Mary arrived Monday night ten days ago, and I happily met her at the airport with a very bad cold which had been coming on over the weekend.  Despite the cold, we got out in the city a little on Tuesday and had a good time exploring the many little streets and shops, but by that night I was really sick and worrying about things like pneumonia. At the least, I was worried I’d be sick the whole time she was here and pretty much ruin her visit.

Instead, of course, she got sick too, so we spent our ten days together coughing and sneezing and hocking up phlegm.  Not that it slowed us down much.  Our only real concession is that we always took a cab  back up to the house and I never had a chance to watch her nearly die climbing the hill.

Still, we had a great time together even if we were only running at about fifty percent. 

While I was in class, Mary went out exploring on her own and met me after school.   We tried a number of restaurants, from fairly expensive to the most humble.  Generally, humble was better.  We also caught some great concerts, including a free one in a plaza by an incredibly hot traditional/modern group called Sol del Monton.  I’ve got the DVD. 

Yesterday was her last full day, so I skipped school and we spent our time downtown checking off a few of the must-see locations here in Guanajuato.  Pipila is a statue of a hero of the Mexican war of independence against Spain, and although his most famous exploit, storming the gate of a Spanish fort in the middle of town, is probably a myth, there’s a huge statue of him on top of a hill across from our house.  The view from there is even more impressive than from my casa and it looks down on El Centro.  Then we went to the Diego Rivera museum and from there on to a historical museum, including some pre-Columbian art.  Guanajuato was founded in the mid-1500s, so there’s a lot of history to cover in a few hours.

We also went on a tour last weekend to the pyramid at Peralta, about an hour away.  It’s not Teotihuacán, but impressive enough in its own right.  After that, the tour took us to the largest tequila factory in the world.  Interesting in itself, although we had to pass on the tasting room.  We miss out on a lot not being drinkers.

Today I stayed out of school again to go with Mary to the airport.  Because of security, I couldn’t go with her even up to the ticket counter, so we said a quick goodbye, and now I’m on my own again back in our little room.  I trust her flight got out okay and she should be back in Klamath Falls at 11pm local time.  I’ll send off an email in the morning and try to call later.  [She made it without incident.]

There’s still a week to go of the festival, but like the locals, I’m rather looking forward to its end.  It’s not hard to imagine how crazy it gets downtown with tens of thousands of visitors, a fair number of them students from Mexico City who come up to drink and raise hell, and despite all the great, often free events, it will be nice to have our quiet little city back again.  I hope to spend the next ten days really concentrating on my classes and studying in my spare time, though I’ll also certainly try to take in a few more events and do a little more exploring. 

Time has passed quickly, and although I’ve sometimes missed home or grown tired of living in Spanish nearly twenty-four hours a day, I’m already feeling a little sad about leaving.  I met a man at a little coffee house close to school, and he was talking obviously native Spanish to his wife.  And then he turned to me and he chatted awhile in his perfect English.  Turns out he’s a Puerto Rican now living in Denver, but he comes here every year for the festival. 

“It’s kind of addicting,” he said.

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