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Another foray...
Sep. 4th, 2014 07:54 pmBut first, I spent yesterday on my back, mostly sleeping, gathering enough energy to rise and go out and about a bit only by late afternoon, at which point Galina and I walked down the road a few hundred yards to Tierra Adentro, a restaurant that advertises a "fusion" menu and a microbrewery.
The place was roomy—we were the only customers, as far as I could tell—the service was excellent, the presentation of the food was impressive, the view from the back porches was magnificent, and the owner was very hospitable. Galina's salmon—grilled, served on a bed of red cabbage along with what looked like a good try at a Caesar salad on the side—made me sit up (my steak, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about). The stout I ordered had the color of the beverage but little else to recommend it, Galina's claro beer looked and tasted unfiltered (which is not a criticism, per se, but it was a little surprising), and the price for the evening's pleasure was about six times what we paid for lunch downtown on Tuesday.
It rained most of last night. According to what I could glean from the Internet, the rain came courtesy of Tropical Storm Dolly, which had hit the eastern shore of Mexico last night.
On Tuesday, Galina and I got on the bus that stops by the hotel, and instead of getting off where we usually do, near the old alhóndiga (grain market), we decided to stay on until we got to within striking distance of Café Tal, a coffee shop I had read about while browsing the 'net, which had been opened by an expat some years ago. In the end, we rode all the way to the end of the line (meaning, we had to pay another fare again (5 pesos, or about 40 cents each) before the bus began moving back toward town, but even after we got off, it took me a little while to navigate to our destination.
The trip was worth the trouble. The coffee I had (a café Americano) beats anything I've ever gotten at Starbucks hollow. Galina and I ran into a couple from California who had just arrived and was staying through September. They had been in Guanajuato a few years ago and really like the place, noting that the principal difference between here and San Miguel de Allende (about 90 km from here) is the much stronger US expat presence there, so much so that one can reasonably speak of an "expatriate infrastructure" in San Miguel.
Today, we repeated the "stay on the bus" tactic, getting off at the central bus station at the other end of town to check out fares and times to both San Miguel and to Léon. Then we headed back to the center, where I visited a bookstore (nothing grabbed me) and we had lunch at the KFC.
We each ordered a two-piece lunch, which costs MX$63 (or about US$5.25), and consists of two pieces of chicken, two sides, and a soda. The portions of chicken were about the same in size, but everything else was smaller in comparison to US portion sizes. Not complaining, just oberving.
On the way back to our bus stop, we stopped at the old market, where Galina had a coffee and a pastry while I walked around a bit. There was a whole pig's head on sale in the back, where the meat was sold; I didn't ask the price, as it was quite a bit larger than our small kitchen in Valenciana could accommodate, among other objections.
A good day...
The place was roomy—we were the only customers, as far as I could tell—the service was excellent, the presentation of the food was impressive, the view from the back porches was magnificent, and the owner was very hospitable. Galina's salmon—grilled, served on a bed of red cabbage along with what looked like a good try at a Caesar salad on the side—made me sit up (my steak, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about). The stout I ordered had the color of the beverage but little else to recommend it, Galina's claro beer looked and tasted unfiltered (which is not a criticism, per se, but it was a little surprising), and the price for the evening's pleasure was about six times what we paid for lunch downtown on Tuesday.
It rained most of last night. According to what I could glean from the Internet, the rain came courtesy of Tropical Storm Dolly, which had hit the eastern shore of Mexico last night.
On Tuesday, Galina and I got on the bus that stops by the hotel, and instead of getting off where we usually do, near the old alhóndiga (grain market), we decided to stay on until we got to within striking distance of Café Tal, a coffee shop I had read about while browsing the 'net, which had been opened by an expat some years ago. In the end, we rode all the way to the end of the line (meaning, we had to pay another fare again (5 pesos, or about 40 cents each) before the bus began moving back toward town, but even after we got off, it took me a little while to navigate to our destination.
The trip was worth the trouble. The coffee I had (a café Americano) beats anything I've ever gotten at Starbucks hollow. Galina and I ran into a couple from California who had just arrived and was staying through September. They had been in Guanajuato a few years ago and really like the place, noting that the principal difference between here and San Miguel de Allende (about 90 km from here) is the much stronger US expat presence there, so much so that one can reasonably speak of an "expatriate infrastructure" in San Miguel.
Today, we repeated the "stay on the bus" tactic, getting off at the central bus station at the other end of town to check out fares and times to both San Miguel and to Léon. Then we headed back to the center, where I visited a bookstore (nothing grabbed me) and we had lunch at the KFC.
We each ordered a two-piece lunch, which costs MX$63 (or about US$5.25), and consists of two pieces of chicken, two sides, and a soda. The portions of chicken were about the same in size, but everything else was smaller in comparison to US portion sizes. Not complaining, just oberving.
On the way back to our bus stop, we stopped at the old market, where Galina had a coffee and a pastry while I walked around a bit. There was a whole pig's head on sale in the back, where the meat was sold; I didn't ask the price, as it was quite a bit larger than our small kitchen in Valenciana could accommodate, among other objections.
A good day...
