Real Del Monte - February 20, 2010

This is really out of order, but I can't keep putting off the recent activities because I am so far behind. I guess my posts will just have to be out of order!

Thanks to the Newcomers Group of Mexico City, we noticed a tour that was heading to Real del Monte for the day. A small silver and gold mining town that started with the Spanish in the 1500s and then reopened in the late 1730s. Between 1824 and 1848, a Cornish company took over the mines, which brought the influence of architecture, soccer, the Methodist religion, and pasties to the town. Real del Monte has been declared a 'Pueblo Magico', which means it is one of the picturesque towns to visit in Mexico. It is also the most populated city in Mexico at that elevation (around 9200 feet). (We live at around 8500 feet.) Real del Monte is sister cities with Redruth, Cornwall and together they held the first pasty festival this past October. Above the city sits a Cornish Cemetary where all the headstones face towards Britain, except one, the first clown of Mexico who was so well-received by the Mexicans that he wanted his headstone facing Mexico.

We set the alarm early for Saturday morning and took off at 7:30 because we had to pick up Noel, a co-worker of Dave's who was stuck here for the weekend, then get to the church where Newcomers meetings are held by 8:50 am. We arrived at the church a little on Mexico time at 9:05, thankfully they waited for us. We took off immediately at 9:07 and, with Claire and I watching Shrek II in the backseat, we headed toward the town of Real del Monte. We stopped once for a quick, much needed bathroom break at a Pemex, finally arriving at our destination at noon!





Entering the town, you notice a cute, colorful little tourist town. Our tour guide, Jesica, told us that the government gives the building owners the paint to keep up the appearance (much like in the town of Valparaiso, Chile, as seen on this past week's Amazing Race). There are also MANY pastes (pasty) shops everywhere - some 30 different shops. We walked up to the town square, where Jesica told us about the pasty and a brief history of the town. Something that she said that I did not know about the pasty was that the crust was used to hold on to, due to their filthy hands, and then the crust was tossed. She also said that in Mexico, they made one side of the pasty filled with meat and the other side was a dessert, made with apples for example. I think my grandmother would be appalled by that idea!



We then climbed onto the top of the double decker Turibus that tours the small town. This might be a good place to mention that we brought the camera, but Dave failed to notice that there was no memory card in it, so we couldn't take any pictures. He took a few with his phone, but they did not give a good indication of what this town was really like. We started off on the Turibus. I was scared enough sitting on the top level with the rest of our group, but when we started to move, I was worried about my safety. Think small, narrow, extremely steep streets, paired with low, LIVE electrical wires that you had to duck to miss, on top of the low branches that also could decapitate you if you were not paying attention. You would think that they would test these tours out to make sure that it was safe for all passengers riding on the top of this bus, but obviously, they did not. There were a few wires that were buzzing loudly that nearly missed the top of my head. It was a little hard to enjoy the ride because I was so worried about ducking!



Along this route, the bus took us above the perimeter of the city. You could see inside many homes sitting up so high and you were reminded again of the hardship that these people deal with everyday. It seemed to be laundry day and when I say laundry, I mean washed by hand and hung up to drip dry. A long, tedious task for sure. We also stopped at the top of one particular mountain where we could get off for pictures and a few stands were set up with trinkets for sale (that is my polite way of saying junk). Of course, Claire had her eye on a wooden flute and would not let up with the "I wants". On the tour with us was a woman named Rose. She is from Australia and had her niece and niece's friend were here visiting and joined us on the tour. One of the young girls was also buying a flute and bought another for Claire since they were only 10 pesos each. A nice gesture that is still "ringing" in our ears!

Once off the frightening ride (which at one point people literally put their hands in the air as if riding a roller coaster), we took off to a pasty shop to give them a try. Dave ordered a mole verde with chicken and, seeing that there were no vegetarian pasties at this shop, I ordered a manzana (apple) pasty. Dave enjoyed his pasty, even though it was nothing like what we are used to in Michigan. I thought my apple pasty was okay, but the skins were left on the apples and there wasn't a lot of flavor to it. The crust was no where near the delicate, flaky crust that my grandmother painstakingly has labored to perfect with hers, but seeing that Crisco is not a common item here, I will appreciate the attempt. The entire tour group of 13 filled up the pasty shop and all tried one or two at this restaurant.

After our snack, we were on our own to shop the little town. This tourist town would be reminiscent of a small town like Frankenmuth. There is a cute square, next to the Mercado, where a group of girls were trying to catch a pigeon with a crate box, a stick, some string, and pieces of bread. This group of six girls were giggling and seemed to like the attention that they were drawing with their old-fashioned contraption. The shops were all pretty much the same - keychains, jewelry, silver, and a little bit of pottery. Nothing really worth shopping for, especially after my week of shopping with my mother-in-law and Mrs. Steurer! Claire was beginning to get REALLY crabby so we found Rose and Jesica and let them know that we were going to let Tom-Tom take us home, but first Dave stopped and bought a box of sixteen pasties to bring home and freeze.

The drive home was only about 2 hours and Claire and I both dozed off for the majority of it. It was great to get home, although Dave and I both ended up burned in some spots. It was a long day and kind of a disappointing one overall. Maybe I had too high of expectations or maybe I was just overwhelmed by the long drive and traffic. Nonetheless, another town to mark off on our list!