Croatia!

Tickets in hand. We're headed to Croatia, via Amsterdam, at the end of March.

We'll spend a night in Amsterdam on the way over, then 10 days in Croatia, mostly in Dubrovnik and Hvar, and another 3 days in Amsterdam at the end.

We'll be taking lots of pictures.

Long Weekend in Portland

For Memorial Day weekend, to celebrate Cathy's graduation from graduate school, we're headed to Portland, OR, for 5 days of food and urban wandering. Check back for pictures and reports.

Guanajuato City, Guanajuato, Hotel San Diego

Yesterday, Friday, late in the afternoon, Derek, Lupita, Tomas, Cathy, and I headed out from San Miguel, me and the wife saying goodbye to the city for the time being, and headed out to Guanajuato City. It was about an hour and a half drive across the arid rolling plains and hills and over the San Rafael (??) mountains into Guanajuato City.

The skies darkened along the way, so we didn't get to see our entry into the city, but the change in terrain was dramatic as we climbed to this former (or still) mining town. The city sits in a bowl of sorts, surrounded by ridge and peak, and to enter you drive through a series of tunnels, rather than surmount a pass and descend in. A very cool drive in.

We got a room at the Hotel San Diego, right on the Plaza de Union, one of the city's main squares. That night we walked out and had dinner in a restaurant on the square, me having chicken-chipotle something and Cathy having the specialty enchiladas of the region with carrots and potatoes. Very good.

We walked around the old city's cobbled streets after dinner, looking around and taking it in. It was quite lively, apparently a hotspot for students on this night.

This morning we started with coffee and huevos at a small place called La Truca, I think. Then we hit the pavers to take in the city.

We visited the museum of the house of Diego Rivera, his old residence now preserved as a museum and gallery. Many paintings and photos lined the walls, but the highlight was surely the mural on the main room of the top floor recounting the history of Mexico. This was one of those paintings that you could stare at for hours, and not just because of its size.

We left there and went to an indoor market in the former train station. Then we had a small lunch and a couple beers, walked around some more, had some ice cream, and went to the funicular. We rode this glass elevator up to the highpoint of the city where we got a fantastic view of the town and surrounding hillsides.

From there we headed back to the Plaza de Union and hit a restaurant for some tacos and beer. We'd cap this great afternoon with a nap before dinner. And what a dinner--I had a creamy poblano soup that was perhaps the tastiest thing I'd had this whole trip.

Derek and I would go out this night for a few beers, and stay out too late as usual. My 2am bedtime didn't mesh so well with my 4:30 departure for the airport, but what else is there to do on a plane but sleep?

All in all a fantastic, relaxing, very nice vacation. Great food, wonderful people, and a pace that I could adapt to pretty easily. It'll be hard to give up taking a nap every afternoon.

San Miguel, Casita

1.16.08

Once again I sit and enjoy the view of San Miguel from the rooftop patio of 59 Correo. I just can't get enough of this spot. A cold Modelo, a notebook, and the setting sun make for a fine transition to evening.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Cathy and I went to the big market, El Mercado de Martes, to wander and shop and eat. And boy did we. This place had everything, from acres of clothes and shoes to mounds of dried and fresh chiles to dubious electronics to stall after stall of fresh-made street food. That was the big attraction for me--though I did leave with a pair of black boots, a red cowboy shirt, and a couple molcajetes.

But mostly we ate. Sopes con picadillo, potatoes, and carrots; tacos de bistec in flour tortillas; tacos al pastor with cilantro, pineapple, and onion on fresh corn tortillas; aguas frescas; fresh salsas on every table; and that was only what we were able to get to.

After the market we took a cab down to the botanical garden, or the Charco, to walk among the cacti. This is an impressive place, partly for the size and array of the cacti and succulents that cover the grounds, and partly due to the fact that they were able to protect this much space. Development is rampant in the surrounding area, and the reservoir itself is apparently the recipient of much unfiltered sewage from said developments, but the hillsides are still gorgeous and the body of water still host to hundreds or even thousands of migratory water birds.


Tonight Cathy and I head out for a big fancy dinner. We intend to go to some Spanish restaurant, Gastronomica or some such, but we end up instead at a French Bistro where we have an oustanding meal. She has the fillet, which is huge and perfectly cooked, with steamed spinach and vegetables and potatoes. I have chicken crepes gratin, baked in a clay dish to cheese-crispy perfection, a French version of chicken and dumplings that I fall in love with.

