The South Circuit

To do the southern circuit, we had to ride the Turibus to stop number 4.  That was perfect because the castle was stop 2, so it was easy.  And we didn't need to listen because we had heard it all on Monday.

This sign absolutely made me crack up every time I saw it.  The open air buses certainly come with their own risks...  As funny as it was, it was true.  There were times I wondered if the driver cared at all about our branch safety.  Always be on your guard!

While we loved Coyoacán and our lunch break there, we were mildly disappointed with the second round of the Turibus.  The southern circuit was much more spread out.  The bus pick-ups, consequently, were too.  If you got off, you were guaranteed a 45 minute span before the next one.  And yes, we eventually learned this lesson from experience.
We decided, realizing the distance between stops but also the fact that most of what we needed to see we could see from the bus, that we would just stay on as long as we could until we wanted lunch.  We walked around ultra-cool, laid-back Coyoacán and found a cute little lunch place.  Unfortunately, it had been too long since I was here with Kermit, so I forgot that their market has amazing smelling eats.  Oh, well.

We made our way into our restaurant (we debated among three and chose based on the menu- it was a close call) and took a load off.  Again, we hadn't done an incredible amount of walking, but it was still nice to sit (and not be moving).  This restaurant, like many in DF, had a plate of the day, which is always the most food for your money.  However, we weren't into the soup or the other options, so we decided to order from the menu.  Our poor little waiter didn't really know what to do with us.  He was probably about 20 and looked as if this could've been his first day on the job.  Handling the plate of the day for all the other customers seemed hard enough.  Add to that that we wanted something different.  He was all bent out of shape.  It took awhile, but shortly our horchatas and chicken tacos dorados and chicken tostadas were out.  We split each plate down the middle.  I just LOVE Mexican food!

We had some chocolate tres leches cake for dessert, but it was dry enough that it must have been on leche short.  We still got outta there in under 9 bucks a person I think.

We started walking looking for the market.  When I was there in November, we hadn't spent much time in the market and Gretchen had told me that while there were better (cheaper) markets in DF, there were some really good things in this one.  So we walked through the market.  I didn't find anything I had to have.  Ashley didn't either.  So we carried on.  I'm thinking we likely got ice cream at this point, though I don't really remember.

The next stop on the Turibus was Casa Azul, the "blue house" belonging to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.  It was just a few blocks away, so we walked there instead of waiting for the bus.  Around lunch time, I had texted Paloma saying we were not going to be finished by 3, so maybe we'd be back at the hotel between 6 and 7 and he could still take us to the bus station?  Well, we were approaching the Frida museum at 4:30, so it wasn't likely we would make it by 6, but I was waiting to update him until I was sure.
This museum was one of my favorite things in November.  I spent almost an hour there with the audio set and the gift shop!  This time, of course, they were closing in 30 minutes, and in typical Mexican fashion, they were out of audio sets!  What's a girl to do?  The museum is much less interesting and even less informative without the audio guide.  Oh, well; we were already there, so we rushed through, attempting to hit the bathroom on the way out without luck.

When we walked outside, there were three taxi men offering their services.  We told them we were waiting on the Turibus.  They informed us we had just missed it.  Did we want a taxi?  No, thank you.  We'd wait for our free ride.

They tell us it'll be 45 minutes.  We're frustrated, but want our free ride.  We are, after all, headed to a silver city tomorrow and need to save our pennies for that!

After about ten minutes there, one of the taxi men told us where we could get a bus (which scares me in a big city as I've mentioned before, since you never know where you'll end up- and which direction you'll be facing!).  It was about 5 blocks away on the same road.  It seemed like where we would get off would be pretty obvious.  We walked that way.  We waited.  And waited.  About 10 buses passed, but none that said whatever it was we needed them to say.

We walk back.  At this point, it's about 5:30, so we only have 15 minutes left to wait.  The guy asks what happened.  I tell him that no bus passed with that name.  He said every bus that passed was the one we wanted.

Awesome.

He felt really bad (I think I kinda yelled unintentionally at him when I was explaining that we hadn't seen the bus name), so offered to drive us to another bus stop.  At this point, we just wanted to wait for the Turibus.

There it came.

We had 2 more stops in the south circuit before we would transfer back over to the north (tourist) circuit.  It was 6 pm on a work day.  Traffic was awful.  I texted Paloma saying there was no way we'd be back before 7 even, but that we'd call on Friday and maybe we could all do dinner.

