Meaningless, meaningless

Arrived back from Mexico last Tuesday with lots of stories that I can't think of off the top of my head but that keep spilling out in the midst of normal everyday conversation. 

It was good. :-) 

I have presents.

I'll be paying a customary visit to my folks next weekend (the one after the bank holiday).  Anyone up for a curry/juggle/video/film/dance/BBQ on the Saturday?

Happy Belated Birthday to Pete, by the way.  Bet it was a good Friday (arf!)

Quick update on our tour so far:

Spent 2 nights in Mexico City centre in a gorgeous hotel with a room that opened onto a courtyard/restaurant.  But it was pretty expensive so we moved to "Hostel dos Fridas" in the Zona Rosa (cosmopolitan bit) for 3 more nights.  It was full of pictures of Frida Kahlo, her being a native of the city, and all.  A German girl thought she had malaria and Tom had to act as translator between her and the doctor as she had no Spanish.

We did a lot of wandering there and went up a big tower to see the city.  Also a day trip to pyramids at Teotihuacan (try saying that quickly after a couple of Coronas) where we met another German woman, who we bumped into the next day at the Museo de Antropologia and had dinner with later on.

Then on to a town called Tula for more pyramids and a very chilled, Mexican couple of days (not really any tourists around).  Some kids wanted to take a picture of us because we were so obviously foreign and pasty.  (Tom reckons it was actually because he's so gorgeous.  Hmm.)

Now we're in Guanajuato, which is heaving with tourists, but very cool.  It's built into a ravine and full of winding alleyways and houses stacked up on top of each other all the way up the sides.  I'm dragging Tom to a baseball game tomorrow morning, then in the afternoon we might go to a museum of naturally mummified corpses, some only 5 years old!  People in Mexico seem to be a bit obsessed with death -- they even have a "Day of the Dead" in November, so I'm in good company.

Other highlights:

traffic police blowing whistles at every junction

a basket of bread being brought out with every meal whether you ask for it or not

cafe con leche being a mug of hot milk that you pour very strong coffee into, a bit like hot chocolate.  Mmmmm....

parrots outside our hotel room in Tula

sunshine, and lots of it

Mexican Spanish being a lot clearer and slower than Spanish Spanish

Tom's finished his coffee now so time to go make guacamole.  We're staying in a hostel where we've got our own little apartment with kitchen and everything.  So we're attempting to be domestic and Mexican.  Arriba!