Monday, July 14, 2008

So thats what all the dust is....

Leon- This town was built to be hot. The Ceilings are all about 20 feet high, and the old colonial Spanish buildings do a reasonably good job of keeping their contents cool during the day. Outside its hot. It starts off warm and beautiful, and slowly builds to completely unbearable, then some time late afternoon the sky opens up and cold rains sends all the street vendors and cats running- the dust settles, and it becomes a cool and clear evening with in an hour.

Its been a very relaxing and fun couple of days. We found our way into Leon on a long and hot bus ride, inside a retired American school bus with not quite enough room for POllos knees, but hey, at least we had seats unlike most of the passengers. Once we arrived we found our way (the long way) to a nice hostel, with a big open court yard and a cute kitten. Pollo was sold. they have their own kitchen and two non working blenders, so we unknowingly went out and bought lots of fruits for juices and smoothies. Got home- discovered they were just for show, so we decided we would make our first investment in our future kitchen and buy a blender! Off we wen over hill and dale in search of a liquado, which we did find, in every shop, and eventually for a reasonable price. Home again, we now have an endless supply of fresh fruit juices, and my most favorite of all, Pitaya- a bright purple cactus fruit is in season! yum!

Saturday we were out for a walk and happened to stumble upon a HUGE dance competition where hundreds of pre-teen girls were thrusting their hips and shaking thier shoulders to the beat of the same silly pop tune, over and over and over again. What a hoot! So we grabbed a street side hamburger (1% meat, 99% mayo-katsup-mustard-pickles-bread) and sat on a fountain for a while, where we watched them warming up and getting ready for their 5 minutes of fame. Mothers and fathers were primping, polishing, and coaching their kids, and siblings were jumping in for some dancing too. Very cute. The street kids were all there playing too, and one little girl decided the Brown, murky, trash filled fountain looked like a good place for a swim. She jumped in and pulled herself around on the bottom in the 10 or so inches of water, round and round throwing the trash from the water to the grass outside. Hey- someone has to take responsibility for the litter problem around here right? All the onlookers cringed.

Soon after the sky blackened with some kind of dust and rain started to pummel the streets. We all took cover, but the dust was really blinding. We did take a picture or two as the sky turned from a light blue to a brownish gray. Pollution we wondered? We later discovered it was due to a near by volcano that had erupted the day prior, and the ash had blown in.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49339/story.htm

Sunday was movie day. Pollo and I rounded up 3 street kids, and tried to get a few more, but their mothers wouldn't let them leave their begging posts. The three boys we did get however were thirlled, and we all had a blast! They all had their choice of snack from the snack bar, they picked orange soda, and we all waited, we were first into the theater. ¨Kung Fu Panda¨ was such a great movie and we had a blast, the kids loved the folding seats, the soft cushions, the big ¨beautiful room¨ as they called it. By the end they were all freezing cold, they didn't have any shoes on and wernt used to the air conditioner. Any way we had a really good time, enjoyed the movie and the company.

So today was my birthday today, Pollo snuck out this morning early and got me a big beautiful cake this morning. We had it for breakfast and left for a day trip out to see some boiling mud pits. They were interesting, about how they sound, boiling mud- it was fun- a group of local kids guided us around made sure we didn't fall in. The bus was standing room only on the way back, and we had worked up a real hunger. We stopped at a ¨¨Comador¨ and had a delicious lunch, and then crashed back into bed after a cold shower to avoid the midday heat.

So that's the update on this side of the world. Hope you are all doing well out there, send us a note!

2 comments:

grommy pants said...

Que Chistoso maes!
I cannot believe you thought you would find a blender for a resonable price you crack me up!! I had to drive four hours just to get decent dog traveling supplies
You two remind me of Ryan and I's adventures. When we traveled around we also took cramped busses often waiting for a seat or giving up a seat and we would make hemp necklaces and bracelets for the children on the bus and often befriended children like you and Pollo are doing and included them in our fun. Miss you lots and chicolini and the Amazing Pollo I have not yet met in person take some extra sun and catch a wave for me Much love Peace out

Unknown said...

I didn't got it. What about those kids at the movie again? Me and M. saw the Panda movie, really fun ;) Keep on posting :)

P.S. Happy b-days for both of you.