Mexico and all of it's random glory

November 7th, I decided to spend the day running around el centro, to stop by the post office and stop at the school to inquire about some spanish-refresher courses. Of course neither were open, so I got distracted walking around el centro taking a million photos. I stopped by Embajadores, the big open air market where you can buy anything from produce, to second hand clothing, small electronics etc. I asked this nice man if I could take photos of his strawberries, and he wanted to arrange them for me before taking a photo. :) Such a sweetie-pop.
He did a really nice job.



My experience so far is that Mexican kids love to have their pictures taken. Take a close look at this one... (double click the image.) This is the school I went to last summer, La Escuela de Idiomas.

Next stop was El Museo de los Pueblos. There were three shows, one of which was a series of miniatures. For some reason, they theme of masks has been showing up in my life over the past year, and here in Mexico, there is an abundance. I have two really creepy ones hanging in my room, they are also on the side of my house. (The main photo of the blog.)
The museum alone was so beautiful that I spent over 2 hours wondering around taking photos.
Guanajuato is a photographer's dream, with the rich, warm colors and crap load of natural lighting.
You can see Pipila in the top left corner! Pipila is the giant statue that hovers over (and protects, of course) the town of GTO.
This guy was taking tickets at the entrance of the museum.


My favorite shot of the day!
After the museum, I decided to take a street I didn't recognize and just walk around. I passed this adorable looking restaurant that had a Heinekan sign! For those who don't know, I've been on an intense journey to find good beer in Mexico. So far; no luck. I popped my head in, so excited, and asked the bar tender what other beers they had and he ran through the usual list, Sol, Corona, Victoria, Negro Modelo, blah blah. I zoned out waiting for something different. "Si, pero tiene Heineken?" The poor guy watched my face drop as he told me they didn't really have Heineken, only a Heineken sign. At this point I was so disappointed, I forgot to speak in Spanish. "Well, do you know anywhere I can get a good, dark beer?" He spoke back in broken english, "Em, there is a bar, se llama Desmund's bar, y I zink they sell weird beers there..."

Desmund's is an "Irish" bar that sells all Mexican food and all Mexican beer except, dum dum duuuuum, Guinness! You can guess my desperation if I was excited about a Guinness, but anything is better than the usual Mexican beer, which tastes more like ginger-ale, mixed with budlight, mixed with watered-down urine. So I ordered a Guinness, sat down, took a sip. The soft, subtle, thick, creamy goodness was enough to melt me in my bar stool.

Tuning back into reality, I noticed a guy and girl talking about salsa dancing. Of course, I interrupted and asked him where I could get lessons in town, and where to dance that didn't start at 3 am. The guy, Pollo, was salsa instructor and gave me a lot of useful information, including the name of the place where I'm taking lessons now. (Since then, I have seen Pollo dance and he is INCREDIBLE.) He introduced me to his friend Ashley, from Oregon and we somehow got on the conversation of how Ashley is his girlfriend, no she's not because he's really gay. Huh? Was he kidding? Because he seemed gay to me, but then he was talking about all the girlfriends he had, and all the girls that he had cheated on.

Not sure, anyway, I love people that tell you intimate details of their sex life within the first 15 minutes of meeting. But turns out we did have one big thing in common: Heartbreak; and the fact we were all going through it. Needless to say, two Guinnesses later, we were all best buds.

Then Pollo tells me, "Oh, be careful, those Guinness are really expensive." Huh?

They cost almost $7US a piece. Sigh.

(Listening to: Pinback, Blue Screen Life, for the first time in a LONG time.)