11-19-05
I took my little memory stick down town last night and found an internet shop that would let me plug in the memory stick. I was able to get the road log loaded ok on the blog site but the darn site was all different than it was when I was up north. I have no idea why it all came up in Spanish but I tried several ways and it still came up in Spanish. When I posted before I was able to post photos as well as written stuff but this time I couldn’t find the button for adding a photo. The reason I picked this blog site was that it was one of the only ones that would let you post photos. It could be that people abused the service and they had to quit it. Bummer, if that is true, as it is sure nice to add photos, as you know.
After I left the internet shop I walked up to the main square or the center of town. There was very little going on up there, which was very different from the Mexican towns I have been in. This is a small town it is true but there are big government buildings all around the square and I am pretty sure there are a lot of people around here too, but not many out on the street for a Friday night. I did walk past a few bars that were doing a fair amount of business but I really am not a bar dog at all. I don’t like the smoke and I don’t really like to drink so they are not much fun for me. The places I looked in I saw quite a few Anglos in them but it seems like all the Anglos I have heard on the street are talking in some foreign language most probably German. I keep looking for another motorcycle that is packed up for traveling, but no luck so far.
I took another walk up town this afternoon and things are starting to pick up for sure. I made it to a historical colonial museum and had the first chance to see in real life the little bits of silver that they used to use for money. They are all different shapes and not shaped in any particular way. They were just pieces of silver that they stamped and from the look of things they were not any standard weight. They had the hunks of iron or maybe they were steel (?) that they used to stamp them (dies). I sure wish they would let a person take photos but some museums don’t allow it. They had quite a few of the old cannons from ones I could pick up to rather large ones. They also had some swords and flintlock pistols and rifles. They had two of those huge rifles that sat in a yoke like an oarlock and they must have really bucked when something that size went off. They also had some really nice old trunks and I was sure surprised at the quality of the wood inlay work on them. They may have had simple tools but they really made good use of them. Everything was in Spanish so I missed a lot of the fine points I am sure. I did find a lady in a tourist office that gave me directions to the jade museum here in town and I got a map that has other museums. I tried to find a couple of them on the map but have not been successful so far. They don’t have street signs at the corners usually so it makes it more difficult for me as I have to count blocks from the church, etc.
I was wrong about this being a small town. I guess they keep the old part sort of low key but from what I understand this was the original capitol and that is why they have such huge government building here. The town was really open and cranking right along but in a different way than Mexican towns. Here there are no street vendors all along the street and sidewalk or at least that is the case in this old part of town. There are lots of restaurants all over but the business is all inside and no tables on the street.
I finally found the big market in town and it is fantastic as I find them all to be really. It was like little rabbit runs all through the place and it is a huge market. I will post some photos of what I found.