We went out at 9 for dinner and walked on through the town.
out the front door and look right down Calle Roque
El Templo San Roque on the left
walk down the hill, look back at our Casa Azul at the corner of Galarza
the copying shop downstairs still looking after students
late in the evening
in the plaza in front of San Roque
down the hill into the Jardin Reforma
dine in the Jardin Reforma
walk back up past San Roque
and on towards...
Plaza San Fernando with its restaurants
and head down to Avenida Benito Juarez
... Benito Juarez, such a man, such an example of Mexico
past fine things
past the legislative building and up towards the
Plaza de la Paz and the Basilica
buy the gelato and sit here
these guys come to get gelatos too
and then we get to meet the family from Chiapas
pass the basilica
look down El Truco, remember lunch at #7
and down to the action at the Jardin Union
with Pipila looking down from the hill and a car going by in one of the underground roads...
That's exactly where we came to the surface in Guanajuato a week ago.
It's extraordinary coming into town through narrow tunnels made with mine digging equipment, arriving at a crossroads underground, cars and buses giving way.
poses with a strange figure outside Teatro Juarez, built during the 'Porfiriato' of Porfirio Diaz, such a combination of dictator, reformer, determinedly modern
both times we passed by the Plaza de la Paz she was sitting thinking
such finery, such attendants.
We see these women, one at a time only, escorted, dressed so
... but we don't know what is celebrated
You see (or I see) the big blue sign WC and duck in.
Pay $MEX5 for the privilege and a supply of paper
while one's consort gets to watch Tom and Jerry
Days in the window and not taken home!
restaurants pack up
we head back up through San Fernando
swinging through the Plaza San Roque we catch the last musical moment of the evening.
Yes, ragged and tired; the Mariachi band has led this audience
all around the town for a couple of hours, probably paying and signing on at the Jardin Union.
and back up Calle San Roque to our Blue House at #7
—————————————
... and to go back to the beginning,
this video below
was our first intriguing look at Guanajuato.
No one in Australia we knew had heard of Guanajuato.
I showed this video to people and over time I began to feel it had to be
a bit fake, it had to be a gloss, it had to overstate.
But no, this is really very much the place we found
Somos en Mexico. Somos en nuestra casa azul en el Calle San Roque. Es la mañana de domingo. Un milagro de la vida!
Last night, Saturday night.
EXTRA fiestas, EXTRA mariachis.
click on any image to enlarge all
This wonderful house has entry at ground, then bed and bath first (non-USA counting) floor, living, kitchen and dining on second floor, then big flat roof. See the blue arrow and blob I've put on this map.
at the other end of town
people know this casa azul
The house is on a corner. Saturday night the mariachis and their gatherings of singing and dancing folk come down past windows of bedroom or living room and round the corner to windows of bathroom and kitchen,
See on the map the green line with arrows of the mariachi route. Down past us and round our corner.
And down 50 metres to the Plaza San Roque from which their continuing performances for swelling crowds lift to our room. Some of it sounds like girls at Beatles concerts in the 1960s. Wonderful sounds, dwindling from 10.30pm to 11.30pm.
In the night, little reminders that indeed we are in Mexico: the occasional fireworks, the occasional dog-on-a-veranda. Helen observes that Guanajuato dogs all smile, a smile she has not seen elsewhere.
At 6.30 this morning, the bells of San Roque began. A serious local church summoning the faithful. Repeatedly... as did other churches nearby.
I write now at 8.15am. They are fine bells, again.
Some people who move to the country in Australia complain about cows and calves calling each other in the night, or roosters calling the dawn.
seguramente usted entiende que
solo yo guao cortésmente
These are all sounds of place.
Our neighbouring dogs, just across the lane, right in front of our living room window, are not barking, they are very civilised, seldom aroused, gentle and loved.
The barks in this moment are from perhaps dogs living above busier streets far off.
we've never seen a dog bark in the street
Birds tweet.
Today we must go and see a polling place for the elections, probably at a school.
Yesterday in the afternoon we went down the hill, into the Templo San Roque, on down to the Jardin Reforms, along to the Mercado Hidalgo and westward into less touristy places on Avenida Benito Juarez.
the baroque is everywhere, with Mexican colour
inside San Roque
a serious, local working church, off the big-tourist-church map
outside, on the church steps, a private-as-you-can-find space
It needs to be appreciated that in Mexico this is not 'fringe' or 'Goth'
In the spiritual life of Mexicans the dead are with us and their existence celebrated,
and they are not lost.
These are big characters
CHULO = pimp BONITA = beauty
peaceful afternoon in the Jardin Reforma
from the Jardin to Avenida Juarez
and the grand entrance to the Mercado Hidalgo
where there is more food shopping downstairs, some artesanal things upstairs
Also upstairs, four month old Fernando and his proud dad.
We see a lot of men in charge of babies and young children.
Such a grand art deco cinema! It could be in California... if it wasn't so colourful.
a multicultural, multiethnic world, so many people with such strength of character
la cocina cinese
this is such a wonderful 'corner shop'
... its awning like a dancer's skirt
... and it's roof? Well, as Helen noted, suitable for one pigeon only please.
I am a public telephone, listen to me, speak to me.
I am just an everyday wall in Mexico.
Here you can learn to dance, romantically
here we organise your deaths, dramatically, one by one
