Wandering with Tedder and Tamara

Last night was fairly miserable, as the hostel we chose turned out to be quite noisy. They had nice facilities, but the tiled floors and location right on a busy street kept us up most of the night – there was no ceiling fan to cool us off, so we had to open the window. First thing this morning we found another hotel for tonight, with a room back from the street and a ceiling fan.. unfortunately, the hostel apparently had a 'no refund' policy, but we'd already paid for the new hotel, so, oh well. We have enjoyed the new room today, as a respite from the mid-day heat for a siesta nap.

Yesterday evening, after yesterday's blog post, we went to a local craftswomen's store. We found some really fun things at a little shop that had a lot of Day of the Dead style miniatures. We went back this morning, since we were there as they were closing last night, and found a man who did all his own weaving and bought a beautiful rug from him. We talked to him a bit, and found out that he spent 5 days weaving that rug (this isn't a huge rug, just kitchen-size). We were amazed by his sincerity, and it made the price (~$50) seem a little more reasonable – I am so used to the machine-made things.

Other than hotel practicalities, we spent the morning exploring the different markets here. We spent some time at the artesan market, then headed over to the huge general market since today was the big day for it. The market was enormous, and had tons of stalls for clothes, fruit & vegetables, butcher stalls, flowers, bakeries, and live animals (mostly sheep & goats, but some pigs). I bought a really cool mask made of lapis azul, mother of pearl, and quartz. Ted really wanted to get a bottle of a local specialty, mezcal, which is the liquor made from the maguey cactus. It is similar to tequila, but is the famous drink with the worm in the bottom of the bottle. We found a recommended store and got a small bottle to send home for enjoyment when we get back.

We spent a while tracking down supplies to send a package back to the States – grocery store for a 10 cent used box, paper/office supply store for tape and shipping labels, and a news stand for newspaper to pack with. We sat in the zocalo (main park/square) and got the box all ready to send then walked across the street to the post office. After waiting for what seemed like eternity (not horrible, I was just tired, hot, and hungry), we got our turn. We ended up having to open the package back up to show some of the things to the counter worker, then wrap the package with special manila paper and re-address it. So, $35 later it is on its way - hopefully it gets there, and in one piece!

We found a cute restaurant for lunch and enjoyed the good food there, as well as a rare margarita for me – very yummy. Then we retired to our hotel room for a nice nap and to cool off a bit.

We also finished our latest movie – Farmingville. We both really liked this movie, and it made us both even more interested in helping the immigrant communities when we get back. All the more reason to work on our Spanish!