After much deliberation, I have decided not to cancel my trip to Mexico after all, and I am very happy I didn't!!!
I am now in Guanajato, a small university town in the centre of Mexico, about 4 hrs from Mexico City, where my friend Anelore lives and works in nearby Irapuato.
I had an overnight flight from L.A. to Mexico City, which arrived super early in the morning and again, i didn't get much sleep. By the way, this was my first flight ever where the crew didn't do a safety demonstration and it was the quickest take-off every! (Mexicana airline...) I was curious how the atmosphere and situation in Mexico, and particular Mexico City was, after the recent outbreak of influenza here. To my surprise, everything appeared to be normal, and in Mexico City airport, hardly anyone was wearing a face mask.
I had breakfast in the airport and then took a bus straight from there to Queretaro, which took about 3 hrs. From there, I had to take another bus to Irapuato, where Anelore picked me up. I was seriously impressed by the standard of Mexican buses, very nice and comfortable, with snacks and movies onboard, but to be fair, I have to say that I was travelling first class (but the ticket only cost about 12 pounds...:-)).
Upon arrival in Irapuato, we drove to Anelore's lab, which is a flash new government-funded research institute, designed by a famous architecht. Very nice, but according to Anelore, also very impractical...and it took them a long time to finish it.
From there we drove half an hour to Guanajato where Anelore has a very nice 2 bedrom flat set on top of the hill, with a small terrasse and a gorgeous view over the beautiful city! All the houses in Guanajato are distributed amongst the hills and in true Mexican style, in all colours you can imagine.
Since I was pretty jetlagged, we went for a quick dinner which was delicious chicken pancakes with mole, a sauce based on chocolate and chilli - yum!!!
So today, I am exploring Guanajato and I can already say that I love it. In fact, this might become my favourite city of the trip... there is such a nice atmosphere in this place, and as you are wandering through the narrow and steep streets, all cobbled and colourful, you are greeted everywhere with a friendly "Hola". And at every corner, there is music coming out from somewhere, ranging from traditional folk music to pounding techno. And then, I turn around the corner, and there it is again: the familiar tune that brings back so many bittersweet memories: "Are we human, or are we dancer?"
Everyone's favourite "callejon" (alley) in Guanajato (and also mine) is "callejon del beso" (alley of the kiss) which is so narrow and houses close together, that their balconies almost touch. This alley has this name because Guanajato has its own Romeo & Julia legend: a girl of a rich family living on one side of the street fell in love with a boy of a poor miner's family on the other side of the street. They exchanged secret kisses across the balconies and...of course, the story took a tragic ending...
Ah, those were the days of true love and romance...it seems that today, many of us have lost the ability to show any sign of such emotions and passion seems to have sadly become only a transitory or temporary element of many people's lives. Whether it is a defense mechanism for our own protection, or a simple bluntness to the sheer feeling of joy or pain, as a result of overcapitalisation and -materialism, I don't know, but it is somewhat sad.
Fortunately, it seems that at least in Guanajato, people are still able to exchange at least passionate kisses, and do so in public too. So intense, that in fact last year, the mayor of Guanajato introduced a new law that forbid exactly that: passionate kissing in public - because he found it to be inappropriate behaviour. A couple of months of public debate did not have any effect on the decision, but one phonecall from the mayor's cousin finally convinced the mayor that this law was complete nonsense, and it was revoked. Interestingly, Guanajato was pronounced "capital del beso" (capital of the kiss) shortly after, and has been kissing happily again ever since...
...that is until a few weeks ago, when the news of the swine flu hit the headlines. Anelore told me that for a week or two, the streets in Guanajato were almost empty and of course nobody was seen kissing on the streets, despite the fact that most cases were confined to Mexico City and there were (and still aren't to date) no reported cases in the whole state of Guanajato.
So it was very pleasant to go out with Anelore into town on Friday night and find the city centre bustling hieving with people, laughing, kissing and enjoying a fine, warm evening outside.
We had a "non-mexican" dinner at Bossanova restaurant on Plaza San Fernando, a small restaurant run under French management (and of course Anelore had already met the manager). The said manager, Mael, and his friend Nathalie (also a Frenchie) both turned up at Bossanova as we were just enjoying our deserts (crepes, mmmm...)and joined us at the table. Of course, the evening did not end there, but took us to Mael's other restaurant, for several nightcaps of red wine, followed by tequila from Mael's "reserve", followed by salsa dancing...we eventually got a taxi home at about 5 AM (I think) with a couple of hours to sleep before we were supposed to get up and meet Anelore's friends for our trip to the Michuocan region.
