I don’t want anyone to think we’ve fallen into a San Miguel sidewalk hole and disappeared, so here are a few things I haven’t written about yet…

Last week – I really have no idea what day – we decided to go to the Mask Museum.  I had read about it online and it was in Elizabeth’s SMA book, so we checked it out on Google Maps and started walking.  Some members of our party are not big walking fans.  So when we got most of the way up the big hill and still hadn’t found it, there were some long faces.  We asked a lady passing by and she sent us partway back down the hill and to the right.  We walked all the way down that street and didn’t find it, got to a dead end and asked another lady.  She sent us halfway back down the street we had just walked down, and told us to turn right.  We did that, walked to a dead end, and found – nothing.  I noticed a teenage girl watching us from a window and we asked her…she said it was right in front of us.  My Spanish is not great but I saw no sign about masks or museums – actually no sign at all.  The teenager said that the owner of the museum lived right where we were standing.  We had no idea that the museum was only open by appointment, so we stood there wondering what kind of treats we were going to have to buy to make up for marching the kids up, down, and over, and ultimately not finding the museum.

That’s when Bill opened the door of his house and looked out at us.  We told him that we were looking for the mask museum and he said it wasn’t open.  Sad faces all around.  Then he said he’d open it for us, but he couldn’t stay with us as we walked through.  Fine!  The entry fee was a donation to a day care center, and the kids were free.  What a bargain!  The museum is a collection of masks from Mexico that Bill has accumulated over the last 23 years (over 400).  They are AMAZING!  Some were very ornate, some primitive.  Some were beautiful, some really scary and ugly.  The stories of the various ceremonies were printed throughout the museum, so in between making sure the kids weren’t touching anything, Elizabeth and I learned a lot about the masks. Definitely worth the trip!

At the end of our tour we found out that Bill lived in Sherborn, Massachusetts for 6 years, and he led us through his bed and breakfast on the way back to the street.  It’s BEAUTIFUL!  It’s called Casa de la Cuesta and there are lots of photos on their website if you’re ever looking for a B&B in SMA (no kids under 16).  No photos were allowed in the museum, but there are some photos of the masks on the B&B website as well.

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Here are some photos from the organic market, which is held every Saturday.  It reminds me a little of the SoWa market at home.  We bought a really delicious quiche, I bought a pillowcase, and the girls bought more bling.  Elizabeth bought a fat lady made out of paper mache.  I’ll make sure to take photos of all of our purchases (not the quiche) before Elizabeth heads home, but tomorrow is a shopping day so I’ll hold off.

Los Gringitos were tired out…

I loved the “buffet” served in all the pots:

There were plenty of tables to sit and eat:

And entertainment (we didn’t see the part that involved hula hoops):

My back has been bothering me and I had almost psyched myself up to go to a regular chiropractor instead of the direct non-force type I see back home…then I saw this guy adjusting people at the market.  There were audible gasps from the spectators with each crack.

Lots of tempting stuff for sale:

We stopped by the Instituto Allende on the way home…

There’s more to tell, but my back has had enough and I have an epic sunburn from today’s activity, which I will post about tomorrow.  Sleeping should be interesting, but I’m beat.  Adlani is still wide awake and talking my ear off about his Pokemon adventures.  Aliya took a 3-hour nap this afternoon so she’s still awake too.  Norah went into crazy-hyper mode (Don’t worry John and Carolyn – we haven’t broken anything!) and then crashed.  She has been my grocery-shopping helper the last 2 nights, and we’re getting pretty good at it.  Last night on the way home we saw this beautiful sky:

Yesterday morning we went to Mega – the giant supermarket that sells just about everything including clothes and electronics.  We stocked up on paper products and detergents, and a few games for Casa Hogar Santa Julia.  I guess I have those photos to post tomorrow too!  It’s so hard to find time to write about everything when there’s so much going on, plus squeezing in a few hours of work each day. 

¡Hasta mañana!

This morning we got a slow start and had a leisurely breakfast.  My lower back has been hurting, so Aliya and I went to a shop that sold various health and beauty aids, and purchased some patches that were supposed to help with pain.  The only ingredient I can make out on the list on the package is cayenne pepper.  Hmmm…

I wore a patch all day and I do feel a little better tonight.  Elizabeth took the entire clan to swim at the Hotel Aldea while I stayed home and wrote an article that had unexpectedly appeared on my to-do list, and I even snuck in a nap.  We hadn’t done any dinner shopping so we decided to go out for dinner.  The restaurant we were originally headed to was closed, so we ended up at Mama Mia, which was decent – the kids really liked the pizza.  After dinner we walked up to the square for helado, and got caught in our first downpour which stayed with us all the way home.  Luckily we had brought our rain coats. 

