Cobblestones, Opals and More

I arrived at school this morning sick sick sick and my students found the expression "Moctezuma's revenge" quite amusing.  I sorted out lessons for the day and headed home - throwing up twice on my way.  Fireworks at both ends - nice.

Queretaro - the nearest city to little Tequis has some great little corners to discover in the old part of town:

I love the little things you discover in new places.  There is a bird who make a sound like the strident music played during the shower-stabbing scene in Psycho - it makes me laugh every time.  And here is a snap of some cute little nests that are built on wires:

 Butter packaged differently than I am used to:

There have been so many festivals centred at our little plaza, and many of them include dancers in traditional gear:

Flower vendors set up their wares every weekend: 

Tequis is renouned for its opal mining, and I spent a great afternoon there poking around the mine tailings picking up rocks.  I did not have the eye for finding the opal bits (you can see what they look like in situ)  but I did commune with the rough rocks (those of you who know my "thing" about rocks will smile).  You see that a lot of the opal is a reddish-orange, but occasionally another facet of the rainbow shows up. I also picked up a little ring that has a multi-coloured opal held between the fangs of 2 serpents - I could not resist the connection to Mayan and Aztec art - or at least that was my excuse!  The mines have been owned by generations of several families and they are under pressure from the Chinese (no surprise there) to sell the whole thing over to them.  They are resisting this, thank God.

I haven't mentioned the local cobblestone roads yet - my-oh-my are the old roads ankle-twisters.  On some they have filled in with dirt or cement to fill the deepest crevices, which is a relief:

Some of you will know that I dream of having a little place in Mexico to escape the grey, wet winters of the Pacific Northwest.  I would love to create a little patio like this one! Gorgeous, isn't it!

 Gonna go now - I don't want to push my recovery as I don't want to waste the weekend "calling Ralph on the big white phone".  Adios!  Karen