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03/05/05 - 03/06/05 - San Luis Potosi, MX (Photos) Colonial architecture and plaza paseos |
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Saturday, March 5, 2005 Today started with a 5 hour drive across more Mexican desert to San Luis Potosi. A little bit of mountain driving, but mostly flat, high-desert. It reminded us of Spain, Arizona and the Palm Springs area. The major difference being the abandoned-looking old concrete buildings and hovels, many of which people are living in or doing business out of. Seems unlikely that there is plumbing or electricity. The end of the drive had more of a shanty-town feel, tarp-covered wood shacks that people lived in, and also sold things out of (like stretched out snake skins suspended with small glass jars of mystery liquid attached – venom?). The entire drive, we got to see horses, donkeys, goats, bulls and sheep, both on the side of the road and in the median. We can see why all the guide books recommend not driving at night.
(…5 hours after arrival, after booking a room at the second hotel we tried) As we sit in our 80 square foot hotel room in the middle of San Luis Potosi typing this entry, we can hear mariachis playing six stories below out on the street. One of the most bustling cities I’ve seen in a long, long time. This Saturday evening we walked around the pedestrian only walkways and shopping districts, and through a couple of the town’s squares, and were constantly surrounded by throngs of people. All of the stores were open until at least 9pm, and all of them seemed busy. We’ve read in several books and websites about how safe and family-oriented cities can feel in Mexico, and got to experience that first-hand tonight. Although there were thousands of people out and about, everyone seemed to be in couples or with their families. Most people have the look of middle class Americans, which was not what we expected after spending so much time driving through such poor rural areas the past two days.
San Luis Potosi is a city of about 670,000 people 4½ hours north by car from Mexico City. It’s a fairly big manufacturing and distribution center, and the outskirts are ringed by factories and highways (with lots of trucks). It’s been around since the late 16th century, so it has some historic colonial Spanish charm without seeming touristy (we haven’t seen any obviously American people yet – and we know how to spot them). We can hardly believe how much this place seems like Spain.
We’re staying in the center of the historic downtown, at the Hotel Maria Cristina, right in the middle of things. As previously mentioned, the room is tiny, but is quite clean and has most of the amenities you’d expect at any hotel. It’s a three star hotel, which is running us 565 pesos for the night ($52). Don’t try to drive your SUV into the parking lot here, we hardly had any room to spare trying to squeeze our Cavalier into the parking structure.
After Caroline spotted a woman eating a tasty looking steak dish through the window of a restaurant down the street, we decided to grab some dinner there. Everyone else also seemed to be ordering the same steak dish, so after asking our server ‘que es eso?’ (what is that?), we too got the Arranchero steak (or something like that). At around $7.75, the most expensive item on the menu – luckily we were sharing. It was quite succulent, which is, I imagine, why everyone was ordering it.
We’re both feeling a bit more comfortable and less overwhelmed than yesterday. I’m sure it will take more than one day to get over our culture shock, but it seems like the last 12 hours or so (and a long night of sleep) made a substantial difference. We feel like we know at least a little bit more what to expect, such as how far apart the Pemex gas stations (i.e. restrooms) are on the highways.
Sunday, March 6, 2005 Remember that mariachi music we mentioned in yesterday’s post? Well, turns out they really start up in earnest around midnight, and they love the loudspeaker here. We felt pretty lame sitting in the room, but were again exhausted after an overwhelming day.
This morning, after a terrible night sleeping on a hard bed with pillows that were like rocks, listening to loud music in a room with no hand towels, bathmat or kleenex (welcome to Mexico!), we decided to see if we could get a room at the 4-star Panorama Hotel several blocks away, which we had tried to check in to yesterday. They had a room for us and so up we went to the fifth floor. Mexico’s idea of 4 stars is interesting; we have a great view (with floor to ceiling windows where the top 2/3 opens wide!) but the furniture and fixtures look like they were new in 1964! The toilet has already overflowed, the bathroom is pretty bare bones with stained floor tiles and the bed’s still hard (but at least the pillows are soft).
The room may not be so great but we love the town. We spent the afternoon wandering around the plazas admiring the colonial architecture and bought French fries (papas francescas) from one of the many places that sells ice cream, nachos and fruit juices around the historic centro. We got into the spirit of things and sat on bench on the Plaza de Armas just watching the passersby. There is some children’s festival going on in the square by our hotel (which we can hear from our room as if it were going on in our room!) and there were tons of families out enjoying the beautiful weather on a Sunday afternoon. All the kids we saw were so well-behaved and polite, walking hand-in-hand down the streets with their parents. It was a joy to see and such a relaxing way to pass an afternoon.
There’s a huge stage set up in the square outside of our hotel with a 20-piece mariachi band playing, unnecessarily using huge speakers to make sure our entire valley can hear them. Loud… very, very loud. Hundreds of people are back out there listening to them now, after the brief rain let up. Across the street from the party there’s an ice cream shop (every third shop is an ice cream shop, the rest sell shoes) blasting Cher with a giant Nestle mascot (kangaroo maybe?) dancing at the entrance as if he(?) were at a rave. Things are very lively here. We’ve also got a crew working on the elevator on the other side of our wall, using loud equipment and smoking pot, and bumper to bumper traffic out the window honking their horns. Sensory overload! But I guess it is Sunday night…
Our hotel has free high speed internet (a rarity around here) so we did a little research and booked a room in Ajijic near Gudalajara for tomorrow. If we like it we may stay there for a little while so we can get used to all things Mexican. Ajijic, on Lake Chapala, has a huge Gringo population, and we’ve got lots of questions for the expats. It’s another long day of driving (hopefully the last for a while) so we’ll be trying to hit the road early.
.... This just in ..... The band playing to the huge crowd in the square outside of our hotel just broke into Neil Diamond's "Cracklin' Rose" (en espanol). The crowd was LOVING it! They love Neil here, who knew!?? |
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