LIVING IN GUANAJUATO

Guanajuato, Mexico - Darkside 2

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:04:00 +0000

In Mexico,there are little to no animal cruelty laws, however, it has been suggested that animal cruelty laws are slowly being implemented. The country's current policy usually condemns physical harm to animals as property damage to the owners of the abused animal. The Law of Animal Protection of the Federal District is wide-ranging, based on banning 'unnecessary suffering.' Similar laws now exist in most states. However, this is disregarded by much of the public and authorities. - (Wikipedia)

Animal cruelty is evident in Guanajuato on a daily basis. Whenever one sees Guanajuatenses walking dogs you are bound to see just what I mean.

First of all, Guanajuatenses, as a whole, will turn their dogs loose on the street. Packs of dogs can be seen running the streets anytime night or day. The consequence of this, breeding on a massive scale, results in more and more puppies that grow up only to repeat the process some six months later.

If that wasn't bad enough, you can see roof dogs that are staked out on their owner's roofs sometimes with no water or food nor shade.

Puppies are abandoned routinely at garbage dumpsters or thrown into them as though they were cardboard boxes.

Those who have pets can be seen kicking them on the streets as we saw today.

A male child (future serial killer in the making) was chasing down two very tiny Chihuahuas, running to keep up with their owner, and kicking them if the dogs lagged behind. One puppy tried stopping to make pee-pee and the 8 year old kicked it viciously. The boy, now get this, was associated with the dog's owners.

The parents or caretakers see this happening and rarely do anything to stop the child.

Just a few minutes afterward, we saw at the bus stop where we were waiting, a child with a small puppy throwing it in the air as though it as a rag doll.

I would love to tell you that small kids are the only ones doing this but I would be lying. Last fall, we saw a twenty something young woman carrying a chihuahua on her back like it was a parrot perched on her shoulder. This 5´7 tall adult dropped the puppy where it promptly fell on its back.

The thing is, is that dogs and cats, companion pets, are treated badly here. The locals seem to think that these are pieces of cardboard, or whatever, that can be thrown away more easily than trash.

My poor wife is getting to the point where she can barely stand to be out in public. She will plug her ears and close her eyes when she sees small children given charge over some helpless puppy for the child to toss it around, hold it upside down by one leg, or kick it around for not keeping up.

This is truly one of the most hideous dark sides of Guanajuato.

Not all Mexicans, mind you, do this.

Our upstairs neighbor has a small, purebred dog. He never lets this dog run loose to breed anything that crosses its path, he always walks this dog on leash, he feeds it a high quality premium dog food, and has it impeccably trained. And, in fact, just this week he took in a stray to clean it up and try to find it a home. We chatted and he too is angered at his fellow Mexicans for their irresponsibility.

Can you guess what I will say as to my neighbor's place of birth?

Mexico City and NOT Guanajuato.

This is just one reason why I say Guanajuato is TERMINALLY PROVINCIAL!

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Guanajuato, Mexico - Again, NO AGUA!

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:34:00 +0000

The water is off again. The last time it was off, the end of June 2009, it was off for almost three days with the water company promising it would be on at the end of those three days.

This brings up an issue of Mexican culture. Mexicans tend to tell you anything they think you want to hear. Rarely, if ever, will they tell you they don't know something. Nor do you get the truth most of the time.

A good example is when tourists make hotel reservations. The American tourists routinely report in travel forums that they called the hotel, spoke with someone claiming to speak English, and was assured the room would be ready and the tourist would be welcomed with open arms upon arrival.

Well, upon arrival no one at said hotel has ever heard of them, from them, and there is "No Room at the Inn..."

The offended and Royally Pissed off American tourist will swear someone told them "uh-huh" at each and every junction of the hotel reservation process but there was no room or open arms waiting for them.

And, the American would be right -- They would have been told yes, yes, yes, yes we got it, and yet nothing!

It is absolutely comical to read through the travel and expat forums and see just how void Americans are regarding Mexico. To put it into the words of a Mexican pal who conducts tours for Americans, "They expect each and every thing to be just like the States."

Just the other day my wife, who is a destination expert for one of the online travel sites, received a private message from someone moving to Guanajuato and was asked how she could find housing. Now, get this, she is arriving in September and has not a clue how to find a house of apartment. She is actually closing down her life in America and moving to a place where finding a place to call her own is as foreign to her as can be.

Just what are people thinking?

Are they even thinking?

Just what will she tell the cab driver when she gets to Guanajuato from the airport in Silao? Drop me off at .......... ?

And the icing on the cake is that she doesn't speak enough words in Spanish to order a meal much less find an apartment.

I truly do not get this at all and furthermore never will.

My wife tells her, and the multitude like her, to check out San Miguel de Allende where she doesn't need to speak a word of Spanish.

Oh my, have I digressed?

So, the water is off, we are told we will have it on this afternoon, it is now afternoon! It is 4:50pm and counting.

Were we told the same ole Mexican Song and Dance by the lady at the water company?

¡Por Supesto Que Sí!

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

GUANAJUATO - Escamoles (ant eggs) and other Mexican delicacies

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:57:00 +0000

By

Cindi Bower

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The other day as I was flipping through the six channels we are able to receive in Guanajuato without cable, I saw an announcement for an upcoming cooking show on the educational channel. As I'm interested in Mexican cuisine and love watching cooking shows, I made a point to tune in. Was I in for a surprise! The subject of that day's program was "Insectos y salsas" (insects and sauces).

I knew that grasshoppers (chapulines), ants (hormigas) and ant eggs (escamoles) were just of few of the more exotic foods eaten by the Aztecs and Mayans from my research into Mexican cuisine. Before moving to Mexico six years ago, I happened to catch Anthony Bourdain's show, "A Cook's Tour," on the Food Channel. One of the episodes featured a trip to a restaurant in Tlaxcala where he tried escamoles and gusanos de maguey (worms that burrow into the maguey cactus).

Of the escamoles, he said, “They’re perfectly good, with a slightly aromatic, woody background, almost fungal.” (http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2001/08/kitchen_cowboy). His driver, Martin, said the worms give men lots of power with the women and taste “Very special. They fry the worms golden brown and when you first bite in it’s crispy, like pork skin. Then you chew and…” (http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2001/08/kitchen_cowboy).

A Mexican friend here in Guanajuato was telling me about a trip he and his family made to Mexico City. One of the foods they sampled were chapulines colorados, red grasshoppers. His five-year-old son described how they pinched the heads off, then chomped down the body, legs and all. He and his father claimed they were delicious, but his mother and sister could not bring themselves to try them. His sister said she wanted to vomit when she saw her brother and father eating grasshoppers with evident delight. They all drew the line at gusanos, though.

These descriptions did not make me want to sample any of these "delicacies," but I was interested in watching the show just to see how they were prepared. Also, I wanted to watch the cook sample the finished products so I could watch her face to see if she really enjoyed eating worms and bugs as appetizers. Alas, she merely presented the final results, but did not pop any into her mouth.

First, the chef demonstrated how to make various salsas…pico de gallo, verde, roja and guacamole. All looked simple to make and looked delicious. I'll be sharing recipes for these salsas in future Blog postings.

Then, she moved on to the protein part of the appetizers. She went to the local market to buy the gusanos and chapulines. However, the escamoles required a trip to a field of cactus plants with the farmer. He looked for ants, followed a line of them back to the nest at the base of a cactus plant, and dug up about two cups of ant eggs. After he stood up with his prize, he was covered with ants, which I've read viciously sting whoever or whatever disturbs the nest. He didn't act like the ants bothered him, though.

Back at the studio, the cook washed the dirt off the escamoles. She commented that sometimes one finds a few larvae mixed in with the eggs. Don't discard them, she said, as they are high in protein and quite delicious. Yeah, right I thought! Yuck!

She melted some butter in a skillet, added some chopped garlic, and cooked it until it was brown. She added the escamoles to the skillet and cooked for about a minute. She added a little epazote (a common herb used in Mexican cooking) and allowed the mixture to cool a bit. To serve, she spread some guacamole on a small, crisp corn tortilla about the size of Ritz cracker and topped it with a spoonful of the escamoles.

The gusanos de maguey and the chapulines colorados were fried in oil (in separate skillets) with a little chopped parsley until they were browned. The cook drained them on paper towels to remove the excess oil. She spread pico de gallo on one crispy tortilla round and topped it with a few of the fried gusanos. On another tortilla round, she spread a little salsa verde and topped it with a few fried chapulines.

To me, it was a waste of tortillas and salsa to top the appetizers with worms, ant eggs (and larvae!) and grasshoppers, but that's just me. Many people love these delicacies and rave about how wonderful they are.

I'll take their word for it, but no insect or worm or ant egg will ever enter my mouth by my hand. I'll eat grass or flowers or leaves first (of course, only after being carefully examined for creepy crawlies!).

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

In GTO and In My Right Mind?

