Tuesday's Tourism

I didn't start the Monday blog properly.  I should've mentioned that it was the worst sleep I've gotten since arriving in Mexico.  Since it's an incredible climate, windows are open day and night.  That meant I heard every dog (and there were lots) bark (a lot) all night long.  All.  Night.  Long.  I finally put in my iPod, which would do its trick until it would finish the album and stop.  Then I would hear more dogs.  Surely they couldn't be the same ones...  And then there were the church bells.  They went off starting at 7 am (which was 6 am Culiacán time).  All this on top of getting in bed at 4 and up at 7 before traveling all day....

So now it's Tuesday.  I got up around 9 after repositioning my earbuds and starting about 6 new albums throughout the night.  

Tuesday was the day set aside for a museum Alina and Donna had not yet visited.  It was in the Alóndiga.  It used to store grain and was a beautiful building that would've been great for a wedding or some special event.  It had a huge patio in the middle that opened up to the sky.  

This is one of those times you wish I'd taken notes or that I would google, but I'm too busy trying to remember other things!  This building held the severed heads of 4 very important Mexicans(Spaniards?) during the... Revolution(?).  They were hung in the above cages from the four corners of this building as a symbol and warning to everyone else!

We were under the impression that inside was an art museum.  We were wrong.  The only art that was there were two murals by a man who was attempting (pretty successfully in my book) to imitate Diego Rivera's style from the Castle in Chapultepec.  The rest of the museum was way too boring for this girl.  Stamps and pots and such.  Luckily, it was easily managed in less than an hour!

After that, we stopped by an English used book store, Donkey Jote, to trade in some of Donna's books and to look for some new ones for Alina.  They're in Mexico for two months total.  They brought a Harry Potter book as well as like 6 other chapter books and Alina was on her last one by week 5.  They were getting desperate!  So they made some trades.  

After that, they showed me my way and I went to the Diego Rivera house while they headed back home.  I was sorely disappointed.  Mostly I think because the stuff in DF is so cool.  But this was the house where he was born.  That's something.  (They wouldn't allow pictures on the inside).  

After that, I went back to the used book store, knowing I would have a few more days on the beach (I'm treating myself to two more days in Mazatlán after Alma leaves) and workless days to fill.  I hit the jackpot.  James Patterson, Michael Connelly, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Devil Wears Prada.  Four hundred pesos later, I was set!

I took my bag full of books and headed back to the café from the night before.  I wanted that salad again.  But then I saw it.  I had been on the search for a girl t-shirt (you know, the fitted kind instead of just a big boxy shirt) from Guadalajara.  Unfortunately, I couldn't ever find the one I liked in the color and size I wanted.  Oh, well.  Next visit!  But what I did find was more pottery!  It wasn't Talavera, which must be made in the state of Puebla I think, and has regulations on what colors it can be.  But it was beautiful and super cheap, so I picked up a piece or two.

Then I made it to the café, stopping for a picture of the University, below.  Isn't it pretty?  I sat on the bridge at the café that crosses above a pedestrian street.  I ordered my salad and agua de fresa and pulled out The Devil Wears Prada.  I spent at least an hour there in the gorgeous weather with delicious food and just enjoyed my time.