Travel With Betsy

……..will be held at the Whitaker/Cramer residence on Wednesday at 7:00 pm. Come prepared to say a few kind words on its behalf.

Sadly, today, mid-picture, my phone went black and has not come back on. I think it’s dead. No, I know it’s dead. How inconvenient. I have solicited the help of the Telecel people (Mexican cellular provider) and my new friend here in town that I met on Monday’s flight. (By the way, she did provide a list of fun things to do here this morning via email before my phone went dead. Very nice woman.) However, my phone is still dead. What that means for me is that I don’t have a clock. (I don’t wear a watch anymore and there are no clocks in my room.) What it means for all of you is that there will be no more pictures. Sorry.

Despite the phone debacle, I did manage to have a great day! The weather here has cooled off quite a bit and now it feels just like San Luis Obispo usually feels at this time of the year. No more profuse sweating. Lovely!

Again today, I did a very nice “sleep in”. Just cannot wake up in the morning. But, who cares really? I don’t have a time schedule on this trip. Nice relaxed pace for a change. But, again, after I realized I could miss breakfast, I was up and out within minutes.

I spent the majority of the day at “La Aurora”. It’s a little bit on the outskirts of town…too far to walk from where I am staying. So, I broke down and had a taxi deliver me there. It cost me about $2.50 American. It was worth it! What a delightful stop!

The Aurora used to be a cotton factory where fabric was weaved. It went gangbusters until international trade agreements changed in the early 1900s. The building is quite historical, and in the middle there is a pictorial history of the activities that went on when it was in full swing. Now, it is a facility for local artists to show their works and upscale vendors to show their wares. The overview I read said that the building is much as it was when it was functioning except for a restaurant and a small outdoor cafe. It was a delightful way to spend the day!

The building houses a wide variety of artists and shops. I saw art that reminded me of my favorite Monet waterlilies. It wasn’t exactly the same, but the ideas were very similar. There was also an artist that did art that was very like what Warhol did. It’s not my favorite, but I do appreciate the talent needed to pull that off. There were many rooms of extreme abstract art, which I really don’t understand. I like to see art that looks like things that are easily identifiable. Although, I have to say, that if you look at the abstract pieces long enough, you can usually put them together with an idea. It takes some looking, though. At least for me.

In addition, there were shops with beautiful glass items for sale, metal works, kitchen items, and home goods. There was even an upscale shop selling mattresses. The sales displays were quite nice with detailed explanations of the inner workings of the mattresses.

There was also a woman in a shop weaving cloth at a loom. She was fascinating to watch and was producing some of the prettiest cloth items I have seen on my travels. They were a little more than I wanted to spend on something like that, but the items were well worth it when you consider the time and effort that goes into the making of them.

The other section that I spend a lot of time with was a display of a joint education program with the Corcoran Museum. They have frequent classes on teaching people to connect their experiences in San Miguel with art and writing. There was some great writing. They followed a philosophy of story telling that I heard reviewed on NPR lately. Most stories come from things that are obscure to most people. The job of the writer is to find those things and make them into an interesting story. Good stuff!

My last shop stop was in the only clothing store I saw there. I had a very nice conversation with the shop keeper, my next friend of the trip. She was an American married to a Mexican man. He was the clothing designer. The clothes were lovely….way to big for me for the most part. But, I loved the free flowing styles and the bright colors, which are typical here. She was also selling some jewelry made by a 17 year old Mexican girl from Leon. It was beautiful and fairly reasonably priced, so I bought a few pieces.

I shared my phone story with her and she got on the phone and called her computer guru to see if he would be able to help me. He couldn’t, but directed me on to Telecel. They couldn’t help either. But, what a nice gesture. I am always blown away by the kindness of strangers and their willingness to help you. Kind of restores your faith in human-kind.

Anyway, after a nice Latte at the outdoor cafe, I decided I would move on. I have heard varying reviews of this facility from people I have met. I think people find the items to be too expensive. I agree. My level of sophistication in this area is not that high. So, I have a hard time justifying the cost. But, I found it interesting to look, even it I wasn’t buying. And, the shop keepers were fine with that. I liked the experience.

I’m headed tonight to a bar/restaurant recommended by my airplane friend that has a large selection of local Mexican wines. Yep, you heard it. Even Mexico has wine! I’m going to check it out and then head for a concert at the Biblioteca Auditorium.

By the way, I did get to the Rosewood last night. Sadly, there was a windstorm going on here. You can imagine how it was on the top of the hotel. I’m luck to have lived to tell about it! I had a Margarita and left. Planning to try it again if the wind dies down. It was pretty and the views were spectacular. This is the only other picture I will be able to share from this trip. But, it’s a doozy. The view was spectacular!

So, signing off for now. Please forward any items to include in the obituary for my phone……HA!

Adios for now….

This entry was posted on May 15, 2014 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Solo Travel for Women, South America, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.