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Ok, so I was in a bit of a temper when I wrote my last blog entry. I didn't really mean (or did I?) that all of Mexico is a Third World Country. In some ways it is very much a developing country but I would be hard pressed to say just how so, so don't ask.

The water is back on, the Internet people, after four months and thousands of complaints, finally showed up and fixed my online connection, and here I am writing once again of my unfailing love of living in Mexico.

I was talking to my dentist's wife (they are right across the callejon from us) about our water and internet woes and her response was to shrug her shoulders and say, "This is Mexico. What do you expect?" -- From the mouth of a Mexicana, I hope you take note.

We were in the Mega Super Store the other day. The roof was leaking from the rain. I might add that this has been happening, the rain leaks, from the very first rainy season this relatively new store found itself encountering. I want to also make the observation that these roof leaks seem to the very same ones from two years ago. I know this because you can see the round outline of the plastic garbage cans they put under the leaks the first time. Mexican craftsmanship, what can I say?

And, if you are wondering why they haven't fixed the very same "old" roof leaks that began two years ago, all I can do is echo the words of our Mexican neighbor, "This is Mexico. What do you expect?"

We are in the process of trying to cut costs here in Guanajuato. The prices for Gringos are rising at an unstoppable rate. Though there exists a worldwide financial crisis, Guanajuato vendors of everything from donuts to renting or buying a place to live, don't seem to think this applies to the Gabacho.

I don't what it is, exactly. I don't know if it is the unsophistication of this area of Provincial Mexico in which the locals think "Untold Riches Abounding" when they see the Gringo walking down the street or what?

Whatever it is, prices for a rental are insane!

Just the other day I read two descriptions of relatively small houses in GTO that were renting for $750 - $1,250 a month -- and that was in dollars and NOT pesos.

Gringos will pay it so why not? The thing is that it makes it virtually impossible for the rest of us to live.

There are places in central Mexico where three to four bedroom houses, unfurnished, rent for $70.00 dollars a month. I have no intention of telling you where that is because I wouldn't want to wish a San Miguelian Invasion on these towns. And besides, you would have to be fairly fluent in Spanish to live in these towns and we all know that for the majority of Gringos that is never going to happen.

Anyway, I feel a soapbox session coming on me so I'd best go!

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Don't forget to check out my new book, A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL: A GUANAJUATO TRAVELOGUE, on Amazon.com

Guanajuato: Water Rationing Hoedown Song

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:40:00 +0000

This is day three of going without running water in our house in what is definitely NOT a Developing Country but is ever bit a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!!

We woke us up one morning
And much to our surprise
We had no running water
Just how will we survive?

Our landlady came by
And offered us the chance
To walk next door, strip off our clothes
Bathe in the yard and then
to do us a dance.

We're thinking of other options
Other things that we can do.
We thought of committing murder
But didn't to who.

We would like to tell you
And don't you take offense
That living in this Mexico
Can be really pretty tense.

No matter what you believe
No matter what they say
There is no way around this
There is no other way

When you move to GTO
You're taking a big chance
That there will be no water anywhere
To clean your dirty underpants

Guanajuato, Mexico - Dumping Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:55:00 +0000

Culture can be a funny thing. Americans do not tend to know their own culture, much less someone else's, so it is a bit difficult for Americans to come to grips with the fact that not all you encounter in Guanajuato, or any where else for that matter, is a sweet expression of a wonderfully kind and patient people.

The word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:

* the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

* an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning

* excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture

Culture is something that should be embraced and shared with the rest of the world, in my view. However, depending on whose culture it is, there are things within the culture that should indeed be embraced and made timeless, treasure it!

There are also things within culture that a society should very seriously consider eradicating from the face of the earth and never to be thought of again.

Guanajuato is a trash-dumping-where-ever-they-please culture.

At the beginning of June 2009, was the nationally celebrated "Let's all pitch in and clean up Mexico" day. Dressed in their cute little green smocks and with their green hats, volunteers swarmed into the Guanajuato river (cesspool) to pickup their fellow Mexican's garbage.

Admittedly, the river looked pretty decent when they got done. This valiant effort, by the precious few Mexicans in this country who are ecologically minded, allegedly took place all over Mexico.

Today, June 18, 2009, were you to come to my neighborhood in Guanajuato you would see little of the cleaning effort that took place at the beginning of the month.

It is as filthy as ever. The only thing I was unable to see was the discarded tire that sat in the brown mucky water for the past year.

Plastic pop bottles, plastic grocery store bags, shoes, complete bags of households of trash, toys, plastic plates, and God only knows whatever else, is in the river as it was before. The stench turned my stomach.

It was as though the litter thugs thought, "We'll show those neat-nicks and their ecology activism a thing or two," and just re-trashed the river to get even.

And, mind you, it isn't just children who throw their trash into the river when there are trash dumpsters no more than a crossing of the street to take advantage of! Children learn it from their parents and we've seen plenty adults dumping loads of garbage into the river or just on the street itself.

If success of anything is based on results, it does not take a genius to see what the: "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group" regarding trashing one's environment is in this city.

How Mexicans deal with their environment is a culture of dumping and it is a horror to the world.

It is grafted (infected) in their cultural mindset and does not look to be excised from their culture anytime soon.

Guanajuato, Mexico: Two Price System

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:09:00 +0000

"Many Mexican shopkeepers and others along the border treat Americans like suckers who deserve to be taken. They try to get as much out of them as possible because they presume they will never come back." (There's a Word for It in Mexico The Complete Guide to Mexican Thought and Culture; NTC Publishing Group, Lincolnwood, Illinois; Boyé Lafayette De Mente; 1996; Page 298)

I haven't visited this subject in a while and thought I would again. I recently had lunch with a gringo visiting from the States and this was one of his question: "Is there really a two-price system in Mexico in general and in Guanajuato specifically."

My answer to him was, of course, yes.

There is a two-price system that affects everything. We discovered this long ago in our personal experience and from stories from other gringos as well as Mexicans in town.

Where we live, the Mexicans pay about 100 dollars less for their apartment rent than we do. Our landlady was upfront about this citing that Americans use more water and electricity than Mexicans.

When our Spanish began improving, this was one of the hot topics I wanted to ask Mexicans in the city about for various articles I've written.

Our retired friend, Roberto, born and bred in Guanajuato, was particularly enlightening about this subject. I asked him, "Why does the price for anything in this town automatically increase when a Guanajuantense sees the gringo face coming?"

Roberto didn't hesitate a bit: "Dollars. They see American dollars and they want to charge as much as they can get out of the Rich Americans."

It is a cultural expectation (false stereotype) that all Americans are rich and can afford to pay more for whatever it is the Mexican is selling.

I might add that never once have I gotten any other response from the Mexicans I've asked this question. Roberto's reply is the universal answer.

Some Mexicans take offense at this notion that Americans are targeted. In fact a friend of ours said this regarding a forum post about this very subject:

I find that first statement really insulting to Mexicans. I have lots of "gringo" friends who live here in Mexico City and I don't think a single one of them has ever expressed this thought to me, or had this experience..........

This person is from Mexico City and perhaps the two-price system has faded into some kind of cultural obscurity. Who can say?

All one has to do, that is if you have Spanish fluency, is walk through a festival's food kiosks and listen to the vendors. My wife recently overheard a taco-selling woman talking with a lady friend sitting with her, telling her friend that she charged "that gabacho" three times more for the tacos than she did the Mexicans before him.

Mexicans here in Guanajuato, just like in the quote at the beginning of this blog, will assume you are a tourist, too stupid to know the difference, can't understand Spanish, and will never return. The same goes for just about any open market in this town. This makes it so hard for Spanish-speaking expats who live here and want to be treated on an equal playing field.

I have this taxi driver pal who told us that he charges English speaking gabachos twice the normal fare if they won't speak Spanish to him.

My poor wife would have to be on her toes constantly in the local markets to listen to what the vendor would charge the person ahead of her. When it came her turn, she would end up having to haggle with the vendor pointing out that he charged two to three times less to the Mexicans. He would, of course, deny this.

For this very reason we no longer shop at the Mercado Hidalgo. We go to the local markets in our barrio who know us and who do not rip us off. And, what we can't find in the barrio's markets, we go to the Super. It is sad, in my view.

I do not see this abating in the near future. What will happen is the more gringos who come for visiting or living, the higher and higher the prices will go. This is why you spend twice to four times more in San Miguel de Allende for a lunch than you would elsewhere. The Mexicans charge whatever the market will bear and the rich folks in San Miguel will gladly be taken for a ride, apparently, and pay more.

That's what's coming to Guanajuato.

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My newest book: A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL

A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel Review

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:52:00 +0000

Guanajuato Understood!, June 11, 2009

By

S. Faulkner "ESLTeacher" (North Carolina, USA) -

If you have travel plans to Guanajuato, Mexico, are considering a visit to Guanajuato, or only dream of going there, this book is a must read. We recently completed a two week visit to Querétaro, Bernal, San Miguel de Allende, and Tlaquepaque/Guadalajara. Without a doubt, Guanajuato, while knock down gorgeous, was also the most intriguing stay on our trip. However, the city is, in my opinion, the most incredibly perplexing, confusing, and often frustrating destinations in all of Mexico. To make "sense" of Guanajuato, Mr. Bower's book is more than very handy; it is essential.

