Out and about a bit

I took a little drive Friday to Celaya about 60 km south of SMA and on Saturday drove to Dolores Hidalgo about 45 km north. Celaya is not worth it other than to remind what an Oasis is SMA but I got a look from above at the reservoir that supplies water for these parts. I checked out some shops along the way. Dolores Hidalgo is more interesting and is a center for pottery making.

There is no end of pottery and tile available in every imaginable shape and size and much of it very attractive and at reasonable cost. There are also many roadside spots selling iron, stone and pottery garden and patio furniture, fountains and other decorative items. Also in many of the pottery places they are featuring pottery jack-o-lanterns.

I stopped at a nursery and met the owner. I mistook him for a gringo but he was Mexican even though his name would not indicate. He took pains to mention the high quality of his pots due to their firing and that he would soon be licensed to carry more serious bug and pest control products. His name - Germain MacGregor. (I didn’t notice this until I got back.) He had a wide variety of nice plants and is clearly cashing in on the building boom going on around him offering a full range of services from plain plants to full landscaping.

I stopped at a number of pottery shops on Saturday and took a few pics on both days which are posted below.

I also stopped in on a furniture maker (one of many) who was making solid wood Mexican furniture characterized by hand carving and dark stain. Some of it is quite nice but certainly not free; nor do you want to be carting it very far as it is made from a tight grained, dense local wood that weighs a ton. The road and Celaya itself (its a cow town) was hot and dusty and there were a couple of detours on the way due to bridge construction. I finally got fed up and stopped at a roadside buffet in a little town and had a late lunch. I got to see the proprietor making corn tortillas and frying them up on her tortilla grill. What exactly was in the buffet was a bit of a mystery but it was tasty – rice, carrots, green beans and peppers, pork and onions, deep fried peppers among other things.

I stopped in at the “Gigante” – a giant supermarket as the name suggests, just outside of town and bought a nice big bottle of Mexican rum, ($11) as the scotch has, alas, run out. I noticed in the process some rather tempting Mexican Cabernet Sauvignon out of Baja California for $3. I am sure I will get around to trying it.

Dog stayed home to guard the room and stay cool. Everyone quite likes him here and he of course thinks he runs the whole complex and is busy monitoring all of the comings and goings whenever he is out of the room. He has taken over policing the place as “Bobby”, the hotel mascot, is quite tired due to his advanced years. The “tartita”, as Malice-Alice referred to the feline featured in a recent photo, is not. He is all male and is in full command of his kingdom.

A couple more people have come into our lives but Stevie and Loretta (the New York city teachers – retired) are the coolest. They have only been married a few years – she for the first time and he for the second – although his first was for only a month or so. They have known each other since they were kids. Stevie missed Woodstock because on his way out there it started to rain and he assumed it would be cancelled. Loretta traveled overland from London to Malaysia and from Rio to Caracas when she was a bit younger which sort of says what kind of person she is.

Brian and Joyce have been coming back and forth to SMA over the last ten years and are thinking of buying a place. Brian seems a lot keener than does Joyce. Brian was born in Ireland. I don’t think they are ever going to make up their minds whether to stay or go back to Virginia.

Brenda has been living in Mexico off and on for more than twenty years about ten of them in SMA. She is going back to Tennessee tonight to be with her sick and aging parents but fully intends to come back and live here. She has bought a lot and intends to build a house on it.

Jan is at this hotel because she found ants in her bed at the apartment she is renting. She is negotiating with the landlord her interest in cutting short the lease, as she would in any case like to find a place closer in. She went down to a local school and landed a job today doing volunteer English language teaching. She knits constantly and is planning on taking some art classes since she knows she has some creative genes in her given her relatives who are all in the art business. She has a daughter in Shanghai writing a book and teaching English.

Karen is from the Okanogan and has been in SMA for 9 years. Loves it. She designs and builds houses. She is on her fourth. Ah, to be 25 years younger.

Turns out that Michael (the Brit who speaks like Winston Churchill with hair) is a bit of a bore but he is so omnipresent around here that he cannot be avoided. He has a number of issues he is dealing with and insists on everyone sharing every agonizing twist in his life’s saga. In addition to the condo with no roof he has a number of health issues he likes to go on about at length. He is also taking Spanish lessons and wants us all to know precisely how painful it is – given his short term memory and all. He is convinced there is money laundering going on with the crowd that has moved into their condo complex in the Cayman’s and is determined to expose them. He is tracing his ancestry and is trying to locate a great aunt he thinks knows something about his mother’s background before she met his father in China. He has still not sorted out his visa issues and delights in recounting his entire day, usually supplemented by recently developed photos – including ones of him in the altogether – a sorry sight and readers will be glad I don't have one to post. The good news is that he invariably brings a nice bottle of wine to lunch and is happy to share it.