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!

Noise!

I think anytime you move to a new place there are new sounds that you have to get used to. In Ferndale, it was the darn train, which I never really got used to. Here there are so many more sounds that it is almost impossible to get a good night's sleep.

First, there is the cars. Now, we are pretty fortunate. Our home is at the end of a street in a cul-de-sac, but still there are many cars that drive by at all times of the night. I might also mention that our bedroom sits facing over the street. Okay, so big deal, everyone has cars that drive past their house. The other problem with the cars is that people here feel the need to honk their horns incessantly, at all hours of the night, but mostly at five in the morning. Not to mention that, of course, they can't park their cars without making sure that it is locked by clicking the remote two or three times!

Second, for some unknown reason, there is a rooster that lives in our neighborhood. I understand that back in the day, when there was no such thing as alarm clocks, that roosters were invaluable to farmers to wake them up to get their day going, but in a suburban neighborhood, really? This loud and cheery rooster likes to start crowing at around five in the morning, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't also like to crow in the middle of the night or even day. Quite a confused rooster and it may not live too much longer considering this is one of my number one sleep robber.

Third, the dogs. EVERYONE in our neighborhood has AT LEAST one dog. Now, again, in the burbs in America, the dogs usually go inside at night to sleep in their beds (like our new dog, Dulce), but not here. The dogs here are always outside and ALWAYS barking. Next door, the dog barks so much, all the time, that we have named it "Barky". No one ever tells the dog to be quiet or brings it inside and I have NO idea how this dog hasn't gone hoarse. I guess years of practice. To paint a little more of a picture, let me tell you about who lives behind our house. There are three sheepdogs, who love to howl, and four golden retrievers live next to them. When one dog in the neighborhood decides to start barking, they all bark, and heaven help us when a stray walks by! We are hoping to keep Dulce as a non-barker and so far so good!

Fourth, the noises in the house. Now I know that every house creaks and makes some noises, but like I have said earlier, this house does not have a furnace. Instead, it has a lot of radiators and little, built-in electric heaters throughout the house. These radiators love to make these loud clicking sounds. I don't notice them during the day, probably because I am not sleeping, but during the quiet night, these conduit radiators release an extremely excessive clicking sound. We have been able to hide this noise a little by placing a blanket over the source. These radiatos click and knock whether they are turned on or not.

Lastly, would be the parties. The Mexicans know how to throw a party! There are quite a few weekends where someone in the neighborhood is throwing some bash. There is always a DJ and they play until at least 2 in the morning. Last weekend, Dave and I both incorporated the songs into our dreams and when he went to put the puppy out at three, it was still going strong, just without the DJ.

I know that every neighborhood has these issues, maybe not all of them, but definitely some of them, but I am looking forward to my quiet, Ferndale neighborhood with just the train!