Before our visit, I read Mr. Bower's book twice. It's not that his writing is difficult to follow; in fact, his descriptions and organization are very straight forward. On the first read, I was so caught up with his wonderful, colorful descriptions and fall down laughing sense of humor, I failed to get my bearings for Guanajuato. On the second read, I concentrated on his very descriptive walking tour of the thirty something plazas/plazuelas of Guanajuato. (Guanajuato was not named a UNESCO World Heritage site by accident). By the way, Guanajuato has no "city block system". It is built on a dry river bed and creeps up the hills that surround it.

I'm now on my third read of Mr. Bower's book, comparing his vivid descriptions to the over 150 photos I shot in our four days in Guanajuato. Mr. Bower truly makes Guanajuato come alive!

Mr. Bower is an excellent, knowledgeable, and prolific author. I also highly recommend his other books about living and working in Mexico.

Finally, if you plan to visit Guanajuato, don't be part of the "deer in the headlights" crowd that "hang out " in the Jardín Unión. They are so confused about the city that they never venture far from this tourist spot. We saw many during our visit there. It was part very funny and, at the same time, kind of sad. Mr. Bower's book will give you step by step instructions to discover the true beauty and intrigue of Guanajuato.

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A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL...Click Here for More Info

Guanajuato, Mexico - Clever Eating

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:12:00 +0000

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

by

Cindi Bower

When I was growing up in Ohio, my mom served Sloppy Joes on a regular basis. On nights when she was late coming home from work or just didn't feel like making an elaborate meal, these were a quick, easy and filling choice. She usually added a packaged seasoning mix to tomato sauce and ground beef instead of making the mixture from scratch. When canned Sloppy Joe sauce came on the market, the meal was even easier…just brown ground beef, add the sauce, heat and serve. Quick, easy and delicious.

Making Sloppy Joes from scratch is not much more time-consuming than using a mix or canned sauce. To me, the sandwiches taste better made from scratch. Plus, you can modify the ingredients to suit your own family's tastes.

I used to make Sloppy Joes, usually from scratch, when we lived in the USA, but somehow never thought of making them here in Mexico until recently. I guess it was because it's such an American dish and not one you'd expect to find in Mexico.

Last week, I developed a craving for Sloppy Joes, but no longer remembered my favorite recipe. Though our local supermarkets carry some items imported from the USA, Sloppy Joe mix and canned Sloppy Joe sauce are not among them. Thanks to the Internet, I found a plethora of recipes. Some were very different from my tried-and-true recipe (though I want to try some of the more exotic-sounding variations), but I was able to approximate my old recipe.

Since we've modified our diet in the past months for health reasons, I substituted textured soy protein for the ground beef I used to use. My husband said he wouldn't have known he was eating soy if I hadn't told him. I think the soy protein has the texture and taste of ground meat, but does not have ground meat's greasiness.

We liked how this recipe turned out, but I'm going to play with it a bit and see if I can make some improvements. If I come up with a better version, I'll share it.

Recipe

Makes 8 sandwiches

14 ounces hot water
1 beef bouillon cube
2 cups textured soy protein
Cooking oil
3 – 4 cloves of garlic, diced
½ of a large onion, coarsely chopped
¼ of a green pepper, diced
1 cup tomato sauce
¼ cup catsup
Oregano, salt, and pepper to taste
8 hamburger buns

Dissolve the bouillon cube in the hot water; stir in the soy protein and set aside for about 5 minutes or until the water is absorbed.

Put a little oil in a skillet (I use just enough to coat the bottom…add more as you cook, if necessary) and put over medium heat. Sautee the garlic, onion and green pepper until soft. Add the rehydrated soy protein and cook until slightly browned. Add the tomato sauce, catsup and spices. Mix well and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes or until thickened.

Spoon the mixture into the buns. Serve with a tossed salad or raw vegetable sticks.

Enjoy!

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Guanajuato, Mexico: Fact or Fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:32:00 +0000

I've written about this previously but two recent events have motivated me to revisit this issue:

Have you ever wondered why so much of the screed on Life in Mexico is so Ivory Tower that you can't read it for the blinding brilliance? And why are Americans here so gullible they fail to see the culture’s defects. Everything, no matter how objectionable, is "a beautiful native custom" and all Mexicans "are a beautiful people".

The most amazing phenomenon occurs when Gringos come to Guanajuato as tourist and especially as expats (Fakepats?). Any "street smarts" they have as the result of living in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, or any other city in the States where crime is an issue (and what city in the States isn't crime ridden?), is left at the border and they engage in risky behaviors they wouldn't dream of doing in American cities.

They will walk the streets of Guanajuato at all hours of the night expecting that-- Everything, no matter how objectionable, is "a beautiful native custom" and all Mexicans "are a beautiful people"...

This is one of the most perplexing things to me and I cannot begin to understand it.

It is as though Americans specifically will come here and suddenly act like they've been transported to a mythical place where God Himself dwells and all the locals are God's servants who would never dare try to make you a crime victims much less even think about it.

A few months ago we met with a potential expat over lunch who actually said,

"Crime in Mexico is nothing like that in America."

This belief had her walking the streets of Guanajuato at risky hours of the night and early morning -- ALONE!

A few months later another American couple marveled at how they can walk the streets in the middle of the night without anyone "bothering them."

What is this mindset? Where does the idea originate that you can come to Mexico and act like you have arrived in Nirvana or Heaven on Earth where nothing but goodness, perfection, and the total absence of evil dwells? Where is the Gringo's Vacation Street Smarts?

What I am saying is that "something" seems to happen to the minds of Americans who would not be caught dead going to an ATM machine in the middle of the night in their home cities and yet they will do that here and even more stupid things.

We are personally acquainted with Americans, both tourists and expats, who have engaged in mindlessly risky behavior and have ended up beaten so badly that a trip to the hospital was required. Two of these events were sexual assaults. And, what were these Americans doing? They were walking the streets of Guanajuato at risky hours and walking along risky streets and callejons (alleys).

If you are internet savvy enough to ferret out these blogs, forums, and websites you will find some of the most ill-informed information. My absolute favorite is the one in which it is actually written that "Mexicans know how to treat their fellow man better..." While it may be true that "some" Mexicans know how to treat their fellow man better, it cannot be said to be true of "all" Mexicans without exception. And yet, this is exactly the impression I get from face to face encounters with Americans who seem the believe Mexico is really HEAVEN ON EARTH.

Let me just say this: Those Gringos who live here and who have sent me death threats for writing the truth about living in Mexico, have had ulterior motives. They've objected vehemently to be suggesting anything other than Mexico is the Promised Land of Milk and Honey.

It isn't that they have such a love for language and culture that they feel they must defend Mexico's reputation that they think I have maligned.

What it is, is that they have a real estate business or some other undocumented business in this country from which they are hauling in truck loads of money and don't want me upsetting their money-machine applecart. For a third-party perspective on this issue, Click Here.

The Ivory Tower Writers are biased and that should be taken into consideration when listening to their sales pitch.

These money grubbers will tell you anything (and they know what you want to hear) to get you to buy what it is they are selling. They will do so at the expense of truth itself and never lose any sleep over it -- ever!

Look, Mexico is a great place with serious problematic issues. It is like any other country on the face of the planet. It has some very excellent qualities and it has some problems. Some of these problems are more horrific than you can possibly imagine. For an example of the viciousness of Mexican crime, Click Here. It is fun place to vacation (and live) if, and only if, you take precautions and don't commit stupid acts of recklessness. Don't do in Mexico what you wouldn't do at home.

We are constantly getting emails asking how "safe it is" to vacation or live in Mexico. How can one begin to possibly answer that question? You need to be able to read Spanish and check out the online versions of their available news media. Don't listen to someone in a travel agency or a real estate money grubber who has a bias in trying to convince you it is Shangri-La.

Here are some resources. If you can't read Spanish then use one of the online translators to help you. Or, have a Spanish speaking friend translate for you!

Resources:

Guanajuato News
Guanajuato Television
It Happened in Mexico
CRIME IN GUANAJUATO
CRIME IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Guanajuato, Mexico Food: Chayote

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Another vegetable with which we were unfamiliar upon our arrival in Guanajuato was the chayote (chah-YOH-teh). When we first saw it stacked at our local market, we thought it was a fruit because it looked like a green, wrinkled pear. The chayote belongs to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, cucumber and melons. Interestingly, another name for the chayote is vegetable pear, so we weren't completely wrong when we thought at first it was a type of pear.

Most of the chayotes sold in Mexico are grown in the state of Veracruz, which exports them to the USA as well. Most of the rest of the world's chayotes come from Costa Rica.