Lesson for the day – flip-flops are not appropriate footwear when a rainstorm is threatening.  The evening ended with a fireworks show viewed from the roof terrace (accompanied by lightning and enthusiastic church-bell-ringing) and now everyone is in bed and all I can hear are the crickets chirping.  Ahhhhh…

Here are a few photos from today.

Rain clouds threatening on the way to dinner:

A rainbow!

Las tres amigas – I told them to try to look like they were having fun:

This is their “abnormal” look:

Our end of the table…my sangria seemed so tiny in comparison to Elizabeth’s vat of strawberry margarita:

And a few from the pool, which Aliya sent home to make sure I didn’t feel left out:

Elizabeth, Chloe, and Hannah only have 5 more days in SMA, so we’re going to make the best of their remaining time.  Ben is really excited to join us next Saturday for the last two weeks of our trip!

I’m sure it’s hard to believe, but there are things we’ve done this week that I haven’t yet posted on the blog about.  We made a quick trip back to Casa Hogar Santa Julia to spend some time playing with the girls.  Just as we arrived it started to rain a little, so we went into the activity room and played games for a couple of hours.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, and after a while it cleared up and the kids went outside to play.  A large group of visitors passed through, led by the director of a school and summer camp (Luis).  He said that he visits about once a month.  One of the “girls” is actually in her early 30’s, and has special needs, but her love for Luis was obvious.  She was so excited to see him and held his hand as he led the tour.  She is a doll and has a great love of shoes.  Luis told me that she understands a lot of English.  Several of the girls can speak English and I think they enjoy practicing with us.  Some of them were a little shy at first but warmed up quickly.  They were very excited about the lollipops we brought – luckily we saved them until the end of the visit.

Our visits might seem like just play-time but the girls are learning and practicing how to interact with visitors, to take turns in a game, to identify which card is the highest in a hand of War, and to let others win the stack of cards when their card is the highest.  All great lessons.  Hopefully our kids are learning from the experience too. 

You can *like* Casa Hogar Santa Julia on Facebook to help spread the word about their great work!

One of the things on our list of must-dos in San Miguel de Allende was to visit Cañada de la Virgen – an archeological site about 25 km away.  I had read a lot about Professor Albert Coffee (often compared to Indiana Jones), who gives tours of the site, so I called him yesterday and he suggested a trip to the pyramids this morning.  Professor Coffee is not your average tour guide.  He is an archeologist with a degree in Mesoamerican Civilizations, is originally from Louisiana, and was one of the archeologists working on the site in 2004-2005.  He is bilingual, extremely knowledgeable, and he really kept it interesting for the kids with his talk of bloodletting and missing body parts.

Albert picked us up in el Jardin, in front of Starbucks.  Yes, there is a Starbucks here and though I prefer the moka from the cafe up the street, we did grab a quick Starbucks while we were waiting.  We piled into Albert’s Suburban and after a few minutes of getting to know each other, he started telling us about the area and what we would be seeing on the tour.  One thing I found really interesting was that when the dam was built to create the Ignacio Allende Reservoir, it raised the water higher than they had planned and it flooded some homes and colonial buildings.  The spire of a cathedral still sticks out of the water:

After we arrived at the new visitors’ center, Albert took care of our entry fee and we boarded a small bus to take us through private land to the site.  Once there, we broke off into our own little group and headed up the hill, with Albert sharing his passion about the site, the surrounding area, and the flora and fauna.  He told us about the customs of the people who resided and/or worshipped there, and gave detailed descriptions about what the archeologists found during their exploration of the site.  If I tried to recap his tour I would totally screw up the facts, so you’ll have to come to SMA to see it for yourself.  What amazed me most was the relationship of the pyramids on the site to the sun, moon, and planets, as well as the surrounding hills.  It’s amazing what they accomplished and how precisely the structures are oriented, without the use of today’s tools and computers to analyze the solar system. 

We walked up the ceremonial walkway, through the gardens, and past two smaller pyramids.  Then we climbed to the top of the largest pyramid, where we could see beautiful vistas of the surrounding area and an overhead view of the rest of the complex.  After walking back to the drop-off point and a short bus ride back to the visitors’ center, we saw a model of the Aztec settlement which has now become Mexico City, and then rode back to town with Albert pointing out restaurants and shops as we passed.  He was an amazing guide and I would highly recommend him for anyone interested in visiting la Cañada de la Virgen.  Here are some photos from our trip:

As usual, we also saw some critters during our walk:

It was an amazing day and definitely a highlight of our trip to SMA!  According to my UP band, I walked 13, 335 steps today!