We finally got to our hotel at 7:45.  We grabbed our luggage and called a cab to take us to the bus station.  We also made use of the hotel's restroom since the one at the Frida house had been occupied (almost 3 hours before).

(This is a street sign with the name of my state)

The hotel provides private taxis.  It took us 45 minutes, but our lovely driver was very chatty and informed us of all the neighborhoods we were passing through (kind of like a review of what we'd learned on the Turibus).  We appreciated his commentary.  And his skills.  He was weaving in and out of DF traffic (still as bad at 8pm as it was at 6) like it was nothing!

We were thankful when we got there.  At the ticket counter, we were informed our bus would leave in five minutes.  What perfect timing!  

Tuesday's Castle

Tuesday morning, earlier than we'd have liked, we got up and got our suitcases packed.  We knew we'd be heading out to Cuernavaca for the rest of our trip (another Fulbright teacher lives there and graciously offered her house to us to make our nesting point for our day trips on Wednesday and Thursday), so we had to pack up and leave our beloved Emporio.

We left our luggage with the front desk, assuming we'd be back around 3 to pick it up.  We still had the castle to see from the day before and the entire south circuit on the Turibus (there are two separate buses, but one ticket gets you both- likely because there's no way to see them both!).  
We made our way to the castle and LOVED it.  There was a bit too much history and not enough information, but we loved it nonetheless.  It was interesting to see how each ruler had used the rooms for different things (as vastly different as bedroom to office to dining room).  It reminded me a lot of Versailles, which makes sense since a Frenchman lived there for awhile.  I can't remember if he had it built or not.  
While we were there, we saw the cutest group of kids with their three moms.  The little girls were dressed in adorable dresses and cute shoes and the little boy was a rascal but cute in his shorts and polo and gelled hair.  The moms clearly had money and we were jealous of the clothes they were wearing.
At some point during our tour, Paloma texted me asking how we were getting to Cuernavaca.  When I told him by bus, he asked if we needed a ride to the bus station.  It would be at least a 45 minute ride, which would make for a relatively expensive taxi.  He got off work at 6 and worked somewhat close to where our hotel (and therefore luggage) was.  I told him I thought we'd be getting back more like 2 or 3pm, but we would let him know and thanks for the offer.
The rest of these pictures are from our day at the castle.  Again, of course I took a thousand more, but these are a good sample of the ones I liked.  As we left the castle, Ashley was on a mission to find another agua de fresa, but we were unsuccessful.  Outside the castle, there was stand after stand after stand of things for sale.  Not one was agua de fresa.  We settled for 5 peso (that's right) homemade ice cream.  It had a semi-cotton candy texture (I know that's weird).  It was different, but delicious.

Paloma and Beto

My friends from November that were not Shania's cousin, but were his friends, chatted me on facebook to see when I'd be in town.  That was Monday night.  They had gotten their weekends mixed up and thought I'd be arriving the weekend I would be leaving...

I got their cell numbers and told them we were out until Friday afternoon at the earliest, but maybe we could do dinner or go out Friday night.

Paloma works an office job, but Beto works with catering, so spends most days at home I think.  I could've asked him to go along with us on Tuesday, but I figured the Turibus would be annoying for someone from there, so I didn't mention it.

He later got onto me for not inviting him.  Next time I'll know.

Taquería part two

After a long day of site-seeing and wishing off rain, we had worked up quite the dinner appetite.  We also had not gotten off the bus in the Zona Rosa, so we thought we'd check it out and maybe try to find some tacos there.  We had seen some amazing food on the side of the road as we were touring and were hoping for that kind of cuisine.

So we walked out of our hotel and headed that way, just wanting to take in the scene.  

The Zona Rosa is a short walk from the hotel, so we saw all we needed to see quickly.  It's mostly clubs, restaurants and shopping.  We hopped in a mall seeing that they had a taco place.  They had a sports store, which immediately drew Ashley in.  I explored the other stores and saw that they had a Mango, which was one of my favorites in Spain.  Only problem is, when I was in Spain, I guess the dollar was GREAT against the euro, and apparently Mango was new or not as popular yet.  There was very little in a price range I would consider anywhere, but especially Mexico.  It was still fun to look.  Ashley eventually joined me and really liked it.  Her take on the prices was not as dramatic as mine (further evidence I've been living here too long).