Chayotes form a large part of the Central American diet and are quite popular in Mexico as well. They are about the size and shape of pear with a thin, wrinkled green peel, white flesh, and a single seed. Some people remove the peel and the seed before eating, but both are edible. The flesh is fairly bland and has a texture between that of potato and zucchini. It can be eaten raw or cooked.

Chayote is very versatile. In its raw form, it can be used in place of all or part of the potatoes in potato salad, added to tossed vegetable salads, or served alone with any dressing. It can be steamed, boiled, sautéed, or baked.

I use it in recipes that call for zucchini. Sometimes I use chayote instead of zucchini, but I often use a mixture of the two. I include chayote in salads, soups, stews, and meat dishes that include vegetables.

One of our favorite fish dishes calls for zucchini slices to be sautéed with onions, carrots, and tomatoes. The fish filets are placed on top of the sautéed vegetables, then covered with tomato sauce and cooked until the fish turns white and flakes easily with a fork. I usually add a diced chayote to the other vegetables. While chayote tastes similar to zucchini, it has a different, starchier texture that changes the dish a bit.

1 cup of chopped chayote has 25 calories, 2 grams of dietary fiber, and no fat. It also provides 17% of the RDA for Vitamin C and 31% of the RDA for folic acid (Vitamin B9). It is a good source of manganese, copper, and zinc.

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Guanajuato, Mexico - Cars, Blood Clots, Pollution

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Studies in both humans and animals have shown that exposure to air pollution can affect heart rate, blood pressure, blood vessel function, blood clotting, and heart rate variability (a factor in developing heart rhythm disturbances), and speed the progression of atherosclerosis. -- Source

If you ask anyone, Mexican or Gabacho, what they think of the pollution problem in Guanajuato, a quick chuckle from the Mexican and a slap in the face from the Gabacho will likely be forthcoming.

To buttress their argument there will be a panoramic sweeping of their hand skyward and asking with a screech, "Do you see pollution in this lovely blue sky?"

Well, you won't see (not yet, but it's coming) an orange or brown haze floating over the city like you do in Leon or perhaps Mexico City.

What I am talking about are the dangerous particles from car exhaust that linger about waiting to infiltrate your children's lungs or your cardiovascular system to thicken your blood so that you develop massive blood clotting problems. Car exhaust will make your blood sticky causing clots!

The particles can drift for miles, and accumulate inside most buildings. Vehicles are the major source of the particles in urban air, particularly diesel engines.

During a period of high air pollution, people breathe in millions of these acidic particles which penetrate into the microscopic air sacs of the lungs. Scavenging white blood cells, known as macrophages, are "overwhelmed" by the particles. They release astream of chemicals that set off an inflammatory action in the lungs and increase the stickiness of the blood so it is more likely to clot.-- Source

To update you on my blood clots which were discovered in Feb. 2009, I ended up changing doctors. I wanted someone else with a more professional "feel" in helping me manage my blood clots and ongoing chronic health issues.

Speaking of the clots, they are fine and I am no longer in danger. They have dissolved. Good news, indeed.

However........and there is always a "however": The cause of the clots has been discovered by my new doctor. My blood, it would seem is too thick. It is thick like that of a heavy smoker. The doctor looked over the blood test results and the very first words that came out of her mouth was, "How much do you smoke?"

We had a hard time trying to convince her that not only have I never smoked, but that I was not breathing in Cindi's non-existent second hand smoke (She's never smoked). It must have taken the better part of about 15 minutes to convince her we don't smoke. And yet, the blood results show blood viscosity of someone who is a heavy smoker.

Why?

CAR EXHAUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the reasons we moved to Mexico was the chance to ditch the car and walk. I thought we would be healthier for it. GTO, when we moved here, was largely still a pedestrian town. Now, to our dismay, it seems car ownership has increased exponentially. Everyone drives and we are walking in the bluish-black clouds of exhaust their car belches forth like evil dragons.

In GTO only about 20% of the streets are accessible by car. And yet, more and more people are buying cars. I truly do not get why someone would want to engage in an activity which makes them fat, destroys their children's lungs by destroying the air, and is possibly one of the biggest contributors to the increase of obesity and heart attack.#

When we moved here the obesity rate was about 15% of the population. Now it is more than 50% ---- and this has been in a six year time period. (I got these stats from a doctor friend in Gto).

Because of the topography of this town, car exhaust does not escape very well at all. In fact, it remains at ground level for hours, soaks your clothing and hair, permeates your pet's fur, and can linger in houses and buildings for hours if not days. It is not the color of the exhaust that lingers, it is what you can't see--the particles...and that will kill you!

"In another study, Lung Chi Chen, of the New York University School of Medicine, reported research where he exposed one group of mice to second-hand cigarette smoke equivalent to passively smoking three or four cigarettes a day and a second group to the fine particles present in air pollution, in concentrations similar to a big city. He found that both particles and smoke produced around the same amount of change in the hardening of the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks."

Researchers estimate that one in every 50 heart attacks in London are triggered by air pollution.

Need I say more?

I don't know what we can do.

One solution is to move away from where we live now. Senselessly, cars come in and out of this Privada ( a private street) like it is a major highway. They will stop right in front of our windows, and our house is right on the street, and idle their cars until we starting walking in circles and talking to spots on the walls. There is a dentist's office and an insurance business on our street. Their clients will leave their cars idling in front of our windows while they go into these places and pay their bills or maybe they are exchanging tips on better oral hygiene and saving money on insurance premiums -- who can say?

Regardless, I am convinced that the survey/study conducted in Mexico City a few years ago applies to Guanajuato.

The major reason for car ownership in this city is NOT because they are needed. It is for status.

I will keep you informed............

Spanish Learning - Financing Your Spanish Education

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:13:00 +0000

A couple of years ago, an American lady came to Guanajuato to learn Spanish. She enrolled in one of the most expensive Spanish schools in town. This school is good, by the way, and I always recommend it to people who want to come study Spanish in Guanajuato. This poor woman was a rank beginner. When she arrived, she was put in a class commensurate with her level; only the class was in the middle of the beginning class cycle.

In other words, when you enroll in a local, private Spanish school, you may not be put into a class that is exactly at the level at which you tested. If you are a rank beginner and need to be taught how to pronounce the Spanish alphabet and learn the phonetics, you will not necessarily land in a class with students at the same point as you. You will be put in a beginner's class but at what point in the class cycle is in will depend on when you show up. It isn't like beginning a language course at a university where day one, everyone begins at the same point and is studying the same material as the class proceeds.

This poor dear was totally lost. All the input she received in this beginning class was absolutely above and beyond her. There was no "comprehensible input" for her, although she was in a beginning class.

This is a total waste of your time and money. Wouldn't you want to know that before you end up flushing your money down a Guanajuato Spanish School toilet?

The school she attended is not cheap. It is good and you pay for good.

What to Do

Come to Guanajuato expecting to become fluent at these Spanish schools and you will leave sorely disappointed. Before you spend a small fortune coming here expecting to become fluent, try to develop as much spoken fluency in Spanish as you can. You will get a better return on your money in a Guanajuato Spanish school if you do. And, don't enroll in a classroom situation in the States. Do a home study course in the privacy of your home.

Commercially Available Products

Pimsleur Spanish

Rocket Spanish

Learning Spanish Like Crazy

Financing Your Spanish Adventure

If you check Ebay.com, you can often pick up all three levels of the Pimsleur Spanish course at a great discount. Then, you can turn around and sell them through Ebay.com to come up with the funds for Rocket Spanish and Learning Spanish Like Crazy.

I bought level one of Pimsleur Spanish, went through it, and then sold it so I could buy level two. I repeated the process until I got through level three of the Pimsleur course.

You can download both Rocket Spanish and Learning Spanish Like Crazy for about $97.00, burn it on your own CD's, and you will have saved a considerable amount rather than buying them wholesale. These companies actually encourage you to do this.

You will end up with a tremendous amount of Spanish by going through these courses first. Then, you will be prepared for a stint in Guanajuato studying or just hanging out. You will do well with your Spanish.

Look, visiting central Mexico is not a breeze. It is not designed for Gringo comfort, as are Puerto Vallarta and other resorts. You are not going to find a covey of resort staff hovering over you to make you have a good time.

Central Mexico is real Mexico and you will see and hear things that might shake you to your soul if you are not prepared.

So, tell me, what's better...to hear the truth or come here and find out you may have flushed a lot of money down the toilet. You can't count the cost and be willing to pay the price if you don't know what that cost is.

Those who count the cost and are willing to pay the price will not be those who go back home after vacationing in Mexico and mean-mouth the city they visited. After all, they knew what to expect BEFORE coming.

And, that's why I write what I do.

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Spanish Learning Chapter - 18

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:32:00 +0000

An Amazing Source of Developing Fluency

I've enjoyed my return to Spanish class here in Guanajuato immensely. It's been a little strange because basically one ends up taking classes mainly with other Americans with a few other nationalities thrown in for good measure. I haven't been around my fellow Americans in so long that it's taken a bit of getting used to. In the last five years, I have actually forgotten social cues and topics of conversation within polite company. But, it's been fun, informative, and actually a confidence booster.