San Miguel, El Jardin again

1.14.08

Espresso (expresso!) recharge after a day of pounding the cobbles. We walked up up and up through the Callejon de Churro, up to the top for a view down the other side. Stone stairway upon stone stairway, the route would up past one grand hacienda after another. That's where the richies live. The views are stunning up there.

Before the climb began, we wandered through El Parque de Benito Juarez, part of it half demolished and under construction, the rest impeccably groomed and maintained, a riot of green even in the non-growing December season. I could only imagine what the place would be like in the middle of the spring or summer, all hacienda walls crawling with flowered vines and hovered over by hummingbirds. Under cloudy skies and with the gentlest of breeze blowing, it was a most pleasant stroll, a great way to kill a day.

That's the theme here: spending the time. We are agenda free, schedule less. We aim to relax, and that's just what we do. We wake when we feel like it, often with the scratching at the casita door by Emma the half-cataracted cocker spaniel. She comes in and hangs out while I make a cup of coffee and read a story by Dave Eggers or Michael Chabon and Cathy finishes off her sleep.

Then we go out for coffee and maybe some breakfast. We look at art, we look at churches, we sit on benches and watch people. We eat delicious Mexican food and we hang out. Around 4 or so I take a nap. Every day. Then we hit the roof for bubbly pink wine or beer and sunset. This is a routine I could live with.

At the top of the hill, off the sidewalk and back on the road, we stopped at a little storefront offering Tortas y Jugas. After much deliberation, C had the quesadillas and I the torta Argentina, a bolillo with chorizo, queso, y milanesa, a pounded and pan-cooked pork loin, I believe. Not so sure, but that's what it tasted like. Delicious. Absolutely delicious.

Then, of course, it was back to the casita for a nap. And so on.

San Miguel, El Jardin

1.11.08

The overnight travel was long. Gruelling in the way that medium-tough tasks can be when you're too tired to be efficient or all there. LAX is a nightmare of a place, huge lines, rude people, an all but total lack of signage. Terrible. But we got through and out and had an uneventful flight to Leon. I had a row of 3 seats to myself, and Cathy got stuck by a window inside a giant of a mom and her sneezy son who slept all over her.

The shuttle into San Miguel was also easy. My first ever experience of someone waiting outside the gate in an airport holding a sign with my name on it. It took us all the way to the hacienda on Correo in San Miguel. High wooden double doors press up against the narrow sidewalk lining the cobblestone street. Katie, the intern for our friend Derek's company, opened the huge wooden gate to us and led us inside. Hacienda indeed.

Inside the gate, an arched entryway holds the small Renault of the absent owners. Narrow double wooden doors on the left lead into the main house. Straight back, a bricked path between the house and the wall opposite, covered in planters whose donkey eared cedum cascade to the ground, leads through a beautiful lush garden, past a small man-made pond, to an open area of the courtyard, fronting the casita. It's a two-story structure with an iron spiral staircase leading to a set of double doors on the second floor.

Upstairs, inside, the quarters are small, simple, and immaculate. Floor and ceiling are tiled and bricked, the ceiling occasionally giving way to a thick carved glass brick serving as skylight. Bedroom, kitchen/dining area, bathroom. We'd be comfortable there for the week.


After a nap, I grabbed a Modelo and headed for the roof of the main house. Derek would arrive soon and I needed to let him in. The view up top was amazing, looking out over the rolling terrain of other rooftops of the city. Like this one, most have some sort of patio and seating and garden on the roof. In the distance, beyond the numerous church domes and spores, the city gives way to arid plans and then to hills jutting up from the valley floor. The bright colors of the buildings sit in contrast to the hazy, cloud-streaked sky and the dim hills beyond.

It's nice to be somewhere again. It's been too long since I last left the US, and even though I've not gone too far, it feels good to be gone.

San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico

We had this opportunity. Our friend Derek was to be house-sitting for one Richard Haas, at 59 Correo, in San Miguel de Allende. The house, or hacienda--or, more accurately, Haascienda, as the address plate reads--has in the back of its garden a casita, and the top floor was offered to us for a vacation residence.

We accepted.

So, on January 11th, we flew out of Boise on an evening flight for LAX. We'd spend 4 hours there before catching an overnighter to Leon, in the state of Guanajuato. From there, an hour and a half shuttle ride would bring us to the casita, where we'd spend a relaxing week away from winter.

LAX is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. Unruly, disorganized, loud, rude, filled with an endless series of the longest lines imaginable, it amazes me that this place doesn't just fall in on itself. It took us a while to get through, but we did, and eventually we made it to Mexico.

We've got loads of pictures, and they'll be up soon, along with the rest of the account of this trip. It was a pretty fantastic place, and we had a great time. More later.