Day 4 (Evening): TODAY: On Sale Here

9:05 pm

This morning, on the way to the botanical gardens, I saw a sign outside a store that said "se vende HOY aquí." ("TODAY: on sale here") Now, those of you who are familiar with Spanish language periodicals would recognize the title Hoy right away and keep right on moving. But, for me, maybe it was the way that the light-paved Calzada de la Luz was making the buildings glow, the odd hot-cold mountain air, or the fact that I was just so happy to be here, but when I saw the sign, I thought to myself, TODAY: on sale here, and I started humming "Who Will Buy This Beautiful Morning?" ("Oh, my, I don't want to lose it, so what am I to do to keep the sky so blue? There must be someone who will buy...")

In case you can't tell, I find this town perfectly suited to my dramatic, romantic, dreamer side.

The botanical gardens, though not quite what I expected, were beautiful in their own desert arroyo kind of way. To me, when I think of botanical gardens, I think of bright colors and exotic flowers, probably an assumption based on past trips to Hawaii. So, I was a little taken aback at first to realize that this particular botanical garden was the home to over a thousand varieties of cactus... and little else. But soon I realized that even the cactus could be beautiful. I never knew that there were so many kinds. There was also a canyon and a floodplain that had chest-high plants and a dam across it. We sat on the dam for a while and had collective quiet time.

None of my pictures from today turned out all that well, and besides, I think that pictures without people get pretty boring, so I'll have some of my new friends take pictures of me doing San-Miguel-ish things soon.

We walked home from the botanical gardens and got back just in time to see the Mexico - Argentina soccer game. The entire town was out and in the restaurants to see the game; we finally found a place to sit and watch after walking up and down almost every street in the town. We climbed the narrowest, steepest winding staircase I've ever seen in my life to a teetery little balcony in a smoky bar that could have safely held about 20 people (it seemed like there were about 200 in there). The balcony was so close to the ceiling that some of the men up there had to stoop to move around. I had some sugar right before I went, so I was bouncing off the walls. I wish I had been that awake for the Ecuador game... When Mexico scored their first (and, sadly, only) GOOOOOOOOOOOL, I leapt up from my little corner of an unstable wooden bench... and cracked my head on a ceiling rafter so hard that I blacked out for a second. It was an exciting game, even if the outcome left the whole town sort of down in the dumps the rest of the day.

Then, this afternoon, we went to a free dance show at a little corner theatre. It was mostly folkloric and traditional Mexican dance with some hip-hop and ballet. There were lasso dances, breakdancing, and a traditional folclórico number where the dancers balance open jugs of water on their heads. Also, one of the dancers was probably the most beautifully formed human beings that I have ever seen. Unfortunately for me and my drooling friends, he also seeemed to be one of the most... ahem. Let´s say that he seemed to kick with the other foot, since that´s what they say in Spanish. Que lástima. The dancing was very good, but the professionalism of the show was about as professional as the shows that Abbie and I used to put on in the living room when we were kids. It was just very, very informal. Very, very Mexican. Afterwards, we went and ate enchiladas at a place called, get this, Las Enchiladas. They were amazing enchiladas.

Well, I promised no pictures without me in them, but I have to leave you with this fun parting shot from the botanical gardens...

...I HEART you all! Lots and lots of love!