Miscellenia

• Mexicans love to build arches - sometimes with no particular relevance, just an arch in the middle of a field or a wall




• For the first time during my visits to Mexico (except late at night) I experienced quiet bus rides. For the first hour between GTO and Queretaro, it was silent! Then a BBC documentary. No media at all from Queretaro to Xilitla on the second class bus.




• Saw one of the places where GM moved to on the bus between GTO and Queretaro. Humongous plant! And several monstrous, walled maquiladoras (sp?), the Mexican sweat shops a la NAFTA.



• The only people who don't return greetings on the street are other gringos.



• Fabulous Mexican food: limes, mole, gorditas (fat tortillas stuffed with any number of things like egg, potatoes, garbanzos, meat, chiles, etc), tamales, strawberries for $1 a pound (pesticide included no charge), corn on a stick with chile, and, oh, the fresh squeezed orange juice! good Mexican wine



• The consistently spiffiest places in Mexico are the state owned Pemex gas stations and the banks. Absolutely spotless.



• People sweep a lot, usually with wrecked brooms or just branches tied together; out early in the morning in front of their shops sweeping and sweeping.



• Big foul smelling bubbling cauldrons of meat everywhere around the public market in Xilitla.



• According to a man I met at Las Posas who was filming for a documentary on surrealist art, three of the worlds largest caves are withing two hours of Xilitla including one that drops straight down hundreds of feet and where there are life forms not seen since the Pleistocene.


• Amazing feats of strength: guys in Guanajuato carrying those great big propane canisters up a long, steep alleyway and, to top that, guys carrying three five gallon water jugs at a time up the same alleyway. We're talking several blocks here.
• New Mexico has a state cookie, a short bread/anise type thing. Don't know the name of it.
• New Mexico also has a state question. It is: red or green? Can you guess? Red or green chile, what else? It's a staple part of the New Mexican diet. A sort of stew made from roasted peppers mostly. Very tasty.

I do believe this is truly the end. Twas a fine trip and I wish I was still on it. I've posted photos at: bicycle.smugmug.com

Andres