Seeing a Man About a Horse

We started the day in Parque Benito Juarez in which local artists showcase and sell their work on the weekends. I have no idea how many blocks the park covers, but each time we visit we end up somewhere a little different. With the greatest respect for Presa de Olla in GTO, Juarez is probably the kind of park in which one really could spend an afternoon.

It seems like we spend as much time preparing to do things as actually doing things, and today was all about preparation for the next few days. Because we prefer to figure things out on our own rather than having someone from a travel agency do all the leg work (because there is so much to discover along the way to the discoveries), we walk a lot of places and ask a lot of questions before committing to any of our various endeavors. Tomorrow, there is a celebration in Atotonilco we would like to attend so today we had to figure out how to take the bus there and back. There are several informal bus terminals in SMA and we sorted through a few before finding the one from which the Atotonilco buses depart and return and, while it is on the other side of town, the buses run every half hour and into the evening so we're good for tomorrow.

In the midst of it, we returned to the tiny cafe we visited our first week: Restaurante Taurino on Relox right next door to the bull ring. I mention it here because it will probably never make it into any guide books, but anyone who visits SMA should visit it for the most lovely, intimate, simple meal prepared by kind and attentive people.

We were actually in that neighborhood to see a man about a horse... Tomorrow we will leave the city for horseback riding in the hills and countryside for several hours mid morning, and we also arranged a trip Monday morning to the hot springs. Chris is totally comfortable with the horse and I'm completely at ease with the hot springs so one of us can remain calm at all times and one of us can be hysterical at all times: it's how we do.

We took it easy this afternoon--which we are quite good at--because it was hot like Chicago here today, so we kept cool indoors reading and writing and picking and singing, and then went out for dinner near the Principal Jardin. Now we're home and I have only one chapter left in my book--The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Morton (which anyone who's overly fond of Homer should read), so I'm just that far from bed and I'm sure Chris will be up for hours and hours yet, as usual.