Week One comes to a Close

Saturday is the day that the south part of the Instituto becomes an organics market. Marc and Sue and I headed over at 10 a.m. so as to get the best produce before it was gone. You might be wondering about whether the greens and vegetables we buy are going to cause stomach problems - even about eating salads out at restaurants because in Toronto, we are always told not to drink the water or eat anything which might have been washed with the water, i.e. lettuce. In Mexico, all fruit and veg need to be soaked in a sink of water to which a few drops of disinfectant has been added and then it is fine to consume. Marc and Sue use javex; I have been supplied with a small bottle of microdyne. So aside from normal washing, there is a little job to disinfect produce before it is consumed. Restaurants follow the same routine, if they want to be in business for any length of time. I am sticking to the restaurants that Marc and Sue recommend. If there are issues, word of mouth would soon drive them out of business.

The Saturday morning Organics Market

I bought some kale (12 pesos) and some granola (35 pesos) for my yogurt.

An area of the market is dedicated to local crafts. Here the vendor is in full aboriginal regalia.

The Mexicans have a good approach to building a fence beside a tree.

After dropping the produce at home, we headed over to the Mercado San Juan de Dios which is fairly close to Marc and Sue's casita and open daily. There is one huge big building and also open air pavilions over quite a few streets in the area. It was similar to a very large flea market with a good local produce section.

Amost all the crafts are made locally. Particularly unique are the crafts made with wrought metal, maybe aluminum. Lamp shades and garden lights and even Christmas trees were on display. I will return once I figure out what I want to bring back home.

Next we went on a walking tour of the Guadalupe neighbourhood. This area, which lies between Centro to the south and Mexiquito to the north is a reasonably priced rental area with lots of both Gringos and Artists living there. There is an excellent Organics store and restaurant/cafe and bakery in the area.

The neighbourhood is known for its wall murals and I now have pictures of 20-30 of these on my camera roll. I selected a few of the more interesting to show you,

We stopped at the Via Oganica for a refresco and a wander through the interesting products.

As we walked through the neighbourhood I admired the doorways and street facades - even as we get out of the Centro and historical district the streetscapes still had a simplistic beauty I observed on my first day here.

We ended up our tour of Guadalupe at the edge of Mexiquito at the Fabrica Aurora. We spent 20 minutes wandering through it and in that time I really just got a taste of the place - it is that large. Thursday they have their "Artists Walk", which just means that all the artists are in residence here. So I will save discussion of the Aurora until after I go on Thursday.

Just outside the grounds, tucked in behind the Aurora is the café called "Geek & Coffee". It is a great place to bring the iPad, drink coffee and surf the net. There is also a nice outside garden to sit in.

The Jardin at Geek & Coffee

We were just in time to arrive at 3:00 at the Pocket Theatre for the movie "Amy", a documentary/biopic about Amy Winehouse showing at TIFF this year. After being served a tumbler full of vio tinto, we made our way to our seats, mine #9 of the 15 in the theatre, wine in hand. As the movie started we were served popcorn - all for 100 pesos! They have 4 showings a day in their 2 theatres. This is a good town for movie goers!

The movie was well done and the songs, some as yet unreleased, we're so so good. As Tony Bennett said in the film, "she had a pure jazz voice and should be counted a among the great Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Too bad some of our best talents crash and burn with their addictions.

We walked until 6:00, when it was time to meet Orin and friends for dinner at the Cafe Monet. There were 8 of us - all the others were long time SMA long term visitors or residents. Orin is a movie collector and he has a whole wall in his home filled shelves of DVDs. He sends out a weekly email to his mailing list inviting recipients to join for a Sat night dinner at the selected restaurant and if desired to carry on back to his home to enjoy a movie he has selected. The email is to be shared with friends as all are welcome. We watched "Feme Nikita" a 1990 French spy/assassin film with English subtitles. Well, 2 movies in one day!

Hasta luego!

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