slowly she turned

We began Saturday with a slow walk uphill on this street.

So many shops and galleries were open now. One of the shops we visited was a print shop with many fine relief prints and artist books for sale. We talked to the employee there and her brother for a long time, and I laid down some money for handmade paper and a woodcut printed bag.

Across the street was a shop with beautiful amate (bark) paper pieces for sale, and a couple of those came home with me as well as a bookmark that reminded me of the greater-tailed grackles. This might be my favorite souvenir from Mexico:

Then we had brunch at Petit Four. It was delicious and their pastries were art, although we were good and only looked at them.

Every day we had said that we were going to visit a history museum, and we finally did. The Museo Histórico Casa de Allende was the renovated 18th century residence of one of the heroes of the 1810 revolution, Ignacio Allende.

^This is the parlor where the wimmens hung out. They sat on cushions on the floor while the minz got the comfy chairs when they decided to invade the space.

There was an outdoor exhibition of women artists around the Jardin Allende, but it seemed to be more of the same stuff we had seen in the artisan market, so we wandered through other places instead. I thought it would be good to find the local small book stores.

I searched for a farmacia because I had a sudden allergic reaction that was driving me crazy with itching on my arm. I left Sandy at a book store and took off down hill to the nearest farmacia I could find on Google Maps. Foolishly, I didn’t have much cash on me, and many of the stores didn’t take credit. This one didn’t. They asked for more than I had on me for a tube of hydrocortisone. I bought a tube of aloe gel instead. Then I marched back up the hill to meet Sandy and found that there was a tiny farmacia on the corner of that street, smaller than my bedroom. They asked less than half the price of the hydrocortisone cream. I think I was a victim of gringo pricing at the other place.

We took our siesta, and I started spending some time with my stitching in our little courtyard or on the roof of the hotel. I enjoyed spending time with my new friend Jorge the Beautiful Mexican Beetle. His leg was broken. I put him in one of the potted bougainvillae and gave him some water. More about Jorge tomorrow.

Then we decided to visit the restaurant at Hacienda El Sanctuario, just up the street from us. The host had engaged us in a pleasant conversation on one of our walks in search of a rooftop restaurant a couple of nights before. It was early and we were one of only two couples there, but there was a classical guitarist playing in the courtyard and the art surrounding us in the hotel and in the courtyard was fabulous. After dinner, I was told that I was welcome to go up to the roof and take photos as well.  I had not ordered tacos the whole time that I was in Mexico, and I decided on the shrimp tacos here, and Sandy chose the shrimp enchiladas. I can report that these were the best tacos I’ve ever eaten anywhere, and the taste I had of the enchiladas was fabulous, too.

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