We ran by the food court, but decided we could do better.  We hadn't found anything, though, and we had covered most of it.  That was when we decided to make an emergency call.  We popped into the hotel in the picture above (we LOVED our hotel, but this one might have been an excellent second!) and asked the front desk for suggestions on a taquería.  They told us the name of a place "across the street" and I misunderstood the name as the food court place.  

When we got outside, we saw that there was a restaurant right by the mall.  It looked like a typically shady-looking taco place which meant it would be delicious!  We sat down and I ordered tacos al pastor so Ashley could try them (and also because I like them).  They're the cheapest, so they're probably the worst meat ever, but they're really delish.

Ashley was won over and decided that would be what she ordered at some point on this trip.

After our incredible meal, we decided to walk La Reforma, the main street that would take us back to our hotel.  It has some great artistic benches (see below) and just a neat ambiance at night.  Also, since this was our last night in the city until Friday, we wanted to take advantage of it!

Ashley climbed the chairs and we got a picture.  By the time she was back down, there was another girl in line to do the same.  There were all kinds of different "artsy" sitting places.  There was a deck of cards I wanted my picture with, but it was in the other direction and it didn't look as good at night.  I meant to make it back there, but I didn't.

As we got closer to the hotel we know and love, we wanted a cool night picture.  It didn't work out quite as we expected....

Turibus here we come!

When I was in el DF (day EFF-fay) in November for our Fulbright reunion/midterm check-up, I had wanted to go on the Turibus.  Alma (Mabel's sister who is a dancer in the ballet- not the folklórico) had raved about it and said it was a must-do.  

In November, I stayed with another Fulbright family in the southern part of the city.  I took Kermit (the dad) up on his offer to show me around this quaint, hippie-esque area of DF.  That pretty much eliminated my possibility for the Turibus.  But with two suitcases and a dinner meeting that night in the northern part of town, it was pretty much impossible anyway.  

I wasn't sure that I would be back to DF, but boy am I glad I was!

So Monday morning, Ashley and I got up and at em around 8:30 I think.  The Turibus started at 9, but we figured making sure we were there by 10 would leave enough time for the day.  Little did we know how much we would have to see!  The first section of the ride took us to our already favored part of town: el centro histórico.  We got off again at the Alameda to see if we had missed anything.  We had read about lots of fountains and statues and important things, but hadn't seen them.  We still didn't see them.  Oh, well.

We also go to see the super old, but still functioning Post Office (though I should use the term functioning loosely considering my mail woes!).  We were just mesmerized by it.  It also has a museum during the week, but like most cool things in this city is closed on Mondays.
Don't worry; this isn't real mail.  I'm afraid it wouldn't get where it was going!

From the post office, after our ridiculous photo shoot (I spared you the details and extra photos!), we went to another building called La Casa Azulejos.  The Tile House.  It was also in our book and was GORGEOUS.

It turns out it is now a Sanborne's store, which means this location was mostly restaurant, but also part gift shop and pharmacy.  Of course there was a history to the building and some interesting stories from its past, but again, I've forgotten them due to the time lapse.
As you can see from the pictures, it's no ordinary department store or restaurant.  It was quite the site.  I could've taken pictures all day in there!  The prices were semi-ridiculous for Mexico for a meal.  However, it's like NYC I suppose.  The prices will be more expensive in that city than in Nashville even at a chain.  And add to that it's located in a historic building.  You get what you pay for I guess...
We took as many pictures as we could and headed back to our bus stop.  It was already in motion, but we used our best flagging down skills since the next one was not likely to pass for another 30 minutes or so.

The bus then went through our regular stompin' grounds to the Zócalo (see picture below) counting down to the Bicentennial of Mexican Independence.  It's not until the fall of 2010, but they're ready with their countdown!  We had pretty much seen all there was to see there, so we stayed on the bus listening.  
Listening, that is, until they mentioned tamales and hot chocolate.  Now, being a hot-natured beast, one would think I would stay away from hot chocolate while touring around a hot city in the middle of the day.  However, when it's recommended, it's recommended.  We missed the next stop because we were trying to decide if our timing was good enough to go ahead and eat.  So at the following stop, we got off and back tracked to Café de Tacuba.  This is actually the name of a group that Beto and Chori (Shania's cousin) introduced me to back in November.
This place was absolutely adorable.  We each got a "sweet tamal" and another meaty one.  I don't remember the specifics, but they were for sure good.  My hot chocolate was divine, too.  I just needed a bottle of water to wash it down!
We loved the place for its charm as well as its good food.  And while we hadn't been on the tourist trail too much that day, it's always good to sit down at a meal.  The day before had essentially worn us out, so it was a great break.


