Hello!  Hola!  I’m back from 10 wonderful days in Mexico where I simultaneously ate too much but not enough things, experienced the warmth of so many people and had only minor language mishaps.

There is so much to talk about that I’ll do a couple of posts, starting with this one about the more big-picture stuff.

People

I was lucky to be traveling with my very favorite Mexican who is either from or has visited every place we went to many times and has friends and family who not only welcomed us, but also offered their own advice.  Even people who don’t speak Spanish are familiar with the phrase “mi casa es tu casa,” which is something I heard repeatedly during our trip.  Several people extended it to include “mi país es tu país” (país = country).  What an amazingly kind thing to say to someone you just met.  I also left with many gifts (thank you, Tita, Nancy and Mayra)!

Language

I took five years of Spanish in middle/high school but didn’t really use it at all after that before meeting Thalía.  We speak Spanish sometimes, most frequently in texts, and I’ve been studying up through a mix of Duolingo, podcasts (Doorway to Mexico, Radio Ambulante, Duolingo), TV shows (Club de Cuervos!), and a few months of twice-weekly personal classes through Fluent City.  Some days during the trip I felt like the world’s smartest man, while others were more challenging.  I did best with transactional things like asking waiters what kind of sodas they had or ordering churros.  The most difficult situations for me were conversations with multiple friends or family members that tended to go too fast for me, involve more difficult accents or slang words.  But the cool thing is people don’t really care if you use not quite the right word or conjugate a verb incorrectly.  Most were pleasantly surprised I spoke any Spanish, though I quickly figured out that adding “estoy aprendiendo” (I’m learning) is an important addendum to saying I understand the language.

Food

You’re probably hungry by this point so let’s very briefly go through the things I ate.  We tried to hit a variety of things, but absolutely I had some of these multiple times: Molletes, gorditas, tlayudas, chilaquiles, tortas de tamal, tacos, quesadillas, churros, enchiladas, pozole, tostadas, conchas, pan de queso, huevos rancheros, pizza, hot chocolate, various Mexican beers.  I had molletes previously, but my goodness I could eat those every day and be very happy.  Conchas were new to me but fit in the same category.

El Moro is probably the best place on this planet or any other

Places

The trip was 10 days long and I don’t want to do an extensive recap of every step we took, so I’ll do some quick notes about the cities we visited.  We spent about half our time in Mexico City.  Like New York, it’s a place that is far too busy for me to ever live there, but to visit for a while it was awesome.  I loved the massive Chapultepec park where we went on a paddle boat:

Visited el Castillo de Chapultepec:

And went to the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge Museo Nacional de Antropología:

A place that legitimately had me in awe was Museo Soumaya, which combines a stunning piece of architecture with an equally engaging art collection:

We also really enjoyed ballet at the Palacio de Bellas Artes:

And while not itself a historic structure, we went to the movies to see The Incredibles 2, marking the first time I’ve gone to a theater to see a movie in Spanish.  It was hilarious!  Go see it!

The city of Guanajuato is absolutely beautiful:

Like, really, really beautiful:

Seriously beautiful:

We spent an evening walking around enjoying listening to music on the streets and the gorgeous buildings.  I think the highlight for me was in the morning taking a funicular up to the Monumento al Pipila and getting a view of everything:

While I could never live in Mexico City, of all the places we visited I could see myself in Querétaro.  We weren’t there for long, but I like the mix of the historic city, the more modern parts, and especially the surrounding countryside:

We went to the nearby Peña de Bernal, which I learned about through a bookmark Thalía gave me long ago.  It was cool to see the real thing!  And Bernal is a lovely little town with delicious gorditas.

During the drive back to Querétaro I was reminded at times of the western parts of my home state of Virginia, with mountains off to the side, trees hugging the road and the occasional stone wall.  The terrain between Querétaro and Mexico City also made me want to grab a book and a cold drink and just spend a day in the hills:

Durango is another historic city with beautiful architecture:

It is also known for its connection to the movies as a filming site for lots of famous films, many of them westerns:

And most importantly, the state is home to the small town of San Juan del Rio, birthplace of Thalía and also Mexican revolution icon Pancho Villa.  It was entertaining and heart-warming to walk down the street and see someone who was just sitting on a bench or inside a store suddenly light up and say, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Thalía!!!!”  There were cousins and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and a dog named Grande.  I went to a 69th birthday party where the honoree called me guapo and a group played banda music outside.  At another gathering we closed the night with Cielito Lindo karaoke.  I had so, so very much to eat and it was all delicious.

Overall it was a truly great trip and I loved being able to experience and learn first-hand more about the culture and places Thalía has shared with me after being able to do the same with my home here in the United States.  And it was cool to have her be the one with the correct name on her drink at coffee shops for once.

Thank you, Mexico.  I will be back.