"jdoe" wrote in message
news:u3ln73hlghd4uffgdurrhv4li6qii1742p@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:01:32 +0200, "J.M." wrote:
>>> >>For example, never hail a taxi on the street.
>>I have never read something so stupide ! Millions of people hail taxi
>>every
>>day in the streets of Mexico
> they sure do, but there is a possibility that the one YOU hail could
> be one of the rouges.
> You step onto any street anywhere and you take your chances, but at
> least you should be aware of the potential risks
The worst thing that ever happened to me was being overcharged, as in
our haste, we neglected to set the price. Naturally fluent or at least
decent Spanish is required to do that. I have very good friends who live in
the Condesa (one of the nicer neighborhoods), he is a Chilean and he married
a native of D.F. Her brother was assaulted and robbed in a cab. That being
said, I love D.F. and would highly recommend it for the unrivaled cultural
attractions.
Just got back from Xilitla in San Luis Potosi -- we drove. Below is a
trip report.
Left Austin early on June 15 and made it to Matamoros. A fairly decent
border town, which is damning with faint praise, but we had a nice hotel
room and got all the endless bullshit bureaucracy for the car permit
arranged with not too much fuss. Had a wonderful cabrito (baby goat)
dinner - very delicious.
Got an early start and made it to Xilitla by about 5pm. The
countryside is all stunning mountainous, rainforested jungle and the little
town itself is very quaint. The Flamboyant trees were in bloom and mango
season just began. Filled with Nahuatl Indians - most of the women wearing
huipiles (embroidered blouses) and carrying baskets on their heads. Had
torrential rain off and on. We stayed at El Castillo, the town house built
by the crazy English millionaire, Edward James, who built the sculpture
garden, Las Pozas, for which Xilitla is famous. Very nice place with,
instead of Gideon Bible, the teachings of Buddha translated in Spanish in
the room. He was a major patron of the young unknowns of the time -
Magritte, Dali, Stranvinksky, Balanchine, etc. Dali said of him "We all
pretend to be crazy, but he's the real thing."
Our hostess at El Castillo is the youngest daughter of the man who was
the contractor-architect for the sculpture garden at Las Pozas. She was
lovely. There is a ton of material about it on the web, so I won't rehash
it here (the Smithsonian article is the best), but in addition of a bunch of
really bizarre concrete sculpture (he was inspired by the Watt's Towers in
L.A.) there are the pools or pozas which give the place its name. Entering
the garden we met a guy from Monterrey, working as a tour guide who offered
us a tour and it was well worth the $20, as he described lots of the
symbolism of the designs, etc. Then we took a swim in the icy water of the
pool at a waterfall. It was delightful.
Found two nice restaurants in Xilitla - one a bit on the trendy side
with Italian food, the other with fantastic view and wonderful Mexican food
and little matrons as waitresses who were very sweet and maternal.
After five days, we drove to Monterrey to stay with our friends who
live outside of town on the highway to Ciudad Victoria. All was very calm,
it rained and we read, and readied ourselves for a birthday party. My
friend, an excellent painter and artist (see his website www.dosmundos.net)
cranked out an original drawing in one eight hour day for the birthday boy
who is a attorney-banker and collects images of hands. It was lovely.
One afternoon, a little puppy dog showed up at the house of our
friends. She was skinny and had fleas - a little golden retriever mix -
adorable and sweet-tempered. So, to make a long story short, we adopted
her, got her vaccines and a little passport to cross into the US. So far,
she and Lola, our double yellow-headed Amazon parrot are cool with each
other, but I'm keeping an eagle-eye out. Naturally, we're going through
puppy-training, terra incognita for us both. But she is a very adorable
dog. We named her Gonzala. Zala for short.
Oh, and we bought a humongous bird bath of cut stone - it's really the
base for a fountain, so, maybe we'll add on!
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