It's been an encouragement to notice just how advanced I've become in my Spanish. While living in Mexico full-time and in Mexican neighborhoods has had a linguistic impact on my Spanish, I have to stress the point that you still have to put in the hard work in the language to become fluent. I've had to answer this question more than once, "If you live in the city of Guanajuato why on earth are you in a classroom in a Spanish school?" I suppose my assumption has been a correct one when hypothesizing in my previous articles that most, if not all, of those coming from monolingual America make an assumption about second language acquisition that simply is not true.

The first thing I've written about is that most would find it astounding that I would perceive the need to take classes when I live in Mexico. In my explanation to the class, especially in the conversation classes where we have the freedom to take off on tangents, I see the utter confusion in the faces of my classmates that you still have to do the work in second language acquisition even when living in the country in which the language is spoken by the natives. "There is no magic", I explain, "in living in Mexico if you want to learn Spanish." While there are certainly far more opportunities here than living in a Hispanic-free American city (something that is becoming increasingly impossible to find), there is no osmoses where you just magically become fluent. You still have to work at it.

The second thing I've written about is how American adults have this idea that children learn languages faster than adults. This is not true and science attests to this fact. While children have a better chance at "sounding native" than adults, they do not necessarily learn a second language more rapidly. I've written a great deal about this fact and even have a large section about this in one of my books. Children do not have the emotional problems (the embarrassment factor) that adults do in learning to speak another language. Adults are afraid of looking stupid. Children, when trying to learn a second language, engage in a silent period in which mostly they listen in the second language. Very little, if any, production of the language is attempted at first. Eventually production comes but first comes about 18 months of intensive listening. What this does is teach the sounds, the music, or the euphony of the language. They learn by shutting their mouths, not trying to speak at first, and following commands. This is part of the natural order of second language acquisition. It is what is almost totally lacking in adult second language acquisition.

The third thing I've been harping on in my missives is related to the second: the natural order of second language learning is horribly frustrated in almost ever single Spanish school in the world. In almost every single course you fork out good money to take, you are put into a position of reproducing (speaking) the language before you know what that language sounds like. Because adults try skipping this step they learn the language incorrectly. They will spend the rest of their lives mispronouncing the language. Because they tried reading and speaking what they were reading, they interpreted the sounds according to an English phonetic system. An English "e" is not pronounced the same way in Spanish! But, unless you spend time hearing Spanish spoken first, you will lock yourself into some very bad pronunciation habits and will become essentially not understandable.

And frankly, if you cannot be understood, all the Spanish classes in the world and your memorization of all the Spanish grammars and dictionaries in existence will do you no good in spoken communication.

A fourth thing near and dear to my heart in my past writing about Second Language Acquisition is: Age and Level Appropriate Input. You would not (and did not) put your child in a lecture on the Writings of Shakespeare in order to learn his or her native language. You just simply did not do that. You sought out, in addition to your child's natural exposure to the language, books, tapes, videos, CD's and television with material that was at an Age and Level Appropriate level. Then, as the child progressed, either you or he or both of you sought out more challenging material. This is exactly how all of us learned our first, second, third, fourth, and so on, languages. In the case of adults trying to acquire a second language, they MUST engage in the same natural order as the first language was mastered. Level appropriate material must be inputted and when mastered, you graduate to something level appropriate but a little more difficult in order to have the challenge.

This is really a faltering point, in my view, in minds of most adults trying to acquire a second language. What they want is spoken fluency. And yet, what they seek in the run-of-the-mill language instruction is learning how to be a good Spanish (or any language) linguist. They come to Spanish school with lots of local Junior College Spanish semesters under their belts and complete a written test, scoring in the advanced stage of Spanish. They can fill in the blanks on a proficiency exam and name the correct parts of speech and score very, very high. Some get into advanced classes and have the greatest difficulty in stringing the most basic Spanish words together to form a cogent sentence. And their pronunciation is so terrible they are all but incomprehensible. The simple explanation is that they engaged the second language acquisition task by putting the cart before the horse. Before ever trying to produce a proper sound in the language, they were in a level-inappropriate situation trying to read, write, and speak things from the language, which would be equivalent to requiring your American child to read, write, and speak Shakespearean English.

What my wife and I did before coming to Mexico was purchase the Spanish program called LEARNABLES. This is a 100% non-speaking Spanish course. All you do is listen to level appropriate Spanish being spoken while looking at cartoon drawings. By the end of the 5th level, you will have heard thousands upon thousands of repetitions of the language. You will have engaged in the natural order of first and second language acquisition of just listening and learning the sound of the language. Then, and only then, did we proceed to Spanish-speaking courses that built upon that level.

Still, we are reading and listening to level appropriate material. Even after living in Mexico for six years, we are not ready to read Don Quijote in the original Castilian. We will one day. But, not yet.

Here is the most important point you must take away from this essay: Stop trying to read, write, and speak Spanish at an adult level if you are at the spoken fluency level of a five-year-old Spanish-speaking child. Expose yourself to what a child would understand with the view of progressing to greater things. Do what a Spanish-speaking child at that level of fluency would do.

Just today, I was talking to an elderly English speaker who is trying to learn Spanish. His Spanish is all but incomprehensible. What he is seeking is a level of Spanish instruction far too advanced for his actual level. He is like a child seeking to understand Shakespeare. He can't do it.

I suggested watching cartoons and his reaction to that was predictable. I've run into this over and over with adult Americans but not with adults from any other country. The adult Americans absolutely refuse to believe that this will assist them in reaching their goal to develop a high degree of spoken Spanish fluency. Some of them are insulted, as was this person today. And yet, they are spending a fortune to come to Mexico, enroll in Spanish classes, and leave this country in the same identical linguistic condition that they came in.

Looking for level appropriate Spanish input to train that monolingual ear of yours? Listen to the following in Spanish: Sponge Bob, The Simpsons, or anything you would deem mindless in English that appears on Cartoon Network.

Graduate from there to I Love Lucy and other black-and-white sitcoms you've seen thousands of times in English. Don't knock it when you still are trying to figure out how to communicate the basics in Spanish.

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LEARN SPANISH VERBS NOW Click Here!

Tomatillos

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:09:00 +0000

When we moved to central Mexico six years ago, we encountered quite a few fruits and vegetables, tomatillos for one, with which we were unfamiliar.

Tomatillos (toe-mah-tee-yohs) belong to the Nightshade family, as do tomatoes. Tomatillos are covered with a husk and are harvested while green. Though tomatillos are sometimes called "tomate verde" (green tomato), they are not the unripe form of the tomatoes you might use on your salad or to make spaghetti sauce (those are usually referred to as jitomates in Spanish). Tomatillos can range from the size of a cherry tomato up to a small tomato and are sometimes called husk tomato, ground cherry, Mexican tomato or jamberry.

As tomatillos ripen, they change in color from green to yellow, red or even purple. Tomatillos should be used while green or they will not only lose much of the tartness that adds zest to recipes but also much of their nutrition.

Choose tomatillos that are bright green and firm with greenish-brown husks. The tomatillo should completely fill the husk. Under the husk, the skin of the tomatillo may feel a bit sticky. This is normal. Tomatillos with the husks attached can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. If you remove the husk and wash the tomatillos, they can be kept in the refrigerator in sealed plastic bags for up to a month. They can also be frozen, either whole or sliced. However, slicing them exposes more surface to the air and they will lose some of their nutritional value.

Tomatillos are a staple in Mexican cooking. They are eaten raw, cooked, roasted, and also are used to make various sauces (salsas).

1 medium tomatillo has only 11 calories, but gives you 7% of the RDA of Vitamin C. Tomatillos are low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. They are a good source of fiber, iron, magnesium, copper, phosphorous, niacin, potassium, manganese, and Vitamin K. The only "bad" thing about them is that about 7 of the 11 calories come from sugars (about 1 gram).

Here is an easy recipe for salsa made with tomatillos that I learned from a Mexican friend. This can be used as a dip or poured over eggs, omelets, enchiladas, or meat. My friend uses chile de arbol, a very hot chile, when making this salsa for her family, but uses milder chiles when cooking for others. I like to use serrano chiles, which are a bit milder but still have a kick. This salsa tastes great warm or cold.

Tomatillo Salsa

1 pound tomatillos (10 to 12), husks removed and washed
½ of a large onion, coarsely chopped
2 serrano chiles, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons limón juice
2 tablespoons cilantro, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon salt

Place the whole tomatillos in a saucepan and fill with water until the tomatillos are just covered. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until soft. Drain.

Put the cooked tomatillos and the rest of the ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend or pulse until smooth. You may have to do this in batches if your blender or processor is not large enough. Add more limón juice or water if you want a thinner salsa. If the salsa is too tart, you can add sugar to taste.

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Guanajuato, Mexico: Dark Side - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Someone in a forum once said that without having skills in Spanish you can never begin to understand the Darker Side of Mexican Culture. And, very dark can that side be, sometimes.

