Keith with Loreta displaying a piece of artwork we purchased from the artist

 Guanajuato is a wonderful place to wander. 

The city is over 500 years old built between and up a rocky valley. Residents use narrow steep alley walkways to get to their homes which are built one atop another. 


Our 'own' apartment here is about 15 minutes walk away from the historical center. 

The owners are collectors of Mexican art and the living space that we are enjoying is full of color & character. We feel very lucky to be staying here this week!

Twice we have boarded buses for day trips.





 First to nearby Valenciana famous for this beautiful basilica and a silver mine which at one time supplied the world with 40% of it's silver. 

Many little shops & artist workshops line the walk from the church to the mine, which is now a museum. In one shop we spoke with this potter who produces nearly 600 tiny pots an hour as did his father & grandfather before him.

Our other bus ride (just over an hour away) took us to the 'cradle of Mexican independence', Dolores Hildago. 




It was a typical Mexican town with a lovely plaza in the center honoring Father Hildago surrounded by the town's main church & other important civic buildings. 


We had a great Spanish lesson coming home sitting next to a retired teacher from Leon who spoke so quickly our brains hurt after the discussion!

Each day we spend some time in the center of Guanajuato along with a throng of mostly Mexican tourists exploring the tiny alleys around the amazing architecture. 

Tonight for the New Years celebration we will go to Plaza de la Paz for a free event which will include music & fireworks.

After a bit of a delay, 5 days in total, we safely arrived in Guanajuato located in the center of Mexico's colonial heartland. It rained yesterday & is sprinkling now, but the sky will clear & we expect the sun will come out tomorrow.

Our delay is a story of unfortunate events... We were unable to travel on the 21st of December due to mechanical problems which delayed the plane to Dallas enough that making our connection was impossible. All airlines were full on Saturday & Sunday, so we opted to try again on Monday, the 23rd. However, complications arose.
Dear JaneHeart had driven us to the airport but we chose to take Trax home for an adventure, which it was when we got off the first train to transfer and I realized my backpack was no longer hooked to my body! Oh, my! Not only is the backpack an important part of our very cool Eagle Creek travel gear but it contained my iPad, Nook, and all of our travel arrangements!
After getting ourselves home, Keith went to fetch Ariel Dale from Shana's care while I panicked over what I had lost. For a moment I was able to track the location of my iPad until I decided to clear all my data from the iPad which instantly disconnected my beloved, luckily second-hand, electronic toy from my account.
The next day, I went to school to recopy the pages from our Mexico travel guides and upon returning to Keith's Beetle found it dead as a doornail. Luckily it wasn't a permanent situation, like my own Beetle, and I was graciously rescued by the security person from Jordan School District. My bad luck had rubbed off on him, his jumper cables were not in the district truck so he ventured out to borrow some and had me up-and-running in no time!
After another bad omen for the trip, I decided that maybe I had been cursed because I had chosen to have little Vivien's grandparents miss her first Christmas so I changed the flight for Thursday, the day after Christmas. Once that happened everything improved 110%!!
We spent Christmas Eve afternoon at Southtowne VW driving home a beautiful brown 2013 Beetle to replace mine and had dinner at an Indian restaurant with Lyndz, Dave & darling Vivien Nyx. Earlier in the afternoon Keith and I went to Kid-to-Kid to find a little something more for the baby and found a giant Radio Flyer horse which she will enjoy in a few years (Keith totally loves it now!).
Surprising some of the family, we had dinner with the Stewarts, it was a great dinner and very relaxing afternoon. Vivien was the star attraction!

JaneHeart took us back to the airport on Thursday, thanks Jane! We are now in Mexico in a very nice little apartment with everything we need to cook, sleep, wash clothes and enjoy downtime. We both read a book yesterday so we know we are really on vacation!!

Mercado Hildago

Outside Teatro Cervantes