Day 33 - Won't you be my Valentine?

It's Valentines Day...and I don't have a sweetheart. Too bad nobody feels sorry for me. On the bright side Magali gave me a heart-shaped sucker this morning, so at least I feel a bit better. So rather than being depressed, Mike and I headed into town early afternoon. Waiting at the bus stop, we met Mike's neighbor Larry, a retired bankruptcy attorney from Florida. Once we got into town he treated us to a taxi ride into our favorite hangout- Cafe Etc. We must have talked for the better part of two hours about a variety of topics. I think I might have got a job out of this building a website for the sale of his hacienda. While there Paul, my favorite American Ex-pat dropped in and added to a already wonderful conversation.

Mike and I excused ourselfs around 3:30 and did some shopping at the downtown Mercado. This was the market I tried to find earlier in the week. There is some absolutely wonderful crafts here. Several booths had brightly covered ceramics from Delores Hidalgo, a small town about twenty miles north of where I'm staying. Wonderful men and women's cotton shirts, woolen blankets and handicrafts and many other wearable goods were found thoughout. Most things here are probably a third the cost you'd find in the states. I bought a few gifts and Mike bought a few groceries and we were off.

While we were at Cafe Etc, Paul invited Mike and myself out for a drink at one of the local watering holes. So we decided to see if Barbara was at the hostel across from Cafe Etc. She was and she readily agreed to join us. We met up with Paul and Nina outside the restaurant, but Nina wasn't feeling well, so just Barbara, Mike and myself went inside. Being that it was Valentine's
Day there was a certain festivity in the air. Strolling musicians were entertaining and we decided to have them play a song for us. I love the song they played but not speaking spanish I'm not sure what the title was. It's either "One Ton Romero" or maybe "Won Ton Romero". So maybe it was a song about a very large Mexican man who immigrated from China....or not! Anyway it was very entertaining. After we finished our drinks we agreed to head back to the town center and watch the tourists and townsfolk.

Mike told me there are about 200 celibrations in San Miguel de Allende. I don't know if Valentines day is one of those but the town center was as lively as I'd ever seen it. The place was packed with teens and the elderly, mariachi bands and of course, tourists. It was pretty magical. After about an hour, we walked Barbara back to her place and Mike and I beelined for the bus station. We went up to the window to buy our ticket home and the agent said something that Mike fortunately understood. Next second we were racing out the door chasing a bus down. The driver reluctantly let us on and soon we were home.

Another magical day in San Miguel de Allende. Today I'm heading to Guanajuato to do a little sightseeing. I've uploaded the pictures but for some reason the titles were all screwy. I will fix them later.

Here is a link to the Pictures from today