I recalled this while I sat in my living room today listening to Carlos and his wife pour out their hearts to us concerning the tragedy of losing their foster children (really their sobrinas--nieces)to Carlos' shiftlessly worthless brother.

Carlos and his wife took in Carlos' brother's two daughters (two of ten sired between three women) six years ago when the girls were all but babies. Carlos and his wife have cared for and raised these girls as their own daughters. Already with three children of their own, they did not hesitate in taking in the children when circumstances dictated it.

Carlos' brother, and his brother's floozies, are inescapably criminals. Carlos would not divulge what kind of criminality into which these worshipers of darkness practice but it doesn't matter. His children by these "ladies" are often seen in the streets of Guanajuato begging for money. This is the only motive that can be divined as to why, after more than six years, he shows up at Carlos' house and takes these two precious girls, ripping them from the only loving care they've known, to end up in God only knows what sort of vile and nefarious enslavement. A life of slavery.

None of this monster's children are being schooled and the two ripped from their loving womb were taken out of school.

Multiple women with hordes of kids is not an isolated sort of incident here in Provincial Mexico. In fact, where Carlos is from, Mexico City, this heinous Provincial practice of having more than one family, not supporting any of them well, seems to be dying out in favor of more "civilized" behavior. This was the exact word Carlos used: "A more civilized region of Mexico..."

"Provincial and uncivilized" are the words Carlos used in describing the reason for this bigamy at the cost of children's lives is so widely practiced in the Central Mexican Highlands.

This is not the first time I've written or heard about this. The last time I wrote of it I received threats from Gringos, not the Mexicans, but from terminally monolinguistic Gringos who could not string enough Spanish together to order dinner much less have two grief-stricken Mexicans tell you their plight in your home.

When Carlos and his beloved left I wasn't mad that I learned of this dark side of Provincial Mexican Culture. I learned of this sort years ago. I was mad at the thought of Gringos believing they are so in touch with this culture that they would recoil at the thought of my reporting this sort of thing.

Have you ever wondered why so much of the screed written on Life in Mexico is so Ivory Tower that you can't read it for the blinding brilliance? And why are Americans here so gullible they fail to see the culture’s defects. Everything, no matter how objectionable, is "a beautiful native custom" and all Mexicans "are a beautiful people"...

I have.

Go To The Movies: A Lesson in Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:29:00 +0000

I know, I know, I've written about this before but it is so odd, so mysterious, so irksome that it warrants another look at this.

Last weekend the wife and I went to see the new movie, Angels and Demons, based on Dan Brown's book of the same title. In fact, we read this book when it first came out some years ago.

The showing we attended happened to be in English with Spanish subtitles. I can't remember when we last saw a movie in English but the time we wanted to attend, so as to avoid the headache of find a taxi home at a later hour, had this format.

If you want a lesson in culture, a.k.a. how Guanajuatenses watch movies, then you've got to attend a movie when here. Any movie will do, and you won't be disappointed.

I used to believe that the bizarre movie going behavior I first noticed was due to the fact that the Guanajuatenses attending the movie couldn't follow the subtitles in the rapidity in which they flash on and off the screen. I mean, I can barely do so in the few movies I've tried watching with English subtitles.

They act the same no matter what language the movie or subtitles is in.

After a careful and most certainly scientific observation of Mexican youth in Guanajuato at the movies I've concluded that they don't come to the movie to watch the movie. In the age category of 0 - 30, Guanajuatenses youth come to the movies and pay the $45.00 peso (Yikes!) ticket price to do anything but watch the damn movie!

The movie we were at was intense.

Angels & Demons is a bestselling mystery-thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown. It is directed by Ron Howard, with Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer. The protagonist, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, works to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act.

I liked this movie very, very much. It is high-octane action and I cannot begin to imagine watching it and having to depend on the micro-nano-second appearances and vanishings of subtitles.

As we sat there sipping our watery diet coke and waiting for the movie to begin, the rest of the audience showed up.

The only persons near our age sat directly in back of us. They seemed like lovely middle-class Mexicans who I believed, and was proved correct, were there to see the movie. The rest of the movie were children who appeared to be four or five years old on up into early thirties.

The place was packed. People came in trying to find seats and not fall over from the balancing of their trays of popcorn and coke.

When the previews of future movie madness coming to a theater near you came on, the volume of talking rose to a fever pitch. No one, you see, watches the previews. They act as though this is their theatrical cue to begin screeching their heads off to one another talking about God only knows what. This continues until the featured movie begins.

Strangely, there is a hush that falls over the packed crowd for about three minutes while the opening of the feature plays. Then it is as though they aren't even aware of where they are and what it is they are suppose to be doing--movie watching.

Let me just say here that the whole act of deciding to go to the movies, routing around in dirty pants and under couch cushions trying to come up with the $45.00 pesos ticket fee, getting to the theater, buying nasty movie-made refreshments, seems to me to be in vain when once you get here and the movie begins you don't watch it. Why bother?

And, not watching the movie is what the do.

In two rows directly in front of us, out came the cell phones. That eerie bluish, ghostly glow from the microscopic screen just unnerves me. Why can't they have green screens like a radar console has. Someone must have gotten a really pithy text message, so I am guessing, and had to pass her cell phone up and down the row. It looked like a little blue fairy dancing about in a floating manner visiting each college-age youth so as she was blessing them.

Two or three college students whipped out some headphones, plugged them into a MP3 video device, and began watching music videos THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE MOVIE!

There were two of that ilk sitting next to me. Not only did this twenty something guy talk during the entire movie, he laughed. He actually would belly-roar laugh when a murderous scene would come on the screen. And I mean this movie was graphic in showing a Catholic Cardinal being roasted alive in a Messianic pose at the altar of a church in Rome. It was definitely NOT a comedy.

The guy laughed!

I would love to tell you that this was a one-time event. I have seen it all too often.

The children in the crowd were to busy having their parents try to hush them up or going to the bathroom to get rid of the cokes they guzzled before the movie. (I don't know why this does not occur to parents, but letting a small child have a 32 ounce coke before a movie is going to guarantee that neither you or the kid is going to be watching the movie. Why not take them for pizza and all the coke they want AFTER the show?)

Such is the movie-going life in Guanajuato. I can't say whether this behavior is so in other parts of Mexico since it is only in Guanajuato I've gone to the movies.

Maybe I should start subscribing to Netflix as they do in San Miguel de Allende...

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Guanajuato, Mexico Food: Chilaquiles

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:28:00 +0000

By

Cindi Bower

Chilaquiles (pronounced chee-lah-KEE-lehs) is a popular breakfast or brunch dish throughout Mexico. It may have been developed by cooks as a way to use up stale tortillas and leftover salsa from the previous day's meals.

The name, chilaquiles, comes from the Nahuatl word chil-a-quilitl, which means "herbs or greens in chili broth."

Chilaquiles are made from stale tortillas cut in strips or, more popularly, in triangles (called totopos) that are fried until crispy and then covered with red or green sauce.

There are a number of different ways to prepare chilaquiles. Instead of using red or green salsa, some cooks cover the fried tortillas with mole (a spicy-sweet sauce made with many ingredients, including nuts, chilies, vegetables, seeds, tortillas, and often chocolate). Some recipes call for the tortillas and salsa to be cooked in a pot on the stove until the tortillas are soft while others layer the tortillas and salsa in a casserole dish and bake in the oven. In the Mexican state, Sinaloa, the tortillas are topped with a white sauce. In Guadalajara, chilaquiles are cooked in a pot on top of the stove until the tortillas soften into a mush similar to polenta.

Some cooks add shredded chicken or pork to the salsa; others add scrambled or fried eggs. When served, chilaquiles are usually topped with shredded cheese, crema (similar to sour cream), and onions (sometimes chopped, but more often, the onion is cut into rings).

Many people swear that eating chilaquiles will cure a hangover. Mexicans believe that spicy foods aid the recovery process.

We like chilaquiles any way they are served as long as the salsa is not too spicy. We've had them alone as well as with sides of eggs, shredded chicken, beans or chorizo. The style of chilaquiles we like the best are the ones baked in the oven with salsa and cheese…similar to lasagna.

Try chilaquiles on your next visit to Mexico. I think you'll like them!

Here is an easy recipe for oven-baked chilaquiles:

Cooking oil
18 small corn tortillas (preferably a bit stale); cut into wedges
A jar of your favorite red or green salsa (or around 2 ½ cups of homemade salsa)
1 pound shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup queso crema or sour cream
½ cup queso cotija (aged Mexican cheese) or mild feta cheese
½ medium onion, sliced and separated into rings
Coarsely chopped cilantro

Cook the tortilla wedges in oil until golden and slightly crispy. Drain on paper towels.

In an oven-proof casserole dish, spread a layer of salsa on the bottom. Top with a layer of tortilla chips. Cover the chips with some Monterey Jack cheese, then a layer of salsa. Top with another layer of chips. Continue layering in the manner until all the ingredients are used, ending with a layer of cheese. Place in a 350° oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Serve garnished with the queso crema, the queso cotija, the onion slices and the chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!