From there, we trekked back to the bus stop and waited for at least 45 minutes.  We were getting annoyed, but dealt with it.  We rode and rode and listened and listened.  We had seen Zara bags all morning (and had actually googled Zara to try to figure out where their stores were in DF.  It was not helpful since it only gave the street names.  Streets in Mexico City, by the way, are super long.  Well, while on the bus, listening to how we were basically on the Rodeo Drive of Mexico City,
Ashley spotted a Zara sign.  We made our way to the front of the bus and got off.  All I could think as we were doing that was the looks we were probably getting (there go those rich American girls to shop).  We were way out of our league with Louis Vuitton and Burberry.  We did stop in the Puma store.  But in Zara, we were disappointed.  There wasn't a ton that was cute, but what there was was very expensive.  We left disappointed, but we loved the area we were in.  It looked very Chicago.  Or maybe very Soho?  Who knows.  It was cute and upscale, so we meandered.
It didn't take us long to find something that fit right and was in our price range...  Ice Cream!

There are many signs I've been in Mexico too long.  Several "fashion" things that I like that are simply inexcusable is example number one.  Number two is my reaction to a 14 peso 1.5-liter bottle of water as too expensive.  Number three is my new choice in ice cream.  Whenever I get ice cream, part of it must be chocolate.  Pretty much whenever I get dessert.  It's a Gabhart curse.  At least the sweet part.  I'm not sure where the chocolate comes in, but I know Andy and I are both chocoholics.  I think Patrick is more in control of his sweet tooth.
While Ashley ordered her Mexican staple of agua de fresa (and I must admit, I'm a believer) and some ice cream (the flavor has left me, but I think it included chocolate), I asked for a scoop of mango and a scoop of lemon.  Who am I?!  
I must admit that the lemon was very refreshing.  The mango was quite possibly the best thing I put in my mouth that day.  Absolutely delicious.  I didn't want it to end!

But it did.

We got back on the bus and unfortunately got rained on a bit as we finished the circuit for Monday.  We had bought a two day pass "just in case" we didn't finish in one day.  If you get off the bus, there is no humanly possible way to see the whole city on those buses.  I think if you get on first thing in the morning, don't get off and just see from your seat what there is to see, you could do it in a day.  But we needed some adventure and some up close and personal!

Our last stop for the day was to see the Castle at Chapultepec.  It was rainy, but not raining if that makes sense, so we decided to be brave and get off.  The bus stop was right by where the ballet had been.

We got a bit turned around, and it started to sprinkle.  You can imagine what a happy camper I was!  We made our way to a gate and asked an official looking man where the entrance was to the castle.  He told us about a half a block away, but that on normal days you had to be there before 5 pm (it was 5:30) and that on Mondays it was closed.

Awesome.

We waited around for the next Turibus and made it back to our home away from home (from home for me).

PK

I think my brother is good to go.  Best I can tell he was/will be released from the hospital today and has a few more tests elsewhere (unconfirmed).  But everyone is feeling much better about it.

Thanks for the prayers.

I'm too tired to blog today... so look for more updates tomorrow- on my day off when I don't need to catch up on sleep!

Stupid Swine

It's time to fill you in with an actual entry for today.

While at school today, we received the news that school would be closed until next Wednesday, May 6 due to the swine flu.  This is a strange date to choose, you say, but not really.  School was already set to be out May 1, 4, and 5 to celebrate the holiday cinco de mayo.  So really, we only get three more days.

Supposedly in Culiacán, this is the preventative measure.  There are no known cases in my city of Culiacán and I think not even in the state of Sinaloa...

There are deaths and many cases in the rest of the country, but it started in Mexico City (consequently while I was there) and this is one of those times I can be thankful I'm so far from everything.

Patrick has given me some advice on some meds to take, both preventative and if I happen to start showing symptoms.  I'm going to do my best to take care of that at a pharmacy on my own.  If I can't, my great helper Sandra has a brother in law or someone who is a doctor and she will work on getting us prescriptions.

As for now, all is well.  I'll just be bored and out of school.  

