Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

The morning we were supposed to go to Guanajuato Matthias was still just tired of traveling and he decided he didn’t want to go.  In the end we decided to split up, he took Julian and William and I were off to Guanajuato.

Riding the bus is very exciting for a 4-year old.  There are lots of buttons and knobs to turn, there was a TV, they gave us free sandwiches, drinks and there was even a bathroom on the bus.  William took a backpack full of books, extra clothes and 3 pairs of shoes (something I didn’t notice until we were unpacking in Guanajuato).  The bus ride was 4 hours, a little too long for both of us, but we still had a great time and it was nice to be able to spend some time just him and I. 

In Guanajuato we found a room that was just a short 5 minute walk from the center of town.  It was a quiet neighborhood and the family that ran the place just loved William.  The wife of the family always asked William how he was doing “Como estas?”  And he would always answer “No muy bien” – “Not good!”  She thought that was really funny and asked him how he was every chance she got just to hear his response. 

On Sunday morning we were leaving our hotel to go have breakfast when we passed an older couple walking towards our hotel.  They stopped and were so interested in William and kept asking him “Como estas?  Como estas?  No muy bien?”  It turns out these were the parents of the couple that ran the hotel and they had already heard about William.  When they ran into us they knew it was us and just wanted to hear William say “No muy bien.”  After that, every time we saw them in the hotel the old man would jump out of his seat, run over to William and ask him “Como estas?”  Eventually William said his “No muy bien” and this nice man had such a smile on his face. 

The city of Guanajuato is probably the most beautiful city in Mexico.  It is located at the bottom of valley surrounded by mountains.  Most of the houses have been painted bright colors and it is quite a sight.  The streets wind up and around the mountainside on all sides.  There are narrow streets and alley ways all throughout the city.  Many of the buildings have wire balconies and it reminded me of Paris a lot.  It is also a very youthful city and the streets were filled with people well into the night.

While in Guanajuato we really didn’t do too much.  We went to the famous mummy museum, rode the cable car up the side of the mountain, walked through town, went to a museum with an exhibition on miniatures and had great French toast breakfasts in a small café.  We only spent two nights and the day we left William and I had a long game of soccer in an old fountain (without water of course) while we were waiting for our bus to leave.  I think the best part of our two days there was spending a lot of time with William. 

We had a nice bus ride back to Guadalajara.  We got sandwiches, cookies and drinks in the bus again and had 4 hours of good conversation.  While we were waiting for Matthias and Julian to pick us up from the bus station William started singing at the top of his lungs “Yo soy una ventana!  Yo soy una lampa!”  In English that means “I am a window.  I am a lamp.”  I have no explanation for this other than he is 4 and a lot of fun.

When you drive into Ajijic there is a sign that says “Riviera Alta.”  You might think it means the OLD Riviera since aside from the dozen Mexicans that live in this town all you see here are ex-pat retirees from the US and Canada.  High-water socks, bad Hawaiian shirts draping over big bellies, thick wide black old people glasses, canes, grey hair, etc. are all encountered every time we step out of the apartment.  Really “Riviera Alta” means the high Riviera since the elevation here is over 5000 feet, but I chuckle every time I see that sign since “alt” in German does actually mean “old”. 

Our first morning here we decided to go out to breakfast and we even found a Mexican version of Denny’s.  They serve mediocre breakfasts well into the afternoon, weak coffee in thick porcelain coffee mugs and the place is packed with retirees.

Ajijic is actually a very pleasant small town.  We are about 5 blocks from Lake Chapala (the largest lake in Mexico), there is a nice old church, cobblestone streets and the weather has been nice and hot.  Our friends Dave and Terri found us a nice 2 bedroom apartment with a swimming pool and it has been great.  They have given us tips on where the good restaurants are, a good fruit and vegetable stand, they hooked us up with a babysitter that charges $2.00/hour for both of our children and we are no longer strangers in the good gringo bars in town.  The other day I was walking by one of those gringo bars and saw a big white Cadillac parked next to a horse that was tied up to the front of the bar – such an accurate juxtaposition of all things Ajijic.

During the first week in our apartment complex I noticed that we were by far the youngest in our building – by about 30 years.  We watched an older woman come and go – cane, big dark glasses, oversized polo shirts, white retiree/nursing pants.  My first impression honestly was “oh, just another retiree.”  When we actually got to know her we found out she is really an amazing woman.  She has lived in Ajijic for the last 16 years, and referred to her time here as “interim”.  And when we met her she started to tell us about where she was moving to next – Cyprus.  She is flying to Madrid with some family members, will book a cruise around the Mediterranean, they’ll visit some friends she has in Greece and they are eventually planning on finding a new home in Cyprus and settling down.  Now get this – she’s 82 years old!  When I got closer I realized her big dark glasses are a much hipper design and even had Swarovski crystals embedded around the sides.  And later I watched her whip around town with her cane and was impressed with her speed and finesse.  To be so fit and adventurous at 82 is truly amazing and also inspirational.  What I wouldn’t give to be able to take advantage of life like that so long into my life.  We said goodbye to her today and I think she is sitting in a plane right now as I write this. 

Through our friends Dave and Terri we also met a man who now has two sons in college but when they were young, his wife and him took their sons and traveled around Asia for 6 months.  He understands how great traveling like this can be – especially with your children when they are young.  He told us how important it was to be able to spend that time with his kids when they were young.  It seemed to him that just being together at that age was the right thing to do, even if all you were doing at the time was walking down the street holding hands.  There aren’t too many people traveling with children like we are, and it is so neat to meet other people who have done it and reinforce the fact that we will wont regret what we are doing.

One of the things we are looking forward to here is the change from the dry season to the rainy season.  Some people in this part of the world call it the change from the dusty season to the muddy season.  Typically during the rainy season you get rain every day for a couple of hours, often around the same time every day.  I think that change might have happened last night.  About 9:30 PM the thunder and lightning storm started and it started to rain.  The lake is surrounded by mountains so the thunder just rumbled and echoed for hours around us.  The rains weren’t super strong, but it was a good solid rain – much more of a rain than you would usually see in Seattle.  Most of the land around us has been crispy and brown since we started heading back north from Costa Rica, and doesn’t look so great.  But once the rainy season really starts, everything should turn lush and green within about a week or two. 

This weekend we are going on a little road-trip.  Guanajuato is a small town a couple of hours from here.  It is supposed to be one of the most colorful towns in all of Mexico and there is a famous mummy museum.  We’ll post some pictures on the blog when we get back.