Oh boy sheesh it sure has been a while since we last wrote. Two things have hindered us greatly in writing. 1) Eric ate bad tacos (maybe) and was sick 2) Merilee ate bad tacos (maybe) and was sick

Really it is pretty amazing that this is the first time either of us has been sick enough to take a day off. We are fairly careful about what we eat and we either drink bottled water or use good old iodine to purify the water. But, all good things must come to an end, and our hopes of never puking on this trip have been dashed.

We have been spending a lot of time doing the tourist thing recently because we are going through kinda the heart of Mexico right now. We stopped in Aguascalientes for a couple of days. The city was in preparation for a giant Feria, which is a famous celebration for the patron Saint of the City. It was nice to see the prep, because the real celebration sounded crazy with over a million people pouring into the city to see it. From Aguascalientes we went and stayed the night at a Pemex station again. Lovely grass Pemex has! But, the next day Merilee became quite ill, and instead of going to Guanajuato, we had to go to Leon (a city about 15 km away from the Pemex).

Leon: A city famous for shoes, giant outlet stores, and as we found out Auto hotels. We are riding down the main street into Leon and all we keep seeing are these Auto hotels. At first we think, maybe they are like sex hotels, but some look so fancy and there are so many of them that they couldn't be. They must be for travelers to stop and have a safe place to rest. We find one that looks nice, and head in to ask the price. Well, we can pay by the hour. Hmmm, that is interesting. So Merilee asks a hotel maid what kind of hotel is this. The lady responds that it is a place where partners can have a paseo. Merilee asks a little more directly; Is this a sex hotel. The woman responds, "Andale!!!" So, Merilee is sick and there are nothing but Auto hotels to stay in, what is a brother and sister to do? Pay for a full nights rest upon a circular bed with a mirror above it, discover 24 hour porn playing on the TV, and ignore the viewing window into the shower from the bedroom.

The next day Merilee is feeling much better so we head to Guanajuato; our first destination that we decided we would go before we started the trip!! Guanajuato is a nice university type town kind of tucked into some big foothills. It has narrow cobblestone streets that large buses try to edge their way through. There are old churches and plazas around every other corner that are kept in immaculate condition. I really wonder when they trim all the hedges because they are always perfect looking, but the plazas always so full of people. We stayed on the rooftop terrace of a hostal right in downtown. There we listened to all sorts of American Indie rock and spoke English with native English speakers. We even did a short hike up to the top of a big hill behind the city and could see all around the area.

It seems as though we go through certain food obsessions here in Mexico. For example, when we first crossed we could not eat enough flour tortillas. And for a while we ate tons and tons of Polvorones, which are delicious orange flavored cookies. Now we can't seem to eat enough guava. Why this delicious little yellow fruit is almost obsolete in the United States (at least the Northwest) I do not know, but the food recommendation for the day is go eat some guava. Eat the whole thing, only maybe cut off the little spot where it attaches to the tree.

Pictures : Scenes from the Market, Eric and a German dude hiking, stairwell in Museum of death, and Merilee's favorite sculpture ever!!! (the cows and cowboy)