Cervantino festival and other days

It has been a while, but I have a good excuse: for the last 3 weeks we have been attending daily concerts as part of the annual Cervantino festival. It has been a wonderful experience: we attended classical ballet, ballet folklorico, jazz, symphonic works, medieval and baroque music. At lunchtime today we took the bus to the Templo Valenciana, where 14th-16th century music was performed by an American and Mexican group, in front of one of the richest altars I have ever seen. Pure magic.
It has been an amazing experience and we are in awe of the organization behind it. Every day, every day for three weeks five to six events were staged in different venues, and it all came off without a hitch. The logistics for such an undertaking must have been staggering. We constantly meet new people and our life is the richer for it. Louis stayed with us for 10 days, and he had to hit the ground running. We had gotten him tickets too. Last week, for his last three days here, we went to Morelia and Patzcuaro, not too far away, unless you get lost as we did. Morelia is an old Spanish colonial city, much more so than Guanajuato, which is essentially a late 18th-early 19th century town. We walked around, shopped in the lookie-lookies and puttered on to Patzcuaro, where we stayed two nights in an old hotel (like all Spanish buildings, it had several courtyards) right on the main square. A lovely city, laid out in the Spanish style: a strict gridwork of streets, the main square ringed by all the symbols of power: the church, the governor’s palace, city hall, filled in by arcades with lively outdoor cafes. Lively, that is, until 9pm, when, as if heeding a silent call, everything shuts down. Having gotten used to late evening dinners it took us by surprise. The first night we ended up in a small Mexican restaurant with a simple menu. The owner was sitting by himself a table away, and ordered the waiter to serve us a glass of tequila ‘on the house’, and we sipped some of the very good stuff that comes from a Don Pablo bottle. Before we could finish our glasses, he offered an other shot. In short, when the evening was done and we had shut down the place, the bottle was empty. In that we were helped by a Chilean couple with whom we joined forces and tables that night. An unexpected encounter and pleasure had it been Allentown that night, instead of Mexico.
At a concert we met Martin and Mary, Irishmen, who had chosen to live in Perth Australia, and were now traveling for three months in Mexico. Mary is a linguist at the U of Dublin, on an extended stay, and Martin a physical therapist. They had traveled all over the world, had taught and worked in Japan for 5 years, trekked the Himalayas etc. Funny and warm as Irishmen are, and we spent a few lovely evenings together at our house. They left for Oaxaca and further adventures. Someday I would like to figure out how people in their early 40’s can afford such a life. If I do I will pass it on to those of you not unredeemingly beyond that age.
We did some great shopping in Patzcuaro and surrounding villages and unashamedly filled the car trunk. If you are a shopper, Guanajuato is not the best place to flash your credit card. Not much good art stuff, lots of cheap goodies for the tourist trade, with the Mexican penchant for gaudynesss in mind. But talk about Morelia and Patzcuaro! Angels, some beautiful prints and embroideries, books, some clothes and all those little things that are so irresistible when you cruise through the markets. Born shoppers know of what I speak. A whole new set of dishes, weighing a ton. (Ruth, a 97-year old friend, wondered: are these weapons? when she lifted her plate during a farewell lunch for Branko a few days ago. We will miss him).
We have become friends with Djamilia, first viola in the Guanajuato Symphony and, like all members of the University of Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra, a full-time faculty member, and like almost a third of the members, a Russian. What a lovely woman, sweet and unpretentious, delighted to meet Anna and learn that she is historian: her daughter wants to continue her studies in history and Djamilia believes that Anna can be a very influential example. We now know a few members and feel very much like the ‘in’ crowd. Of course, everybody knows people in the orchestra, but for us it is a new experience.
After a very informative evening with Federico, the papermaker, I have decided to concentrate more on photography and learn to stay away from taking postcard pictures. Federico has a very good eye and an intuitive sense for composition and color (he is trained graphic artist). Federico, being Federico with the Italian side of him coming to the surface, was already talking about an exhibition. Most, most flattering. But, he warned me, he was going to show samples of my pix to other artists, who might not be as kindly disposed as he is. I’ll see.
We have been here for two months and that is hard to believe. Time has flown by and in fact we have been so busy that we decided to take a few days of rest next week, with puttering around the main dish on the menu.
We have to start thinking of the work in and around the house we want to have done while we are away. Plan for a smooth half year before we will return next June. Anna’s last semester, the end of a long teaching career. She is a woman who is more than ready. After next semester we will no longer have work obligations that can mess with our plans and calendar (work is such a nuisance, isn’t it?) and we’ll take it from there. No fixed plans yet, lots of ideas.
The town is filled with tourists, mostly Mexicans, and the various arms of the police forces are well represented on the streets to keep things smooth and orderly. You drink on the street, you pee in the corner, you disobey a traffic sign and it is the caboose for you. And it is amazing that with thousands and thousands of people out on the streets, food vendors every 10 yards, that the streets and squares are virtually spotless. The Sanitation department works 24/7 here (literally) and it shows. Had this festival been held in Allentown you’d be wading ankle deep through the trash. Hats off, for sure.
Early November Anna will take over the teaching duties of her friend Karen for a week. Karen is the local head of a CIEE study abroad program at the U of Gto. In November too we expect a 4-day visit by an old friend of Anna’s. And then it’ll be time to begin packing and what-not for the return home, perhaps just in time for the birth of my daughter Lynn’s first child, who will join her sister’s son Bentley as the pair of grandchildren of a proud grandfather (how old is a man like me?)
No pix in this blog. I posted two albums on the web, which you can access by typing : http://picasaweb.google.com/adriaan41 in your navigation bar. Perhaps you feel tempted to contemplate a trip to Mexico, but I must warn you: if you are not a good and sturdy walker, Guanajuato is not your kind of place. Lots of walking here, and even terrain was only achieved by sacrificing local labor in the past, until they ran out of Indians I guess. In any event, for Guanajuato you must be in pretty good shape.
(And Anna goes to yoga class three times a week, at 8 am!, as if we don’t get enough exercise.) ‘No yo’, as we say in my part of the garden where the wine is served.