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Currently the Inn Keeper in Guanajuato, Mexico. Go to www.houseinguanajuato.com to see the wonderful lifestyle I enjoy.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Halloween is Coming

My son told me that the natives of Guanajuato (GTO) are sensitive to cold weather. And he, as usual, was right. The temperatures have dropped to the mid fifties at night, with a recent low down in the upper forties. When I leave to walk Millie, the sun is out and the temperature is rising, but the people in the street are wearing jackets, coats, parkas, scarves around their necks, and the occasional scarf around the mouth and nose, just as in Canada when the temperature was 20 degrees! The babies are wrapped totally in blankets (I presume those are babies even though there is not even an eye to be seen).This is a product of acclimatization. The first day I spent in Canada (1950) the headline in the paper was “Heat Wave Continues” and it was 85 degrees! It is all about that to which one is accustomed.

Halloween (hallowed evening) approaches. The stores and vendor’s booths are full of skulls, skeletons, ghosts, and special breads prepared for the Day of the Dead. Tee shirts are seen with the general theme. This is not a prankish celebration, but one in which the families go to the gravesite and have a feast on the location, giving the spirit of the departed a chance to commune with the living on this once-a-year event. The Day of the Dead is akin to our All Saint’s Day, and is celebrated on November 1st.

The University of GTO symphony orchestra was in concert Friday evening. Featured was an ex-Cuban pianist ((Leonel Morales) who did a magnificent execution of Liszt’s First and Second Piano Concerti, one before intermission, and one immediately following, under the direction of a visiting Checkoslovakian (sp?) conductor For $10 a seat it was a bargain. They perform again next Friday with a trumpet soloist in the first half, and a piano soloist playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in C Major. I’m looking forward to another enjoyable evening.

Saturday was a recital by students of an internationally known mime and dance instructor who specializes in “body language theater”. They presented a program about an hour long on the floor of an old artificial water reservoir (basically a flat relatively shallow swimming pool) in the back yard of the instructor, with seating on rock ledges on the hillside. The last act was a fire dance by one of the students swinging flaming kerosene pots to very lively music. It was very well done. The variety of cultural events for this city of 75,000 is quite amazing.

I’ll attempt to include a picture of a street scene to show a common morning activity. Then back to my Spanish homework….. A friendly storekeeper - Millie smells food

1 Comments:

Blogger tecki said...

Hola Carl,

I don't know if you remember Kendra and me (Ryan) we're the couple from NC who lived in Guanajuato from September 06 to the end of February 07. We ran into you and Millie on the street and you showed us the house. We talked a few time after that whenever we crossed paths in the city.

We just wanted to say hi and that we hope things are going well with the house. The last post on the site looks like things are moving along.

hasta pronto!

2:15 PM  

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