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Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Spanish Learning Chapter - 17

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

In the field of second language acquisition, Stephen Krashen, Ph.D, is a name that rises above the academic din that usually begins when the subject of Language Acquisition versus Language Learning is brought up. The noise becomes even more deafening when someone, such as myself, would dare to report how the theories of Dr. Krashen have affected his personal adventure in trying to achieve the highest possible degree of spoken fluency. Without at least one Ph.D under your belt, you are considered (I want to say "an idiot" but I won't) unqualified to utter the words, "I get it..."

We live in an age that those in white coats are the final arbiters of truth. Unless you've earned your white coat, you'd best sit there with your hands folded in your non-doctorate lap and keep your mouth shut. How can you begin to understand the theories of basket weaving when you don't have a Ph.D in basket weaving? (I've never been one for convention, so here goes.)

Lest I bore you with touting Dr. Krashen's academic resume and become guilty of white-coat worship myself, try Googling "Dr. Stephen Krashen" when you have nothing else better to do than sift through the over 131,000 hits. The man does have an impressive track record and reputation in this field. However, critical thinking does demand that while his credentials do demand consideration, is what he proposes true and reasonably worth our time and effort to examine?

Dr. Krashen's explanation of Second Language Acquisition follows along five points:

1) the Acquisition-Learning hypothesis,

2) the Monitor hypothesis,

3) the Natural Order hypothesis,

4) the Input hypothesis,

5) the Affective Filter hypothesis.

Perhaps I should have begun my series on Learning Spanish with this material, so bear with this diversion as I try to explain it (and all I was in college was a lowly Voice Performance Music major!).

"Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill." - Stephen Krashen

The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

Dr. Stephen Krashen's foundational principle in his theory of Second Language Acquisition is called "The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis." In this idea, a distinction is made in that wonderfully exciting and gaiety-galore world of linguistics and language pedagogy between learning a language and acquiring it.

"The acquired system" is the means through which spoken fluency is acquired.

I can recall scores of students who come to Guanajuato, Mexico (where we live), who have told me they would pay any amount of money to have the spoken fluency of a Mexican child being packed off to his or her first day of class in primary school. It is, after all, what most of those with whom I've spoken are after-spoken fluency. Sure, they would love to read and write in Spanish but they seem to have an instinctive understanding of what comes first. They know the cart does not draw the horse. They are after the horse and then the cart.

To acquire the target language is the result of a process almost identical to what we all went through in acquiring our native languages. This process is a natural event in which the learner of the language is involved with the actual act of communication and not so much in a formal relationship to grammatical structures (the horse before the cart).

"The learned system" is a system in which the learner comes into a possession of a lot of information about the language. Rules of grammar and cold-memorization of vocabulary are the thrusts of instruction. It is putting the "cart" before the "horse" and expecting, somehow, the cart to pull the horse.

"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding." Stephen Krashen

If what you seek is how to exegete a text of the target language, then go for the cart.

If what you want is communication in the target language, then find that horse.

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Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Dolores Hidalgo: Cradle of Mexican Independence

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:54:00 +0000

By

Cindi Bower

Dolores Hidalgo is where the fight for independence from Spain began. In the early hours of September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gave his famous speech, "El Grito," to his parishioners from the steps of the parish church.

The exact words of the speech have been lost, but the gist was that Hidalgo and his cohorts called for death to the bad government and to the Spanish overlords. He called for the expulsion of all foreign invaders and rulers so that Mexicans could rule themselves.

After the speech, the rebels captured the Spanish officials who ruled over the town, freed the prisoners from the town jail, and incarcerated the Spanish officials.

Padre Hidalgo y Costilla: More than a rebel leader

Father Hidalgo was a Roman Catholic priest, but a rather unconventional one. He took his priestly vows lightly and sired two daughters out of wedlock. He also took his duties lightly, preferring to hand them over to his vicars so he could pursue other interests.

He saw the priesthood and the Catholic Church as a source of income rather than a spiritual calling. He climbed the "corporate ladder" from parish to ever-richer parish until he was awarded the parish of Dolores, a fairly wealthy parish at the time.

That is not to say he did not care for the lives and economic situations of his parishioners. Far from it. He taught people how to make pottery, cure leather, raise silkworms, cultivate vineyards and olive groves, weave wool, make harnesses, do carpentry and blacksmithing.

People in Dolores Hidalgo are still engaged in these industries that Father Hidalgo began two centuries ago.

Pros: "Few foreign tourists, small town atmosphere, fantastic ice cream, interesting museums"

Cons: "Not much to do if you don't speak Spanish, too close to the large expat community of San Miguel de Allende"

In A Nutshell: "More than Just a Place to Buy Pottery"

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue -- This travelogue is for American, English-speaking European, and Canadian travelers who have grown weary of the typical Mexican vacation. It is a travelogue with strong guidebook features about the city of Guanajuato (the capital of the state of Guanajuato).

Guanajuato, Mexico - Provincial Nightmare

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:08:00 +0000

PROVINCIAL: A person of local or restricted interests or outlook or a person lacking urban polish or refinement.

I am feeling in a bit of a temper this evening so I thought I would use a blog entry to rant and rave so that I can get this off my chest and can get some unmolested sleep.

Maybe it is just me, but I thought it was an interesting and noteworthy thing to write about when I began discovering the attitudes of Guanajuatenses (people who are from Guanajuato) to their fellow Mexicans who hailed from other parts of the republic.

The first indication we got that Provincial Guanajuatenses tend to treat other Mexicans with something not quite hate, but definitely something akin to contempt, was from a young woman who cut our hair. She was from Chihuahua City and had some very interesting stories about living in Guanajuato after being here for more than ten years and being ignored by the locals. She had no friends, had no prospects of having any, and told us that she was treated somewhat badly because she did not come from Guanajuato. Her explanation, and this was the very first hearing of this for us, was that Guanajuato was a tight and closed society.

Astoundingly, when we scouted about the city and talked with others from Chihuahua and Zacatecas, we found the same report. Two restaurant workers from the fine state of Zacatecas told us very much the same: they could not fit in the local culture, though having lived here for years and years, because Guanajuato is "tight" or "closed".

I knew two people from Peru and Chile who left Guanajuato over the same sort of rejection. I know someone from Guatemala who once went on a twenty-minute verbal rampage over two incidents in which she was denied service because of her accent and her use of a couple of Spanish words that had different usages in Mexico.

The words in Spanish they used to indicate "closed" or "tight" when referring to the Guanajuato expression of Mexican culture come close to meaning in English as "clannish".

This is not as unusual as you might think.

When I was in college, I once went with this girl to her parents' farm in the Ozark Mountains to help her dad build a chicken pen. The culture there was radically different and required an entirely different cultural set piece in order to function sanely. My friend lectured me all the way from Clarksville, Arkansas, to her Ozark Mountain home on how to act. I can't say they locals accepted me but they didn't tar and feather me as a Yankee spy.

I have to confess that at first I thought this clannish behavior was specifically targeting Gringos. I was wrong. Guanajuatenses treat other Mexicans with a kind of "Chilango Scum" attitude. Anyone not from Guanajuato, so I've been told, are Chilango or Gabacho.

Though we've lived in Guanajuato for more than six years, we had an event this afternoon which brought home that I am nothing but, and will never be anything other than, a Gabacho.

The doctor who is helping me with my blood clots has this office system that you show up and are seen "first come, first served." His receptionist has a different take.

She will pass all the Mexicans into seeing the doc before me no matter if I showed up first in line. Nothing I say or have said to her matters. She still does it. I am seen ALWAYS last if there are Mexicans to be seen.

Provincial Mexicans have no clue at all about fair play or taking turns.

The exception to this are well-educated Mexicans who have massive international experience.

Well, I did what I knew better than to try. I complained.

I didn't scream or call anyone names. I tried, in vain, to point out that I was there for a consultation and I should have been seen before all the others she passed into the consultorio before me. I was the second person in line.

So I told her I would find another doctor (one who takes appointments).

Living in Mexico is a blast. It is also very cheap. However, depending on where you choose to live, it might be harder than you think.

I have often said that in a city, like San Miguel de Allende, where the local economy is dependent on the foreign community's American Dollars, the gringo is going to be treated better than in Guanajuato, where the Guanajuatenses' ability to put tortillas on the table is NOT dependent on the expat community.

I personally believe, and go on record in saying, that the foreign community is treated far better in places like San Miguel or Puerto Vallarta than in Guanajuato.

What do you think?

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Off The Beaten Path: Pleasant Park Tourists Usually Miss

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:27:00 +0000

By

CINDI BOWER

Just two blocks south of Dolores Hidalgo's parish church (Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores) and one block from the southern side of the main park (Jardín Principal) is a small, pleasant park called "El Jardín de los Compositores" (the Composers Park).

Few tourists discover this park, so spending some time here will give you a chance to observe the locals and maybe even strike up a conversation or two...in Spanish. Few locals speak English in this small town.