I go back and forth from realizing all is well and I'm in a state that's far away to feeling really freaked out.

As if this isn't enough, for you praying folks out there, say a prayer for my brother Patrick.  He's in the hospital in Louisville right now, where he's been since Thursday.  Basically there's something making his heart go crazy, and they've been trying to figure it out for two days.  They've come up with nothing so far.

Same with him; I go back and forth between he's telling me he's fine and I believe him to being really worried about him.  Being far away just sucks sometimes.

Thanks for your prayers.

Tacos, por favor

We were thankful to get back to the hotel in two (mostly) dry pieces.  We marched up to the room and dropped off the cameras and Club América loot.  We were shocked and pleased to find the turn-down service had left us a chocolate!  That pretty much made my night.  What can I say?  I'm totally easy to please.

We headed back down to our lovely front desk men and asked them for a nearby taquería.  Considering our expense the night before (and considering that tacos are just about the best Mexican food you can get!), we were really looking forward to tacos.  They told us that we were about a five minute walk from really good tacos.  We grabbed a map and headed out the door.  As our doorman let us out, he asked if we'd like an umbrella.  It wasn't raining at the time, but it certainly looked like rain.  Why, yes.  As a matter of fact, we would like an umbrella.  Thanks.

We make our way through the very wet, but not crowded streets to the taquería.  The Saturday we arrived in DF was the end of the first week of Spring Break (Holy week).  Kids would have the following week off, too, but most adults had to work the week of Easter.  Because of this, Saturday and Sunday made the city look almost empty.  It actually was really nice!
We got to our taco place and it was a lot like SatCo in that you ordered by filling out the sheet that the waiter left you on the table.  I would come to find that this was a relatively common practice in DF.  Who knew?

We had had chicken for lunch, so we decided to split beef tacos and quesadillas. 

The tortillas in DF are much thicker and maybe whole grain, or at least made with different ingredients.  They're good, don't get me wrong, but I don't know that anywhere can compare to Culiacán food!

Afterwards, we decided to wander a bit.  The following is some sort of memorial.  We saw too much and I did too little writing (and it's been two weeks and I don't have my info in front of me) to remember which one it is.

But it was nice to just meander around the city at night.  Mexico City is a really cool place.  You can never see it all, I think, but it's fun to try!  Sunday was definitely a very successful day.

América- Águilas

So after we had basically run back to the hotel, we hailed the first taxi around 3:40.  I figured Ashley was stressing, but she covered it well.  Actually, about as well as I covered my stressing for arriving late to the ballet...

After almost 30 minutes in the taxi (which at one point included and absolute downpour), I asked the driver how much farther we had to go.  "Poquito."  Awesome.  I figured that meant another 20, but to my pleasant surprise, we saw this sign within 5.  We also saw a mob of cops with their body shields walking in the same direction as the fans.  That was comforting.  I wish we'd gotten a picture.  It was actually very unnerving.

As I paid the taxi driver, Ashley noticed the crowds and asked me why so many people were still outside at 4:15.  C'mon people!  The game started at 4.  

Or did it?

Was this another "Mexican time" thing (be careful saying that- apparently it offends) or had we misunderstood?

This was the line of people to get tickets.  Again, I say, "C'mon people!"  I stopped at a tent to ask where we should go for will call.  The answer was the same place as all these guys, only on the far side.  I'm terrible with visual estimates of numbers, but I'm guessing there were thousands (at least a single thousand) of people waiting in line.  I was mostly proud that there was an actual line formed in Mexico.  (Also might offend.  Maybe not.  Haven't said it to my Mexican friends yet.  Have just noticed.)  I asked a cop at the last turn before there were actual poles to make a line (think amusement park) where the will call was and he pointed to the gates where all these people would end up.  I asked him what next, just jump in line here?  (That was very brave and non-me of me.)  He looked at the guys in the line and said, "Come on, guys, they're cute."  So we had our new place in line.  And we didn't even have to bribe the cop- or the guys!

So the line only took about 10 minutes or less, and then we got to go to the window where there was no line.  Will call is not really popular in Mexico for soccer games it seems.

We grabbed our tickets, but then noticed that the game started at 5:00.  Apparently 4:00 is when the ticket booths opened or the doors or who knows what.  Regardless, we were there before kickoff.  Or whatever the first thing is for soccer.

