature dropped considerably.

We decided to take a taxi back to Guanajuato, which cost 45 dollars. It was worth the convenience of not having to take a few buses,

especially when Shane was so miserable.

When we arrived in Guanajuato the temperature was in the 30s and there was a stong, frigid wind blowing. We finished out the day at the place that Carlyn and Steve had been house/pet sitting on a snuggly couch with a cat and some dogs and a big TV.

All in all, a lovely way to bring in the New Year.