Mision Aguascalientes

Sun off to Aguascalientes, my 3rd feria or festival or in this case, much more of a fiesta, in a row. A big city but with a pleasant colonial centre (I'm on the route of the Camino Real so it's all like that round here!) but with a large area close to the centre permanaently set up for the Feria de San Marcos - huge pedestrianised plazas & streets lined with bars, clubs, restaurants & shops stretching for at least 2k - really packed Sunday night, 1st weekend of Feria, and yet half the ...

... trying to squeeze some humor out of the name of the city. For anyone who does not speak Spanish, Aguascalientes is translated as "warm waters" hence my feeble joke of "can we warm up to this city?" The short answer is surprisingly "no"! Why "no"? All the other places we have visited and blogged about have had one characteristic in common and that has been an outstanding "centro historico" or historical center. It turns out that in the cities ...

... 113, Tel: 01 (449) 9187300, Web: www.hotelfranciaaguascalientes.com . This professional set up offers everything that you would expect from a decent hotel; as well as fine views across town from their rooftop terrace. Their current rates were 933 + 1,074 Peso for 1 or 2 persons. Even if you don't stay here, still have a look, so that you can admire the views across town from their roof top terrace.

... and people are forced to drive due to lack of public transport, or the fact that most taxi drivers (in Mexico City anyway) have the deserved reputation for being knife wielding muggers? Mexicans justify their alcohol fuelled races by saying they still drive carefully, and it's true that amongst the ones I know tales of crashes after a night on the sauce are practically non-existent. Completely the opposite to home where even driving home from the pub after 2 pints is ...

Finished our work at the company. I rode with one of the employees in a little 1.6L car. I was shocked at his musical taste, 80's American rock. He had two CD's, Depeche Mode and U2. He said that he and his friends really enjoy this genre of music. The next time that I visit I am going to take a few CD's to give away, I know that at the very least I can get them cheaper. We were taken to dinner ...

Arrived at Aguascalientes. We were picked up by a van with a broken windshield and taken to the Fiesta Americana hotel. The hotel is nice, almost resort quality. A bellhop took my bags to the room for me and explained the layout of the hotel, most importantly he told me where to buy cerveza! Spent some time ...

I'm leaving Ajijic on Tuesday, April 18, for a trip to Morocco, followed by some time in Paris. If you'd rather not received my Reports From the Road for whatever reason: you're going to be traveling yourself, you hate listening to other people's travel stories almost as much as you hate looking at their snapshots, you're kinda busy, you just don't care ... all you have to do is let me know. I promise I won't be offended or take it personally. Honest. Here ...

Ah, little piece of heaven (henceforth known as LPH) number 2. Neat, attractive, small, fresh. At 2,500 metres it gets rather chilly at night. It is a UNESCO heritage town (the pink sandstone one) so building/renovating/advertising in the city centre is very limited. Hostel Villa Colonial has a really nice roof top area and generally very good facilities and extremely friendly staff. $190 (pesos) for a double in a good sized room ...

... night, but now the sun is back out. I took one week of private Spanish lessons and then switched to photography which I loved. The first week was a fundamentals class with only four students. I was the only one shooting digital but the teacher, Jo Brenza, spent time on both film and digital. I finally learned how to really use my camera off the auto setting and learned a lot about basic composition. Everyday we had instruction and then a ...

... to symbolize Jesus. If you get the piece with a plastic doll, then you are the godfather or godmother and on Candelaria you have to give a party where you serve tamales to all your family and friends. As we drove up to San Miguel in the dark on Jan. 1, we could see the lights of the city in the distance for about 1/2 an hour before we arrived, but they kept appearing and disappearing as we wove around the hills and along ...