We decided to kill a few minutes by browsing the stands.  Ashley wanted a Club América tshirt.  I assumed I would want a hat, but was in no hurry to buy anything at the time.  So I thought.  I ended up buying a ginormous flag "for my classroom."  I always have a cop out with cultural stuff.  That's the beauty of being a teacher.

Ashley ended up with a short sleeved and a long sleeved shirt.  We decided at that point not to dilly dally anymore and to find our seats.  

As we spun through at the ticket gates, they confiscated my flag pole.  I suppose it could hurt someone (put that on the back burner).  I was a little frustrated, but I suppose it wouldn't have made it back in my suitcase anyway...

Our seats were on the exact opposite side of the stadium from where we were.  This would be a great time to say that it was either the 2nd, 3rd, or 5th largest stadium in the world.  That trek around to the other side was awesome.

My Culichi friends (and all US warnings) had advised trying to fit in, not to draw attention to yourself in Mexico.  Here we were in our shorts and tennis shoes.  And now Ashley was sporting a Club América shirt while fans from the opposing team cross our paths.  Awesome.  

No harm no foul.  Thank goodness.

We get to the other side and actually have to go down into this dark tunnel and kind of underground to get to our seats.  Awesome!  We made it to the bottom and then were ushered there by some girls (who of course needed a tip).  We were about fifteen rows from the field and we seemed to be in a family section.  There were cute kids all around us with their parents.  I think we were in a great section.  Everyone seemed to be on good behavior.  There was even a couple in front of us that started smoking, and there were people all around whispering, "They shouldn't be smoking here."  That made us feel better (even if we still couldn't breathe).

Club América's mascot is the eagle.  Their fight song says, "A-mé-ri-ca!" and then there is a chant of "Á-gui-las" or if you have a horn (much like the Tecate one I sent Turner), you toot your horn three times to the rhythm of the crowd shouting águilas.  As you can see above, they had a real eagle.  
After the game (sorry to be out of order here but picture on blogger are quite the pain), we waited patiently for a clear shot with the stadium name.  Ashley is sporting one of her two new shirts.
This is us shortly after arrival.  I think the game had not started yet.  The clouds were looming and we were guessing the rain from the taxi ride would be there any minute.  The weird thing is, I never prepare for rain, but on the way back to the hotel, I thought to myself, "I'm going to get my hooded sweatshirt in case of rain."  Of course, I forgot it so it didn't matter!  At any rate, this is the pre-rain picture.

This picture is also out of order.  Into the first half, this section above, which I would call the student section if we were at a University event, got a little rowdy.  This section and another one almost directly across from where we were, somehow had flags on poles.  I wondered how they had gotten past the security but let it be.

The student section was fun to watch since the band was there and there was lots of movement.  However, at the time of this picture, it was a scary area, and I was very thankful to be around families.

We took this picture because there was a fight going on.  At one point, I could see one person basically impaling another person with the flag pole.  Why, besides alcohol, you would do that to someone supporting your own team, who knows.  It was scary though.  Kind of nauseating for me.  

I hope this picture helps you see how close we were to the field.  I was afraid without the benefit of an aerial view that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the ball.  But I did!

Always Coca Cola.  
After the rain, we took another shot.  Oddly enough, though soccer games are not my favorite event in any occasion, I have really enjoyed my three games in Mexico.  Also, Ashley and I seem to get really good pictures at soccer games.  Don't you agree?

The game ended 3-3.  We missed two of our own goals.  It was Ashley's fault.  Somehow she got distracted by one thing or another.  I'll take the blame, though.

Regardless of the outcome, fun was had by all.  Or at least by the two of us!
This was the crowd on the way out of the stadium.  We stayed in our seats a good 15 minutes after the game to let the crowd dissipate a bit.  I do not love a moving mob!  This should tell you how many people were there if we waited that long.  Actually, a security guard came over and told us we had to leave.  We obliged.
The clouds came back at the end of the game, so we had to shop quickly.  Sitting through the whole game thinking about my hat, I exited knowing which one I wanted.  That made it easy.  It was 100 pesos.  What a deal!  I love this country!

Ashley got suckered into some pens.  And then I bought a long sleeved tshirt.  I've been on the search for a long sleeved shirt from Mexico since November, so I was glad to have finally found one.

We also each bought a glass for our collection.

As it started to thunder, we grabbed a taxi and rode back the 45 minutes to an hour to our hotel.