The park has several shade trees as well as areas of manicured lawn and flowering bushes. There are also several green iron benches placed along the sidewalks to invite walkers to stop for a rest.

A bandshell, with its roof and based covered with the tiles for which Dolores Hidalgo is famous, sits in the center of the park. In the evenings, mariachi bands play in the bandshell or wander around the park entertaining people who are out for their evening constitutionals.

On the northeast corner of the park stands a small monument to "El Pípila," the miner who was a hero in Mexico's War for Independence from Spain.

This park is small, but charming. Fewer people frequent it and the pace seems much slower than in the more touristy main plaza.

Check it out!

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue -- This travelogue is for American, English-speaking European, and Canadian travelers who have grown weary of the typical Mexican vacation. It is a travelogue with strong guidebook features about the city of Guanajuato (the capital of the state of Guanajuato). The book features the author walking through the city of Guanajuato and describing the areas of interest to tourists and most importantly saving the unaware tourist from getting lost in a topographically confusing terrain.

Spanish Learning Chapter - 16

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:07:00 +0000

The Input Hypothesis

Maybe the most important aspect of Stephen Krashen's theories of second language acquisition is The Input Hypothesis. This explains how someone learns a second language. The hypothesis deals with acquisition of speech and not the learning of formal grammatical rules and cold memorization of vocabulary words.

When you seek to learn a language different from your native tongue, if you are receiving "input" that is slightly above your ability in the second language, then you will proceed along a natural order in becoming proficient in spoken fluency. If you are at level "A" then what you need is input that is slightly above level "A" in order to progress. But, the input must be comprehensible.

An example is in my present use of the Destino's free video course I mentioned last time. I can understand 95% of everything. There is just that small bit of dialogue that keeps me on my toes, just enough of what I don't know to make me grow linguistically. Krashen believes the input must come through reading or hearing the structures that are at a slightly higher level than the seeker's current ability. I think this works.

Problems arise in a classroom setting because not all of the second language seekers are at the same level of acquisition. Therefore, this input becomes problematic if specific structures are "taught." Rather, "acquisition" activities should be present in the classroom (reading or hearing).

"...a certain amount of comprehensible input must be built up before the acquirer is required to speak in a classroom (Brown, 2000:278)."

Acquiring grammatical structures through comprehensible input in the form of reading or listening comes before the second language seeker attempts to speak the language.

I wonder if this works at all in a classroom without every member of the class being at the same competency level? I can see in the different levels my wife and I are at linguistically that we've grown more in our proficiency in Spanish by using materials and courses at home that afford us "comprehensible input" that has been slightly above our individual competencies in Spanish.

The Natural Order Hypothesis

In second language acquisition research conducted in 1974-75, 1980 and 1987, it was postulated that the acquisition of grammatical forms followed a natural and predictable order. How this happens is contingent upon multiple factors. The learner's age and the learner's circumstances seemed not to be a significant influence on this natural order. Dr. Krashen makes the point that this does not mean some sort of curriculum should be devised based on this order.

Krashen's entire point seems to be that there is a difference between the conscious learning of grammatical structures and the unconscious acquisition of speech, no matter the language. Acquisition of speech is far more important in the empowerment of someone who wants to speak the language-spoken fluency.

Critics would say Krashen has drawn too rigid a line between the learning and the acquiring of a second language. Some believe Krashen made these distinctions based on a specific or particular environment in which the learners were found and did not consider the classroom might be an environment that would have some importance in second language acquisition.

Krashen's critics do agree with him that the mass teaching of a linguist's approach to cold, grammatical principles does not facilitate second language acquisition. They go on to suggest that within a classroom, it would be best to help the student construct his own grammar so that he might reach full mastery of the language.

This seems to me to be a throwback to some earlier approaches in which the student, through some kind of touchy-feely existential probing, comes up with "his own grammar."

A natural order might, on the other hand, emerge in the process in which the child, or the second language learner, hears hundreds upon thousands of repetitions from those within the learner's environment who speak the language with correct form and structure. This situation is where the unconscious assimilation of correctness comes. Language is then acquired!

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue -- This travelogue is for American, English-speaking European, and Canadian travelers who have grown weary of the typical Mexican vacation. It is a travelogue with strong guidebook features about the city of Guanajuato (the capital of the state of Guanajuato). The book features the author walking through the city of Guanajuato and describing the areas of interest to tourists and most importantly saving the unaware tourist from getting lost in a topographically confusing terrain.

Things To Do: Eat Ice Cream in Dolores Hidalgo's Main Plaza

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Several vendors set up large carts on the corners of Dolores Hidalgo's Main Plaza every morning. Each vendor has a wide variety of flavors from which to choose. Each vendor calls out to passersby to come for a taste...hoping, of course, the passersby will buy! Each vendor claims his or her ice cream is the best.

All the vendors have flavors one would expect to find in any ice cream store....chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Though these flavors sound mundane, one bite is enough to show you that this is no mass-produced ice cream found in cardboard containers in your grocer's freezer.

The ice cream is made fresh every day by the vendor and the vendor's family. They use only fresh and top-of-the-line ingredients. No emulsifiers, no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives. Just rich, creamy ice cream full of fat and calories.

Ok, that sounds good, but not so good that you want to make a special trip to Dolores Hidalgo just to eat ice cream.

So, why do people always tell you to be sure to try the ice cream when they hear you are visiting Dolores Hidalgo?

The reason is that the vendors don't stop with the normal choices of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. These vendors can and do take nearly any food you can imagine and turn it into a dessert.

There are fruit flavors....pineapple, mango, lemon, papaya, and guava.

There are alcoholic drink flavors...piña colada, strawberry daquiri, whiskey, tequila, rum, pulque, and beer.

There are flavors like mint chocolate, strawberries and cream, rice pudding, cajeta (a caramel confections made with goat's milk), and cheesecake.

Then, there are the more exotic flavors....fried pork rinds, corn, mole (a spicy-sweet chocolate sauce usually poured over chicken or pork), avocado, shrimp, and octopus.

Yes, I'm not kidding! Octopus ice cream. I can't imagine eating it, but someone must find it appetizing!

Transportation: Transportation in Dolores Hidalgo

Getting TO/AROUND: Dolores Hidalgo is a small town of around 55,000 people. The streets are laid out in a grid and are fairly flat. The only thing you need to get to most of the attractions is a good pair of walking shoes.

The museums as well as many of the parks and churches are located in the center of town within easy walking distance of each other. There are also several artisan shops in the blocks around the parish church (Our Lady of Sorrows) and the main park.

There are also a number of artisan shops located on Avenida José Alfredo Jimenez, about five blocks west of the center of town. If your feet are too tired to make the walk, taxis are plentiful and inexpensive (around $20 pesos) or you can take a city bus for about $4 pesos.

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue

Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (Expat2003) — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:33:00 +0000

by

Cindi Bower

The prickly pear cactus is the source of two staples in the Mexican diet: nopales, the cactus pads, and tuna, the fruit. The fruits vary in color from yellow-orange to red to nearly purple, but the red fruit is the best tasting and most popular. Harvest time is late summer into early fall. Once the fruit is plucked from the cactus, it needs to be used quickly as it will begin to ferment.

This cactus is found in the southwestern deserts of the United States through Mexico and Central America and into South America. It can also be found in southern Europe around the Mediterranean Sea.

Some people claim the pectin in the fruit lowers "bad" cholesterol levels and reduces the need for insulin in diabetics. Studies are being done to test these claims, but there are no definitive results at the present time.

Prickly pear fruit is a good source of fiber, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and Vitamin C. In addition, it is rich in the amino acid taurine (important for brain and heart health) as well as flavonoids, antioxidants that help keep the arteries healthy.

The fruit is eaten raw, dried, pureed to make salad dressings, candy and desserts or cooked to make juice, jelly and nectar. If you buy the fruit in the market, the spines should have already been removed, so the fruit is ready to be peeled and used. If you harvest the fruit yourself, you will need to wear heavy leather gloves to pick it, then scrub them well or use a knife to remove the thin spines.

Though we have seen this fruit in the market and at all fruit stands around town when it is season, we have yet to try it. When we used to keep parakeets and conures, we would buy the fruit for them but never tasted it ourselves because the fruit had a very strong and not entirely pleasant aroma. The birds evidently liked the smell because they would start chattering and screeching as soon as we started cutting it up. We could hardly get the dishes of fruit inside the cages because the birds were so eager to start eating. They ate every scrap.

This year, we are going to be brave and buy some as soon as it is in season. We'll let you know what we think.

By the way, if you want the sweet variety of prickly pear cactus fruit, choose the red fruit. There is a yellow-green fruit, called xoconostle, which looks similar to the red fruit but is acidic. The xoconostle is often used in savory sauces for meat and as a vegetable, but is also made into candy and jelly. Xoconostle is a Náhuatl word that means, "sour cactus fruit."

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A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel: A Guanajuato Travelogue