The vacation was very successful in relaxing the both of us. From the photos, you can see we packed a lot into the trip. What's not in the photos is the overall calmness we had. This week, we've tried hard to hold on to that feeling. It's now Friday and I'm still feeling it. Here are some other things not depicted in the gallery.
People: Everyone we spoke to was nice. We never heard or saw a mean spirited person, except when glancing the TV from time to time. One day we were walking about three quarters of a mile to the ruins from the main road. The Gatorade delivery guy pulled over and gave us a ride the rest of the way. Always a smile. I give a lot of credit to Yvonne, who translated the whole time. I did my best to avoid speaking English out of courtesy, but I can't hold a conversation.
Cannons: In both cities, they fired cannons everyday. In Xacatecas, the first round was 6am in the morning. The first day, I thought I was home and someone fired the shotgun again. heh ... awkward silence ... But the cannons continued through the day, another long round about 7pm. In Gaunajauto, they only fired them at night around dinner time. At that point, we barely noticed. They also rang the church bells around the same time, which was nice. We saw one boy trying to ring the bell. He had to fall to the ground holding the rope to get any noise. He hands it to a larger boy, who rang it with one hand.
Food: The food was exceptionally good. The only food I avoided was fruit and Italian food. Not sure why, but we haven't been craving Italian lately. So we ate lots of tacos and heavy breakfasts. I had to adjust to eating before 11am, but the daily activity helped burn the fuel. Highlight was special tacos made by Yvonne's senorita.
Rain: It rained almost every day we were there, with the strongest storms towards the end. Our host in Guanajauto, Pita, was carrying buckets around one night. She later told Yvonne her entire bedroom floor was wet. The house was 300 years old...Some of the rain followed us back to Dallas, which relieved the a little of drought stress.
Loot: We managed to stay below the customs amount of goods we brought back, but still had a lot. Two leather jackets, the ceramics, gifts for several people and more. The toughest part was hauling the ceramics back to the hotel, about a mile walk from the bus, mostly uphill. We used the two boxes as carry-ons, but had to check them at the gate. Somehow, we managed to get all that stuff back unbroken.
Return: The day of the trip home, I began to really miss the dogs (and cat). I'm going to miss them a little when I no longer work from home. I stressed about the pile of things that built up at work, but I probably didn't need to worry about it at all. The return was smooth enough and now we're back in our routines.
Boneshakers: We rode last night, three riders strong. Next week, we may be up to four riders.
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