Continuar...

That little waterfall below was the final straw (so far!) with this house we're staying in...I love the people a lot, but the house has been a bit difficult to deal with. Ant infestations, flooding - that was just the video I was able to make. I've spent a lot of time mopping and using a bailing bucket to empty out water from the roof. For some reason, the roofs are built like bathtubs, but not as waterproof. The plumber has stopped by a couple times, but is coming to actually fix the problems mañana.

Mañana, popularly translated as tomorrow, is actually a mythical day that will happen sometime in the near future. Like those who pray for the coming of the Messiah, many Mexicans (and some long-staying US'ers) pray for the arrival of mañana, when all leaks will be fixed, all cleaning-ladies will come, all water will be delivered, and many other wrongs will be righted. Amen.

Anyway, we're going to be moving out of here in the next week, hopefully. We're likely to move into an apartment that owned by one of the hostels here in town - the Villa Colonial. The places are small, but rent is pretty low, 3500 Mexican Euros, as our Dutch friend Auk calls them. That comes to around $265 US, including all utilities, so not bad at all. We'll spice it up a bit with our own decorations and it'll be just fine. It may happen that we'll have to hop around a bit in different apartments till one opens that we like, but as I said above, mañana.

I do just want to finish up about our trip to Real de Catorce that I was talking about earlier. The second day, we decided to take a horseback trip up to the top of one of the mountains overlooking the town. I hadn't been on a horse for more than 5 minutes since I was a kid (if that) and was a bit apprehensive starting out. However, within a short time, I was sold on the whole thing. It was really cool and I can't wait to do it more. My backside wasn't as pleased as the rest of me, but I'm sure it'll come around. We rode up a windy trail for about 45 minutes, until we reached a bunch of ruins that were from when the silver mines were working. We parked the horses (not the proper term, I'm sure, but applicable) and walked around for a bit with our guide. He spoke no english, and our spanish isn't quite ready for prime-time, so we only understood a few words in every sentence. It's likely that there was a steam-engine house that drove the something-or-other and there's a covered mine shaft that goes on for either 300 meters or is a shopping mall. Or something.

He took us into the entrance of a mine for about 100 feet or so, and it was really really dark. I can't imagine having to go down in those mines and working. As the poet wrote, "it's dark as a dungeon, damp as the dew, where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few. Where the rain never falls, and the sun never shines, it's dark as a dungeon, way down in the mine." The only pleasure I had was getting out.

We rode back down the mountain to spectacular views of the town, the surrounding mountains, and the fields way off in the distance. The town is at about 10,000 feet and we rode up about another 2500 or so, so we were definitely up there.

After we returned the horses, it was more walking around. We found the old bullfighting ring, which for some reason I thought would be more exciting. Turns out, it was just a circular wall made of stones. In a circle. I wish I could say more about it, but that was about it. A couple more hours walking around, and we got back on the road to Zacatecas.

A funny thing we saw on the way out was this awesome marriage of old and new (click for biggerversion):

I think it speaks volumes.

Look for more pics in the link on the top right.