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Ethan and Anna-Marie's Roof Top

     I'm not going to dwell on the funk I feel whenever I return from Mexico, but it takes me a week or two to get readjusted to a world without color, and noise. In Mexico all of your senses are used to their fullest. Standing on the roof at my friends home, looking out across the city I see homes that are painted bright yellow, red, aqua marine, and purple. Government buildings are painted deep red, or gold, as are the half dozen churches. Could you imagine the shit you'd catch if you painted your house purple and bright gold. Your neighbors would freak, you'd get nasty phone calls in the middle of the night, and your dog might go missing. Then there's the noise. One night during Cervantino I lay in bed, it's maybe 1:00 am, and the air is thick with music. From up the street I can hear house music coming from a disco. From across the canyon a live band is playing at another club, and from parts unknown I can make out a mariachi band blasting away. And below, or mixed into this like jalapeño peppers in the salsa, is the sounds of people coming and going, cheering for the music, or their laughter amongst friends. I lay there in bed knowing full well that I won't be sleeping that night, but some how it doesn't matter, it's Mexico

Storm Troopers

Sunday in Guanajuato

Callejone (little street)

Guanajuato

When ever I travel I always say before I leave "I wonder who I'll meet" and with out exception I always meet someone worth mention. On this trip I met three people who fit the category.

First there is Eric and Christina Miranda. Eric has a restaurant on the corner of Positos and Juan Valle, and Christina has an art gallery/store, also on Positos...this is in the city of Guanajuato. But their passion is their tour business. Sitting with Eric in his restaurant his enthusiasm for his tour and travel company is real. He proudly shows me the many YouTube videos of groups he has lead to places all over Mexico. But the thing that really gets him going are the school groups that he takes on camping trips. So if any of you get interested, and I hope you do, here is a link to his company.

                                                   http://mundomexico.mx

But the person who takes the award this trip for being so very cool is a woman who I met while waiting for my flight in the Leon airport.

I love to travel. I love to see new museums, and to wander around the streets of a city I've never been to before. But sometimes I think that these chance, random encounters are the thing I like the most.

I believe she said her name was Verna, and that she was from Minnesota. She had only ever been to Cancun, and had just spent the last seven days in San Miguel de Allende at a conference. Verna struck up a conversation with me about the round drum cymbal bag I was carrying, and it just went from there. It was like as though she was just looking for someone to tell her story to, about all the wonderful things she had seen and her enthusiasm for all of it. I let her go on about the beauty of San Miguel, and the wonderful restaurants she had eaten at. She showed me the videos she shot in a school class room getting kids to say in English, because she spoke no spanish, that they would go to college. Finally she took a breath and asked me what I was doing there, and I told her about Guanajuato, and the Cervantino festival. I could see at once what was happening. In seven days her perceptions of Mexico had been completely changed. She asked me question like "wait, what's the name of this festival?"and "it's been going on for 41 years?"

San Miguel de Allende

Verna if you read this I have to tell you that if I never get any friends to travel down here with me it won't matter because you got it. The noise, and smells, and wild colors weren't an annoyance, they were the texture, the things to remember. You traveled to Mexico and felt the warmth, and hospitality, and it does my heart good to know that. I hope our paths cross again.